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I used to joke that as an English Major I was surrendering to a life of unmarketability. I could learn to adapt to many things, so there was flexibility in my career decisions, but I'd never have skills that companies would pay big bucks for.
And yet, the rise of the Right-Brained is happening in my lifetime, in ways I hadn't anticipated. Perhaps the jacks-of-all-trades don't have to find "real" jobs. We just have to do what we love.
I was encouraged--and a bit frightened, frankly--when I read about the targeted marketing tactics of information-technology company Unisys, which is hoping to attract C-Level decision makers at Fortune 500 Companies.
According to an article published last week in WSJ Online:
Around 20 high-ranking executives at corporations such as Subaru of America, DHL, Citigroup and Northwest Airlines will get a surprise when Fortune magazine arrives on their desks this week. Each will find his or her own face gracing the cover.
The covers are one-of-a-kind mock-ups wrapping the actual Fortune edition ... If an executive flips over the mock Fortune cover, he or she will discover a letter -- also individually tailored -- from a senior Unisys manager describing challenges in the target's specific industry. The Fortune "cover wraps" also offer personalized Web addresses, where the executives can find mock news videos that mention their names and tell how they achieved business success. To reinforce the message, Unisys is placing billboards and outdoor signs -- albeit without information-chief portraits -- close to the executives' offices. Some ads will even appear on video screens in the elevators of their office buildings.
In order to make this "hypertargeted" campaign possible, Unisys' media buying agency, Omnicon Group's PHD, had to send field teams to research their targets and scope out potential coffee shops, eateries, and places where interaction with the brand might occur.
Reading about this I was initially a bit put-off: That scene from the film Minority Report when Tom Cruise is walking through a public space, and all advertising billboards are customized to his profile, is a disturbing concept. Being typed by marketers can be a limiting experience because even if the label applies, you only notice how it falls short. It causes me to protest, "You don't KNOW me." My brain goes into anti-commercial, Kill-Big-Brother mode, not "Wow, cool idea" mode.
Even though marketing is becoming an increasingly customized/segmented practice, we are most comfortable with a bit of space between us and the product, space that allows us to determine how we will react to it.
I shouldn't be so surprised by the Unisys example of Stalk Marketing. I'm seeing more and more how smart companies are finding ways to access their target influencer. BlogHer benefits from companies who want to reach women, or more specifically women with children, say, or women with businesses. Companies want to be where these women "live" online.
Still, I draw the line when companies want to reach women with children, who are wearing a yellow tank top and are currently watching CSI. On some inherent level this degree of specificity, where behavior is gauged in real time oogs me out. It attempts to know too much. Frankly, as a consumer, I'd rather tell you myself.
On another level I am encouraged by campaigns like the Unisys one. If more of them are deemed successful, the bulk of marketing dollars spent on multiplatform campaigns will shift. Companies like Unisys won't be making ad buys based on traffic, eyeballs, circulations, or Nielsen ratings, but on innovation, production, good content, and great IDEAS. The onus will shift from the bean counters to the creatives when it comes to deriving real value from marketing.
This is what we preach at BlogHer when we speak to advertisers: Don't look for the traffic, look for the conversations, look for The Compelling. Or, look for the well-expressed mundane.
Suddenly I, and every other liberal arts major who couldn't find decent-paying work after college, feel very, very relevant.
Jory Des Jardins also blogs at Pause.
