The sorrows of marketers
Do you know how many advertisements are on your commuting route or on the webpages you browsed yesterday, for example? The world is full of advertisements, but people sometimes don’t even notice they exist there in their faces. Marketers always make pathetically sincere efforts to attract attention, though they sometimes go too far and are irritating. Every time seeing advertisements, I ask myself “What in them have got my attention?” One day, I found a great one as shown in the above image. It’s a cosmetic company advertisement. The advertising copy starts “As most of you won’t read advertising boards anyway, I’m just writing about my favorite thing.” The following sentences just express how and why s/he likes an ermine (the animal in the image). Consequently, the board has become the focus of great public attention. S/he must be a genius.
Attention getting, the heart of the matter
An advertisement giving up on advertising. It’s super unique and unprecedented, isn’t it? Another great point, which I really like, is its sociality. In the interview, one of the advertisement creators answered “I just hoped it would at least help people have a chance to talk about their favorite things, as I believe such a world must be better and more fun.” I wholeheartedly respect their attitude aiming for something higher than advertising.
Some people may think the above advertisement is meaningless after all, saying “It just got attention for a short while.” I don’t think so because attention getting is most important and difficult. Have you ever heard of the AIDA or AIDMA model? It is the process of human psychology up to buying behavior. Both frameworks start from “Attention” but don’t tell how to draw it. When first learning this in my MBA course, I felt like I was taught how to walk on water, like “pulling up your left foot before putting your right foot down.”
My articles are not very good for promotion, but I’m happy if you enjoy them even a little
I dare to say the articles of this blog have some similarities to the above-mentioned advertisement. We’re a furniture manufacturer, but the articles don’t emphasize furniture on purpose for uniqueness. We have no chance of survival even if advertising in the same way as major brands and manufacturers. Another similarity is I’m writing about what I like or am interested in. Different from their high aspirations, it’s not the public interest but readers’ interest in us that I aim for, though I’m a little embarrassed.
Shungo Ijima
He is travelling around the world. His passion is to explain Japan to the world, from the unique viewpoint accumulated through his career: overseas posting, MBA holder, former official of the Ministry of Finance.
Photo Credit: https://www.advertimes.com/20200729/article320032/