Comment: Small is the new Big

By Shahvez Afridi,

Head of Strategy, P&G Asia-Pacific, Grey Group

There’s something really magical about big occasions. It’s seen as a coming together of people, a time for celebration. And, if you belong to the marketing fraternity, it’s also seen as a time for consumption.

Since time immemorial, marketers have been eyeing the big ones. From the major festivals across the world (Christmas, Chinese New Year, Diwali) to the major sport events (Olympic Games, Football World Cup, NFL Super Bowl). In fact, Santa Claus has been featured in Coca-Cola communication since the 1920s, making the brand synonymous with Christmas.

It is even rumored that Coca-Cola actually helped shape the image of Santa Claus as we now know and see him.

Gillette, on the other hand, has had a rich sports heritage, and this enduring association with sports goes as far back as the early 1900s. In 1910, Gillette produced a print ad with images of baseball greats such as Pittsburgh Pirates’ infielder, Honus Wagner. Joseph Spang Jr, who became president of Gillette in 1938, used all-out sports promotion, beginning with the 1939 baseball World Series. This led, in 1942, to the Gillette Cavalcade of Sports, Gillette’s signature title for all its exclusively sponsored sports events. Cavalcade of Sports presented nearly all the big national sports events and was America’s premier vehicle for radio and television sports broadcasting for about 25 years.

Most major global brands followed this modus operandi through the last century, into the first few years of this century, making their biggest splash in terms of money, means & might at these big occasions.

Then, something happened, and it all changed.

Take the case of the Oreo Tweet.

On February 3, 2013 during the Super Bowl, at 8:38pm the game stopped due to a power outage at the stadium. The 100 million TV viewers watching the game had no choice but to turn to social media.

While they were engaging with their various devices on social media, they came across a tweet from Oreo.  

This one single tweet got 10,000+ retweets, 18,000+ likes & 5000+ shares. All this, in just the first hour. It then made the headlines in over 100 countries.

1 tweet, 0 media dollars spent, 525,000,000 earned impressions.    

So, what really changed?

I think more than anything else, it’s the rise of social media, and the way people have now started interacting with each other, that has changed things dramatically. In the earlier era, brand communications was a bit like bowling. The brand custodian had complete control over the bowling ball: the force to be applied, the angle at which it should be released, the spin to be put on it at the point of release, and so on. There was almost no other external force that mattered.

But now, in this social era, we’ve moved from bowling to pinball. Here, the brand custodian just controls the first gentle push. That’s it. After that, each nodal point of the pinball machine has a mind of its own; doing whatever it feels like, taking the ball wherever it feels like. And, there’s absolutely no linearity about this trajectory: some nodal points may even choose to send the ball back to a point where it just came from.

The social era works a bit like the pinball machine. Each nodal point representing the various social players: social natives, bloggers, influencers, celebrities, the entire caboodle.

In this game of “pinballing”, even a gentle brand push can get the brand ball to frantically ricochet, and keep ricocheting, in people’s consciousness, and their hearts & minds. So, brands don’t necessarily require making a big splash, sometimes just a mere nudge here or a prod there is all it takes to drum up a storm.    

Thus, in this new social era, “small” is the new big!

Today, one doesn’t necessarily need to create a big splash anymore. Even a small trickle can bring about a tsunami. The Oreo tweet wasn’t even a trickle, just a droplet – one single tweet – that created this engagement surge.  

Now, let’s look at a brand like Coca-Cola that has historically been known for & leveraged big splashes. Even Coca-Cola is embracing this new social era with open arms, and making some gallant strides in the game of “pinballing”.

One “small” Christmas initiative that Coke did in the Philippines comes to mind instantly.

There are more than 11 million Filipinos that have left their families to find better opportunities abroad. And, the one time they miss their family most is during Christmas. Coca-Cola did something small & simple: it gave a few of them a chance to go back home to their loved ones during Christmas, and created a short film capturing the entire journey back home, culminating in the family reunion & celebration. It was one of the most talked about initiatives, socially, that helped spread the Coca-Cola happiness not just in the Philippines, but the world over.

Clearly, a case of small is the new big for Coca-Cola in the Philippines.   

They later followed this up with a similar initiative in China during Chinese New Year.

There are about 61 million “left-behind” children in China, kids who live separately from one or both their parents. These are children who often stay with relatives in the countryside while their parents have left them behind as they seek jobs in cities and factory towns. Coca-Cola gave a few parents the chance to go back home during Chinese New Year to visit their children. This initiative too was very well received, helping Coca-Cola continue to spread happiness.

This year, Lays Kurkure in India have taken a leaf out of this book and launched the fly home free offer, where people could win plane tickets to visit and meet family during Diwali.

So, in this new social era, what will it take to make giant leaps with small steps? And, how can brands compete and excel in the game of “pinballing”?  

Firstly, you need to think like a travel writer, as opposed to a novelist. The earlier era was a bit like being a novelist. Crack the big idea, and then write your story to celebrate that big idea. But, in order to succeed in this new world order, one will need to think like a travel writer. It’s not necessarily about the story anymore, but the telling of the story. Immerse yourself in the milieu, and let the story write itself.

Secondly, seek out events that you can leverage. Behave like a news reporter. Or, the paparazzi. Be agile, be quick on the draw.

And yes, be ambitious. Be brave. Be authentic. People will only share your stories, if they care about them.   

I’d like to end this piece with a simple yet great example from Grey London that comes to mind. This was for The Sun newspaper, one of the biggest dailies in the UK, and famous for witty headlines. The big event was the birth of the newest heir to the throne, to Prince William and Kate. Instead of a normal witty headline (which they would’ve usually done), they simply changed the masthead to read “The Son”. This “minor” change managed to get tons of attention, in spite of all the hullaballoo surrounding this major event.   

Disclaimer: This is the writer’s personal views. To contact writer please email huma.qureshi@grey.com