As 2014 comes to a close, looking back at the year that was brings clarity for new marketing decisions in 2015. Check out our take on 2 of 2014’s marketing fails and marketing feats below.
2 marketing fails of 2014
QR Codes
When QR codes burst onto the scene a few years ago, marketers got excited. Really excited. Finally! We rejoiced, a way to connect our offline communications with our online presence. But what wasn’t considered was large portions of mobile users don’t have the ability to scan QR codes. To be able to scan QR codes you have to download an app, which poses a roadblock for on-the-go users. Yep, downloading an app can really be a pain for some people.
For QR codes to re-gather momentum in 2014, smartphone makers need build in QR scanners as a standard feature.
Knee-jerk marketing
Small business marketing needs to be flexible, but it cant be ad-hoc. Without strategic thinking and context behind marketing decisions there will continue to be a cycle of marketing misses.
2 marketing feats of 2014
Gaming for a cause
Consumers spent $21.53 billion on electronic gaming last year so it’s no wonder that this industry has begun to produce measurable impact for causes. While gaming can take a variety of formats, so too can the cause integration.
Since 2009, 6 million players of popular Zynga games have donated nearly $20 million through almost 40 games, including Words With Friends and Farmville. The money has flowed to about 50 non-profits. The hope from non-profits is that the popularity of games will help encourage new donors, and create a more organic connection than shaking a money tin in shopping centres.
Email marketing
2014 saw small business adopt email marketing in droves. Thanks to easy to manage and affordable platforms like MailChimp, email marketing is no longer for big business and spammers. Small businesses can get their brands in front of a targeted bunch of people with just a click of a button. And what’s more, email marketing is measurable.
Christmas break
I’ll be closing the Blog shop from the 22nd December – 19th January but as always we’ll keep the conversation going on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn so join us there.
See you in 2015,
Darnelle
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