DDB Worldwide chief creative officer Amir Kassaei says brands must be trusted as traditional pitches no longer work
The traditional marketing pitch needs to be abandoned in favour of brand trust with consumers, according to DDB Worldwide global chief creative officer, Amir Kassaei.
Speaking at the Mumbrella 360 conference in Sydney, Kassaei told delegates that because consumers are armed with Twitter and Facebook, they have the power to “just kill you”. He cited the case of a British Airways customer whose luggage was lost on a flight to the United States in September 2013. The passenger called up British Airways customer service after he landed in Chicago and asked where his luggage was.
“They [customer service] were treating him like an idiot so he began tweeting about his problem with British Airways,” commented Kassaei.
However, the man didn’t just tweet to his 500 followers, he purchased British Airways promoted tweets to spread his complaint much wider.
“In 24 hours, the [British Airways] CEO called him and his luggage was there. That explains a lot about the power that is shifting towards the people,” Kassaei said.
Marketers should strive for what Kassaei called “relevant truth” where the brands they are promoting connect with people on an emotional level.
“How do we create a relevant truth based on an existing product or new offerings that people start to care about it?” he asked attendees. “If we do that, consumers will do the job of communication by themselves via the Internet.”
He added marketers should not treat people “like animals” and resist the urge to try and sell them something.
“Respect them as human beings and people will be respectful back to the brand you are marketing,” he claimed.
As an example of respectful marketing, Kassaei shared the story of a drycleaners in Boston in the US. During the last global financial crisis, the drycleaners began offering a free suit dry cleaning service to unemployed people who were going for a job interview.
“In the long run, this drycleaner will make huge amounts of money because he will have a group of loyal customers who feel he is taking them seriously," he commented.
According to Kassaei, DDB strives for brand trust when it comes to marketing campaigns. For example, DDB Miami worked out a way to market Glad rubbish bags to young people aged in their 20s who care about music and the environment.
The team produced a Glad branded tent designed for music festivals. Once the festival is over, the tent can be turned into a large rubbish bag so the campers can take away their rubbish. Feedback from the target audience of young people was favourable, according to Kassaei.
Follow Hamish Barwick on Twitter: @HamishBarwick
Follow CMO on Twitter: @CMOAustralia, take part in the CMO Australia conversation on LinkedIn: CMO Australia, or join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CMOAustralia
Our latest CMO 2022 readiness episode on the great resignation and staff motivation and leadership is now live!
Creating meaningful brands should be a holistic and considered process. However, all too frequently it’s one that is disparate and reactive, where one objective is prioritized at the expense of all others. So, what are the key pieces to the ‘good’ brand puzzle?
Companies encounter a variety of challenges when it comes to marketing overseas. Marketing departments often don’t know much about the business and cultural context of the international audiences they are trying to reach. Sometimes they are also unsure about what kind of marketing they should be doing.
Using data is a hot topic right now. Leaders are realising data can no longer just be the responsibility of dedicated analysts or staff with ‘data’ in their title or role description.
Nice blog!Blog is really informative , valuable.keep updating us with such amazing blogs.influencer agency in Melbourne
Rajat Kumar
Why flipping Status Quo Bias is the key to B2B marketing success
good this information are very helpful for millions of peoples customer loyalty Consultant is an important part of every business.
Tom Devid
Report: 4 ways to generate customer loyalty
Great post, thanks for sharing such a informative content.
CodeWare Limited
APAC software company brings on first VP of growth
This article highlights Gartner’s latest digital experience platforms report and how they are influencing content operations ecosystems. ...
vikram Roy
Gartner 2022 Digital Experience Platforms reveals leading vendor players
What about this one FormDesigner.pro? I think it's a great platform providing a lot of options, you can collect different data and work w...
Salvador Lopez
Gartner highlights four content marketing platform players as leaders