That’s Edutainment!
With shrinking budgets and ever more complex briefs, how can creativity support consumers and their favourite brands in the short-term?
Perhaps we will see a boom in Edutainment? Educational information delivered in a truly entertaining manner.
For example, communication which helps people with practical advice on doing more with less and making the budget stretch in a fun approach. This could include smart, clever ways to save electricity. Imagine if brands could create activities for people to stay upbeat during power shortages?
What if we could combine turning down the heat with cool styles in rugging up our clothes? How can we engage fashion brands and designers to turn sensible into style?
How brave would it be for a car manufacturer to combine smart ways of saving fuel with outdoor exercise tips and leaving their car at home?
The list goes on.
Similar to the Covid period, there is no need to stop communicating. Quite the opposite. Consumers will always remember how you made them feel in a crisis.
Yet unlike Corona, this is not a time for fear-vertising nor reminding people with soppy messages that the brand “is with you.” Been there. Done that. It all merged into one.
It is, however, a time to be the charming guest on people’s screens to demonstrate practically how the brand is your companion. Our industry needs to walk the walk.
Be careful you don’t fall down the rabbit hole of infomercials and infographics. That’s boring and your ROI will be wasted on a cold fiscal transaction paying consumers to watch or read your ad. Hard-selling might lead to a price war and that we should avoid. Let’s remember that it is war that started this crisis.
Good edutainment can enhance your investment through Return On Involvement. You get there by amplifying your task with bolder, brighter, better communication. ROI to the power of the little roi.
So no matter how hot or cold this marketing winter will be, let’s keep talking to one another. Open conversations and hard work will keep the lights on.
Author: Jason Romeyko, Worldwide ECD at Serviceplan Group