What "Kony 2012" has taught us about advertising

Here I sit, (full of chocolate from scaping the bowl), to make the next addition in this amazing series.

I finally got around to watching the apparently must-see Kony 2012 on Wednesday. 30 or so million people had seen it before me: mostly tweens and teens. One or two 20+ yr olds watched it. 

I must admit, in a few ways it is a must-see, depending on your age and your characteristics. 

But that isn't what this entry is about. 

Love it or hate it - support it or avoid it - Kony 2012 has shown, in a profound way, some very important principles of advertising. I say advertising, not marketing, as I intend on speaking only about what it teaches about the promoting side of marketing. Some future entries may refer to Kony 2012 in regards to marketing as a whole, but that would make it a very broad subject. So lets hone in on a few things about advertising from Kony 2012 (K12 for short so we don't get sick of his name any more than we are). 

Firstly, familiarise yourself with the K12 campaign. You do not need to see the whole 29 min video to do this. Just search for the trailer, or even turn on your TV on Monday morning and watch the breakfast show, they will have something about it. I learnt that what the TV covered in a few minutes wrapped up nicely what I watched in 29 mins. 

So, on to what K12 has taught us. 

The first thing the campaign has taught us is that people love doing something if it is easy.

Unlike reading this blog, people love to respond to a campaign if all they have to do is click a button. "Really", I hear you say, "prove it". OK, how about Ebay, Youtube, Paypal, or any form of online purchasing. All you have to do to purchase a new Elmo collectable mug is press "commit to buy", and before you know it, you have a room full of 1980's sesame street memorabilia.

The very least that people were required to do to respond to K12, apart from sit and watch it (and we'll get to why over 40 million people watched it in the first 2 days), is click "share". And that is one ingredient to a viral video - make sharing it the easiest option. 

The second lesson is that people love doing something if they get "something" for free.

...and that "something" isn't necessarily an object. It can be an experience, a feeling, a taste, or a smell. In this case, there were a couple of options for people to get something for free. They could either get the good feeling of trying to stop a baddie, or they could get a free "(vandel's) action pack" if they signed up to the Tri foundation, for a few dollars a month (sounds like an infomercial, doesn't it?) 

So what ever you are promoting, offer something for free. Someone famous had that motto. I can't remember who, but when I remember, I'll tell ya. It won't make much of a difference. Let's just say it was Ringo Star for now. 

See what I mean?

Third lesson: Use little people. Everybody loves little people. 

I'm not talking about dwarfs or hobbits. People's brains respond much more when they see a baby or child (another un-referencable thing I heard on a documentary, so it must be true). 

Think about it though. The whole ad (I call it an ad, because it is - a 29 minute-long ad), revolves around children. The Ugandan children (those poor kids. I felt sad seeing their situation); the director's son, the baby being born near the start of the ad. 

We see this in many other campaigns: McDonald's is an obvious one. Cheerios is a more recent example. Baby formula companies (nasty stuff by the way) use strong baby images to make their products look good. 

Remember watching Australia's (or America's) Funniest Home Videos? Remember also that the weekly winner and ultimate grand final winner was always either a child or a pet? Interesting....

So remember to include small children in your ad - as a main feature if you really want results. 

Fourth lesson: people love seeing something new, even if it isn't new. 

The director did a great job in this ad to make everyone talk about it as if it is new. Well, it may be new to teenagers and tweens, because they have grown up with nothing but middle-east war stories. In reality though, Kony has been a major negative influence in his part of the world for over 20 years. 

If he is the only guy in Africa doing what he is doing, then I am positive Fox studios based the 7th season and prequal movie for 24 around this guy and the LRA. Google the trailers for that, and see what I mean. 

In Melbourne, 6 years ago, I remember some activist group going on about kids with guns in Africa. No one paid attention then. 

Invisible Children did a great job making this issue (call it a product for this case) seem new. Very much like a cereal box changing colours and shape; all of a sudden it becomes new. 

So when you advertise your product, make it seem new. This can be done so simply. 

Fifth lesson: Know your target market (this should be #1).

At first, I thought this campaign was spreading to everyone. Before I watched it, I was speaking to 30-50yr olds, asking them if they heard about this exciting thing. None of them had heard of it. 

When I watched it, though, I realised why. It was definately target at those who responded. Not too much boring talk, lots of cool music, great visual effects, and the director even mentions that the campaign targets "young people".

Why young people (tweens and teens)? When we look at the ad and what they want us to do, it all makes sense. 

The ad is 30 minutes long (minus 1 minute). Who has time to sit down and spontaneously watch 30 minutes of video, then share it, than think about what it all means, then spend another hour telling everyone about it? I'll tell you who - young people. At least they think they do. Teenagers are proven to have jumbled up brains. Their "thinking brain" loses bits, and their "feeling brain" takes over. The "feeling brain" is pretty easy going, go-with-the-flow. So when something exciting comes up, priorities don't matter anymore. 

I learnt that last bit at uni so it must be true. 

So many people don't think about their target market before they take the first step. Aiming carefully will make your campaign much more successful. I read a poster in an ad agency once that read "close enough is only ever good enough if you're throwing a grenade". I think this is what it's relating to. Linking your campaign to your target. 

Well, friends, it seems K12 requires more of our time. Such is the nature of the campaign. Please join me for part two next week (or a couple of days), when we will look at more things K12 has taught us, including the importance of brand recall, and the effectiveness of online. Until then, good night. 

 SMc

P.S. By the way, the youtube video of K12 has been viewed more than 62 million times, as of 45 minutes ago. That's a lot of unpaid promotion (and that's just scratching the surface). Imagine if that was your brand.