Is marketing making us Swedish?
Opinion
With word of mouth remaining an integral part of marketing, should adland be worried about the demise of small talk? The co-founder of AgencyUK thinks so.
In Sweden, small talk is referred to as kallprat, or “cold talk”. The country’s history of small, disconnected communities has led to a culture where chatting with strangers is seen as meaningless and simply doesn’t happen.
The UK is heading this way too, with new data revealing that 52% of Brits think small talk is a thing of the past. A shift so significant that the Samaritans, Network Rail and British Transport Police recently launched the Small talk Saves Lives campaign.
This change should concern marketers because word of mouth remains an integral part of our work. And with an increasing share of campaign budgets going to digital and social advertising, we may, in fact, be part of the problem.
The loss of connection
Most experts connect the decline in small talk to broader social withdrawal following the pandemic, and the fact that social platforms and smartphones have increasingly replaced or removed the need to talk.
No one needs to ask a stranger for directions anymore. Your phone answers your queries faster, better, and without the element of social anxiety that comes with striking up a conversation with a stranger.
Studies show immense wellbeing benefits are being lost in the process. In a field experiment conducted with London commuters, those instructed to strike up a conversation during their ride reported much greater happiness afterwards compared to those who stayed silent.
Yet that happiness just can’t compete with the dopamine rush from a phone. Experts say social media can become akin to an addiction, with users chasing quick hits of validation and distraction.
It’s a perfect drug because it benefits everyone. Users enjoy it. That use facilitates and inspires online purchases, which feeds companies and platforms. Portions of the money made are then returned into the ecosystem to purchase more sweet attention.
How marketing feeds the problem
That’s the digital marketing model. Buying eyeballs. But as social media develops, all good agencies know it’s increasingly vital to consider where the target market lives. People congregate on social media in ways similar to real life: they find groups with shared interests and engage around those ideas.
Agencies are currently responding to this media fragmentation; people moving away from larger platforms to smaller, niche channels, in search of greater connection with the like-minded.
We’re finding back-corner subreddits where people only post photos of items organised at right angles, Instagram channels for meme pages, and Facebook and WhatsApp groups for local communities segmented down to the postcode.
Many of those groups are replacing the clubs, meetups, and social gatherings that previously took place in person because doing so on social media is easier. Marketing is simply doing what it always has, and meeting people where they are.
But by serving this need, we’re reinforcing this growing disconnect from real life. We’re encouraging the digital replacement for small talk. The algorithmic synonym for relationships. As marketers, how can we help people return to and preserve some of what’s authentic and real?
How marketing can be part of the solution
Marketers and brands can help encourage a return to real connection, but to be effective, it must do two things.
Firstly, it should leverage digital formats to bring people back to the real world. Online, the bar for commitment and interaction is much lower. Brands can mirror what’s already happening organically and gently build online communities of like-minded people via WhatsApp, Facebook, or otherwise.
Secondly, it must be authentic. People rarely connect over a product, and they won’t enter a space where it’s clear a brand is trying to sell to them. Humans connect over shared interests, so brands must find a human passion that fits naturally with their mission statement.
As an example, we’ve worked with raw pet food manufacturer Cotswold Raw for several years now and recently helped launch a food range for senior dogs. Creating a WhatsApp group to tell people about these products would likely fall flat. However, creating a group chat for people to share advice and photos of their elderly pups is far more likely to elicit participation, connection and purchase.
Once these online groups are established and ‘warm’, they can move to the real world, with brand-led pop-up events organised for the community.
Marketers and brands can act as facilitators, breaking down administrative and commitment barriers. Providing a space, time, and reason to connect in real life.
A run club organised by Lululemon is an activity where the brand’s target audience can mingle without fear of any purchase commitment. It’s an activity intrinsically aligned with the brand’s mission, which is why it feels genuine.
Likewise, a brand like Currys could easily create a community that helps people with the dying art of DIY, offering practical sessions for those lacking those skills in a judgement-free environment. That natural value exchange is what creates brand love that pays off in the long run.
Making it real
We cannot stem society’s draw to new methods of communication, and with the introduction of each new app, commuter-to-commuter conversations may well become a thing of the past.
But marketing need not be a passive participant. We can use the power of social media fragmentation to identify people with shared interests and invite them back to in-person gatherings, and back to the simple pleasures of small talk.
Brands and marketers can take a leaf from the big tech playbook and remove friction to make real connection easy. The result benefits everyone.
Amy Stobie is the commercial director and co-founder of AgencyUK