Don’t click here for a good read
I cringed as I typed that title, please forgive me.
Social media users are rushing to escape the grasp of advertising. Just like how they ran away from TV and print advertising. Earth to advertisers: There’s a reason they ran.
So what does an anti-clickbait culture signify? Stop going back full circle.
The point is no longer to get seen. What good is it that I close a window the moment I see an ad disrupting my feed? I don’t know how much click-through statistics can justify advertising dollars but for avid avoiders of intrusive advertising, I think a lot of money is being wasted on taking chances. Although we must give credit for tailored ads. At least the chances raise multi-fold for that one.
But as with all sorts of advertising, there comes a saturation point as to how marketable a product can be. Click-bait content, social media influencers, product placements, product endorsements… people are getting annoyed.
So the point is that the quality of advertisements simply has to increase in order to better exploit the sharing capacity of digital advertising.
Advertisers have longed struggled with getting notice from potential customers, making the even shorter attention span that social media users have a greater challenge. But generating creative content should not be that huge of a problem given that talents simply abound today. Creativity has become more commonplace and prioritised amongst the millennials.
I mean look at this guy who just decided to challenge himself to create a new print ad every month. His work is golden!
We don’t even know how things go viral anymore, but there’s something about the person who started the hit that all advertisers are after. Forget trying to adapt a viral meme or video for a new advertising campaign. You can’t tell the same joke twice. You can’t explain a joke. Get the person behind the good stuff on board instead.
Now that sounds easier said than done. In more realistic terms, there needs to be more investment in sourcing and developing creative talents.
As I’m writing this and you’re reading this, I think we both wonder — hasn’t this been done already? What on earth is the creative team good for then?
I think this involves a change in attitude towards advertising, for both the designers and the advertisers.
Citing the Journal of Professional Communication, advertising, journalism and PR need to converge into a blended profession. This is especially important when the way people consume media has changed.
Advertisers need the skills of subtlety that PR Professionals have. As ironic as it sounds, ads need to be less about them and more about their users. Social media users are already struggling to stay afloat in the sea of information, click-baits and fake news. Instead of trying to compete with that, or encouraging the creation of fake news, get users looking. If an ad’s message works, potential customers will be scurrying to look for the brand’s logo, no matter how small it is.
In line with this, good quality writing and content is also highly sought after. That’s where journalistic skills come in. Content marketing and brand journalism are slowly gaining traction as a way to consistently sustain a brand’s image: by going directly to consumers.
They provide journalistic content that is solely produced for its target market; quality content that is neither directly nor indirectly promotional, that contains information their consumers actually want to know about an industry or sector.
Here’s Red Bull’s redbulletin as an example: https://www.redbulletin.com/int/en
At the end of the day, it is all about moves and countermoves as the world continues to evolve digitally. For now, though challenging, producing innovative content is the way to go in order to stay afloat in the digital marketing scene. However, perhaps in another 10 years, content marketing or even digital marketing itself might become a passé if a new tactic emerges. The best (or worst) thing about time is that it changes.
