If you’ve made a million and want to be to leave a legacy, a clock isn’t the most remarkable of choices you can make. Ask any 15-year-old … they’ll yawn and say who needs clocks today when everybody has a mobile phone in their pocket! Clocks are boring …unless of course you spend a million designing something quite as hideous as the corpus Christi Clock in Cambridge.
My Mother took the family on an outing to see this yesterday. It had become quite a talking point in our family, the neighbours, the Cambridge WI …………… As I stood there, desperately trying to tell the time, I started to think of Marmite…a simple, insignificant and quite boring spread that manages to get itself talked about almost as much as this clock. Think about it, I bet sometime in your life you have felt compelled to say to somebody you either love of hate Marmite. Today, they even have the Marmarati, a group of loyal advocates who are encouraged to spread (excuse the pun) the word in exchange for limited edition pots of the black stuff.
Over the years I’ve heard many FMCG marketers say that word of mouth or advocacy strategies are less relevant to them. That their products don’t have the same potential to generate spontaneous involvement and discussion as other sectors. This of course is untrue. Any object can be involving as long as it stands for something and stands out. Go on a day trip to Cambridge at some point ….and you will see!
