Is this the “Ultimate CMO” – or poor research on your target?

See the Ken doll? He was sent to me as the  “Ultimate CMO” – “Every CEO’s dream come true” in a fancy box designed to get me to take a meeting and learn about a marketing service.

Blue eyes, blond hair and khakis – what a silicon valley stereotype! He is male and so he wears “winged oxfords” and an “untucked dress shirt” and his box says “all CMOs contain nuts”. He came in a box from a marketing agency who claim they are category
creators. A small firm run by three men with excellent marketing
pedigree. But they named the agency Play Bigger – focusing on size  perhaps? (my team checked, Ken is actually anatomically androgynous)

Of course this was the joke of the office when it came in given who we are and the gender diversity we have at the top of the company (and we suspect they sent the doll as a lead generation gag without looking us up first). But they achieved their goal with me which was to get me to react. I sent Play Bigger an email sharing my lack of appreciation for the male stereotyping and they asked me for a meeting which I accepted, much to the infuriation of my head of marketing.

But in the end they failed. They booked a time to call me on Friday – and did not call. Even clever, and tasteless marketing campaigns need to follow through with the warm lead or they were just a waste of money.