Seasonal Technology Marketing Needs a Shake Up

Watch out for the Man in a Bunny Suit!
Let’s admit, everyone, including myself loves receiving a beautifully wrapped present and opening it to find a brand new gadget inside. The kind that will keep you awake at night unless it is switched on, working and you’ve played with it. Seasonal celebrations such as Christmas and Valentines provide countless opportunities for technology suppliers to persuade us to buy their products for our loved ones. Some do this well, others do this badly and some just miss the mark completely.

Just to say…
February 14^th marks the annual day of love. Since 1382 we have been displaying our affection on this day with the exchange of poetry, cards, flowers and now… camcorders. Garish pink and purple ad campaigns, asking us who we would rather kiss or elope with, are taking over the tech world, and are being complimented by offers on pink iPods, Hello Kitty Cameras and…. TV remotes? (yes, apparently TV remotes make the perfect gift for loved ones who like watching TV).

One does have to question, who are they talking too? With Valentines day set aside for romantic gestures… we are being told that these now come in the form of pink gadgets and are seemingly being convinced to buy them instead of flowers and chocolates, but does this really have the desired affect? “Keep you’re special someone safe with a Cisco Fixed Network Security Camera,” or “Sat-Nav’s: The way to your loved one’s heart”. Need I say any more?

Look out for the man in the bunny suit!
Well Easter is just around the corner and I dread to think what will come next… I anticipate websites laden with Easter eggs, poke a chicken competitions and maybe, if you buy an ink cartridge or a paper shredder it will be delivered by a courier man in a bunny suit who presents it in a basket full of Easter eggs… now there’s a thought.

‘Tis the Season…...NOT YET!!!
As we all know when you are young, an hour in the playground feels like a lifetime and as you get older the years fly by. Just as you are getting used to this year’s politics, economic furore, world disasters and revolutions, out comes the tinsel, the lovely ecard with the dogs and kittens and 'that' woman is warbling over shop speakers again (you know who I mean).

Christmas is the time of year when technology retailers go all out to convince you to buy from them. Turning websites into a scene from the inside of Santa’s grotto, they all compete to see who can have the most snow, holly and reindeer on their landing page.

Demanding children are busy asking for laptops, cameras, games consoles and phones and the tech world aims to capitalise on this as much as possible… “Come and poke Santa’s little helpers” they cry, in a bid to get you to enter a competition, that you subsequently lose but they still have your email address, so they can aggressively send you offers on ‘cool gifts’ year upon year until you give in.