I saw friends posting the o.b. tampon “Sorry” videos on Facebook, but ignored them. Sure, the ads are probably 65% hilarious or whatever, but I have other stuff I need to do. Vaguely, I wondered why O.B. was sorry, but, like I said. Stuff I need to do.
My attention was finally ensnared by a Facebook ad that spilled the beans about the motive for apologizing—some sort of distribution issue.
Hello, who cares?
Marketers often grossly overestimate the extent to which their customer notices/cares/understands their back end issues. So it can be a little confusing to base a campaign on a problem not everyone knows about. And yet, the disappearance of o.b. from Canadian shelves was apparently some sort of massive big deal.
I’m not the target market (I don’t care), but I could be the target market (if I’m convinced to buy the product in the crossfire). Marketing intrigue!
For the audience who does care, the brand makes a glorious apology, with technomagical incorporation of your name into a song and video visuals sung by a fantasy-obsequious boyfriend. Every blogger I saw covering the campaign took the exact same screenshots I did: ye olde name in rose petals.
Buttons, consider yourselves pushed.
For people who aren’t into the brand, they still enjoyed a positive brand experience with the magic video and have an impetus to go on a second date with the free-lovin’ coupon attached to the end of the ad. Ladies who were actually inconvenienced by the retail glitch get an absolutely satisfactory apology.
And here I am sharing their story without even liking this product (though now I’m a fan of the brand). That’s dreamy marketing.
