Ba Da Ba Ba Ba, I'm Not Really Lovin' It

Who NEEDS to hear your message? Who has influence over your target? Who must be moved to action so your goals will be met? Who has the greatest impact on the outcome of your campaign efforts?  


According to The Spin Project, these are all questions that an organization needs to ask itself before setting out on its quest to create change. After all, "it's easier to hit your target when you know where it is."


If an organization knows absolutely nothing about its most important audience, chances are they will not be reaching said audience in the most effective way. Every effort an organization makes towards spreading its message will be wasted if it doesn't reach those who can make a change.  With the price of advertising, print materials, employees, etc., it would be devastating for a company to not reap the intended benefits. 

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In 2006 (article), about.com highlighted how McDonald's teamed up with GM to give away over 42 million toy Hummers in children's Happy Meals. While Happy Meals are supposed to be specifically targeted towards a younger audience, GM admitted that they were hoping to promote the vehicle to parents by the way the tiny McDonald's toy. During the time of the giveaway, McDonald's had a link, HummerKids.com, listed on it's website, but once clicked on, the link took you to the normal--adult focused--Hummer.com. 


GM clearly knew that the parent demographic was who they wanted to reach, yet they certainly did not go about reaching this audience in the right way. An important part of knowing your target audience is knowing HOW to reach them. Friends, this attempt was an utter failure. From years of babysitting and talking with moms of little ones, the toy received in the frequented Happy Meal is the furthest thing from a parents mind, let alone the analytics behind the minute knickknack. 


With kids fighting over milkshake flavors, trips to the bathroom and shouts coming from the PlayPlace, the audience of parents are not going to be actively "involved" in the message to buy Hummer. Talk about wrong place, wrong time...


I'm not too sure if Hummer/GM actually had a message that they were delivering. "We care about your children's happiness too," perhaps? Whatever GM's intent was, they did not fool the millions of parents that then had mini-Hummers being pushed around their homes. In fact, many parents were angered by the fact that Hummer would try to advertise to parents through something so innocent as a kids toy. 


This attempt skipped over a value based message and didn't necessarily fit in to the "levels of thinking" scheme either. 


Hummer, you're a cool car. McDonald's, I love your fries. But this attempt at reaching yo peeps was am utter failure.