Q: What is 'gonzo marketing'?
A: The notion of 'gonzo marketing' comes from 'gonzo journalism'.
The writer is a participant in the scene they are writing about. Through
this, it engages the reader to be a part of the message. It's not
"objective", but it values the outcomes.
This is an in-your-face way of getting a message across. One definition
used of gonzo marketing is: where high humour meets bad taste. The bad
taste is used to shock the person into having an opinion. Bad taste and
high humour aside, the personalisation of the experience cannot be
faked.
On the Internet, gonzo marketing is readily available because of the
openness of the medium. Companies take a risk running this sort of
campaign, but if it works, it will be memorable and, hopefully,
successful.
If you have any questions for this column, write to
cnni.asia@turner.com.
