While putting together a guest lecture for students on ‘the impact of digital technology on marketing’ - I wondered how much had really changed?

Of course the world has transformed beyond recognition since Jared Bell started advertising his circus on large, colourful billboards in 1835, and Zuck’s first Facebook ad in 2004 (acknowledging the collective holding of breath across the marketing/advertising industries currently, with that familiar Groundhog Day-meets-Apocalypse Now feeling, as to how this will play out on Threads).

But as technology has evolved, could the characters in Mad Men create a TikTok campaign?

For those who have never seen the TV series - and full disclosure, I’ve only just started watching it - Don Draper (played by Jon Hamm) is the fictional Creative Director at New York advertising agency Sterling Cooper. Set in the 1960s as brands boomed, capitalism thrived and money poured into marketing they work with clients such as Bethlehem Steel and position them as ‘the backbone of the USA’. They drink to celebrate the conclusion of every meeting and hold a lot of pretty questionable opinions on society…

We won’t go too deep on how exactly you would position steelmaking on TikTok - search #steeltok - but will compare one of the most anticipated cultural moments of modern times, Love Island, with something equally as impactful in 1860 - Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations.

Like the ITV love saga, Dickens’ stories were released episodically. Distributed  in weekly or monthly periodicals, as the tales evolved with their drawn illustrations they became the centre of Victorian Britain’s water cooler - or icehouse - conversations.

And brands loved it!

They flocked to advertise around this important cultural series because they knew:

• The product they wanted to sell

• The audience they wanted to buy it

• The message they wanted to tell them

• Periodicals were the distribution platform they knew they could reach them on

The first TV advertisement was in 1941, ahead of a Brooklyn Dodgers vs. Philadelphia Phillies baseball match, as the Bulova broadcast the first true commercial on NBC-owned WNBT (now WNBC).

Again, the formula remained the same:

• Know your product

• Understand your message

• Identify your key audience

• Distribute your creative on the platform that allows you to achieve all three most effectively 

So what if we took Draper’s team and dropped some of them into a Manhattan skyscraper - while the others dialled in from home as part of Sterling Cooper’s flexible working policy - could they take Bethlehem Steel or Kodak’s Carousel and make it a success on TikTok?

Based on the above theory, the crucial difference is understanding the nuances of the platform - but other than that, most remains the same. As the strategy (product, message, audience) hasn’t changed dramatically from billboards to banner ads - it’s just the distribution platform which has evolved.

Of course there are many nuances and aspects to adapt to - such as ceding creative control to a creator and allowing them to play with your brand assets and story; how to be authentic on platform; showing at least a hint of social/corporate responsibility (!), amongst other things.

But would it work? They’d be able to give it a pretty good go…

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If you’d like to discuss any of these ideas, or find out how Something About Us could work with you on a TikTok strategy, please get in contact.