Stealth Marketing

BBC Learning EnglishLondon LifeStealth MarketingCallum: Hello, I’m Callum Robertson. How do you decidewhat particular product tobuy? These days we are bombarded by advertising 3 andmarketing messages: on television, on radio, productplacement in films, adverts 4 on the underground, posters inthe streets, people handing out fliers, pop ups when webrowse the internet, junk mail sent to our homes or spam toour email, cards left under the windscreen wipers of ourcars, it goes on and on. According to one commentator 5 wereceive several thousand marketing 1 messages every day.
　　But it’s not only these obvious and direct forms ofadvertising that help us to decide what to buy, in fact weoften ignore these because we are sick and tired of all theadvertising. We know it’s advertising and we don’t reallytrust it.
　　One genuine and honest way we get information is throughword of mouth. Word of mouth. This expression means we hearabout something because other people have been talkingabout it. Maybe family or friends recommend something tous, tell us a film is good, for example. We trust theiropinion sowe go to see the film.
　　We might also learn about things because we overhear otherpeople talking about them - on the train, in a café or inthe pub, for example. But now it seems that even this formof information may not be entirely 6 genuine.
　　Advertising companies are having to become more creativeand imaginative in order to sell us things. One new form ofadvertising that is becoming more and more common is knownas buzz marketing or stealth marketing.
　　What is it? Well there is a clue in the name. Stealth is anadjective for something that is very difficult to detect.
　　Stealth bombers 7, for example, are planes that can’t beseen by radar 8. Stealth marketing is advertising that can’tbe detected, the people being advertised to, you and me, donot know that what they are experiencing is actuallyadvertising. We think it’s genuine.
　　For example you might be in a café or a pub and you hearpeople talking about something, maybe it’s a new mobilephone or a new service of some kind. You think they areordinary people so you might consider that what they arerecommending to each other is an honest source ofinformation. But, you could be wrong. Stealth marketingcompanies employ actors to go to places where people areand they act out a script which involves talking aboutparticular products or services.
　　Graham Goodkind works for Sneeze, one of these stealthmarketing companies, and he describes scenarios 10. Scenarios,different scenes with invented storylines which peopleoverhear. He uses another related word as well,‘eavesdropping 11’.
　　'Eavesdropping .' Eavesdropping is when you deliberatelylisten to someone else’s conversation. Anyway, here’sGraham Goodkind talking about one kind of stealthmarketing.
　　Graham GoodkindGeneral conversations that you might think you areoverhearing, which you’re not, you are overhearing thembut you’re meant to overhear them, there might beeavesdropping, there might be an argument, there might betwo long lost friends. We create lots of differentscenarios that a casual observer listens to. And thestorylines are made up to grab people’s attention muchlike an advertising campaign that you would see on TV ismade up to grab your attention.
　　Callum: He says they use conversations that you are meantto overhear and they might have a story in the same way asan advert 2 on television does. The difference is that ontelevision you know you are being advertised to. DoesGraham think these advertising scenarios are dishonest atall?
　　Graham GoodkindWell at the end everything is very transparent 12, at the endof all our scenarios there is a reveal process whereby thefact that people are being essentially 13 advertised to isrevealed to them. So it’s done in a very transparent andhonest way.
　　Callum: Graham says that at the end of the scenario 9 thereis a ‘reveal’ process. People are told that they arebeing advertised to. He explains more about this revealprocess.
　　Graham GoodkindThe reveal normally, we recommend to our clients that aredoing this sort of marketing that the reveal involves someform of maybe discount or award so that at the end of theday, people feel a: entertained, they’ve been involved,they’ve experienced advertising they’ve been a part ofit, and then they feel actually very good about it becausethere is some pay off.
　　Callum: So the people who have overheard the conversationscan get a discount on the product or some other prize afterlistening to the scenario. And Graham says that this worksbecause people feel involved and they’ve got somethingthemselves, a pay off. But of course that only works ifpeople have stayed around to the end of the scenario!
　　So, the next time you’re in a bar, café or maybe justsitting on a train and you hear people talking aboutsomething they’ve bought, before you think that it's agood word of mouth recommendation you have accidentallyoverheard, think again, could it be they were just actors,performing an advertisement?