Sensationalism and Virality in Marketing

Sensationalism and Virality and Marketing

Sensationalism and Virality in Marketing: “There is no such thing as bad publicity.” – You might’ve heard this line numerous times in your career in business, especially in public relations. Sadly, it’s untrue (and unethical) as the man who first said it: P.T. Barnum. It’s true though that for you to have a thriving business, you need attention. Because no matter how good your products and services are, they won’t fly off the shelves if you can’t reach the right customers. Now, here’s the problem that most companies encounter these days when they’re not getting millions of views on their ads and websites, they assume that if only they can go viral, their sales will go off the charts. It’s just not the case. Have you ever heard of brands that go trending then the next thing you know, they’re filing for bankruptcy. Sounds familiar, right? It’s because “Reach” which comes in the form of views and engagement, isn’t a metric that is as effective as “Relevance.” If you’re all for vanity and would like to flaunt numbers to the public, try crazy stunts to go viral. But if you’re into real ROI, develop a holistic communications framework. Unless you’re a media company, it’s hard to make sense of analytics on socials.

 

 

So is sensationalism bad? Yes but not absolutely. “Make it go viral” isn’t a strategy. It’s a short-sighted tactic. It may work but if you’ve set your expectations that it’s your magic pill, you’re setting yourself up for failure. Because it will disappoint you over and over again. Besides, virality is very dependent on platforms. What works on Instagram doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s good for the users of TikTok. Because each platform is unique with different demographics. On the bright side, once it works for you, you might have found a gold mine. Stick to it. What we can learn from the Kardashians is that they’ve been holding the world’s attention for decades. And whatever they touch turns to gold. We can always throw shade on whether they’re a good influence on the general public, but one thing is for sure, they have a strong brand therefore they have a thriving business.

 

 

When you understand how important a brand is, everything becomes easier. It’s easier to sell, it’s easier to introduce yourself, it’s easier to win any bidding—because they know you. It’s a return that is hardly quantified. However, ask 10 companies that don’t have brand equity and they’ll tell you how different it is to simply have a name recall. What’s good is, it’s not too late. With the business landscape where anyone can produce and gather attention for free, you just need to play your cards right. Don’t let the carriage pull the horse. What I mean is, to build a brand strategy first then you can try to go viral with storytelling. Sure, a collaboration with Ryan Reynolds may guarantee that you get 100 million views but if you don’t have a clear plan on how to follow up and keep the eyeballs and buyers, it can easily collapse like a sand castle.

 

 

For example, we don’t frustrate our clients because they’re not getting hundreds and thousands of likes on their posts. We look at real numbers instead. We drill down on what brings them business and make a detailed plan to continuously improve on it. If you would like to learn how we do it with our partners onshore, you may contact us on this page or book a call with our experts on this link. Don’t just try to go viral. Build a brand that will last a lifetime.

You must be logged in to post a comment.