“Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing” – Vince Lombardi
How much time and energy do you spend playing the digital marketing game?
By “energy”, I mean the emotional and rational human capacity needed to create and build something that exceeds all expectations.
As a Key Account Manager, all my efforts in this “game” are directed towards the team and the clients because we aim to achieve the best results for us as well as for our clients, in terms of awareness and website traffic.
One of the best and simplest approaches to the idea of “play” when we are talking about this “leads generation machine” is to study and understand the different roles that players assume.
Part 1 “Hide and seek”
If you can perceive it as a stage where different dynamic roles are interacting, let’s imagine that the first game we are playing is “Hide and seek”. The game doesn’t require any elaborate documentation, there are only a few simple rules and everyone knows how to play it. Furthermore, it’s good fun, although not always!
Image source: Pixabay
The fundamental objective of this game is to avoid taking responsibility, to avoid criticism or to avoid confrontation with an image of reality provided by someone else.
An average house has lots of good hiding places when this game is being played by children. But when we are referring to adults, the hiding place is more or less the offices they’re working in. Compared to those happy childhood moments when you were playing this game, at the office, when you are working with many clients, the game can quickly lose its charm. There will be no feet sticking out from behind the curtains or giggles heard from behind the doors to give the game away and there are definitely no hints to guide you to the hiding place.
At work, we cannot apply the “I can’t see you, so you can’t see me” approach – with desks and curtains – all used to hide our faces from the clients and the other colleagues. We must be slightly more inventive and that doesn’t include trying to squeeze under a chair or stand like a statue behind the smallest computer that we could find.
Therefore, we all have to make sure that we establish a full and complete “wish list” and put all our efforts in transforming it into a “to do” list. Another very important aspect that needs to be clarified from the early stages of the collaboration is that the results will come slowly, they will not become visible overnight. Still, the benefits of digital marketing strategies in the long run are undeniable.
A relevant example to play this game with the clients is the one of Elise De Rijck, a woman who was lucky enough to have played hide-and-seek in the IKEA Belgium store. The 29-year-old organized a game in July as part of a bucket list of things she needed to achieve before her 30th birthday, including throwing a pie in someone’s face. After that, other similar events were planned in Eindhoven, Netherlands with 32.000 dedicated attendees and a 19.000 people event in Amsterdam. Apparently both events were cancelled by IKEA, due to safety issues (“We would still love to have you visit – no need to hide!”), so the fun was spoiled for all the participants registered to attend.
Image source: nationalpost.com
After all, “hide and seek” is fun when you are a child and it is also fun when you are playing at the office for entertainment, but it is not quite that fun and not recommended to do it with your clients.
What do you think is the next game that we can “play” as passionate digital marketers? Do you have a digital marketing strategy?
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