Find your excuse to talk... and talk
And you better find a good excuse
From the bottom of my heart mind
Fresh stories from a Spanish Copywriter.
+10 years working in marketing and I still find funny to write an email and think it’ll hit your inbox in 2 weeks from now, while I’m hiking in Costa Rica.
Today (when I’m writing this) I’m still in Mexico. Today (when you are reading this), I’m taking a flight from Costa Rica to Spain. A bit of home to finish up this festive season.
See what I did here? I just took an excuse (the “magic” of programming emails) to tell you about my traveling.
For me, marketing is all about excuses. Excuses to tell the world "hey, I'm here, pay attention, listen to whatever I have to say and spend some money on me".
And our beloved capitalism system is an expert in making up these excuses:
Sant Valentin
Christmas
Black Friday
Spring sales
Back to School
11:11 (Singles Day)
And more, more and more.
I'm not gonna go philosophical here and give my opinion about this.
Nope.
This reality has grown bigger with Social Media. Because is not the same to say “Hey, good morning” than “Hey, happy “X” day”. So I want to talk about how you should use these excuses in your localization process.
Make your excuse local
Christmas is global. The 3 wise men (Spain), Befana (Italy) and Sinterklaas (Netherlands). We all know Santa Claus, but we’ll get a deeper connection using the local traditions for each market.
Make your excuse relevant
Valentine's Day. Love. Couples. Flowers and chocolates. If you are in any of those industries (you sell chocolate or you are a dating app, for example), is easy. If you are somewhere else, make a choice: don’t use this excuse or find a creative way to use it. 2 years ago, Spotify partnered up with Tinder to celebrate Valentine's Day and it had great results.
Make your excuse different
This one is (thanks god) getting better over the years. I’m talking about brands that decide to play it different: Black Friday without discounts, promoting a summer destination in Winter (highlighting alternatives things to do) are just some examples of it.
Make your excuse real
This is a very personal take, but when I’m doing strategy work with my clients, I always tell them this: your excuse needs to be real. If you are doing a sale “because you have a lot of stock”, it should be true. If you use the excuse “few spots left”, it should be true too. This one won’t get you better results (at least short-term), but is more about honesy.
Make up your own excuse
The online underwear brand “Freshpais” founded “National Underwear Day” on August 5, 20 years ago. There are international days for pizza, donuts, “croquetas” and a lot more. Don’t have an excuse? Just create it!
Market-in
Resources to reach your peak level.
💡 On the last issue I talked about AI and I found an article going deeper into the topic (of course, related with localization).
Outside the desk
Where the magic really happens.
❌💻 I guess I’m having a lot of time away from the screens, so that’s always good (again, is the past Ricky who is talking, so… who knows).
🕶️ What I do know is the last weeks in Mexico where a real boost for my productivity and for planning 2024… I even created my first marketing plan ever, so stay tuned.
🗓️ This one is just a “Happy New Year”. We have this joke in Spain about where you should stop saying it. 2nd January? End of January? Never? Share your opinion.
Make it global, baby
If you want to work with me, this is the way.
🚀 Want to take your brand to the next Spanish level? Hit the “reply” bottom and let’s talk.
📬 Want to appear in one of the next issues? Let’s see how we can work it out.
Thanks for reading today’s newsletter. If you enjoyed the content, feel free to share it with your workmates, friends, family and pets so we can grow together.
You can also reply to this email and let me know what you think about it. We are in this together, compa.
All the best for the rest of your week,
💙 Ricky from Textonality.com 💙