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What would you say are the best and worst examples of marketing in 2007?

I had a good think about this last night over a large glass of Zinfandel and an over-sized pack of salty snacks. There were many candidates but in the end I narrowed down to one of each, I would love for you to share who you think the deserving brands or campaigns are.

Here are my personal choices of success and marketing failure of 2007:

Best Marketing of 2007 - The Apple iPhone

Why did I choose the iPhone? First of all I wanted to select something that represented this year. There have been campaigns and products launched before 2007 that reached prominence this year, such as Wii but I wanted something very much of this year. For me the iPhone is it.

From announcement to launch it fed blogs and news reports. It can still make headlines now. Consider the fact that I could show you the image without naming it and you would know exactly what it is. Also think about the fact it draw national newspaper column inches, when all it is in fact is a phone.

On top of that, if you actually research the device, it’s not all that, in fact it is quite flawed. Crap camera, no 3G, crippled blue tooth, no modem ability, and if you want your own software on there, good luck. Still, this means they can do it all again next year!

Yes, the iPhone was and is a triumph of marketing and packaging. Fanboy excitement, early adopter enthusiasm, fashion, and probably more than a little Apple/iPod halo effect, combined to encourage a misleading media fervor unseen since the Windows 95 launch. Even the otherwise restrained BBC got in on the act.

Worst Marketing of 2007 - Facebook

I am placing this under the category of “had it all then threw it away”.

Could Facebook be the fastest transition from “can do no wrong” darling to “evil corporate privacy thief” in history?

Yes, what once was the company to follow, the new Google, became, well, the new Google. Practically overnight they turned from doing everything right to doing everything so, so wrong. In fact there are now rumblings that what they did wasn’t just bad, it was illegal.

What was it they did? In rushing to monetize the site they overlooked the simple fact that users are human beings who rather like privacy, or at the very least need to control who knows what about them. Facebook believed they knew better and shared data with all-comers. In fact data was being sent to Facebook regardless of any account status at all.

This was just the beginning of the backlash, I am sure we have not seen the end quite yet. I am hearing of more people leaving than joining. Shame really, for what it was built for it does a great job, perhaps the billions valuation was the true beginning of the rot. With any luck they can turn this around, but it serves as a warning to the rest of us; a user scorned …

Over to You

I would love to know who think were the triumphs and disasters of 2007, please share in the comments!

Posted in Sales & Marketing