Marketers love quoting Mr. Spock. His logic boils down problems. Solutions appear that seem obvious. Not first to arrive at the golf course? "Vulcan nerve-pinch
"
the competitor down and reach the finish line of the "race."
Advertisers were among millions who lost a friend on Friday morning when
Leonard Nimoy, the actor most famous as Mr. Spock on "Star Trek," died in his Los Angeles home of end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. He was 83.
Nimoy seemed to have a sense of humor about his role in the public eye that advertisers liked to play up, especially in the 2013 Audi S7 commercial titled "The Challenge
." (More recently, Nimoy and actor William Shatner —"Captain Kirk"—appeared in an October 2014 Volkswagen ad in German.)In the Audi spot, Nimoy beats actor Zachary Quinto , the Spock in recent "Star Trek" movies, at an online game of chess. In return, Quinto challenges Nimoy to a race to the club to play golf.
"Stand by to have your wallet emptied by a tractor beam," Nimoy says.
Of course, the Audi beats Nimoy's Mercedes, but Nimoy isn't cowed.
He knocks Quinto over and strolls into the club first. At nearly 2 p.m. Eastern on Friday, the YouTube video had nearly 9 million views.
It's this logic that makes direct marketers love Nimoy/Spock so. A Google search of "Spock" and "marketing" on Friday afternoon returned "about 466,000 results in 0.32 seconds." Here's a sample of what marketers say he taught them:
1. Copywriting. "Use logic to define your goals," to develop a plan of action and to measure progress, writes Sonia Simone in Copyblogger in a post titled "The Mr. Spock Guide to Effective Blogging
.""When I sat down to write about the need for rational, logical planning for your blog, what better model could I have found," she asks. "Sure, blogs are personal, emotional constructions. But if your blog isn't performing the way you want it to, try using a little Vulcan logic to move it in the right direction." Simone ends her post with this: "Use emotion to create fascinating content."
2. Video Marketing. Lisa Arthur, CMO of Teradata Applications
, writes in Forbes about that Audi video in "Spock vs. Spock: A Logical Argument For Video Content."She suggests marketers follow these tips to increase ROI from video content:
- Get Feedback—track and analyze video engagement and performance.
- Create Customized Experiences—build a user-centric view of your video content.
- Operationalize—pull video data into your sales and marketing tools.
"Be logical: Illogical questions do not lead anywhere," Yu writes on Dec. 4, 2014. "There is no toolset that reads minds—at least not yet. Even if we get to have such amazing computers—as seen on "Star Trek" or in other science fiction movies—you would still have to ask questions in a logical fashion for them to be effective. I am not asking decision-makers to learn how to code (or be like Mr. Spock or his loyal follower, Dr. Sheldon Cooper ), but to have some basic understanding of logical expressions and try to learn how analysts communicate with computers."
4. Marketing Strategy. In this example, article writer Jorden Roper tells the TriDigital audience
on Aug. 22, 2014, that Kirk and Spock complement each other because
emotion and logic are both necessary in marketing. "Why Kirk and Spock
Would Make An Awesome IT Marketing Leadership Team," says any important
business decision should be greeted with "What would Kirk and Spock do?"5. Marketing Research. Marketers think they know what customers want, writes Bruce La Fetra on Sept. 8, 2014, in LinkedIn Pulse
.
"Better Marketing the Mr. Spock Way" says mind-melds are out of the
question, but "open, honest and probing customer interviews are the most
effective way to accurately evaluate your existing knowledge,
perspective, and biases."What's the best lesson Nimoy/Spock taught marketers that isn't listed here?
