The results are out!
We are one of the most hated people on the planet. 🙁
Recently, a study found out that some of the least trusted people on the planet are marketers. Apparently, people trust marketers even less than they trust politicians.
Here is the real reason why people hate ads
I have a few reasons why that is.
Do you like it when people tell you that you are unhappy, overweight or have any other types of issues?
Unless you are one of those who like to be humiliated, you do not.
It makes you fired up, sad and mad. It is not nice.
Hated ads often work quite well, here is why
Saying:
“You are overweight! It doesn’t look very good. Why don’t you take this pill to get slimmer?”
Is around twice as effective than saying:
“Look your best, this pill will help you get slimmer”
Studies, and our own testing as well, show that highlighting the negative thing is usually around twice as effective than talking about the positive one.
So why do people hate marketers?
Marketers keep telling people that they are overweight (even if it is said indirectly), poor and not popular because they have not bought their magic product that solves all their issues.
Nowadays, most ads do not say “you are overweight” mainly because the rules do not allow it anymore.
However, most of them say that by showing you the most gorgeous Photoshopped model that just looks way better than you (at least that is what you think).
That is one reason why people hate marketers, we keep reminding them of all the things they are unhappy about.
Pain is twice as motivating than gain
The truth is that the problem are not marketers. We are just doing what works.
Now, I have some good news.
There is another way to sell that is incredibly effective. It is not commonly used because the regular media are just not a good fit for it. However, the online environment is a great fit for it.
Here is a way to sell effectively without being hated
What is this another way to sell? Giving out something valuable.
We all want things. We all want things and we preferably want them for free.
You can remind someone of something that bothers them. Or you can give them what they are after.
The good thing about the second option is that it will not make people hate you.
We tried this for the first time a few years back for our client, a network of nutritionists.
This ad type worked way better than “fear” based ads!
What we did was that, instead of the typical ad with an unrealistically good-looking model and text saying something like “Ready to finally lose weight for real?”, we made a video.
A 7-minute-long video ad.
It was shot with an ancient camera. There was no model in it. In fact, the lady in the video looked like an average person you would see on the street. She was dressed in a doctor’s uniform (not the sexy kind by any means, think dentist).
The video was incredibly boring.
It was just one continuous 7-minute shot of the lady in the doctors’ uniform standing still and talking. The whole video.
Seven minutes of boredom instead of a hot model to grab your attention and a catchy phrase designed to make you upset with yourself and take action.
The result?
That badly shot, super boring video generated clients at around half the price when compared to the optimized traditional ads.
So, how do I make an ad like that myself?
A simple example could be makeup.
You can sell makeup by showing a picture of a model that has that look on her face:
“I am better, more beautiful, you should do something about yourself”
Or you can make a video about:
“10 tricks Hollywood uses to make ugly people look beautiful using cheap makeup.”
Or:
“How Hollywood transformed this “wrinkly” middle-aged mom into a supermodel only using cheap makeup”
Something your audience will find valuable and interesting. Give them tips they will love and that they have not heard about yet.
People actually search for videos like these and people who make them, don’t even have to pay for anyone to see them.
In fact, they often get paid because people want to see those videos so much that they are not only willing to invest their time, they are also willing to watch an awful ad just to get to that video.
So, what if you just made a video with some incredibly valuable tips on how to do something and used that as your ad?
Here are some examples:
If you sell flour, it could be:
“How to bake a unicorn birthday cake”
Then target it to people with younger kids.
If you sell toys, you could do a video for parents about how to teach their kid to clean up after itself:
If you are selling horse riding gear, do a video about how to remove some bad habit a horse might have, and how the gear you are selling can help with that.
Do something that your potential customers are likely to be searching for already. If they are searching for it and you can turn it into an ad promoting your product, it is deemed to work great!
This new type of advertising was not possible before
The reason that this works so well nowadays, but you are not used to seeing it very much, is that the ads have to be significantly longer.
No one would be able to pay for such a long ad to play on television, it would not pay off.
However, while advertising on Facebook, it doesn’t really matter how long your ad is. You do not pay more for it if it is longer.
No hate, no blocked ad accounts, less money needed to acquire a customer
With this approach not only are you going to generate clients for less money but also people will not hate you.
In fact, they might start really loving and recommending your brand. That is always nice!
If you want us to help you to advertise this way, start by having a chat with Lorena, our friendly chatbot.