Why ad budgets should be spent on the handmade

For centuries mankind have struggled to make their work more effective and less costly. We have built machines which can handle the work of 10 to 100, 000 employees and then improved them to produce for less cost. We are so good at this that we sometimes forget the value of something that is handmade.

The same things goes for media. We have bought ad placements to spread the message of our brand instead of hiring staff out on the streets talking about it. Lately we have even begun moving our budgets from TV and print to online to reach larger audiences to less cost. Again like improving production.

But this time we are really failing.

We know that we scan webpages without seeing the ads. And most of us rarely or never click on an add, regardless of how interesting they seem. If we do actually see them and their message, fact is we are more likely to google the message than click on the banner.

Meanwhile – many of us seek information about your companies products. We want to read about how to set up a kitchen, or what is in style this fall. Information that your company have, but is not sharing. Because it is less expensive to make an ad about your product, providing no additional value at all, than it is to start a blog about your field. Pr, blogs, video, podcast and social media is often considered to time consuming and to risky of an investment. But, they could provide value which no ad will never come close to they might be both more cost efficient and productive in the long run.  Still, few are willing to take the risk, the risk to invest in something handmade.

If we would forget about cost and effiecency for once and focus on what will increase sales the most in a year. Do you honestly believe that ads are the solution?

IKEA Let The Customers Spread The Word Via Facebook

I am usually impressed by how IKEA manage to keep their advertising and marketing very current so they play on what is actually going on in the world. Like their metro adds in Washington DC, around the 2009 election.

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Pictures by buschap

A few days ago I found this new Swedish campaign where they use let people invite their friends to a breakfast at IKEA, via Facebook.

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The ad read: “Invite your best Facebook-friend to breakfast. Click here”
then it switch to a picture of two Facebook user and breakfast

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and it says “Cris treated Anton to breakfast at IKEA. ten SEK/two people. (Two for the price of one.)”

If you click on the ad you get to a Facebook application that they have built for this. The application allows you to invite your friend to breakfast by posting an invitation to your friends wall as well as an invitation to use the application. And of course you can write a personal message along with the invitation if you want to.

People often talk about building viral marketing campaigns. That means that the message you want to send is spread trough social networks and the internet by the users through word of mouth. I think this IKEA campaign is a great example of a successful viral campaign as people benefit from it.

Ten SEK is a bit more than one dollar, and who would not want to have breakfast for that amount with a friend. Also I think Ikeas is often a place where you go as to with your family, by expanding that to a place where you go shopping with your friends, the number of visits to IKEA will increase per person.

Thus this marketing campaign is not only spread by the customers, the customers are also reminding one another that IKEA, is a place where you could take your friend just because its it pleasant to meet.

Can you see other benefits with the campaign that you want to share? Or can you find a disadvantage to share?

If you want to see more examples of IKEA check out these pictures