This is the 21st century right?. I pick up the T3 2009 calendar and can’t believe what I am seeing. I check it is 2009 and I have not found a vintage copy of the 1979 edition. Each month has a gadget of the month with a erotic shot of a girl ‘wet’ with excitement holding a strategically placed gadget in her legs, arms, breasts. January we have a woman with a see through slip on in water holding an android phone. February we have a women kneeling in hot steam holding an ‘eco gadget’. March shows us a women with a touchscreen strategically placed in her bikini. Do I need to go on?
In my previous post, I demonstrated that women are a growth market while male markets are saturated. Marketers missing out on a £5billion pot of gold (a conservative figure according to Jupiter), I predict T3 will be out of business in a year. Their magazine relies on its core audience of “sexually repressed nerds” according to Wikipedia. All of whom have the skills to download real porn from bit torrent and don’t need this half-hearted house tech-porn.
Showing the calendar to some male colleagues, one told me the only place he could see the calendar was “on the wall of kwik fit”. Hardly an aspirational image for your average man with disposable cash. If you are trying to woo a girl, and she walks into your bedroom and see a copy of T3 or worse, the T3 2009 calendar, what sort of signal does that send? Even a sexually repressed nerd can think that one through. Some of the advertising in T3 is no better, this Asus ad being a good example.
Rather than default to a out of date, lazy way of selling technology to men at the expense of attracting women, technology brands need to be more innovative with their media strategies. Technology has become so accessible and embedded into our culture, that the hard sell of technology is no longer needed. There is no such thing as Early Adopters.
Tech brands need to think innovatively about to communicate to both men and women and buying a media strategy of tech porn like T3 just ain’t going to cut it. What brands need to do:
1. Leverage the blogging community as they are the key influencers. Panasonic are doing this at CES. Who are you more like to trust for a product review- a blogger or a paid for reviewer?
2. Connecting your audience to like minded people is a great way to earn their respect and ultimately their trust. Hewlett Packard used ‘brandalists’- legal grafitti artists to get their HYPE message across and generated so much positive WoM.
3. Be brave. Be rebellious. And dont waste money on advertising in magazines like T3. Goodbye T3 and Good Luck.
Is there anything more depressing that a mag relying on a well-oiled woman to make a piece about gadgets interesting? And as for that ‘Pretty in Pink’ ad, don’t get me started. Technology is interesting enough without having to resort to naked female flesh to sell it…
Sex sells. You may not like it (I’m largely ambivalent to be honest), but it does. You picked a pretty egregious example to make your point (well made). But the broad mass of the population mostly male, but a lot of female, like a bit of titillation. That’s why the ‘red top’ press sells so much better than the ‘quality press’. That’s why the TV schedules are filled with trashy shows and reality shows (most people only want to see if people are likely to shag at some point).
T3 is largely top shelf now. It’s a sad mag for sad blokes!
You are right. Sex does sell. To men. It does not help sell to women. Particularly professional women. And my point is that women are the greatest missed financial opportunity when it comes to technology..
If lads mags were such a success, why has Arena and Maxim folded and the sales of most mens magazines are in decline?
Sex ALWAYS sells regardless what you women say. Yeah when you get home with 5 laptops accessorized with 5 shoes and bags of different colors it isn’t because you don’t have your MBA’s or PhD’s. It’s because you think they all make you look skinny.(They don’t). i.e. Sex, or your attempts to look sexy, puzzling as they are always to me, sell.