KARAOKE MARKETING: MIMICRY INSTEAD OF ORIGINALITY

Marketing today is louder, faster and more omnipresent than ever. Yet, paradoxically, it has never been more forgettable. Scroll through any feed and campaigns blur together.

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All have polished visuals, earnest voiceovers, purpose-driven taglines. Almost all are indistinguishable.

This is what I call karaoke marketing. It hits the notes, but lacks soul. It is loud, enthusiastic, but mostly unoriginal.

It mimics rather than imagines.

The tragedy is that karaoke marketing rarely comes from incompetence. Some of the brightest creative minds and seasoned marketers are behind it.

What drives it is not lack of skill, but a fear of standing out in an environment that rewards conformity, a fear of failing publicly in a culture that punishes missteps, a fear of the unknown that makes imitation feel safer than invention.

So, boardrooms settle for the "approved" aesthetic. Agencies pitch a formula that worked somewhere else.

Brands end up producing campaigns that sound like press releases, look like poor Apple or Nike clones and chase hashtags long after their peak.

The outcome is predictable. You may rack up impressions but leave no lasting mark.

The irony is that the worst offenders are often market leaders with heritage, scale, and budgets that dwarf the competition.

Yet despite their size, they struggle to gain mindshare.