My Childhood Addiction Rekindled Via Digital Marketing

I had an unhealthy obsession with Barbie as a child. To the point I continued to play with Barbies long after my friends had stopped, and I would hide my Barbies when my friends would come over so they wouldn’t know.

There are a few reasons I think I was possessed by the hot pink wearing blonde. First, I had a wild imagination as a kid. I never was interested in TV, but with Barbies I could create my own stories for their lives and entertain myself for hours. Secondly, my best friend since pre-school, Kari, also had this addiction so I had someone fueling the fire. Third, I loved and still love the color pink. Fourth, I could never get bored! Barbie always had a new car or a new job, the story kept changing. And lastly, my mom had built me a house for Barbie and a school for Barbie.  There was just no reason to stop.

Eventually, I did get bored with Barbie. Probably around middle school. But, when you love something you never truly let it go. My mother continued to buy me collectible Barbies, which I keep in the box. I always was interested in what Barbies my younger cousin had, and then digital marketing came around, allowing me to keep up with Barbie’s life (in an age appropriate manner) all over again.

November 2012 Birthday Gift from mom: Election Barbie with brown hair and green eyes, just like yours truly

Barbie and Ken got back together in a huge Valentine’s Day campaign in 2011. Naturally, my mom bought me the limited edition dolls. This was when I first discovered Barbie was back, and in my opinion, better than ever.

Photo from make. see. do. eat. blog

Fast forward to today when I have a more collectible Barbies and the Barbie Twitter handle is the only non-human on my “pals” Twitter list composed of my friends. Yes, that is correct. Her tweets are just that great.

The genius behind Barbie’s online success is that it’s not pushing a product, it’s bringing to life a person or perhaps even a celebrity, which pulls fans in. She tells you about her dates with Ken, selling her dream house, shopping with her sisters and asks for help deciding which outfits to wear. Mattel didn’t choose to promote products or reasons to buy the dolls, they chose to make a human connection with their consumers.

I could rave about Barbie’s digital marketing strategy forever. But instead, I’ll show you:

Barbie tennis image from https://www.facebook.com/barbie

Dreamhouse packing list from https://www.facebook.com/barbie

Tweets from https://twitter.com/barbie

Brands as BFFs

Digital marketing has allowed brands to enter the online friendship zone with their consumers. If asked which Facebook post had more value to me, Cole Haan's 50% off sale, or photos my best friend posted from her recent vacation to Europe, I'd be hard pressed to choose. I could live without ever seeing either, but they are both important to me in different ways.

Which came first: my love for Cole Haan shoes, or my love for their beautiful digital marketing? I honestly don't know.

The debate between creating a deeply personal relationship with a customer online, or keeping it simple and platonic goes round and round. Personally, I think simplicity leads to a great relationship for the following reasons:

1. If there are too many steps, or "clicks" and information to get to the end result, you're going to lose me along the way, potentially ending our relationship forever.

2. If you hook me within seconds with simple text explaining the offer and great imagery, chances are I'll be clicking "purchase" before I even think about if I really need your product or service (did anyone have their credit card numbers memorized before online shopping? I think I can type my credit card number on my keyboard faster than my phone number)

3. After I've made said simple purchase in #2, used it, raved about it to my friends and loved it, the next time I stumble across your brand online, I'm even more likely to click and/or share.

4. Forget stumble across the brand online, I'll probably go seeking it, making less work for the brand to reach me. How's that for a two way relationship?

An "All About Me" World

We all know the type: the person who always has to make everything about themselves. They can't be happy for your recent engagement without bringing up their recent promotion, and no matter how bad your day was, theirs was definitely worse.

It appears brands have taken this strategy on in the digital age. Quite simply, newsjacking is when a brand publiclyshares their views about a current event in order to rack up some free attention for themselves. The ever popular example is Oreo's dunk in the dark tweet during the Super Bowl, but if you look closely, you will see newsjacking is all around.

Oreo's famous tweet from the 2013 Super Bowl

This past June, the United States Supreme Court granted same sex couples equal rights and benefits under federal law bu striking down part of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). This was an amazing day in our country's history, and people as well as brands took the opportunity to celebrate.

Wait. Were these brands celebrating, or attempting to get media coverage for themselves?

Take MasterCard for example, who shared their support on Twitter and offered incentives for those also sharing their support and engaging in the conversation:

 

Initially this brings warm and fuzzy feelings to see a brand being passionate about such a cause.

But then you learn that MasterCard also currently happened to be running a sweepstakes with the NYC Pride parade. Would they have been so verbal and trying to get so much attention if they did not have a current sweepstakes initiative?

Did it work? Of course it did, everyone was talking about DOMA that day on Twitter and saw MasterCard tweets. In addition, there is no question of whether MasterCard was loyal and supported gay marriage or not because they already had the sweepstakes running, so the brand appeared to be a truthful proponent. My inbox was flooded with advertising industry news about MasterCard's genius tweets, and many other news sources referenced its tweets that day. MasterCard definitely got some attention. 

There is no doubt that newsjacking is effective. Brands get free press if they do it right (or possibly wrong), gain loyalists who also support the cause and have an opportunity to create content.

But, the tactic is new. Some brands haven't caught on. Will newsjacking have any worth when every brand is doing it for every big announcement? If the majority of brands newsjacked DOMA, would any journalists have bothered to write about MasterCard? Will it get to the point that brands aren't even really true or supportive of the news they are jacking because they are just trying to get attention?

Brands, don't be that friend.