Faceless Marketing

No, it’s not an alien invasion:

With the blankest of blank expressions on their faces, these mysterious figures have been popping up in the most unlikely of places.

The faceless mutants have a penchant for A-list celebrity bashes and have been spotted at Elton John’s White tie ball and Harrods summer sale, opened by Sex and the City star Kim Cattrall.

With a membrane of skin stretched tightly over their eyes, noses and mouths, the alien-like figures were most recently snapped ‘watching’ a match perched on Murray Mount at Wimbledon.

As an astute observer just pointed out in this thread, these people are yet another example of viral marketing — this time, for Lotus Cars. Really, I’m increasingly skeptical that this type of marketing works. If anything, it makes me not want to purchase these automobiles. (Steve Huff doesn’t like it either.)

I’m sure the Daily Mail got a nice advertising check for publishing this non-news story.

Follow-up: Brett Duncan takes issue with my skepticisim of the marketing strategy’s effectiveness:

It’s dangerous and inaccurate to measure success of a viral campaign in terms of sales. Granted, all marketing must ultimately lead to sales, but not all marketing tactics have to lead to sales directly. Viral marketing must be measured in publicity, buzz and exposure. This exposure, in turn, should then lead to interest, which should then funnel down into sales. It’s not an all or nothing proposition; it’s a step-by-step process in which viral marketing is simply a piece of the puzzle.

Based on publicity, I’d have to say the faceless people campaign is working brilliantly.

Of course, Duncan is correct. Marketing is a complex operation. Still, everything is about revenue in the end. I would not care if a marketing strategy leads to thousands of newspaper articles on my product; a front-page, search-result ranking on Google; and a positive brand awareness throughout the world if revenue did not increase as a result. (If revenue remained level, then I would have actually lost money after enduring additional costs for the marketing operation.)

I’m still not convinced that this viral marketing effort will succeed. But if Duncan or anyone will point me to a future profit-and-loss statement showing an increase in sales revenue between the current quarter and the next, I’d be happy to admit that I was wrong.