It’s that time of year. Festive functions, watching the temperature drop and the industry infatuated with Christmas TV campaigns and predictions for next year.
And, why not? It’s the time for big budget, emotional story telling where the ads are more entertaining than the programmes and the marketing chat is around customers, creativity and craft.
The comments from Tesco Stores group customer director Emma Botton piqued my interest. The need to be “consistent to customers”, to not “show up differently” at Christmas compared to other times of the year. Apparently, the latest Christmas campaign takes a “wry” humour-led approach to showcasing its core proposition. I like it!
But what do Christmas ads have to do with predicting future marketing trends? Wasn’t it JFK who said “Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future”?
I have been setting up home in London and very much looking to the future. However, I haven’t experienced the notion of consistency, storytelling or “wry” humour from any of the brands I have bought from recently. I have purchased everything from a spatula to food to electricity. Yet, no warm, fuzzy Christmas feelings here. Just a feeling of… nothingness.
Most of my brand interactions failed on the basics of onboarding, repeat purchase, upsell, cross-sell or any other marketing phrase with the word “sell” in it. All asked, “how did they do” or would I rate their app, but none encouraged me to buy again. Forgetting the science, the creative messaging would have been welcomed… if I was a robot. For some reason, I wasn’t the same human being watching their festive commercials to the one receiving emails.
If you don’t believe me, I ask two questions. When was the last time you received an email which made you smile? How many did you delete this morning?
Wanting to know the “why”, I canvassed the industry for opinion. The answers varied. The world of customer marketing has become fragmented and siloed. Most brands still revolve around product rather than customer. Marketing fiefdoms make it difficult to have one customer view and control. Few brands are able to join data and creative at scale. Marketing doesn’t have control over service-oriented communications. It’s algorithms before creativity. CRM has morphed in to CX and performance marketing. Brands have invested in tech but don’t have the skills to maximise the investment. Customer communications are done by in-house teams who think product first. It’s easier to create seamless customer journeys with a small brand rather than an historical behemoth.
I feel exhausted. There isn’t a brand in the world that doesn’t have pain points. It’s far more interesting looking to the future than the present. Search 2024 marketing trends and it sounds exciting – conversational marketing, AI-led interactions, hyper-personalisation, virtual reality and augmented reality integration, short form content, video marketing and the metaverse.
We will continue to see huge growth in the use of data and technology to drive communications. However, my recent experience shows the increasing disconnect between the brand, message, and customer. I think the way forward is to look at customers from an anthropological viewpoint before thinking about the technology, asking the “why” rather than the “what” to create more relevant and human experiences at scale. It might sound basic but I guarantee it will alleviate the pain points and get your customers loving your comms like the ads on TV.
That would probably do for 2024. Merry Christmas.
Stuart Archibald is founder of CA.5
