Apple’s FaceTime Will Eliminate Dumb and Dumber Marketing
My lucky duck son got an iPhone 4 for his birthday and the day it arrived, a friend of our family eagerly asked if he could “FaceTime” us. (See Apple’s YouTube channel for some pretty cool video.)
After participating in the call, all I can say is “Coooool.” Real time video calling — an activity we’ve seen in futuristic movies and George Jetson cartoons — is here.
It took only a few seconds for me to grasp the marketing implications, and what I predict is that FaceTime or applications like it will totally and irrevocably change marketing.
Right now I regularly receive calls from really dumb telemarketers who work for clueless companies. These people call me pitching products and services . . . yet they have no idea who I am (something social media is supposed to solve).
I even had one telemarketer from a major company ask me, “So what exactly do you do anyway?” after pitching some kind of business product at me.
A simple two-second Internet search would have given her links to my Website, my blog, my Google, LinkedIn and Twitter profiles, and some of the articles I’ve written.
Once marketers start using video calls to reach prospects, however, things will start getting nasty.
Granted, relatively few people have an iPhone 4. However, given the rate of technological advances, video calls will be commonplace in a few years. FaceTime will migrate from iPhones to iPads and other smart mobile devices.
Say I’m reading the Wall Street Journal on my iPad over breakfast and in comes a FaceTime call from a telemarketer trying to sell me something and like most telemarketers, he has no clue who I am.
Can you imagine the amount of ill-will this company will have created with one simple call? Forget negative Tweets — let’s talk about posting actual dumb FaceTime marketing calls on YouTube, Facebook, and blogs.
As marketers, myself included, we talk about how social media will help us get to know our customers / prospects — even as they get to know us.
Although you the marketer have “joined the conversation” and work hard to not use social media to push you-focused content, lots of other companies / marketers / consultants use social media as another one-to-many broadcast medium.
Just witness the number of self-serving DMs you receive when you follow people, the self-promotional spam posts on LinkedIn Groups, and the companies that use blogs and social media to push press releases and other corporate dreck.
FaceTime and apps like it will change this scenario.
FaceTime, I predict, will force companies and organizations to really think about how they market to people and what they want to accomplish — or face extreme opposition and blowback.
This is already happening with social media as evidenced when the moderator of the Nestle Facebook page talked smack with its Fans — an event that became fodder for major online media pundents. (See Michelle Tripp’s excellent write-up about how this went down.)
What do you think? Will marketers abuse FaceTime the way they’ve abused social media, direct mail, and the telephone? Or will it force them to change their ways?
About the author: Dianna Huff
A B2B web marketing expert, Dianna helps B2B companies grow through SEO, marketing writing, and social media. A frequent speaker, Dianna has been quoted in numerous blogs, books, and articles; her client list includes large and small B2B companies across the U.S. Follow her on Twitter @diannahuff. To receive her e-course on creating great B2B marketing content, subscribe to her newsletter, The MarCom Strategist.
July 14th, 2010 at 2:22 pm
An interesting post – If video calls become the norm it could potentially change many of today’s communications practices. From pitching to a journalist to calling customer support for your dodgy internet connection – communications would become much more engaging as people can no longer hide behind their handset.
July 14th, 2010 at 3:09 pm
Julie,
Exactly! You’ll no longer be able to hide. I almost wanted to write a post that talked about how those who work at home won’t be able to make calls in their pajamas or icky sweats.
July 14th, 2010 at 7:38 pm
Even technology can’t stop stupid. Evidence: you have a web site but the telemarketer ignored it and called anyway.
Video does indeed add a cool element of “look at the marketing moron!” You are correct that it will make for some interesting YouTubes and, of course, lawsuits.
Let us hope that the marketers and others who apply the new communications technology remember that successful human communication requires big minds, not big heads … along with relevance, timeliness, some knowledge aforethought, and good will.
July 14th, 2010 at 9:58 pm
I run the marketing department for an outdoors store (hiking, camping & travel gear) and just yesterday had a guy pitching me on an idea when he said “you’ll be the only cowboy boot store in the publication”. Imagine his shock when I told him we didn’t sell cowboy boots! Is it really that hard to visit a company’s website before pitching them an idea?
I am absolutely astonished at how often telemarketers don’t know what our company does. There is no excuse for it and any technology that makes it easier for these incompetent sales people to get in front of their customers is troubling! And of course marketers will take advantage of it! It’s another way to communicate with their customers! And communication=sales right?!
Now, if we – marketers AND sales people – can use some of this technology in an effective and responsible manner to create, AND maintain, meaningful conversations with our customers, the sky’s the limit!
July 15th, 2010 at 10:42 am
@Michael — You are correct about technology not being able to cure “stupid.”
@Frank — Unbelievable about the sales guy and cowboy boots. I’m now following your corporate brand on Twitter.
Thank you both for stopping by and leaving such great comments.