Marketing innocence lost
Dr Mumbo is sadly familiar with the circle of enthusiastic naifs cycling through to become grizzled marketing hacks. It used to take years. Then months. And this week, Dr Mumbo witnessed the cycle take just three days.
Dr Mumbo has a soft spot for guerilla marketing, so among the dozens, or possibly hundreds, of marketing activations at the UK’s Madfest event, one effort stood out:
Dr Mumbo’s spy bumped into Joseph Cook, from influencer agency Bulba, clutching a simple sign scrawled on a piece of cardboard. With thousands of marketers wandering by, he stood out.
Young Joey was happy to pose for a picture, explaining that he and a colleague happened to be wandering past the event and spotted the opportunity.
And then the cycle began.
First, Joe and his colleague couldn’t resist adding their brand name to the sign and asked for their picture to be taken again,
And then the cycle accelerated some more.
By the second day of the event, the duo had hit the art supply store for nicer paper, and added a logo…
And by the final day of the event, young Jo Co had gone the full LinkedIn inspo guru. Gone was that day one authenticity. Instead he was writing like an awards case study video…
They grow up so fast.
