The Colbert Effect

Have you ever watched Stephen Colbert on Comedy Central? He is a daily case study on how to talk to teenagers and 20-somethings alike. He has the power to get his "nation," as he calls it, to rally behind him for whatever cause he chooses. Case in point, the WristStrong Bracelet. He recently broke his wrist and is now promoting wrist awareness through the purchase of a WristStrong Bracelet. The only rule is that you must surrender it to someone more famous then you. Pure Genius.

Another example is his gag on Wikipedia. He got his "nation" to go to the infamous website and edit the Elephant post so that it said that the population had tripled in Africa last year.  For months after, both his wiki entry and the elephant post were locked by the administrators because of the resulting attack. You'd almost think that getting through to teens was easy based on how well he can connect with them.

Colbert Green Screen Challenge: made by a fan

His target audience loves his monologues lampooning this person or that person. They love his challenges that get people involved in the show like this one and this one. He has a venerable teen nerd army that he bends to his will.The best part is that those examples are just the tip of the iceberg.

Between Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, they can sway the opinion of many youngsters around North America.But how should the rest of the world go about it? Sure it works for Colbert and his team of writers but how about your average run-of-the-mill marketing person?

In my humble opinion, the Colberts and Stewarts of the world work because they thoroughly understand their audience. And I mean, thoroughly. I can't vouch for their research practices but whatever they are doing is working. All I can suggest is that you watch the show, just once. Even if you don't like it, you will be able to grasp why teens and 20-somethings are enthralled by it.

Marketers have their research and their man-on-the-street consumer interviews and many think that is enough. But after all that nonsense is done, we still get mediocre advertising that screams "We're trying to be cool!" Just look at my post on Walmart/Target yesterday. I know I am preaching to the choir about this issue but the fact remains that, like the quote says, "I know that half of my advertising dollars are wasted ... I just don't know which half."

I'll bet that a lot of the waste was meant for the youth demographic.

I know that everyone has seen great examples of consumer involvement with a brand. Does anyone have any favourites that they'd like to share?

Contributed by: Angus Gastle

Comments

[Douglas Walker]

Interesting thoughts, Angus.

Personally I don't think it has anything to do with the quality of their research on the audience. In fact just the opposite.

To me Colbert and Stewart are the best example of the Hughism (Of Gaping Void) "Stay ahead of the culture by creating the culture".

Why some content succeeds in generating attention and advertising so often fails is that content like theirs leads the culture, takes a stand and delivers value - advertising rarely does.

Whenever marketers (read: old people) look at their research and try to speak or act young they look foolish. However, when they act like grown ups with something interesting and relevant to say to the audience, respect the intelligence of their audience and have fun - younger people pay attention.

In my opinion the biggest sin in dealing with a younger audience is to talk down to them and to research attitudes and then try to reflect them back is the height of inauthenticity.

[Jason Oke]

Agree, Douglas - they succeed by being completely themselves rather than chasing their audience or trying to be "insightful." Brands could learn a lot from that. Well said.

Angus - I love that you said "youngsters"... it makes you sound like you're 80.

[Mhairi Petrovic]

Its the tongue in cheek humour that gets me - its amazing what Colbert gets away with. Without traditional media, i.e. TV the would be no viral message forum.
An internet marketing strategy should be a marriage of both traditional and new methods.

[Angus Gastle]

Douglas: Interesting point. Authenticity is definitely a major stumbling point for many brands when they try to entertain with one hand and sell with the other.

The only brand I can think of that has amassed a cult following of similar stature to the popular pundits’ (Colbert & Stewart) is Apple. Their “macophile” culture has been great for the tech company as these Mac fans are the best word of mouth campaign Apple could ever hope for.

[andre ethier jersey authentic]

One thing a bunch of whining, you may fix, you werent too busy lookout attention.