As a guy who has either studied or worked in marketing for the past 10 years, I’m often astonished at my own personal attitude towards most marketers. I hate them! I throw out every piece of direct mail before looking at it. I refuse to get a land line connected at my house, because I know that anyone who really knows me will call me on the mobile/cell (death to telemarketers!). I even shirk people trying to give me free product samples at the train station… even if I want what they’re giving away. On the surface I am a massive walking contradiction. A marketer who hates marketers. But of course, there’s a little bit more to the story than that. I don’t hate all marketers. I just hate the ones who try to interrupt me…
The extremity of my anti-interruption sentiment occurred to me a few weeks ago on my daily commute to work. I work in Melbourne’s CBD, so am forced to take public transport along with tens of thousands of others. The madness of peak hour ensures the train station exits are a popular location. From pamphlets to free product samples, you can expect to see at least a handful of promotional staff trying to peddle something. This day was no different…
A lobby group had formed near the main exit of the train station. They were wearing t-shirts emblazoned with a ‘Sack Connex‘ slogan (Connex are the operator of Melbourne’s rail system). Now here’s a cause I could relate to. I hate Connex. Truly, I do! Their inept management of the rail system in Melbourne (along with the Victorian government) makes my daily commute a painful experience. If Connex were a person I’d kick them in the balls (presuming of course that one of their driver’s didn’t beat the crap out of me first).
Yet despite feeling great affinity to the ‘Sack Connex‘ cause, I veered off on a different path. My contempt for being interrupted overrode my disdain for Connex. Undoubtedly, it was a mental precondition to avoid promotional staff. A trained behaviour. Based upon the way other commuters veered away from the group, it was clear I wasn’t the only one with the precondition.
Finding a smarter way to market
Naturally, it didn’t take long for the marketer in me to kick in. Connex is without question one of the most hated brands in Melbourne. Recruiting people to the cause should be relatively easy. But the outdated interruption tactics simply weren’t effective. Commuters didn’t want to be interrupted. It’s clear that the lobby group’s interruption tactics were ineffective.
So how else could they market their cause? Rather than targeting users of the service en masse, the ‘Sack Connex‘ group needed to be targeting people with clear attitudinal dispositions against Connex. After all… there are plenty of them. And if we learned anything from President Obama in 2008, it’s the power of the web in rallying people around a given political cause.
The natural starting point for me would have been social media, because as everyone knows, most discussion in social networks comprises of bitching and moaning… Finding individuals with an anti-Connex prejudice should be as simple as fishing at a trout farm. Twitter seemed the obvious place to start the search, and not surprisingly is rife with anti-Connex sentiment. A sample of negative Tweets towards Connex in the last 24 hours can be seen below:
Next stop in the quest was Facebook. And sure enough, thousands of people had voluntarily branded themselves with the Connex hater status. A quick search of Facebook groups uncovered more than 10 anti-Connex groups. The largest group comprised of over 17,000 members:
And of course, the blogosphere presents perhaps the best place of all to locate the harshest of Connex critics. Because if someone takes the time to pen a blog post against a brand, they have a serious vendetta! Here’s a few anti-Connex posts I came across…
The future of interruption tactics
While lobbyists have relied on interruption techniques for decades to generate awareness, there’s now a smarter way to spread their cause. Of course, I’m not holding the ‘Sack Connex‘ group accountable because they aren’t professional marketers. I don’t expect them to know any better. I don’t expect them to be social media guns. But I do expects brands to make a better fist of it.
This doesn’t necessarily mean that brands have to adopt social media to connect with consumers. Email marketing and search engines provide equally unobtrusive marketing channels, both of which I use regularly as a consumer (I’m probably on hundreds of email marketing lists). Nor does it mean that interruption marketing tactics should be abandoned altogether. They still have a place within the broader marketing mix, particularly in creating an awareness of a new brand, product or cause.
What it does mean is that brands need to become smarter with their marketing tactics. Technologies have changed. So have consumer attitudes. Tolerance towards interruption tactics is diminishing. So you’d better not interrupt me unless you know you’ve got something I want to hear…
Image Source – Sir Millard Mulch
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Great Post James, I’m a marketer and I also hate being interrupted. I agree, we have to get smarter in how we communicate and promote.
Excellent post. As a marketeer and so share your passionate distain for being interrupted. I think part of it is because as online marketing people we know that the idea that informs interruption marketing is the message is more important than the person receiving it, as we know in social marketing – the person is more important and their needs are the highest consideration.
When some beggar on the street (by that I mean people working for some organisation) ask you to stop what you’re doing and listen to them, I see red. If they had sent me an email, I would read it in my own time.
Anyway. Great post.
@John – It’s funny how many marketers have agreed with this post. Time to practice what we preach hey…?
@Jordan – Welcome to the anti-interruption club. Completely agree with you. Many marketers disrespect their audience and only care about peddling their message. No wonder they get ignored…
Reminds of something out of Douglas Adams Hitchhiker’s Guide where they send all the Marketing and phone cleaners in to oblivion – “to get things started on the new planet first…”
Anyway, not sure anyone except a few 80′s style advertiser’s i know (you know the bras bras bras types) would disagree with you.
I’m of the opinion good marketing need not be marketing at all… You have a product people want, you connect with said people via social media, advertising, email, etc. If something is interesting and relevant it stops being marketing and starts being useful.
Of course the flaw in my armour is “you have a product people want” but if you understand your customer and fulfil a need, why not?
Brett.
James, you and I must have been separated at birth, our views on marketing seem so similar. Interruption marketing is the dinosaur in the modern marketing sphere.
Savvy marketing is now about marketing to the niche and to the targeted individual, not merely blasting out a single message to the masses and hoping the percentages get you across the line.
Mate, I’m with you on every single aspect of that post. I loathe being accosted by marketers (whether in public or by phone). My theory is, if their marketing people really know what they’re doing, they’ll get my awareness of the brand without me even realising it and I’ll just go find more info myself (Peaked curiosity + Google = Win for Them). You don’t need to throw it in my face, that’ll just backfire on you.
I also agree that Connex are awful, just awful, at managing Melbourne’s train system, and that’s compounded by the complete lack of interest and investment shown by the Victorian Government.
Here’s hoping marketers and Connex/VicGov wake up and smell the reality.
This seems like such a simple concept that marketers should get, however, this interruption marketing occurs across all mediums. For instance, frequently when you want to watch a video online you are forced to watch pre-roll advertising. Most times I will bail on the video because I’m annoyed that I have to watch a 30 seconds commercial for something I don’t want or need. You can delete emails or avoid street solicitors, but you only further infuriate people by trying to force them to do something without giving them the choice.
i dont think anyone like interruption marketing, because they are interrupting something that your doing – invading your personal space and time.
having said that though, what are magazine ads or tv ads/ aren’t they interrupting the experience that your having.
interruption marketing is a product of push marketing.
btw up here in sydney, we feel the same way about cityrail (or should i call it #cityfail).
Interesting post… I take the opposite approach though and get as much marketing material as I can that’s handed out in the street… I read it, analyse it for good/bad points and then stick it in recycling.
and I thought you were just a frustrated Essendon supporter