Every product doesn’t need a year in review

Companies want as many touches with their customers as possible and to be perceived as providing as much value as possible. Still, not everything makes sense for every company and product.

The year in review for social and music products has become the norm and is well received. Getting a snapshot of your year in pics, posts, and listens is a tidy digital journal. It is fun to think about memories and experiences we can reshare and reconnect with friends and family about. A review of what songs we listened to most is rarely surprising, but seeing some of the analytics is fun.

But now I’m seeing companies and products copy this year in review trend inappropriately, and they should reconsider for this time next year and stop doing it.

I received an email from Verizon with the subject line, “Let’s recap your year with Verizon, Ryan.” The body of the email read, “Watch your personalized video.” There was a link to a video. I was curious about what Verizon could share about my year as a customer, so I clicked through to the video. It turns out the video was just a marketing piece for Verizon. The video highlighted some services like device protection. Ugh.

Just because something works for one type of product doesn’t mean it makes sense for yours. Verizon fell into the trap, and they got to count…