Marketing on Steroids – Leveraging Macros (Part 1)
Terrain – It’s one of those things that will help you achieve optimum results without any additional effort.
I call them Macro factors.
The beauty about selecting the right macros for your campaign is that it takes an ok campaign into a good one… and a good campaign into a GREAT one.
A good, classic illustration of what I mean by Macros:
Imagine, you are a merchant selling water in a dessert. You don’t need much effort in convincing people to buy from you right ?
The Environment in this case, are your Macros. You are simply leveraging at what the environment gives you. Regardless how freshly delicious your water is or how good your ad copy in front of your stall is, its still going to sell.
What was mentioned seems to be a pretty obvious example… but how about some more concrete examples of how Macros can aid you in your marketing campaign.
Read: Ah Boys To Men 3 Breaks Record, $2.8 Million in its opening weekend !
The closest rival, Stephen Chow’s Kung Fu Hustle, only took in about $1.9 Million. In other words, Frog man took in like what… 50% more ? That’s almost unacceptable… Our Amateur Ah Boys Beat out the king of comedy, Stephen Chow ? Ridiculous !
Should we, as a Singaporean, be proud ? Should we celebrate ? Hell yeah, its an amazing achievement for a local production.
But.. is it really because of their marketing campaign, buzz or.. is the movie really that GOOD…
Not taking anything away from the movie, the hard work of Director Neo, his crew and the actors, there are actually many Macros in play here to make this a run away success.
First, let us observe the dates, of the opening… which is along the week of the Chinese Lunar New Year in Singapore.
Day 1, a Thursday, Day 2, a Friday… followed by Saturday and Sunday.
So, first question… with all shops closed less the cinema, where do you think is the number place families will think of spending time together after all the lou hei, the reunion dinner, the gatherings ?
Remember, it’s a 4 day period… 4 days of “either you rot at home” or you find some activities to keep yourself entertained. The answer is pretty simple ain’t it. Remember, Singapore is also a very small country… and with all the shops closed, there REALLY isn’t much to do around here…
Another macro that plays its part is…. “The Way of Life”.
Think about this, all Singaporean boys serve the army. That’s like… 50% of the nation. So that is something everyone can relate to, especially the things that they’ve been through, memories, laughter and similar incidents that reminisce their past… it’s going to help “boost the wants” to watch, review or whatever you call it.
In fact, just this “Way of Life” macro alone, has already helped this movie become a success. Part 1 of the series, which was released in November (not the Lunar new year period), was also, at that time, the HIGHEST grossing Singapore film of all time.
If you did watch part 1 of the series, I’m sure alot of boys would relate to the “CB” leaves joke… Simply Classic.
The tone set in part 1 and 2 is very much carried forward to this 3rd sequel, giving fans something to “look forward” as a movie to catch.
Was it planned ?
Or was it a coincidence ?
Regardless, you can see how powerful Macros can play a part in your marketing campaign…. yes, it even goes as far as breaking records and becoming the highest grossing of ALL TIME.
There’s a saying in chinese…
天时, 地利, 人和
These are your Macros
I’ll show you more examples of how to apply Macros into your marketing campaign in my next post. Watch out for part 2 on how to leverage macros to supercharge your business.