Someone recently said that CMOs should consider renaming (rebranding) themselves as Chief Entertainment Officers. It’s a slightly glib remark, but maybe not completely without merit. And when marketing on social is concerned, moving from entertaining to downright cringe could be your secret weapon.
Most brands (and brand managers) haven’t recognised that their competition isn’t other brands in social. It’s all the undeniably entertaining stuff in the feed. It seems obvious when you say it, but why do so few brands take heed of it? (Uber you’re obviously excused with some great examples of how to lean into tropes and make work that works.)
It’s another unfortunate truth that brands aren’t accelerating their growth because they’re not being noticed and talked about. Because they’re not salient, and not because they’re not loved. (Thank you Mark Ritson.)
Liquid Death gets it like no other brand does.
What does this have to do with winning in the platform world? Bear with me. It seems that some still confuse brand advertising with social engagement. We have all been in more than a few meetings where senior marketers have asked for the product to be at the centre of a social execution. Bringing redemption and the ‘aha!’ moment to the script.
‘Yeah, nah, that’s just cringe,’ as a Gen Z’er neatly put it in a recent focus group.
But cringe is actually a rather powerful as a tool in winning over an audience that really has seen it all.
The first cringeworthy fact to accept is that mobile phones are more dopamine vending machines than they are communication devices. Morality and ethics aside, social advertising is all about getting that instant dopamine hit and then swiftly moving on to the next one. Once you come to terms with this, your social work will be immeasurably better.
TikTok obviously understands this perfectly. It has built the fastest growing global social platform by appreciating the power of instant engagement and faithfully abiding by the two second rule. It is built on addictive principles (not dissimilar to gambling and gaming).
And if you follow the TikTok playbook you’ll win. And if you try to cram in a 30” TVC your brand will probably be ignored.
So, here are a few ways you can embrace the cringe and perhaps get the saliency and engagement your brand deserves:
- Don’t make another ad. Most brands are ignored on social because they’re just ads. Gen Zs (and just about everyone else) don’t like being sold to. Remember, ads largely only work to a linear narrative and on a captive audience. And that’s the opposite to how people live on social platforms.
CeraVe’s masterclass in how an ad is not a social post
- Do it fast. Someone is making killer content in 5, 10 and 15 minutes. Get something up there. Rough and ready is better than nothing at all. And if it doesn’t work, take it down quickly and recut it. Try a new track or bin it and try again. The days of spending huge chunks of budget on production are truly over.
The real competition with 92m views in the first week.
- Be fearless. Not reckless. Trade taste, craft (and personal subjective biases) for being noticed. The reins are off. We can be as creative and innovative and fun as we want to be. Ideas win and production values don’t matter as much anymore. The risks are far lower on social.
- Embrace your dumb. Yes, so much of the content that wins out there is meaningless and vapid, but it gets those dopamine receptors firing. And that’s what counts when you want to be noticed. Liquid Death have a very singular approach to this. They freely admit they make populist ideas by treating something inherently stupid very intelligently. It works time and time again.
- Embrace stuff that doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t have to. It just needs to reflect your brand and be noticed. That’s it. (Duolingo has been winning here for some time.)
Duolingo’s masterclass in how to do social on TikTok.
- Occupy spaces your brand isn’t supposed to go. Sir John Hegarty said it best many years ago and it’s still true today. Zig when everyone else is zagging. If everyone is clamouring to board the next trend, look somewhere else. Just don’t try to create your own trend. It hardly ever works. (Remember ‘Fetch’ from Mean Girls?)
- And finally, own your brand’s truth. Stand out and be noticed for reasons that are true to your brand. But it’s important to, but approach social assets through a fresh lens – one and distinct lens from compared to that of your polished TVCs (matching luggage approach is death on social). This shift enhances will enhance relevance, meaning, and distinction for your brandeven if it means not shifting the spurious brand affinity dial. Sounds counterintuitive, but just look at any of the brands winning on social and you’ll see it holds true.
What happened when Chipotle took the brand reins off.
The truth is no-one likes being sold to. Consumers don’t give a hoot about brands, and you have to tear up the marketing 101 rulebook and embrace some cringy things to win on social. Which is why as a business we are built for a world where ads aren’t welcome. And where outcomes are more important than outputs. Seems obvious, and maybe it is. Perhaps we’ve all just been overthinking it all along. Either way, it’s a conversation that not a lot of brands are having. So, if you agree, disagree or want to know more, please drop us a line here.
