Posted By
Jamie Beckland on 07/08/2010
In digital marketing, the potential for your content to go viral is huge. But along with that reach, there is some risk: your marketing messages might cause offense allowing your brand to be seen as inconsiderate or inappropriate. But as long as you focus on your target audience, offended bloggers are more likely to help you than hurt you.
Digital marketing offers the ability to target very narrowly. This gives brands the opportunity to experiment with niche messaging and to learn what resonates with their audience. The freedom is liberating—but only if you embrace it. Many brands allow the possibility of offending one group to stop them from speaking in an honest, straightforward way with their best prospects.
If you shy away from frank communication, you will be hampered from making a genuine long-term connection with your target customers. Spirit Airlines is a great example of this strategy—it is currently running a campaign that invites flyers to enjoy the oil on their beaches—complete with hard bodies soaking up the sun, slathered in tanning oil.
These ads offend a number of groups. However, the reality is that those groups were never very likely to buy a ticket on Spirit anyway. Spirit takes the frat crowd from cold places to warm places. It is not targeting the Gulf coast traveler. And these ads hit a sweet, if crude, spot for their target customer.
As a variety of groups start to complain about these ads, it only amplifies Spirit’s cheap campaign—extending reach, bringing traffic to their site, and introducing them to new customers. All Spirit had to do is take some risk and put up a Flash piece on their home page. Social media did the rest.
Tags: social networks
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