Valentines Day…once again it has arrived and as one of the biggest days of marketing in the year, brands must figure out how to deliver their message.  This arises an interesting question: HOW?  The simple fact is that in today’s age, people do not want to listen anymore.  In the past, advertisements only needed to be put in front of the mass media to be effective because not every company could afford/find avenues to do so.  With the advent of the Internet and social media, now anyone and everyone can push their messages the world over.  We are exposed to 360 advertisements daily, what this leads to is massive amounts of desensitization.  What this means is that brands must find a way to get through the filters that you, I, and everyone else has put around them.  Frustrating to say the least, however it just requires a different approach.

What?

As marketers, our job is to make people care.  We have to not only inspire, but also find what inspires our audiences.  Their hopes, dreams, passions, loves, hates, and anything and everything in-between; simple right?  What this requires is getting to know WHOM we are talking to, we must converse WITH people not just AT them.  True it is a lot more work, but it is so much more rewarding.  A powerful tool in doing this, of course, is social media.  It is the direct link to finding what values your audience holds close to themselves.  Once we discover who is listening, then we can construct the proper message.

Listen

Seth Godin gives a very interesting TED talk on the topic how to spread your ideas and the tribes we lead.  If you are not familiar with Godin, he is the former Vice President of Marketing at Yahoo! and was inducted into the Direct Marketing Hall of Fame in 2013.  In his TED talk, Godin talks about finding ways not to only stand out, as eventually that new car smell will wear away, but to do something truly remarkable.  As much as it seems people do not care anymore, when you take a look closer it becomes blindingly clear that the opposite is true.  People WANT to care.  We just need to give them a reason to care.  How do you succeed?  Take the passion that you have behind your brand and align it with those that share that passion.  Check out Seth Godin’s talk below and get started today!