R #3: The Absurd Beauty of MailChimp

Source: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C5QJfmUWAAAQkdZ.jpg

When a company is trying to market itself, especially online, the first question is often "Well, what does our company do, and how can we sell our product?" That question may be difficult to do when you're a company like MailChimp. However, MailChimp's newest marketing campaign found a solution to that issue.

According to their website, MailChimp is primarily an email marketing service, many different digital marketing features. Begun as a simple email management service, they now include features for online store integration, marketing analytics, campaign management, popular app integration, and more. This might seem like the perfect company to know how to execute marketing campaigns. However, the question arises: How do you market a marketing service to the everyday individual? The answer, in this case, takes a very interesting, roundabout approach.

👋 Hi, we’re #MailShrimp, #KaleLimp, #MaleCrimp, #NailChamp, #JailBlimp, #WhaleSynth, #VeilHymn, and #FailChips. https://t.co/H385I6JtB6 pic.twitter.com/nbzkXjSa8g

— MailChimp (@MailChimp) February 21, 2017

 MailChimp's most recent social media marketing campaign involves the creation of humorous variations on their company's name. These malapropisms include names such as JailBlimp, KaleLimp, NailChamp, and many more, pictured in the above tweet. These malapropisms are then made into their own entities, given a "life" of their own. JailBlimp, KaleLimp, and MailShrimp are all short films. WhaleSynth is a music synthesizer based on the sounds of whales. The cross-platform execution of this campaign is extensive, with each variation making use of Facebook's "Pages" function to host its own social media presence on Facebook, as well as each getting their own website, and some even expanding to their own relevant social media platforms (NailChamp had an Instagram Account, the three short films were hosted on their own YouTube channels, ect.)

If you followed each's trail, through their various social media pages and their individual websites, you would eventually be directed to this website. MailChimp's own website details the various "personas" they created and provides links to each, as well as a brief, pithy explanation of what MailChimp itself is, and how it can be used.

This campaign can clearly be seen to follow many of the points made by Kaplan in "Users of the world, unite!" particularly under the mandate of "Be interesting" (Kaplan 66). Under the "Be interesting" subheading, Kaplan details

"if you would like your customers to engage with you, you need to give them a reason for doing so–—one which extends beyond saying you are the best airline in town, or manufacture the most robust kitchen blender. The first step is to listen to your customers. Find out what they would like to hear; what they would like to talk about; what they might find interesting, enjoyable, and valuable. Then, develop and post content that fits those expectations." (Kaplan 66)

What MailChimp has done here is brilliant, by this standard. As a marketing company, the last thing they want to do is bore their audience with excessive technical jargon and dry tech-speak. The average consumer won't care about that, and anyone interested in digital marketing management will want to see the capabilities of the platform. So instead of pushing dry, traditional ads out to the public, they have created content that makes their audience curious, that makes them want to pursue further and participate in the campaign. I first became interested in the campaign after reading a sponsored post on Facebook about MailShrimp, the follow-up short film to JailBlimp. I thought there must be some sort of odd trend going on. I finally pursued the issue when I saw an ad for WhaleSynth a few days later, which I thought was too similar to be a coincidence. I was drawn in, and eventually found my way to MailChimp's website, and their explanation.

The interface of WhaleSynth.com

What they have accomplished here is a sort of meta-marketing. They have sold themselves, and their product as a marketing company, within the effectiveness of their marketing campaign. They have demonstrated what can be done by their team, with their platform, without ever having to push a stale, text-based ad about their recipient-response analytics. They have shown their product in action, as it were. They have shown its cross-platform capability, through the multi-platform integration, and its versatility through successfully advertising (admittedly fake) physical products like chips and hair products as well as a music site and several short films. The campaign itself is its own advertisement. They created compelling content to drive users to their site and product, without even mentioning the product in the campaign. What was most striking was the effectiveness of the ways in which they utilized each social media platform. They knew there was interest in nail art on Instagram, so that's where they based NailChamp. Obviously YouTube is the destination for film and video, so KaleLimp, JailBlimp, and MailShrimp were a natural fit. And where better to push advertisements for consumer products like FailChips and MaleCrimp than Facebook, which already has integrated ads?

Not only the effectiveness of this campaign, but the efficiency and the creative detail and care that went into each and every aspect puts it head and shoulders above almost any other digital marketing campaign I have seen in recent memory.

Works Cited:
Kaplan, Andreas M., “Users of the World, Unite! The Challenges and Opportunities of Social Media,” Business Horizons (2010) 53, 59-68 (PDF); Kietzmann J.H. et al., “Social media? Get Serious! Understanding the Functional Building Blocks of Social Media,” Business Horizons (2011) 54, 241-251, http://busandadmin.uwinnipeg.ca/silvestrepdfs/PDF06.pdf (viewed 3/6/17)