FOMO – the fear of missing out – isn’t just the latest buzzword. It’s very real in a world of digital natives. These consumers (born after 1980) are in need of constant stimulation. The first thing that pops into their mind while they’re bored or while they’re experiencing something mind-blowing is to reach for their phones and either see what others are sharing or share themselves.
Perfectly curated personal feeds portray the world through rose-coloured glasses (or filters). Nobody before the digital age liked to feel like they were missing out, but this is especially true in our connected age, as picture-perfect depictions of life unfurling in real-time are at consumers’ fingertips.
Many brands are playing up FOMO using “momentary marketing.” Snapchat is one social network that’s the obvious choice when it comes to promoting a sense of urgency within consumers. Organizations ranging from spirit companies to human rights groups have taken advantage of this unique platform. Snapchat is the ultimate network of impermanence.
Since Snapchat photos disappear after a few seconds, Jagermeister in Prague wanted to incorporate the fleeting nature of this social network to give consumers hints about an epic party the brand was throwing. They called this ‘Undercover Games’ and began posting hints about what the party would entail, which attracted over 1,000 consumers to a local event and thousands of interactions online.
Amnesty International has also partnered with Snapchat for “Report Without Fear,” allowing people to highlight human rights infringements by governments, while maintaining anonymity. Senders send video and pictures to Amnesty International and then seconds later, the content is deleted by Snapchat from the sender’s phone so that there is no way for governments to incriminate the sender. Amnesty then goes on to publish this content and get the word out of rights violations that would otherwise have been unknown to the rest of the world.
While Snapchat has proven to be a versatile platform with roots deeply entrenched in a mobile, there are brands taking momentary marketing to the next level by bringing it out-of-home. The best example of this is the McDonald’s “I’m Lovin’ It 24” campaign. The goal? Deliver 24 gifts in 24 cities in 24 hours. No small feat, even for a company so large.
The campaign entailed a giant maze in Romania, a musical bus station in Warsaw, a giant jigsaw in Madrid and here in Toronto, they had a food and beverage dispensing bench. While each of these installations came as quickly as they left, Rio de Janeiro’s stunt was definitely one that capitalized on momentary marketing, using a vending machine that doled out coupons made of ice. To get the coupon, consumers had to take a selfie with the vending machine, dance or do other fun tasks. Once they had their icy certificate in their hand, they had to rush to the nearest McDonald’s to redeem it for their free item before it melted in the sweltering heat.
The impact of this campaign was as large-scale as the stunts themselves, garnering mentions of #imlovinit from over 40,000 people in a single day, roughly 850 times more than average. It also garnered millions of online impressions.
In an interview with Advertising Age about the campaign, McDonald’s director of global brand development, Matt Biespiel said, “We have to try different things. Some [things] work out well, some don’t. [It’s] part of our culture of continuous improvement.”
McDonald’s has realized to appeal to youth, big television spots aren’t going to cut it, so they’ve invested in a digital team of nearly 250 people and are equipping themselves to be a content creator in this mobile world. The U.S. CMO of McDonald’s, Deborah Wahl, has stated the company is changing from a “billions served” mentality, to a “billions heard” mentality.
According to Citizens Relations Canada, 68% of millennials have admitted to making an impulsive purchase due to FOMO within hours of someone else’s experience with a product. It’s evident that to capture attention of this generation of digital natives, marketers need to put themselves in their consumer’s shoes and connect with them through engaging experiences that create a sense of FOMO.
Shelby Walsh is president at Toronto-based Trend Hunter, an online trend community and research company.
