Marketing is constantly evolving. Many strategic approaches such as Content Marketing, Storytelling, Inbound Marketing, or last but not least, good old Social Media Marketing, have long been established. All old hats, state-of-the-art and virtually the ABCs of Digital Marketing. Yet, the strategic goals and the questions implied therein remain the same: How do you reach people, how do you tell captivating stories with your own product, brand, or company, and how do you achieve this without the stale aftertaste of worn-out and flat advertising clichés?
After a period of 'ever higher, further, and faster', it's only human that a return to basics usually follows. To the original, traditional, and enduring. In marketing and communication, it's no different. While the last decade was primarily about achieving maximum presence and utilising all available channels to find the perfect cross-marketing mix, it seems the era of experimentation is now somewhat over, and bespoke solutions are once again gaining ground.
A term increasingly coming into focus in this context is Slow Marketing. In times of lead generation, conversion optimisation, and sales funnels, Slow Marketing primarily aims to implement slow and carefully selected measures to foster sustainable success and dialogues. And specifically with the people who are truly relevant. Targeting at its best, so to speak. Without ramming advertising messages down consumers' throats.
From Slow Food to Slow Media
“Slow” primarily means sluggish, but it is also used as a synonym for conscious, deliberate action. For instance, while fast food focuses on quick consumption, slow food emphasises enjoyable eating, sustainable cultivation methods, organic farming, regionality, and the meal as an experience in itself. Fast food aims to treat eating as a secondary activity. It's about quantity over quality, permanent availability, and minimal engagement with the origin of products. Slow food, which emerged as a counter-movement in the 1980s, conversely focuses on factors such as pleasure, health, production knowledge, and regionality. Meanwhile, the Slow movement has expanded to all areas of life and stands in contrast to the “greed is good” mentality of the 2000s, which suggested to every consumer that 'much and cheap' were compatible and the desirable goal, at the expense of all production conditions and quality.
Content Relevance Instead of Shotgun Approach
As early as 2006, Todd Sieling published the Slow Blog Manifesto. In 2009, with the advent of social media in the mainstream, the term Slow Media also appeared for the first time. As is well known, every movement quickly finds its counter-movement.
! Slow Blogging is the re-establishment of the machine as the agent of human expression, rather than its whip and container. It’s the voluntary halting of the lightspeed hamster wheel dictated in rules of highly effective blogging.
This means: No sensational clickbaiting, but well-researched, fact-based articles. If you dedicate yourself to Slow Blogging, you should aim to post fewer well-founded articles, rather than a daily post that has virtually no relevance. It's not about permanent visibility, but targeted audience engagement through selected channels. It's also not about always being the first to cross the finish line. Daily news can certainly be left to others; instead, focus on long-term relevant topics.
Marketing based on the shotgun principle is a thing of the past. The audience needs to be served according to their interests and needs, and the company's priorities carefully ordered.
Calm Down and Relax
While advertising and marketing largely, more or less implicitly, shout “buy me, buy me”, a new kind of customer approach is increasingly on the rise. Attention through understatement. Quiet tones stand out because they are different, distinguish themselves from the constant barrage, and now align with the zeitgeist.
Some campaigns often remind one a little of the good old 1990s, when on Super RTL television from 10 p.m. you could watch a fireplace, or take a trip into space with Space Nights, ARD's late-night programme. W24 still has its night-time slot today. From the driver's perspective, you can serenely and completely relaxed travel through Vienna's various tram and underground lines from your sofa.
Today, this is called Slow TV, as television producer Thomas Hellum explains in his TEDx Talk. Referring to a ten-minute long shot of a farm, he says: “Perhaps by now you’ve noticed the cow. Now, at some point, some of you will surely wonder: Is the farmer home? Is anyone looking after the cow? Where is the cow going?” Storytelling in the mind, then. By the non-occurrence of any action, the viewer constructs their own story.
The fascination lies precisely in the “less is more”. The British company Roseal, which produces paints and wood stains, even provided a meditative advertising video that shows nothing more than an idyllic allotment garden and a man painting his garden fence. The hashtag #RonsealAdBreak was among the trending topics on Twitter for days at the end of April this year; on YouTube, the video now has 13,000 views.
The Kickstarter project Citizen Advertising Takeover Service (CATS) also strikes this chord, having raised £23,000 to equip a London Underground station with cat pictures instead of advertising visuals. Asked for their reasons, they gave the following answer: “… It would look amazing… and it’s exhausting being asked to buy stuff all the time.”
Conclusion: Is Slow Marketing the ultimate solution?
The generally accepted formula for a long time was: whoever constantly posts current, even if not high-quality, content will increase visibility one way or another. Those who adapt their content strategy towards Slow Marketing will have to reckon with short-term losses. The less content, the less visible one's own posts will be to fans on social media. One could argue that it's a simple calculation. But: small and medium-sized businesses currently starting with digital marketing will inevitably have to plan an advertising budget to promote their content. This guarantees visibility and embodies the principle of quality over quantity. At the end of the day, Slow Marketing has potential. However, it is not new, as it builds on the three most important principles that have always applied, and especially since the social media age: Relevant content, relevant content, relevant content!
