When your largest competitor drops the ball, what do you do? Properly, for those who’re Smash, the French file switch service, you’re taking the mickey, with a marketing campaign that is half joke, half critical enterprise transfer.
Following a large backlash in opposition to WeTransfer for its change in phrases and situations, Smash is rolling out some cheeky visuals that straight mock its Dutch rival. It is daring, it is direct, and it is working.
Good timing for a punchline
The entire thing kicked off final month when WeTransfer quietly modified its phrases of service. The brand new wording appeared to recommend that any file you uploaded to their service may very well be used to coach AI fashions. For creatives who depend on WeTransfer every day—photographers, designers, video editors and others—this felt like a large betrayal.
Anybody who makes cash from their inventive work will perceive why. The concept WeTransfer would possibly use your information to construct AI instruments? Not precisely what anybody signed up for.
Smash noticed their likelihood and took it. As an alternative of a boring company response, they went straight for WeTransfer’s throat with chopping humour; first in France, and now right here within the UK. It was like watching Burger King roast McDonald’s, besides with file transfers.
The visuals within the marketing campaign seem easy sufficient, however there is a critical message behind them. Whereas WeTransfer upset everybody with AI controversies, Smash is positioning itself as the moral different that provides a rattling about consumer privateness and mental property.
The corporate itself is not new; Smash has been round since 2017 and has steadily constructed up its consumer base during the last eight years. However timing is every part, and WeTransfer’s AI controversy got here at precisely the best second. Smash had six million customers and a succesful infrastructure, sufficient to deal with a sudden inflow of indignant WeTransfer refugees.
And that is principally what’s occurred. Because the controversy broke, Smash has seen its utilization and subscriptions explode with triple-digit development. However what’s maybe stunning is the place the expansion is coming from. It isn’t simply their dwelling nation: they’re seeing huge upticks within the US, UK, and even the Netherlands, the place WeTransfer was born.
Extra than simply intelligent copy
After all, you’ll be able to’t simply base a enterprise on intelligent copywriting. So it is necessary to notice that behind the jokes, Smash really delivers on privateness in ways in which WeTransfer apparently would not.
Their strategy is fairly easy, actually: they do not open your information, they do not analyse them, they usually undoubtedly do not feed them to AI fashions. Your stuff stays your stuff.
Additionally they do one thing fairly uncommon within the file switch world; they present you the environmental value of every switch. Working with a sustainability agency, they calculate the carbon footprint so you realize precisely what impression you are having. It is the sort of transparency most firms keep away from, however Smash is tackling its obligations head-on, and that is one thing we discover laudable.
Why it really works
Total, what Smash has pulled off with this marketing campaign is a masterclass for any smaller firm taking over a tech big. They have not gone high-minded or preachy about AI ethics. They have not penned lengthy weblog posts about knowledge sovereignty. They’ve merely put a smile on individuals’s faces, whereas making their level crystal clear.
The fantastic thing about their strategy is that it would not take itself too significantly whereas addressing real issues. Creatives anxious about their mental property do not want lectures: they want options that work and respect their rights. And typically the most effective response to a competitor’s stumble is a well-timed joke that cuts to the chase.
Which signifies that creatives who felt burned by WeTransfer’s AI ambitions now have a transparent different that speaks their language, each actually and figuratively. In a world the place belief in tech retains eroding, typically a little bit of honesty wrapped in humour is precisely what individuals want to listen to.
