NO ONE CLICKED ON YOUR AD?

The returns are exponential.

Information is the hottest commodity in the market and attention is the currency.

We live in an age where consumption is everything.

One thing that is consumed more than anything today is digital content.

News, videos, podcasts, blogs and whatnot.

I would be apt to say that we are consumed by the media, more than we consume it.

We cannot avoid it, it is everywhere, coveting every chance to grab our attention.

There is huge cultural implication to this internet penetration.

Instead of giving you statistics, which you would be familiar with anyway (being a marketer), I will give you an example from my own house.

My house staff, my family, my nephews everybody is on the internet.

We use WhatsApp to convey important messages in family groups. This was done on the dining table traditionally.

News is doing what religion once did to mankind.

Grocery lists, viral videos of cats and dogs, memes, news everything communicated at an unprecedented speed and quantity.

I love viral videos by the way.

This also brings us to the topic that we are going to explore as a marketer and business person.

Everything is marketing.

Every video that was sent to me, every grocery list and all the news that accumulated in my notifications.

Sales is attached to all of it.

As a marketer, we might want to contemplate the fact that we are less in the consumer\’s shoes and more in the shoes of the creator.

When I say this, I say it to point out the fact that people are already trading attention and how we can participate, crudely saying, capitalise on it.

Big corporations are spending billions of dollars on Ads, but I strongly believe it is a waste of money.

It can get you some awareness “IF” the ad view is not yet immune to the ads

The modern human brain has been trained to ignore the ads now. Internet users can sense and smell the marketing pitches from far away and keep their distance.

Then what could be a viable solution to this?

Putting on the shoes of the creator. Many newspaper agencies and political parties have now erected war rooms.

Although the term might have been borrowed from military tactics, the purpose remains to propagate mass information with speed.

There are ethical and moral debates about it, but right now let\’s just stick to marketing.

When I say that you have to pay anyway (in the title) I say it in this context.

It might as well apply to the sharks but what can a solopreneur or a small business do in foot forward to achieve a share in this landscape?

While you are becoming a part of the creator economy, as they call it. You do not directly spend on the ads but you pay the price anyway:

Time

When you have to reach the masses, you have to spend time on social media.

To write the content and make the video consistently every day.

There are so many examples of people who made it big only by posting consistently on the internet.

And there are examples of public figures who post on the internet consistently.

It’s time for marketers time not money into social media and every other possible online outlet.

Why?

Because it creates a deeper connection with your audience.

By the way, do remember the last ad you saw before reading this blog post?

I remember it was a talking head from a brand I didn’t even care to look at.

That is the problem with Ads.

Value

Secondly, and mostly you will hear about creating value for your audience.

Value can be categorised into two parts — Entertainment and Education.

Now don’t be stiff about it. Many people insist on the educational aspect of the value.

Informative articles, infographics self-help videos etc.

But there is certainly a goldmine yet to be discovered by the marketers to promote their products.

Entertainment.

At the very core of any content should be entertaining. Even the educational content.

That is what keeps us watching or reading.

Many marketers tend to look down upon viral videos, thinking that —

It might dilute the brand image.

We are bankers, not Gossip tabloids.

No No No what a cat video has to do with a Luxury car?

So on..

I have completed this for a while, in the brainstorming sessions I regularly do to come up with ideas and inspirations.

Think of a man coming from his office and sitting on the recliner to scroll his Instagram.

What would he like to see? A video made in the office or a comic relief?

Of course the comic relief.

People have various aspects to their life and in the midst of the chaos they always strive to find love, affection and happiness.

I have paid a huge price for not understanding this in time.

I love to post viral videos that reach millions of people in a day, but I didn’t understand their true value until I did the mental exercise to determine whether the entertainment videos hold any value or not.

Is it worth it?

What does this mean to a marketer?

To put it in simple words can you balance your organic marketing efforts by considering viral video being part of it?

It will reach more people, have an emotional impact and people will remember your brand for a longer time.

My father used to say, that anything that requires advertisement is not a good product. A good product advertises for itself.

That has a lot to say about integrating marketing into the product.

But even if that is not the case, Ads are bound to fall flat if you need to pay cash to promote them.

Telling is the new selling.

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