Do you remember those TV ads that succeeded in interrupting or engaging us for sixty seconds? That’s what we used to call clever marketing.
Today, clever marketing is no longer about creating the best advertising campaign, it’s about understanding your customer’s worldview and how they want to feel—then delivering on that.

Clever marketing creates value by:

• Connecting people who benefit from being connected.
  Task Rabbit, Airbnb and Kickstarter are great examples.

• Revitalising an industry or making a monopoly wobble.
  A challenger brand like Harry’s now has the opportunity to chip away at a brand as big as Gilette.

• Giving people a story to tell.
  Like the hundreds of GoPro user videos uploaded to YouTube every week.

• Making something people want, rather than wondering how to make people want something.
  Dropbox, Skype and iPod fit the bill.

Clever marketing means being the business that excels at showing and not just telling.

Image by Jimmy Emerson.