DISRUPTING THE DISRUPTED!
A tale of how social media marketing is done to capture the attention of people so glued to their screen yet missing out on the details.

The adoption of social media transformed the marketing world in a way that is unimaginable yet so fascinating.
Recently, while watching the infamous documentary of the Fyre festival on Netflix, you can click to look up what Fyre festival was here , The marketing team tasked to promote the festival asked the celebrities in partnership to post a blank orange screen on their Instagram account tagging the Fyre festival official account.
At first, I was bewildered , a blank orange post! How?
Imagine scrolling down your Instagram and seeing one popular blogger has posted an orange post…hmmm, you’ll probably think it’s cute that he or she appreciates the orange color and keep scrolling as there is no DIY to do your favorite meal. Now check out this scenario, every popular blogger that you follow and love post the orange color at the same time! …BOOM! there it is you’ll stop and think what there are up to, tell your friends about it and hell I bet you’ll even repost on your social media!
This is what Fuck jerry did to capture the attention of people.it needed to make a stop to your habitual scrolling of posts without actually noticing anything, it needed to make a stop to your disrupted attention.
Well, to be honest, I don’t have a deep knowledge of marketing. However, since I am affected by it I tend to get intrigued when commercials influence me to buy something. I mean how did they possibly get to me like that? Especially when it’s not a need.
I got to understand that marketers have to toil to capture people’s attention to their products. Before the smartphone-social media era, marketing agencies paid a hefty amount of money to tv and/or radio stations to advertise their products. Here the task was to come up with a captivating commercial to convince you to buy. Whether you get to buy or not(sad for the company), if the commercial was during the prime time news or in between your favorite show, you’ll have seen the advert.
Today, these marketers have to be innovative amidst all these social media applications. As their consumer behavior has changed and therefore the way to interact with them has changed too.
Six months ago while in Kenya, there was this vibe that was trending; people were posting a scenario where one knocks at someone’s door then when asked who they were, their responses would end in a pun.

Jumia Foods Kenya used a similar joke on twitter to promote its food delivery services and people engaged actively with it. Can you imagine in amid of these jokes you post a bland advertisement on how your company deals with plumbing services? People will scroll past it in the speed of light. Very few or no engagement.
So marketing agencies take advantage of the trending hashtags, viral videos, and memes. which have proven to be rewarding but they can also be destructive if you don’t know how to express your content. You and I are very sensitive, well at least that is what social media has turned us into(debatable) and it’s relative. One mundane post to someone can agitate another. So they(marketing guys) have to be careful of the content they create since it can result in a polarised situation detrimental to their companies.
With all said, this is not entirely exclusive as innovation is always an ongoing thing, it never plateaus. However, its good to know how best to leverage the changes in the environment. Be conscious of the times and the emotions at hand.
Don’t just post and go. Interact! Disrupt, we are already disrupted.
