September 23, 2022

I’ve never been part of a hostage situation, but I imagine the beginning feels similar to how you approach playing board games with a child. 

You enter cautiously. Expectations are set in a reassuring tone, explaining the rules of how things will go down. 

👉 Everything is going to be okay.

👉 No one has to get upset.

👉 There are no winners or losers.

Even when you know things will go sideways with bodies everywhere, laying that initial foundation feels crucial. 

Did you know: eight out of ten people get into an argument playing Monopoly? 

That sounds crazy, right? 

Or maybe it doesn’t. 

Fighting while playing Monopoly is an experience so well known there's a new ad campaign around it.

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A European advertising campaign celebrates the benefits of introducing your children to Monopoly by making the argument that the conflict-heavy board game helps kids learn to:

• Cope with losing 
• Express their emotions
• Calm down 
• Let go

The campaign creative illustrates Monopoly’s ability to achieve these benefits NOT by showing smiling families, emotionally-developed children, or the joy of a wholesome family game night. 

Instead, the campaign uses “pure and honest” photography to show just how miserable it is to play Monopoly with a kid.    

Take a look:

Yes. The “Fighting is Good” campaign drops us into the moment when Monopoly stops being fun, and someone inevitably throws the board across the room. 

It gets your attention, but does it make you want to start a two-hour game?

Here’s what works:

• The kids: We see these children seconds away from banging their fists on the table, throwing dice, or running to their room to slam the door. You recognize this child because you are this child, are a sibling to this child, or this child is living in your house. These kids are magic, and the raw emotion draws you in.
  
  
• The details: Peep the Monopoly boards. You see lines of houses and hotels, money scattered, and the parental hand nudging the child to keep playing. This tells us we’re not five minutes into the game; we are 40 minutes in when some players’ wealth starts to snowball, and things start getting ‘unfair’ for the losers. These details provide the necessary context to root the campaign.
  
  
• The formula: The ads use a simple formula: clear visual, recognizable branding, quick lesson. It works.

Here’s where it loses me: 

• They're selling what I don't want. There is nothing here that sparks joy or hope in a customer. Yes, I might feel the pang of nostalgia at the scene, but it’s not a scene I want to relive. It is a scene I am happy to be passed. You’re selling me anxiety, misery, and sadness when I want a good night with my family. No, thank you.
  
  
• It makes Monopoly replaceable: The core of the campaign is that Monopoly generates fights for your family. I got that. But I don’t need Monopoly to experience conflict with my child. I can have a good, emotionally-developing fight for free by asking my son to eat dinner or put on his shoes. Unless you show me why Monopoly is the best catalyst for that, the ONLY catalyst for that, Monopoly could be Candy Land.
  
  Wooing me to action takes showing me why I need you. Not a product like you. It’s not DoorDash or Instacart--but precisely one over the other. 

Here’s what I want:

👀 Show you understand me.

I want to raise a child who can cope with losing and self-regulate their feelings. Show that you know my desire; don't make fun of it. Parker Brothers first published Monopoly in 1935, and it has remained one of the world's most popular board games. Give me the proof points you've racked up about how you have helped families come together to teach kids patience. If you don't have them, commission the study to get them.

🆘 Help me achieve my desired outcome. 

I might be more willing to start a potential fight if Monopoly armed me with the tools I need to resolve it quickly and without tears. 

Show me how to build my child’s feelings vocabulary so he can express himself without screaming. Provide kid-friendly formulas for negotiation so he can assert himself respectively. Give me a This or That to help with money management and game strategy. Sell me on this being a smart educational tool for my child and me, and I'm in.

😊Make it feel good. 

Branding is about empowering your customers to make absolutely irrational buying decisions based on the feelings you trigger in them. That’s where this campaign loses it for me. I should feel happy and excited to bring you into my home--not scared and anxious.

I like the simplicity of each ad's headline. But I needed a sub-head. Something that provided a nod or an eye wink to reassure me that Monopoly has my back and we'll have fun. Maybe my kid won't flip the table. I'm missing that here.

What I want is an impenetrable tie between my problem + my desired outcome + your brand. 

Show me how you help. Anticipate my objections. Wrap it in a bow that feels good. 

What are your thoughts on the Monopoly campaign?

Does it fill you with enough childhood nostalgia to start a game, or is it everything you want to avoid in your night? 

Thanks for reading.  I'll be back in two weeks.

(Oh, and if you want to play a board game with your child and NOT fight, I recommend Outfoxed.  No affiliate link. It’s simply a wonderful game where kids team up to solve problems, not fight to a capitalist death.)

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Overit SEO Brief: Episode 1

In our last letter, I told you it was coming, and now it's here!

Episode 1 of our quarterly SEO Brief has launched and covers the essential topics in search that marketers and brands need to know. In this episode, Senior SEO Strategist Dan O'Leary discussed Google's May 2022 Core Update, how to get ready to transition from Google's Universal Analytics to GA4, and the lousy advice Google recently gave out. Yikes. 

Check it out and let me know what you think. 

This one goes out to all my healthcare marketer friends! Smith & Jones released its 10th annual Healthcare Marketing Trends outlining areas to focus your 2023 marketing and communications plans. Everything from mastering those recruitment campaigns to earning social influence to giving the best care online AND in person. 

You can download the free 2023 Healthcare Marketing Trends report and register for our Oct. 6 webinar where we'll break out each trend in more detail.

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