Fill in your EC pool now!’ The first EC email of 2024 is now in my inbox and from experience you know that Orange fever will make its entrance in the Netherlands within a few days. From one day to the next, the streets are colored orange, orange cream puffs are baked and we are bombarded with wuppies, special beer glasses and other free junk in the supermarket. How is it possible that the EC madness seems to strike ‘suddenly’? It has everything to do with 3 principles of influence.
Good old Orange fever marketing
Marketing campaigns around major sporting events are prepared months in advance. They are planned tightly, for maximum results. Logical, because creation, media purchasing, use of influencers and artists and organizing events costs a lot of money.
About two to three weeks before the start, telegram database users list it all ‘goes off’. Much earlier doesn’t make much sense, because our minds aren’t in it yet. Much later isn’t possible either, because then another brand has conquered your audience.
Marketing strategy therefore determines what you see and hear, when, via which channel. But these 3 principles of influence ensure that the general public also suddenly goes wild in orange.
Mere-exposure effect
The Mere-exposure effect plays a big role in Orange fever. This principle describes how we develop a preference for things we are repeatedly exposed to. The power of repetition, so to speak.
The effect was first discovered by Prodajna snaga: kako pridobiti više kupaca uz marketing sadržaja psychologist Zajonc . He found that we develop a more positive feeling for things/people we see more often, even if we don’t consciously remember that exposure. On average, the more often we see something, the more we like it.
Just before and during the European usa lists Championships, we are exposed to a lot of orange advertising messages, but also to messages about football via the media. Like this message… Even if someone was not that enthusiastic about football or orange at first, repeated exposure can change that attitude.
screenshot kpn ek commercial
Source: EC commercial KPN
Because we see these types of commercials (above a screenshot from the European Championship commercial by KPN) everywhere on TV, online and via social media, we are more likely to have a positive attitude towards them.
2. Social proof
Humans are social animals and tend to follow the behavior of others. We want to be part of the group. Or better yet: we don’t want to be excluded.
When you see your neighbors, friends, and colleagues with orange outfits and flags, you don’t want to be the spoilsport, right? The urge to belong stimulates us to join in. And so the oil slick grows rapidly.
This principle also works among companies. When your 3 biggest competitors have a European Championship campaign, chances are you will also want to come up with something to participate. Robert Cialdini has written pages about it in his book ‘ Influence ‘ (affiliate) and social proof is also very relevant in this situation.
