Stealth Marketing - a dangerous strategy?The release of the movie ‘The Joneses’ has generated a lot of commentary on stealth marketing. For those of you who’ve missed the hype a seemingly perfect family move into a new neighbourhood. They have all the newest gadgets and crazes but it turns out that rather than being a real family they are being paid to create interest in all the branded goods amongst their neighbours. This all seems removed from reality but a recent article in the Sunday Times brings it closer to home describing how jobbing actors are working on the promotional circuit. But worryingly it isn’t always clear that they are working in promotion. Imagine you’re at the launch of a German beer for example. You get chatting to two friendly young German students. During the conversation they might tell you how delighted they are that this beer is now available in Ireland as it’s their favourite beer from home. How would you feel if you later on overheard them at the bus stop speaking with Irish accents? Foolish, annoyed, duped? – all this and more I suggest. While the beer launch is explicit marketing the chat seems like a chance encounter. We like to know when we’re being marketed to and most people would say we should know when it’s happening. For me the most shocking part of the Sunday Times article is how surprised the actors are at the annoyance expressed by punters who’ve been taken in. Have they really lost all sense of ethical behaviour in relation to marketing? What about the agencies that create these campaigns? This seems to me a pretty high risk strategy that could backfire. If people find out about such marketing and feel a brand has set out to dupe them are they really going to feel any loyalty towards that brand? Add a CommentYour comment will appear once it has been approved. |