The 80/20 Experience
Conventionally, traditionally (how difficult it is to even type those words!), advertisers as a rule of thumb follow the 80/20 rule. They spend 80% of their marketing budget on media and production, and 20% on the creative. At a recent Wunderkind University seminar, our guest speaker Mary Koven suggested that today, we should consider reversing that ratio, in favour of content and creative.
Today, the media choices are exponentially greater – and often cheaper, or completely free. A startup I recently met called Luxy Hair, started by a young couple in Toronto, makes miliions each year without ever buying advertising – by offering a series of ‘how to’ YouTube videos on how to apply hair extensions. It’s the owner Mimi and her equally gorgeous sister giving the YouTube audience lessons in how to do such things as tie french braids with Luxy extensions. So helpful, and weirdly watchable for just about anyone, like the first seasons of Martha Stewart’s mesmerizing TV show (before she was thrown in the slammer). Mimi never actually ‘sells’ the product, but of course you can easily get to their website from the YouTube channel and order the product. They’re now so successful they’re starting a completely “cruelty-free” line of cosmetics, enlisting their fortune to make the world a better place.
One of the world’s most admired e-commerce sites is mrporter.com, who consistently delight us with high-quality videos teaching you how to take care of your expensive shoes, tie a bowtie, or choose a tuxedo, plus dozens of videos capturing footage of well-dressed strangers on the street, or interesting events where the men are unfailingly striking. And there’s an excellent journal, with well-curated stories and videos that create a world you want to live in for a few hours every day. Good for Mr Porter, bad for white collar productivity.
The point is that today, we want to provide meaningful and inspiring creative content, adding up to a sum total experience that’s worth writing home about – or posting. Especially for companies that have smaller marketing budgets but high-quality product and a strong point of view, investing in the creative, especially as it relates to relevant content, is money well spent.