Next Gen Marketing is Stealth
There’s an old saying in the marketing business that warns us “people love to buy but hate being sold.” Consumers have never liked hard-sell tactics. We make fun of old-school commercials with over-the-top claims. And our aversion to traditional advertising tactics grows stronger with every generation.
As a member of Gen Z, I’m not just a recent adopter of digital tech, mobile apps and social media. I was raised by it. It’s how we access new information, discover new brands and build personal relationships. As a result, we think of the web as ours and anyone who interrupts that experience with “advertising” is an intruder.
But we’re not the only generation that feels that way. Every digital consumer of any age is becoming less comfortable with traditional marketing.
According to HubSpot, 72 percent of consumers say they dislike the unavoidable and repetitive nature of advertisements. In a world saturated with so many ideas and so many people trying to “sell” those ideas, knowing who and what to trust can feel daunting.
Even so, as marketers, we still have products and services we need to sell. So, how do we fix this problem? How do we bridge the gap between what we need to tell our consumers and how they want to hear it?
Stealth marketing. In short, we need to create advertising that’s not advertising. We need to produce fewer announcements and promote more conversations.
The Changing Face of Media & Advertising
The media landscape is completely shifting away from traditional media toward new sources of entertainment, information and “news” – like YouTube, Netflix and TikTok. According to Statista, CNN only has about 540,000 average viewers during primetime broadcasts, while any given Joe Rogan episode enjoys over 10 million views.
And while all of these new media sources contain plenty of advertising and promotion, we don’t always recognize it. And when we do, we don’t mind it so much, because it comes in the form of a casual endorsement or product placement. It’s not a sales pitch, it’s a suggestion.
As I said before: It’s gotten to the point where we don’t want to be advertised to (or at least know we’re being advertised to). Think about the most popular brands right now. Amazon, Coca-Cola and Nike might come to mind. Most of us see “advertising” from these companies on a weekly basis – even if we don’t know it.
Giving a New Idea Wings
Stealth marketing is nothing new. As far back as the early 90’s, Red Bull launched a marketing campaign that involved placing hundreds of empty or crushed Red Bull cans in various public areas of downtown London. That’s it. Basically, nothing more than commercial littering.
And it worked. Red Bull soon owned more than 40 percent of the London energy drink market.
The main goal of this effort wasn’t to tell consumers everything about Red Bull. It was to create awareness, interest and curiosity. To plant the “idea” of Red Bull in the consumer’s mind and let them discover everything else about the product on their own.
While a contentious campaign at the time, it significantly grew recognition and sales for Red Bull over the long run. As Leonardo Di Caprio reminds us in Inception, “An idea is like a virus – resilient, highly contagious. The smallest seed of an idea can grow.”
Measuring the Power of Social Proof
Other brands have employed this kind of under-the-radar marketing strategy – advertising that doesn’t feel like advertising – but, in my opinion, not enough.
Maybe that’s because while marketing firms have always recognized the power of word-of-mouth (or “natural marketing”), the metrics aren’t there. The closest thing we have may be consumer ratings, reviews, user groups and other social proof.
But while statistical measurements may be less prevalent than those for programmatic tactics, this form of stealth marketing provides a nearly “frictionless” way to advertise; a way to inject a brand into the conversation and, thus, into the back of people’s minds.
It’s not easy but it’s more effective and becoming more prevalent every day. We just don’t call it word-of-mouth anymore. Today it’s social or influencer marketing designed to create a higher level of trust between you and the brand. If your friend likes it so much, then you’ll naturally (and perhaps subconsciously) want to give it a try.
I’m not saying more structured forms of digital advertising don’t work now or won’t work in the future. But I am saying that if you want to reach me and other members of Gen Z, then you’re going to have to create more advertising that looks less like advertising.
In other words, take it easy on the sales pitch, find more casual ways to join the conversation, and make me think it might have been my idea to invite you in the first place.
