Digital Marketing Lessons in The Last of Us

Posted February 6, 2023

Digital marketing lessons are everywhere if you know where to look.

Maybe it's because I learned the Preamble to the Constitution from watching Schoolhouse Rock. Or maybe I'm just a sucker for a good mashup. Either way, if you're already glazing over when you see headlines about ChatAI's ramifications for marketing's future, read on. My entertaining take explains why you can learn valuable digital marketing lessons by watching The Last of Us.

Understand everything is connected

If you're not a gamer or sci-fi fan, The Last of Us is a new show based on a game about a mutant strain of Cordycep mushrooms. These mushroom zombies are hellbent on turning everyone into mushroom people. Cordyceps are real, by the way, and dangerous fungi are spreading worldwide thanks to climate change, but for now, this is fiction.

What makes Cordyceps so deadly is their hive mentality — their connectedness. You step on one Cordycep's tendril and boom! — you wake up a throng of them. Digital marketing platforms and data campaigns are connected too ... Ever use the wrong promo code in an email? Or has your form data ever stopped flowing into your CRM platform and reduced your monthly leads to unacceptably low levels? Both the fictional scenario and real-world marketing require constant vigilance to save your life — or at least ensure your marketing success.

Realize the past is omnipresent

After a brief intro explaining how the Cordyceps destroyed civilization, The Last of Us pivots to 2023, which is 20 years after the initial outbreak. Older humans who remember the before times keep the generators running and cars driveable; they also install the evil, armed repressors who sometimes leave you rooting for the mushrooms. But one thing older people are reliably handy for is knowing secret routes that still exist in the dystopian remnants of cities the Cordyceps took over.

Knowing your website's history or email marketing templates' evolution is important too. When your team enabled its tracking domain SSL certificate were legacy URLs updated to HTTPS? If not, your sent emails — even operational ones — could still get blocked as unsecure by recipients' firewalls. What about menus? Were they created with custom widgets? If they were and that's not documented, all it takes is a personnel change to lose that institutional knowledge and turn a simple menu addition into a three-day ordeal.

Having a master source-of-truth document may sound like unnecessary busy work, but once you've encountered situations like these you'll understand why every site — and template folder — needs one.

Encourage team diversity & cross-training

The Last of Us heroes come in young, old, male, female, gay, straight, etc. They're multi-ethnic, they have different skill sets, and it goes without saying they adapt well to change. If I need to spell out why these traits create more successful marketing teams, you're probably better off Googling "Does Team Diversity in the Workplace Matter."

Likewise, it shouldn't take a shortage of humans to understand why cross-training is more important than ever given the myriad tools and software utilized in the average marketing department. And before I forget, make sure someone on the team knows a few Linda Ronstadt songs. Trust me on this.

Remember — details matter

You probably need to be familiar with the game to recognize all the make-or-break details that help humans survive in the Cordyceps' world. Remember there are bad humans to outsmart too, so secret codes, which decade's music plays on a short-wave station ... it all matters.

I've blogged about the value of thinking small before, but when it comes to digital marketing best practices, it bears repeating. Here's a short list of little things that make a big difference:

• SSL certificates — not only installing them to give buyers peace of mind, but also realize linking to sites without them may create a bad user experience
• Speaking of user experience, is your UX post-Covid friendly?
• Have you checked your page speed lately? Google never stops tweaking its preferences
• Are all of your images optimized with alt tags that maximize your SEO and keep you ADA and WCAG compliant?

I'm only three episodes into The Last of Us, so I have no doubt there's more digital marketing knowledge to be gleaned. Don't toss your LinkedIn premium subscription just yet ... But do know that valuable digital marketing lessons don't have to be boring — at least when you read Fresh Perspective.