The average amount of advertisements the average person is exposed to every day is around 5,000 (Johnson). That would be 11.52 ads per second, making it harder and harder for companies to obtain and maintain our attention. The ways through which they can achieve this is constantly changing, along with media and social media, and the ways we use them. Four ways marketers and advertisers can get our attention is through shock advertising, involving the audience in the creative process, learning and utilizing pop culture references, and tapping into consumer insight.

Shock advertising also known as shockvertising manages to break through our media clutter by being disturbing, offensive, crass, or edgy. Although an ad can be “too shocking” and put off the audience, shockvertising when done right can successfully gain our attention. Shock ads are also memorable because of how “in your face” they are. It is important for advertisers to also maintain our attention or be memorable to the audience. Shockvertising because of its long-lasting retention effects along with commercial use, PSA’s often employ this strategy. A good example of a shock ad PSA is the Deutscher Tierschutz Bund “Pig and Mink” ads against castration and skinning.

Shockversiting is successful because of the controversy and buzz the ads cause. This buzz magnifies the impact and increases the brand awareness of the consumer.  A good example of a controversial and shocking ad for commercial use is Sisley’s “Fashion Junkie”. This ad plays with the commonly used term “fashion junkie” which refers to someone that loves fashion, yet playing on the literal sense of the term by showing women doing drugs off fashion. Because of their shocking nature, these ads are likely to be spread through word of mouth and social media, regardless of whether they were perceived positively or negatively.

 

However, shock is not the only way for advertisers to get our attention, including the audience in the creation of the product is also effective. On October of 2014 the ad agency 360i created the Oreo Halloween campaign. They called it the “Oreo Laboratorium” in which Oreo cookies created “nomsters” leading up to Halloween day. This campaign was run in social media, where the audience could name the “nomsters” by commenting their proposed name. At the end of the day, Oreo picked one of the proposed names from an audience member and released the winner. This campaign was excellent at involving the audience with the creation of the product.

Through social media, the campaign was spread quickly and the audience had a chance to interact with the brand as a decision-maker. They were part of the creative process of the product, and actively involved in the making which makes them more motivated to interact with the brand. This kind of care, consideration for people’s comments may also increase the likability of the brand, and therefore customer loyalty. Many companies will answer tweets, retweets or reply to comments, but to include them in the decisions makes a campaign unique.

 

Pop culture references also provide a new strategy to break through the media clutter. “Meme culture” also known as memevertising utilizes internet memes to promote a brand. Brands often take a popular meme and incorporate their brand into it. Another way to use memeversiting is through creating an entirely new meme, which sometimes happens unintentionally. Memes are a good way to associate a brand with popularity and modern marketing. Memes are used by the younger generations, which allows advertisers to access previously untapped or ignored audiences. This modern marketing can be utilized through video memes, Harlem Shake for example, or picture memes.

The internet is known for being the home of viral ads, memes and cats. A great example of memevertising, although not as obvious, is the Spring Nexus S 4G Cats ad. Nexus created a video advertising the release of its new product and included cats. Cats, like babies create a positive and “adorable” look for the company. Regardless of the fact that cats have nothing to do with technology, the video plays off association of the implications of cats and their popularity in the mainstream internet. The cats in the video use the phone, watch other videos of cats and drive a car. All these cats distract the audience from the main message of the video but succeed in giving the audience a warm and positive feeling.

Over the last few years, companies have been doing more research on consumer insight. Insight or costumer inspired innovation is a research model that focuses on finding deeper and new marketing strategies directly from the consumer. The first and best example to illustrate this strategy is the Dove “Real Beauty” Campaign. The company studied body image among women and found that only 2% of women consider themselves beautiful. Since the campaign went viral in 2004, they have expanded it to beauty sketches and many other self-esteem based advertisements. Insight is important for marketers and advertisers because it guarantees a unique message and idea for the company’s campaign, and at the same time is based off listening intently to the audience. Costumer inspired innovation causes buzz because it resonates with so many people at a deep emotional level, making it sustain our attention and also memorable. The Dove ads are incredibly relatable and cause women to feel a sense of loyalty to the brand.

With so much media clutter, advertisers and marketers are constantly faced with the problem of staying current, modern, and unique. Shockvertising, audience inclusion, memevertising, and costumer insight make for ideals ways to stand out even when we are exposed to 5,000 messages every day. Shockvertising makes ads memorable for costumers but does not focus on whether it was positively or negatively received by the audience unlike the audience inclusion which takes a more two-way communication route, memevertising is an up and coming way of connecting with audiences but it still does not create a campaign as popular as insight has been able to achieve. Each have their own pros and cons, but as our media culture continues to change, so will the advertising strategies.

Sources:

Johnson, Sheree. “New Research Sheds Light on Daily Ad Exposures.” SJ Insights LLC. N.p., 29 Sept. 2014. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.

Bahadur, Nina. “Dove ‘Real Beauty’ Campaign Turns 10: How A Brand Tried To Change The Conversation About Female Beauty.” The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 21 Jan. 2014. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.