The Mercurial Marketing Mash-up

May 4, 2009 9:04 AM

By Tim Woods, Executive Creative Director, The Halo Group

To market a company or product in the 21st century, we can no longer rely simply on the single benefit of a television spot, thrown like spaghetti on a wall to reach the masses. We need to combine the best ideas of print, television, interactive, and other tactics to connect to our customers in interesting and relevant ways. It’s taking this mix and match approach to marketing to survive in this mash-up culture we now inhabit.

So then, what is a mash-up? In its simplest form, it is creatively combining elements from different genres, cultures, and categories to create something new. The mash-up was a term coined first when DJs began taking digital music files and mixing them together, stripping away the vocals from one track and adding beats and riffs from one or many songs to create something entirely new. Some say DJ Hellraiser was first when he artfully blended together The Strokes and Christine Aguilera.

What has made mashing up a current cultural phenomenon is technology. It’s easy to mash-up music, video, fashion, design and put it on the web. Now, like many ideas in this age of information, the mash-up has spread like wildfire. There are movie trailer mash-ups (The Shining as a comedy), web app mash-ups (Flickrvision), news mash-ups (Digg), data mash-ups (using Google Maps and overlaying other data like Starbucks locations). The list goes on.

The next logical question becomes, how then can this mash-up philosophy be used in business? Converse is a good example. To celebrate their 100th anniversary, Converse wanted to acknowledge personalities who bucked the status quo; remarkably, many individuals, both figuratively and literally, could all be connected by their love of the Chuck Taylor sneaker. To further that idea, besides creating a website, Converse commissioned three disparate and commercially successful artists to write, produce, and perform a song. Converse became a catalyst of creativity, because of the uniqueness of its product, and because of its joy in the core identity of its hipster individualism. The facts back up the idea — visits to the Converse website resulted in thousands of downloads of the song, not to mention the radio airplay and the public relations garnered from the unique and groundbreaking partnership of Converse and the musicians.

How can mash-up ideas work to reimagine products in other categories? The entire category of fine china, for example, needs to examine how it is talking to people and make china more relevant to customers who are shying away from luxury goods and no longer see dining at home as a formal affair. The Halo Group would recommend dismantling old ways of thinking about eating and turn every meal into entertainment. Begin by giving customers the ability to collect, over the course of their lifetimes, customized sets of china, allowing them to mix and match in whichever fashion they desire. Mash-up music, menus, and party recommendations should be part of the brand experience.

New creativity is always born out of the old. It is the blend of what is and what has been. Mixing different ideas isn’t a new concept; consider the Reese’s peanut butter cup. No longer can companies dictate how their products can be used. It is truly up to the customer. It’s an important shift to note. So when you think of your brand, don’t be afraid to put it in a blender.

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