Go Gaga for creativity...not marketing

It's always interesting when folks are discussing "brands", "marketing" and "how to" tips. I often read and just shake my head thinking to myself "hmmm. . .close but no cigar."

It's like stating that a BMW is the ultimate driving machine by expressing how awesome the tires are, but not speaking to or understanding the significance of the engineering that makes it go.

I was especially thinking about this when I was reading  a blog post by Jackie Huba, discussing Lady Gaga and the "secret" to her success. Now from a documentation perspective, she does a great job in laying out some of the tactics that Lady Gaga has used to help her connect with her fan base in a very successful way. I think she misses the boat completely, though, by saying "There's a lot marketers can learn from artist and musician Lady Gaga."

It's almost as if Kobe were conducting a "how to make fans go wild" workshop with a session on doing between the legs, around the back dribbles, that turn into a fade-away, nothing but net, jump shots, for an audience of NBA coaches. Now coaches help to make teams successful, but they're not skilled at making crowds go wild with athletic, and creative abilities on the court. Coaches can learn about Kobe's skills but they'll never be able to do what he does.

Marketers can learn lessons from Lady Gaga but they're not going to be practical or very useful because:

#1. Her success is because of her, and the connection that exists between who she is and her own creativity. It's the internal gravity she has with her own "space" in the entertainment world that has allowed her the success that she has, and that creativity, on so many levels, is what's compelling. As mentioned in an Ad Age week article . . ."as all parties who work with her on her label, management and marketing teams cite Gaga herself as the ultimate brains behind many of her creative and social-media ideas and tactics."

#2. Marketers are not Lady Gaga. I've read, I don't know how many times, marketers say things like "want to present like Steve Jobs?...here are ten steps to be a great presenter (grrrrrrrr). You're not Steve Jobs. I'm not Steve Jobs, so you and I will never present like him.  Nobody is Lady Gaga except Lady Gaga so what she does will NOT work for you.  Find your voice, your skills, your creativity, and do you. 

The single biggest issue with brands is that there is very little creativity in terms of how they exist in the market or how to understand creativity with the right orientation. So the goal isn't for your brand to be creative in an "artist way", but to create and present, interestingly, the value of what you offer, from your own unique perspective.

Comments

[Bonifer]

I must've channeled you to get to my most recent post lol You nail it, Rasul! Our creativity is our own. This is what Gaga represents, I think--the license to create, to be your true self, in a big way. And yeah, I'm bored with these analyses that look for the formulas in everything. Big waste of time because, every formula is different. Mine. Yours. Ours. Gaga's. There's a formula for everything and everyone, and they can no more be alike than you and I can turn into dairy cows. The quest, the fun, the potential, the diversity of experience--and not the sameness--is what makes formulas interesting.

[Rasul Sha'ir]

In the end Mike, we channeled each other ;-) Thanks for the comment mi amigo and may the creativity continue to flow!