Welcome to the August edition of Water Cooler Conversations, a chance for team GRA to share what’s keeping us up at night – for better or worse!
Ben
Senior Search Executive
I’m not American, so I don’t have any knowledge of the brand CarMax; however, I can appreciate a great collab, and an even better ad!
With the release of the new Beetlejuice movie in September, promotional activity for the nostalgic film is reaching far and wide. Collaborating with CarMax, a US-based car dealership, they’ve delivered one of the best ads I’ve seen this year, perfectly capturing the essence of the film, and my attention!
It’s very well-produced, entertaining, and has done what it was designed to do – get me excited for the movie!
Caitlin
Social Media & Content Marketing Assistant
This has been kicking about for a few weeks now, but I absolutely love it!
Marc Jacobs is disrupting the luxury scene since adopting a new and subversive TikTok strategy. It’s unusual, comical and plays into the subculture of unique and cringe-worthy internet trends. In addition, they’ve really hit the nail on the head with their recent influencer partnerships, storytelling strategies and national days partnerships.
That being said, my current favourite has to be the Nara Smith x red Marc Jacobs tote bag. Nara Smith is known on TikTok for her intricate cooking videos, she has been seen making wild recipes like homemade chewing gum and homemade sweets in a unique and aesthetical way. In Nara’s recent TikTok, we can see she attempts to make a Marc Jacobs bag from scratch!
A lot of marketers would consider this to be an unlikely partnership, but I completely disagree. This campaign is relevant, on-trend and super innovative. Marc Jacobs has really shown the importance of leveraging influencers and how being current with social media trends is so important and often leads to incredible results.
Jemma
Director
This has been around for a few years, but it’s started running again, and I think it’s a hard-hitting campaign that should continue to be spoken about more often!
The campaign, I Am Not a Typo, was organised by various independent contributors, including designers, creatives, and academics who want to see tech giants correct the autocorrect of names to help make it “less white-focused”.
Alongside billboard ads, those behind the campaign have penned an open letter to tech giants, pointing out a stunningly simple fix: the Office for National Statistics publishes an annual chart of popular babies’ names, which could easily be added – they say – to electronic dictionaries instead of seeing names continue to be underlined as incorrect spellings.
Josh
Senior Digital Marketing Executive
It’s felt like quite a quiet month as we slowly grind towards Christmas, so it feels like as good a time as any to talk about my favourite kind of digital marketing sensation – good, honest organic social, carried out by passionate individuals.
First up is Chris Lawlor, Scotland’s premiere hiking influencer. Gallivanting across Scotland’s length and breadth to bring followers new hiking trails, scenic views, hidden gardens and more, Chris (and his drone) have ridden the wave of Scotland’s hiking explosion as more and more young Scots look to reconnect with everything their homeland has to offer. Undoubtedly, his content also holds appeal for homesick Scots living overseas, and to tourists seeking hidden gems, earning him 400k followers.
Not far behind on 260k followers is Luisa Hendry – a.k.a. the Scottish Geologist. From marble bathroom sinks to some of Scotland’s most striking geological scenery, Luisa keeps things accessible but doesn’t handhold either. Her expertise and love for her field are so evident that it’s hard not to feel inspired by it, even if it’s not a subject I know much about or have even had a lot of interest in beforehand.
What I think is great about both creators is the accessibility of their tactics – in particular their opening stings. With Chris, it’s ‘Did you know that in Scotland…’ (I find myself impersonating it constantly) and with Luisa, its variations on ‘See that there? How did that rock get there? I’m going to tell you…’. Nothing fancy, but uttered in a similar tone across multiple videos, it’s a solid case for the power of repetition coupled with an obvious passion for the subject at hand.
No matter the client, especially if they are a founder, there’ll be a driving force and motivation behind what they do, and it’s our job to take that powerful raw material and run with it. Whether it’s B2B or B2C, any story can be a good story if it’s told well enough, so it’s great to see these creators reap the rewards while giving their audience (and Scotland’s tourism industry) something to smile about.
Louise
Digital Marketing Manager
It’s demure, it’s mindful: it’s late-stage social media. You’ve probably seen the trend – based on TikTok user Jools Lebron’s make-up video, where she describes her office look as the buzz phrase of the moment – ’mindful & demure’. In 2024, organic TikToks go viral daily, and Gen Z culture is filled with language and in-jokes originating from the platform, but in my years working within social media, I’ve never seen a trend take off quite like this.
We may joke about TikTok jokes taking months to hit Instagram reels, but within days, the Mindful & Demure trend entered the vocab of both Instagram and Facebook users, and, most significantly, brands.
Sombart warned us when the same thing happened to economics, but nobody could have predicted that the same would happen for social media. ‘Late Stage Social Media’ describes the concept that social media has gone from a tool for human connection and creativity to a homogenised platform where organic feels the same as a sales pitch, and trust is scarce. Mindful & Demure demonstrates the truth in this theory, something that was a bit of fun among users became a sales tool across the board, with countless brands integrating it into their own content with little attempt to add their brand stamp or give any value back to the audience.
Instead, businesses are hoping for a ‘Wow, this brand knows the jokes I know! I better buy their product’ as a reaction. The real reaction? A trend that will die out as quickly as it came in, and audiences’ enthusiasm for engaging with businesses on social media dying just that little bit more.
So what’s the lesson here? Being on trend isn’t a marketing strategy. It’s not a tone of voice, and chances are, it could damage a brand if it’s not done correctly.
The solution? Who knows, but my prediction is a return to the Mad Men Era of marketing (sans ethical social practices) – with a focus on transparent, creative advertising.
If you want to see what else we’ve loved in 2024, check out our other Water Cooler Conversations and more here.
