Dark Marketing

Creative Subversion

Dark (or covert) marketing is the concept of brand building and demand-creationthrough largely ‘invisible’ (in terms of tracking spenders) and unregulated media:marketing below the radar.Tobacco marketers are typical suspects of this style of promotion, owing to their status as largely outlawed entities, at least communication-wise. Stereotypicalengagements include such events as the ‘elite’ Lucky Strike parties, or the‘underground’ Camel Urban Wave parties, wherein the brands in question create asense of ‘elitism’ through guest lists and underground and word-of-mouth campaigns,and offer a luxury experience, often involving rare international artists, to attendees.However, as legislation becomes increasingly tighter, and tobacco marketers continueto seek to grow their markets, techniques become ever more creative.With the advent of the impending regulation of alcohol brands’ communication withtheir audiences, there is a clear need to explore this avenue, and further, to developincreasingly innovative brand-building techniques to communicate with their markets.Most importantly brands will need to ensure that they have strong personalities and positionings before the advent of this type of legislation, lest it be incredibly difficultto communicate clearly with consumers in any shape or form. It is also essential thatthey develop below-the-line communication so that consumers are used to this formof communication when the law is established.

1.Social Infiltration

At the heart of dark marketing is its perceived innocence – it would appear to be likeany other human communication in its manifestation; however, underlying this is thesomewhat subversive intent to promote the interests of the brand. For instance,

Henessy Martini ran a five year campaign in the US to both educate consumers, and build distribution, managing ‘street teams’ who would appear in upmarket venues(particularly those without distribution) and would loudly order the product andengage nearby consumers in conversations about it. Similarly Skype in the UK sent pairs of professional actors into the Underground system, who would loudly discusstheir ‘discovery’ of the offering and attempt to draw nearby audiences into their conversation. Sony ran a campaign promoting the new T68i camera-phone, with anoperation dubbed “Fake Tourist” wherein the brand hired 60 brand operatives to ask passersby to have a photo taken; upon their acceptance, they were regaled with a pseudo-product-pitch.However, these techniques are not limited to subversive face-to-face communication.Such brand-building, can take place through any word-of-mouth vehicle: Dr. Pepper'sRaging Cow campaign paid bloggers in their target market to write up favourablyabout their new Raging Cow milk-based beverages; Ford literally gave some FordFocuses away to employees of celebrities in an attempt to make use of what Gladwellcalls the Tipping Point, seeding product with the appropriate persons who wouldimbue it with value and likely evangelise others on it voluntarily. Political punditArmstrong Williams was paid by the Bush administration to talk up No Child LeftBehind, while Lauren Bacall on the Today show spoke about the drug Visudyne, all inefforts to leverage their celebrity status subversively in order to raise the value of the brand.

2.Unregulated Media

Many brands have infiltrated social media, with varying degrees of success (andethics): some offering free gifts to influential bloggers, others creating product-centred discussions on forums and social networks, and others subverting categorydiscussions to favour their brand. Social media holds enormous promise for brands,especially owing to its highly unregulated nature, and its ability to generate andcontinue relationships with consumers. YouTube enabled tobacco manufacturers toupload videos of stars smoking in movies, and popularising other content thatglamorises the use of tobacco, and in particular their brand.

In a concept known as “Advergaming” Toyota and other car manufacturers pay for their cars to appear in Sony's Grand Turismo game, thus embedding the brand into theworld of the target audience and imbuing it with value – it is rumoured that sometweens, when questioned on car choice, responded that the ‘best’ car is a SubaruImpreza, former top car in Grand Turismo.The human skin is even a possible medium, where the brands might make use of social momentum, offering a stamp at the door to certain venues, which if presentedwould avail its holder of specific drinks specials, etc.

3.Direct Linking

In the event that the brand’s actual logo and explicit communication is outlawed, the brand may resort to linking specific sub-elements of the brand and communicatingthem such that they link directly to the brand without being explicit.The most obvious example of this would be to use the logo or symbol that belongs tothe brand. This is more easily achievable if the logo is distinctive and recognisable, assuch being most suitable for such iconic and defined brands as Smirnoff, JohnnyWalker, Bacardi, Savanna, Brutal Fruit, and Sarita, wherein the brand would be ableto leverage a part of their name and/or identity. In France, where alcohol advertisingis largely illegal Heineken endorsed a rugby union tournament under the name the “HCup”; one can almost envision Savanna mobile brand spaces, appearing as islands of relaxation, desert, beach and summer making use of only the Savanna ‘tree’ icon.Beyond this, the brand might attempt to own a specific look and feel, as well as aspecific tone: these would necessarily be very distinctly connected to the brand in theminds of the target audience. For instance the iconic Jack Daniels’ black and white,with its distinct art-direction, which is clearly distinct from the also recognisablePeroni black and white. The iconography of a brand can also be leveraged, for instance, Richelieu with its peculiar French iconography – however, this may potentially require a sharper focus owing to the ubiquity of brands attempting to own