Marketers Get Physically Abused for Social Media 'BS' in Adobe Ad ...

Have you ever gotten so enraged by the use of marketing buzzwords that you just want to slap someone? Well, Adobe is attempting to tap into that rage with a $10 million campaign for its social media metrics tools.

The new ad campaign, from Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, builds off the premise that the only way to get straight answers out of such execs is to physically abuse them. In the ad above, for instance, marketers are outfitted with a ?BS detector? that gives execs a painful electric charge whenever they engage in jargon-laden obfuscation. The ad below features a CMO who slaps another exec in the face repeatedly for asserting that ?measuring ROI on social media is a myth.? After a few slaps, the other exec comes around, but then decides, ?I might call the cops.?

Ann Lewnes, CMO at Adobe, told The New York Times that the use of the term ?BS? is a ?bold and provocative way to get attention? from a company that is ?not known for being provocative or bold.? The campaign is aimed at marketers who feel ?misunderstood? and are angry about it, she said. The perception that marketers are full of malarkey with regard to social media came about because of a historic lack of metrics, Keith Anderson, associate partner and executive design director at Goodby, Silverstein, told The Times. However, Anderson argues that Adobe Social tools will make marketers more confident about the efficacy of social as a marketing medium.

Will the target audience buy the pitch? Ian Schafer, the CEO of DeepFocus, says he found the ads ?funny and true.? Schafer agrees that buzzwords can mask marketers? lack of knowledge about an issue. However, Schafer, who has been called to task for his use of jargon, told Mashable that sometimes buzzwords are effective as shorthand ?if two marketers are having a conversation.?

Schafer says that this kind of shorthand is fine in certain situations. ?We?ve all been guilty at some point. When talking to each other, it can be acceptable. But when they make it outside the conference room, it?s unbearable to laypeople, and one of the reasons why marketers are not very respected per that study that came out this week. They are also used as intentionally vague catchalls that don?t lead to any particular point or conclusion.? Schafer says, adding: ?The fact is, buzzwords don?t annoy people, people that use buzzwords annoy people. And the people in these commercials are paying the price.?

Source: http://mashable.com/2012/10/25/adobe-ad-marketers-abused/

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