Marketing strategy: from minority report to shawshank redemption

Marketing in yesterday’s world meant cold calling and slinging slogans from King-Kong-sized posters to television jingles. These days are over – and frankly, we should be happy for the innovation that kept us from living in a world that looks like the dystopian futures present to in movies like "Blade Runner" and "Minority Report." Welcome to today.

Minority-report-ui

Have you watched "Minority Report", Steven Spielberg’s Blockbuster film from 2002? If you are a marketer, go see it. Apart from being an entertaining movie, there’s a hidden lesson that can benefit your career. There is a scene in the movie in which Tom Cruise walks through the city of the future with his eyes being scanned each second so that electronic advertisement machines can present him with personalized ads. Normally, he would be accustomed to the ad abuse, however while on the run, the eye scanning suddenly becomes a threat.

Does this scene sound scary to you? Maybe like a realistic version of the future? Back in 2002, it was the future. Today, it inches closer to the present.

Back when Minority Report was released, Google had just begun the AdWords program (2000) and blogging was only starting to become popular; Facebook and Twitter did not exist and advertising was most commonly done the "old-fashioned" way, by constantly discovering more annoying and intrusive ways of breaking marketing slogans into our personal lifes. Old school marketers dreamt of personalized and targeted advertisements; these inventions crept closer to actualizing this marketing phenomenon.

Today, this vision has lost its power. Marketing and advertising have shifted their priorities to meet the needs of the next generation of consumers. While there are still billboards and Super-Bowl spots, the most successful marketing concepts, today, work differently – especially in the B2B sector.

There is no longer a singular message for brands; instead, there is incentive to create an environment, which involves customer interaction and an active dialogue. Nike has evolved from the singular slogan: "Just Do It" – now, their Facebook page relates stories directly to their customers; their Twitter accounts interact with customer needs and curiosity. Nike’s YouTube videos show a lifestyle they wish their brand to represent. Expensive television ads are only a small piece of a bigger puzzle. Marketing, when done right, has shifted from shouting a vision at potential customers to communicating a message through conversation, creating an aura of charisma and lifestyle around a brand.

This shift in marketing is great for consumers, businesses and marketers alike; it has become one thing that stands between today’s world and the future of "Minority Report."

This shift towards communication, dialogue and storytelling has led to a democratization of marketing; social media engagement has made it accessible to everyone. While it helps, there is no "big budget" necessary to share a story, no billboard space needed to tell potential clients that you are the Head Honcho of the marketing world. The sudden rise of content marketing, especially in B2B, is a great example of this democratization. If what you are marketing has value, under this model, everyone has a shot to attain brand recognition.

I recently proposed: "Everyone is a trained writer." Today, I want to assure you that tapping in the qualities of your trained authorship, makes you (potentially) today’s greatest marketer. Being a trained writer allows you to tell stories that evoke emotion and resonate with consumers and partners who are looking to be moved on this level. Having a budget to produce videos or buy advertisement is (of course) still an option, but it is not a requirement any more.

Let’s be clear: "telling stories" does not mean writing fiction. Telling a story means writing something meaningful for your audience, giving them a solution or company tale, which elicits a true feeling. If they connect to the story, they connect to you – and subsequently, your brand.

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