Do not try this at home, or in your Marketing efforts

One of my marketing pet peeves is the “do not try this at home” disclaimer that sits in many TV commercials.  Sometimes its “professional stunt person, or professional driver on closed course” but the inference is still the same no matter how unlikely or humanly probable that anyone could recreate these “life threatening” scenarios.

I saw a commercial last night where a guy is standing on a rooftop and huge, tentacled CG power lines shoot up from below to one antenna and get plugged in to create a giant power source that shoots up to the heavens.  I don’t even remember the advertiser (I think it might have been a mobile network), because I was too focused on the “do not try this at home” message. Seriously… do not try this at home?  Now what will I do with my giant self-propelling power chords gathering dust in my garage?

Cut to that Gossip Girl – girl Rachel Bilson, in what appears to be either a terrible traffic jam or a horrific pile up on PCH1.  Spying an ice cream truck ahead she takes the quickest path out of her car and onto and over each one in front of hers to get her treat  – essentially breaking into the truck and stealing it. Again we are reminded – do not try this at home.  Now, I could argue there maybe some good points to this one: stealing is bad even if you are pretty and hip, jumping on cars in traffic that could start moving is dangerous, and it’s probably best to call 911 at the scene of an accident before thinking about ice cream… but it’s a fantasy – and since when is home not a good place to try out a fantasy, especially one involving ice cream!

Ok, I digressed a bit… but now I will come around to my point. Moving your marketing efforts into the multi-channel realm does not mean forsaking ink on paper.  There is no better delivery device, or foundation for your campaign.  For example, according to QRaware, a Mobile Barcode Study – of those surveyed (out of 100% for each category), 48% had seen QR codes on Printed ads vs 40% on the Internet, 12% on TV vs 42% in Newspapers/Magazines, and 45% saw them in Brochures/Collateral. That is almost half of all category QR scans generating from Print!

Augmented Reality has similar stats. In the Infographic: Marketing with Augmented Reality – the top uses for AR are Brochures (19%), Pitches (18%), Events & Conferences and Online (16%) and so on.  Even in the augmented world people gravitate to the tangible, what they can hold in their hand and see with their eyes, before needing any devices to elevate that experience, and that is why it is delivered that way.

As marketing evolves and new technologies emerge, keep this in mind as you plan your next campaign… Tradition is why we eat Turkey on Thanksgiving and Traditional Media is what has gotten us to this point in time with proven results. Commercials may warn us to “not try this at home” – but in multichannel marketing, I would offer “do not try this without Print.”