Tornatore, Covid and my 2021 intentions.
A brief marketing cheatsheet. For free.
“I am done complaining.”
This is one of my 2021 intentions.
After 5 years spent in the world capital of nagging, I decided that “se plaindre” was going out of my vocabulary, now and forever.
Yet, here comes the Italian government to test my willpower, with the newly released campaign in favour of the Covid19 vaccine. OMG.
I admit, I could not resist. I wrote a couple of disheartened comments on linkedIn, but now, I promise, I am back on track. So instead of explaining why that thing was wrong, I will [drumroll] write what was supposed to be done instead. And all of this for free.
You are welcome.
So, here you are, in a quick bullet points cheat sheet, a “Marketing for Dummies 1.0” available for whomever is in charge of this.
1. [first things first. It should be obvious, but I realize Italy is the land of creativity, of sailors, saints and poets, and apparently not project managers so…here we go]
SECURE SUPPLY: get enough doses of the vaccine and tools needed to perform the deed. And shape a damn plan on how to vaccine the Italian population. Thank you.
Great. Now that we have ensured the availability of the vaccine, we can trigger the demand. Otherwise all the efforts spent in communication are going to be useless and will generate even more frustration and mistrust in the population.
2. FRAME THE CHALLENGE: why are Italians hesitant towards the Covid19 vaccine? Who are these people? Can you cluster them? And which are their concerns? Hire a renowned Research Institute [no, your cousin, who is doing a Master thesis on the topic, does not work] and make them ask these questions online and on the phone to Italian people. In 3 weeks, you should have your answers.
3. WRITE A BRIEF: a one pager document with the answers to the above questions will suffice. Better than nothing. I understand you must act fast, but as one colleague once taught me “La fretta passa, la merda resta”. Even some scribbled words on the back of leftover wrapping paper will do, as long as you write the right things.
4. INVOLVE AN ADVERTISING AGENCY: they do this for a living, do I need to say more? You will have the chance to feel like an episode of Mad Men, maybe. And if the for profit industries are relying on them since decades, you might guess there is a reason. And no, that reason is not that we marketers are not creative enough, nor that we don’t have cousins with great ideas and design diplomas. “Yes but I wanted some great names…the Italian patriotism…Italy is excellent…I love Tornatore and I want to ask Sorrentino to do a sequel to The New Pope”. Cool, you can. “But then the advertising agency?”. Will work with them. “No way! It’s impossible!” Yes they will. They do this all the time in fact and they are only waiting for an exciting brief like this one. [Coen Brothers for Mercedes? Scorsese for Dolce&Gabbana? Spike Lee and Nike, anyone?]
5. PLAN MEDIA AS IF IT WERE 2021: crazy, right? It’s 2021 and we can do incredible things with media. Remember the clusters of people I asked you to do in .2? Now you can target them. With. Different. Messages. [mind blown]. Because, come closer now, I will tell you a secret: not everyone needs pathetic music and greyish photography to be convinced. Boom.
