Lifestyle marketing has been around for decades, yet brands that embrace lifestyle marketing seem to experience wild success in a relatively short time period. Perhaps this is because they’ve done the research, and gotten out of their conference rooms into the world to put their products into the hands of consumers who might actually use them.
All too often, lifestyle-marketing campaigns lose steam when not strategically aligned with social media campaigns, and that’s an expensive lesson to be learned. So before you go investing thousands into marketing concepts, look before your leap; here are 3 examples of successful lifestyle marketing campaigns.
Dodge SRT Campaigns
Car companies are infamous for implementing “youthful” marketing campaigns to appeal to the moods and attitudes of car buyers. In Dodge’s case, it comes in the form of an in-house performance team; dubbed SRT (for street racing and technology) that puts a stamp on only the fastest, meanest vehicles the company has to offer.
The true genius behind Dodge’s marketing efforts lies in the fact that only those in the know (car fans) recognize an SRT vehicle, either because they like that it’s fast, want one in their garage because it’s fast, or are just plain envious that an SRT product intimidates what’s already in their garage – a mustang perhaps?
SRT products don’t come cheap, and to further distinguish it from other Dodge products, the latest Viper isn’t even called a Dodge; it’s called an SRT Viper. Check out this SRT Viper Commercial to see how they appeal to the car fan’s inner child, through throwback nostalgia that connects them to why – and when they fell in love with cars in the first place.
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Red Bull Space Mission
Red Bull is one of those brands that has managed to reinvent itself over the years through lifestyle campaigns. They even have their own media company, red bull media house, which cranks out sports-focused media campaigns over various mobile, digital, print and audio mediums; all this hype generated from a company that makes sugar water.
A fine example of a Red Bull Lifestyle marketing campaign would be their Mission to The Edge of Space campaign that saw daredevil Feliz Baumgartner jump from the edge of space to break a skydiving record that had stood for years. Did they help sell more energy drinks? Maybe so, or maybe not, but it did do a fine job of reaffirming the brands commitment to inspiring people to stay active – or alert enough to do daredevil things.
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Outdoor Tech in Germany
To prove that lifestyle marketing campaigns don’t just work for large mega million corporations mobile electronics upstart Outdoor Tech took their marketing worldwide by attending an outdoor sports show in Friedrichshafen Germany.
While efforts to make a big splash in Europe proved a tough feat, Outdoor Tech was still able to get their products in front of a new audience who quite literally lives and breathes an outdoorsy, tech obsessed lifestyle.
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Key Takeaway
Good lifestyle marketing is all about connecting with an audience that would authentically be into something because they see it as an extension of who they are, not so much what they buy. We as consumers have a habit of using our emotions as self-persuasion. No matter how big or small the effort is it will pay off dividends once your brand’s voice starts to resonate within a community.
If you have to come up with an internal department to brand and market niche products, do it! Metaphorically speaking. It worked for Dodge.
If you have to jump out of plane at altitudes slightly above the Earth’s atmosphere, do it! Metaphorically speaking. It worked for Red bull.
Heck, even if you have to hop a plane and fly to Germany just to hang with a bunch or beer loving outdoorsy type technophiles, do it! That ‘s the beauty of lifestyle marketing; any stunt that can get your product out in front of a relevant audience increases your marketing success rate ten fold because if you’ve done your homework, and know what you’re selling, appealing to an audience who will buy your product becomes an easy sell.