Marketing Case Study: Uncle Taksim!

One of the best and most successful marketing campaigns we have seen recently, and one that nobody ever noticed was a marketing campaign at all, which is exactly what makes it smarter and more powerful. We are talking about the Turkish man who does not speak English and who is now known as “Uncle Taksim,” or Taksim Dayı in Turkish.

• Product: an English-language teaching center
• Campaign type: Brand Awareness
• Campaign approach: Viral Marketing
• Campaign format: Video
• Channel used: YouTube

English Time certainly had no idea that an impact of this magnitude would occur. All they wanted was to sign a sponsorship deal with a well-known Turkish YouTube channel, the way most companies do, especially those specializing in language teaching. What made this different, though, was the choice of the channel Sarı Mikrofon, which has nothing to do with language learning; it is a “reality-TV” style vox-pop channel that roams the streets asking passers-by about specific topics. In this episode, the conversation with passers-by was simply a basic exchange in English.

Turkish people are generally known for a deep attachment to their language, so much so that a large proportion of Turks do not learn a foreign language alongside their own, even though the country is a tourist destination and one of the most visited in the world. This has made it difficult for foreigners to communicate with them. Even university students who choose English as a second language during their studies do not master it well enough because of a lack of practice, which is exactly what made this video an unprecedented piece of comedy.

Asking a group of young men and women passing by for “the way to Taksim Square” in English was quite normal, and everyone did their best to answer correctly. The turning point, however, came when “Uncle Taksim” appeared, a Turkish man in his fifties or sixties for whom English amounts to unintelligible gibberish, or saying anything at all with a slack jaw in a way that even makes him laugh at himself.

The uncle’s sarcastic, funny manner helped the video spread virally, racking up more than 3 million views in less than two months. Alongside its spread on YouTube, the video went viral on other platforms too, chiefly Instagram and TikTok, and Uncle Taksim became a “meme” symbol used in comments and conversations to point out that someone is trying to speak on a topic they know nothing about and comes across as ridiculous. Within a month the clip and the man had crossed Turkey’s borders to become known across many Arab countries and countries with a Turkish community such as Germany. And every time interest in this character and the whole scene grew, English Time grew more famous and gained more customers.

English Time did not ask for any call-to-action to be added to the video urging people to learn English so they would not end up like Uncle Taksim, and by doing so it stripped the video of the “advertisement” label that would have driven many people away from sharing it with their friends. At the same time, the video achieved exactly the goal it was meant to. The clever part was that most of the conversations took place right in front of the English Time center itself, and the center’s signs and brand appeared clearly in the background for a good portion of the video without seeming intentional at all. Here, awareness of both the problem and the solution happened at once, in addition to the information about the center and how to contact it, which was included in the video description.

Choosing a popular platform that is not language-focused was also a very positive point in this campaign. It helped reach a broader segment of people and achieve wider spread, because most people searching for English-learning videos expect an ad for a center or a language service; here, that was never expected.

Other companies then tried to ride the momentum the uncle had gained to promote their own products in the same style. Chewing gum that “makes anyone speak English within seconds” appeared, remixes turned the uncle’s words into dance tracks, and all of this only increased the campaign’s reach, the center’s fame, and above all Uncle Taksim’s own fame, which he had never been seeking.

Today, an idea has started spreading in Turkish society that anyone could find themselves in Uncle Taksim’s position at any moment while walking down the street, and to avoid that they must learn English, with a far greater likelihood of remembering English Time, which was in the background of the scene, than any other center.

Nobody is going to contact an English-teaching center just because it claims to offer the best curriculum; they need another motive, and that is exactly what this campaign provided.

The lesson learned: an advertisement does not necessarily have to include direct promotion of the product and talk about its features and what it offers customers. In 2020, the audience reached a point where they no longer want to watch any ad at all, no matter how beautiful it is or whether it talks about a product they are actually interested in. The only way to get past that is for the ad not to be direct at all, and it may not even include any direct mention of the product. The focus should be on making the audience aware of the problem in a way that suits them, delivering high-quality added value, and only then presenting the brand or product in an appropriate, non-advertising way.

Many business owners still do not believe in the power of Brand Awareness campaigns and see them as a waste of money, preferring campaigns that talk about products and features directly on the assumption that the return on investment from them is greater. This thinking is completely wrong. For the audience to reach the decision-making stage of buying a product, they must first be aware of the problem, then aware that this product is the solution to it, and only then will they search for it. Simply putting the product in front of them this way may expose it to many people who are not interested or do not need it, and that is the real waste of money.