Last Month in Marketing: July 2022
As it is in basketball, so goes it in marketing: game recognizes game.
At Lemonade, we love our jobs, we love marketing, and we are pretty great at it. We don’t trick ourselves into thinking we are the only good marketers on the court, however, and nothing delights us more than a really great marketing moment. Whatever the media, whatever the vertical, a marketing win is a marketing win and we love to celebrate along with our peers.
Today, and at the end of every month moving forward, we will be listing out five of our favorite marketing moments of the month. This month’s range from OOH and IRL to Web3 and social media, and they are all inspiring in their own way.
Peruvian Fashion Retailer Oechsle Supports the Theater and Showcases its Collections
Since the pandemic began in early 2020, Peru has limited all theaters to 35% capacity in the name of social distancing and community health. This means that even with the most popular performances, the theater is 65% empty. While this certainly makes audience members feel safer, it is also undoubtedly a bummer, both for the performers and the audience.
Enter Oechsle, one of Peru’s largest fashion retailers, and a novel marketing concept.
Oechsle purchased an entire theater’s worth of unsold tickets and put a mannequin into each and every seat. The mannequins were sporting the latest and trendiest fashions, providing Oechsle with some IRL exposure as well as plaudits for finding a novel way to support the distressed theater industry.
The campaign, called “Mannequin Spectators,” shows how some out-of-the-box (or in this case, off-the-rack) thinking can drive attention and appreciation for a brand exploring new ways to market itself in the permanent/post pandemic world.
This was truly a win-win, with theaters recovering a bit of their significant pandemic losses and Oechsle finding a new audience for its fashions and some headlines for a truly original campaign.
Instagram Encourage Graduates to “Make Good Art” in Commencement Advertisement
Instagram rolled out a 60-second spot across Meta’s social media platforms, juxtaposing Neil Gaiman’s famous 2012 “Make Good Art” commencement speech with content from creators on their platform doing just that. It encourages college-age students to see content creation as a medium to not just make good art, but make a good living while doing it.
The implications are clear: content creation is a viable career path, we should all aspire to be influencers, and we should all do it on Instagram (or at least a Meta owned platform) where content isn’t just content, it’s good art.
Instagram needs content creators like mousetraps need cheese, and if there are no influencers on the platform driving user engagement and advertising revenue (or if, heaven forbid, all those creators migrate to TikTok) Instagram ceases to be Instagram.
In a world where Duke and Northwestern both offer courses to help students become influencers, the war of escalation between social media platforms to secure the most influential among them has already begun. With this advertisement, Instagram is staking its claim to the next generation.
A 24/7 Pride Parade In Decenterland
Decentraland held a month-long, 24/7 Pride event, allowing visitors to asynchronously experience the festivities—which included panel discussions, events, concerts (Thalia!), and a parade—whenever they visit.
Sure there were featured NFTs and digital art spotlighting the LGBTQ+ community, but the event felt bigger than merely a collectibles showcase. It was a Web3 showcase that truly demonstrated the power of a place like Decentraland to positively impact people’s social lives.
Indeed, there are still 69 countries that criminalize homosexuality and, as we described in our recent Pride blog, things are getting scary at home too, with over 200 bills currently aimed at LGBTQ+ people. Decentraland’s Pride event, then, does what so many bands and corporate pride events claim to do: creates a safe space in which people can truly explore their identity without fear of legal or social reprisal.
As one attendee based in Indonesia explained the event’s value recently to the Indian Express, “Due to the risk of attacks by conservative, reactionary groups in Indonesia, there has never been a proper Pride parade here.” She described the Decentraland Pride event as vibrant and colorful, a dream come true.
IBM Algorithm Helps Delta and Kellogg Counteract Online Advertising Biases
IBM began working with Delta and Kellogg to help the two companies avoid biases embedded in the algorithms that power online advertising. These algorithms often rely on stereotypes related to race, gender, and sexuality that unfairly determine who will see certain advertisements and who will not. Assumptions about class are embedded within these stereotypes.
IBM has offered the companies access to algorithms and data to identify audience skews for advertisements and help to balance them out. The tool is free but requires companies like Delta and Kellogg to provide their own marketing staff to support its operation.
Yes, as the kinks are ironed out, this tool could potentially limit clicks in the short term, but the looming risk of regulatory action has brought some urgency to this issue. Also, according to Shannon Woman, Delta’s director of US brand marketing, it’s the right thing to do for the future: “Anything we can do to champion greater equity has huge business impact.”
Nope Builds (even more) Hype with Interactive Website, JupitersClaim
People are already hyped to see Nope, Jordan Peele’s followup to Get Out and Us. Audiences have seen trailers for over a year that are big on thrills and scant on details, and have been fiending for more. And that was before Peele tweeted out a link that is sure to kick the hype machine into overdrive.
The link leads to a website for a dilapidated, Gold-Rush-themed amusement park North of Los Angeles called Jupiter’s Claim. The park appears to be run by a former TV star named Jupiter (June for short) and, just as he finishes welcoming visitors to the website, things change suddenly. The backdrop goes from day to night, ominous music begins to boom, and June’s smile discernibly becomes a frown as he looks up in terror.
Nope has been a masterclass in marketing from day one—everybody wants to see it, nobody knows what it is about. This website builds on that duality, giving eager audiences mere morsels of information (an old west amusement park, a former child star) and boatloads of anticipation (“OMG what is going on with the sky?!”).
Nope comes out on July 25 and this website marketing gimmick seemingly reminds audiences to be among the first to see it, lest its mysteries be revealed.