There’s a nice wrapper around the B2B marketing magazine this month and I sat down for a quiet lunchtime read today. Nicely constructed to resemble a normal front page with the magazine logo in corporate green, the headline is “Brand Augmentation – experience it with us” and a Gravity Global apple image.
What a great message. Seemed like a good new business tool for a creative agency.
The copy invites readers to download the app from the Itunes store and ‘point your iPhone at this cover”. So I did.
Sad failure
The app instructs you to point your iPhone at the black marker on our business card (or the magazine cover).
What is a ‘marker’?
I think they mean the black frame around their name with the apple picture. A further description says that a globe is supposed to appear and you can point at any one of the offices and see a video about them and get in touch.
I pointed, I waited, I moved my finger across the screen. It went pink for a bit and then back to showing the photo it was pointed at.
What a shame.
Why the campaign doesn’t work
There are several reasons why this is a failed campaign. You need to know where your dollars are being spent and how successfully they are returning enquring prospects to your agency. And this campaign fails on several levels:
- The “lowest common denominator” factor was not considered. I used to call this the “David Baker Test” [ask me why]. What about the prospect who either can’t or won’t take the action you request? How to deal with her.
- Consider the customer who doesn’t own Apple products – can she see your message?
- Alternative browsing methods weren’t offered – iPad, iPod, web page, pdf document. All possible alternatives.
- Android and BlackBerry versions not offered – an insult to those businesses who didn’t choose Apple phones for their staff
- Wait and see….. I downloaded it but is there any follow-up or tracking to see if I also visit their site?
So although it’s a great idea to use the tools of expertise you have to sell to clients in your own creative agency promotion, consider your audience and offer a solution that any person with a web browser can use to get to your company information.
You try it… Apple App Store search for Gravity Global World 
