You must be thinking, “why would I want to associate my brand with something that I actively try to avoid?”. But just because it is a common notion to sidestep controversy all the time, does not mean you cannot use it to your advantage.
Most people are afraid of stirring up controversy because they don’t know how to handle it. But before you dive into the world of controversial advertising, you can read this content marketing guide to brush up your knowledge on the basics of the subject.
Most brands are afraid of using controversy for marketing because it can trigger emotional responses of the masses and can be tricky to control. Therefore executing effective controversial content is one of the most challenging jobs of marketing. The trick is to start a controversy in a controlled manner to not get out of hand. You can compare it with radioactive fission reactions.
You have to achieve a controlled response without letting it turn into a Chernobyl disaster. It must be maintained at a low level to encourage engaging discussion among your target audience. Beyond that, there might be repercussions for your brand.
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Controversial Content Marketing Strategies
However, before you consider engaging in a controversial content marketing strategy, you must think about a consistent brand image among your target audience. There are few questions that you need to ask yourself before you commit to the project.
- Is a controversial topic expected from your brand? To answer this question, you can try and understand if your target audience has gotten used to your content or blog posts, and your site traffic is suffering.
- Do your competitors publish controversial marketing content? If they, does it work for them? You can use brand monitoring tools to follow the discussions on their social media pages or blog posts to determine if they only limit themselves to conservative content.
- Is the topic that you are planning to use for controversial content authentic? Remember that you need to step in to voice opinions on social media that you might be held accountable for. You must have facts and evidence by your side to prove your point.
Once you have answered these questions, you are ready to include controversial content in your marketing strategy. You can approach controversial content marketing in one of these three ways.
Disprove an Existing Hypothesis
- There are several hypotheses associates with every industry. You can take one of such assumptions and disprove it by offering shocking or unique evidence.
- For example, people always assume that food from reputable hotels and restaurants is made with high-quality ingredients.
- However, there are many studies conducted for different multinational brands that point out that several of them use trans fat and GMO ingredients to make their dishes.
- You can make content that addresses these issues and educates your audience. Such research can be your proof to support your argument when you get challenged.
Use Taboo Subjects to Your Advantage
- It is an innate nature to feel interested in taboo subjects. These subjects do not only generate discussions and arguments, but there is also a lot of support you will get from the masses.
- You must have seen the Ad Council’s video “Love has no labels” that aroused a lot of interest recently. The video is about the Anti-Asian racism spark due to the pandemic and its origin in China.
- The video shows different professionals who have to face discrimination in America recently. Some of them work with public services or contribute to fighting the disease.
- Such videos can be useful on your digital media pages to generate discussions that guarantee to work for your brand.
Start a Debate
- Several controversial ideas can get useful to stir up a debate. However, not all of them can be productive for your brand. So choose them wisely to get as useful as controversial content marketing.
- Remember what we said before, that your topic must be supported with adequate proof when the need arises.
- You can also use issues that answer a common question, such as “How bad is junk food for my health?” or “Which is a good neighborhood to live in?”.
- These topics can generate many politically correct and incorrect statements, so make sure you have the data to support the right ones.
Conclusion
There is so much information available for your audience that conservative approaches of digital marketing may often get lost in the crowd.
Therefore your content marketing write for us team has to come up with unique ideas to direct the attention of your target audience towards your brand.
Alternatively, your company should regularly release new products and updates. You can visit the akveo blog to see examples how to highlight new product benefits and present it to the audience.
Controversial contents are not just unique but can achieve a lot of brand engagement from existing customers as well as new ones.
