Sometimes, there’s just too much marketing – do we need to row back for the sake of our customers?

It kills me to say it, but there is such a thing as too much marketing. At a certain point, you’re just going backwards. There’s only so much information people can take before it all becomes white noise.

This is especially true now. We’re living in the information age, which is a double-edged sword. Think about it, the internet has given us access to everything. But it’s also given everything access to us.

How many emails do you get a day? Better yet, how many of those emails do you ignore? A quick glance at my phone reveals endless adverts and campaigns for fashion houses, gym equipment, and restaurants. I’m sure the people behind these efforts are proud of what they’ve produced, and I’m not aiming to put anyone down – marketing is hard.

But to me, all these messages converge into predictable variants of “hurry, not long left…”, “sale on NOW…”, “our new product is here…”. I just don’t have capacity for all this immediacy. I doubt any of us do, especially considering just how far this all stretches.

Consumers may be sick of being sold to

Daily spam volumes reached a peak in July 2021. Globally, on average, we received 283 billion spam emails during this period. ?

Just how much “stuff” we all send out and consume is ridiculous. In 2020, the year of working in pyjamas, there were over 3 billion of us streaming or downloading videos onto our devices worldwide. Nearly half the planet.

Do you remember how Tiger King took over the world? It was all anyone could talk or tweet about. But does this “phenomenon” of a show still have a stranglehold on the zeitgeist now?

This was just one show out of millions of forms of content. We had Netflix, YouTube, and even the iPlayer when times got tough. In 2020, 14.9% of the world’s millennials watched 10 to 20 hours of online videos per week. How many ad breaks did we tune out during these hours?

Some are so sick of endless content and sales pitches that we’re actively rebelling. On TikTok and Instagram, there’s a growing trend of “deinfluencing”, with consumers falling out of love with influencers pitching inappropriate or irrelevant products.

Yet, despite these warning signs, many in the marketing world are actually ramping up their output. Over half of recently surveyed UK advertisers plan to increase their spending on services such as ITVX, All 4, and Samsung connect TVs, with strategies focused on short-term “quick bursts” of brand marketing.

Let’s not forget to keep things simple (stupid)

Endless content and campaigning can work. But the more you produce, the higher the chances are of things going wrong. And modern audiences have less patience for grandstanding, virtue signalling, or mis-judged campaigns. Cast your mind back to that incredible image of Kendall Jenner handing a policeman a Pepsi. Imagine being the marketer behind that genius move.

If I have a point to make, it’s that we should only talk when we really have something to say. Every company, everywhere, and all at once, is offering a promotion of some kind. But how often do these promotions really tick the boxes of what consumers want to see? I’m guilty of talking without thinking (it’s always been a problem) so it’s something I’m trying to bear in mind more often.

We’re also overthinking a lot of our messaging. Sometimes you don’t even have to “say” anything to get your point across. A pink billboard, with nothing but a date on it, immediately got people (me) excited about the new Barbie film.

Marketing fatigue is real. Let’s try to be memorable, without being overbearing.?