Nikon’s Mirrorless Camera Teaser Campaign

So… Nikon is using a teaser campaign to get free advertising for their new mirrorless camera / mount system. Good for them.

The fact that we’re all so stupid that we let companies bait us like this? Bad for us.

But this does give us an opportunity to have a big think on the subject. So I guess that’s nice.

What do you mean by teaser campaign?

Nikon has for the last month been releasing a stream of small bits of data about their new camera and mount, in the run up to its release, so as to gain and keep consumers interest. 

They do this by posting videos to YouTube and purposely leaking small bits of info to rumor and news websites. If you ever wondered where a lot of the rumor website’s ‘sources’ are actually from… it’s the company’s own marketing department.

Where do a lot of Apple’s rumors come from? Their marketing department. How about Microsoft? Their marketing department. Nikon? Marketing. Canon? Marketing. Sony? Marketing.

And there’s a reason for that…

Rumor websites have created a wonderful way for big companies to exploit consumers both by judging their sentiments concerning pricing and features but also in general advertising potential…

An example of a teaser…

Why is this good for Nikon?

Free advertising!

It’s a quid pro quo situation… Rumor websites need tantalizing bits of information to stay in business, Nikon needs customers. Why not scratch the rumor website’s back if they’re ultimately going to give our brand new products a ton of advertising for free through the regular stories / rumors posted on the website?

From a business point of view it’s great. The rumor website gets advertising revenue and Nikon gets advertising for free. Win win.

Why is it bad for consumers?

Consumers don’t win from any of this.

Consumers are ultimately just strung along in some Orwellian marketing department world where nothing means anything and every camera feature you want and that is teased will be in the new product actually isn’t there…

And by continuing to engage in this system of obfuscation, companies believe they never have to actually talk to their customers.

Why ever just ask them what their needs are when we can give them endless surveys that we don’t read, bait them with fake rumors on websites so we can see their responses in the comments, and bait them on social media into further sharing our advertising narratives (gay pride oreos? since when does anybody need a cookie supporting any social issue?)

Consumers don’t realize that by letting companies bait them they’re losing;

• clarity, an opportunity to see what products will be available to you in future so you can accurately plan to meet your needs
• pricing power, companies are absolutely reading those comments about what you’d pay for a lens and they know that you’d pay more… so guess what the price ends up being? Higher than anyone imagined (looking at you Sony)
• honest conversation, why bother talking to customers about what THEY need, when we can ignore them and TELL them what their needs are (looking at you Canon and Nikon, cheers to Sigma)

What this world needs is openness, honesty, and genuine conversations about people’s needs. Marketing departments have destroyed every opportunity to do that.

Don’t believe me?

Look at how customer centric Sigma has become compared to say Canon… Canon accuses you of dropping every single thing that you’re trying to get repaired. Does you camera freeze up? “You dropped it.” Does your lens not auto focus right out of the box? “You dropped it.” Is there an oil smudge on your lens or camera body? “That shouldn’t happen. You dropped it.”

On the other hand, Sigma acknowledges their mistakes and genuinely tries to get things repaired.

Anyway… abstract thinking time over let’s finish up…

As a society we should really have a big think about just how Orwellian, how insane, our marketing / advertising has become… There is no way that any of this is healthy. We need to recognize that.