LEADING A GLOBAL DEBATE IN DOING THINGS FOR GOOD OF OTHERS AS SOCIETY SUCKS UP CREATIVITY |
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Is social marketing a force for good in our modern dyspeptic world? The high-minded people who work in social marketing would certainly appear to think so. In surveys, the overwhelming majority of social marketing practitioners assert that altruism was the main motivating factor for their career choice. Somehow or other, Stray Thoughts reckons that the brightest sparks from Smurfits who crowd into commercial marketing may not rate altruism all that highly on their motivational hit list.
In achieving their business objectives, social marketing proponents may sometimes find themselves reluctantly supping with the devil of commerce, but presumably they do so only while wielding an enormously long spoon. The dividing line between social and commercial marketing methodologies has coalesced as each of the disciplines seeks to enrich the other. There was lots of learning on offer at the 2nd World Non-Profit & Social Marketing Conference held in Citywest in Dublin recently where the somewhat tired theme of ‘Engage, Empower, Inspire' was the order of the two-day event. (It's just a bit too President Mary McAleese, isn't it?)
Not that there were many delegates from Irish adland present to take the learning on board. Perhaps the ‘Non-Profit' term scared them off, or maybe the fact that the event was sponsored by Ogilvy Worldwide meant they were disinclined to show support for a rival agency event. Surely not; that would be small-minded.
Over delegates from 41 countries were there to discuss what one speaker described as the ‘Oxymoron that is social marketing' – directly implying that the use of commercial activities and stimuli is somehow inimical to the task of setting the world to rights. The problem is that without utilising the wiles of the wily adman, it's hard for the do-gooders to do much good. That's my dichotomy, doctor, and it hurts.
Today's social marketers focus on the 4 P's of product, price, place and promotion just like any conventional marketer would – using mass media and shed-loads of social media to get their messages across. The tonal qualities of social marketing communications can be categorised as a ‘hug' or a ‘nudge' (positive stimuli) or a ‘shove' or a ‘smack' (negative stimuli). All approaches seem to work to one degree or another and all appear to have a place in the communications armoury – just as ‘soft sell' or ‘hard sell' advertising has been used for as long as man has stood on a barrow and boasted about the low price and high quality of his groats.
In his keynote presentation, the Worldwide Man from Ogilvy was brave and straightforward enough to pose the most pertinent questions. Disappointingly however, he wasn't wearing a Hathaway Shirt and sporting an eye-patch (If you don't get the reference, read Confessions of an Adman by David Ogilvy. Immediately).
“Does too much evidence,” the Ogilvy key-man asked,”sometimes hamper innovation?” We lost souls from the commercial world of marketing knew his answer was an unstated ‘yes' – but to many of the altruistic academics present this was akin to being dealt a sharp prod with a pointy stick. Communications can get bogged down in detail – that's a fact worth stating. As songwriter Brendan Graham remarked on Sunday Miscellany on RTE Radio 1 – ‘There's a big sign hanging on the door of my London publisher which reads ‘Please Don't Bore Us, get to the chorus'.
Many a true word is spoken in jest, Brendan. The Ogilvy man also questioned the act of ‘crowd-sourcing' – another much-loved social marketing activity. Inviting the target market to create and dictate their own messaging means that in theory they will receive messages that ‘go where their minds already are'.
Ah yes, tell the great unwashed what they wish to hear – it worked for Fianna F
