Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

BRANDED CONTENT: A SHORTSIGHTED CON

But branded content isn't a long game. There are several reasons why. The first issue is intent. The essence of branded content is deliberately blurring the line between editorial content and advertising. Hiding your true colors is never a good idea. Another issue is the logic behind branded content itself. It’s misleading to use a totally different set of qualities—good stories—to sell a product that has intrinsically nothing to do with these qualities. Hiring a top filmmaker won’t improve the quality of your energy drink. Brands cannot deliver what they advertise. Shoes or coffee can never live up to their brands’ promises—they are just shoes and coffee. You could even say that the better the stories, the more dishonest the companies are being.

A camouflage strategy also complicates an already too complex world driven by hidden agendas. Even well-informed people who are able to both enjoy branded content and take it with a grain of salt will subliminally become accustomed to the new branded content standard—not to mention more vulnerable groups such as kids and adolescents. And what about the stories no one wants to hear, stories incapable of selling something? People are more likely to follow a happy, undemanding brand instead of bonding with real people and real-world problems. A brand will never ask you for help. It won’t confront you with difficulties or opposing views....

These small businesses use ingenuity, creativity and no budget to get results. They don't have an "ad agency" or even an "ad budget" — but they do the best with what they got....

Google processed over 1 trillion search queries in 2014. As Google Search continues to further integrate into our normal daily activities, those search results become increasingly important, especially when individuals are searching for information about a company or product.

To better understand just how much of an impact Google has on an individual’s purchasing decisions, we set up a research study with a group of 1,000 consumers through Google Consumer Surveys. The study investigates how individuals interact with Google and other major sites during the buying process....

We can shortcut the path to trust and sell more products by leveraging certain behavioral psychology principles called cognitive biases and heuristics. Cognitive biases and heuristics are mental models (sometimes irrational or flawed) used to reduce the time or energy for a task when making judgments.

While there are over 100 cognitive biases and heuristics, I want to focus specifically on ones that give your product instant trust in the eyes of the consumer.

Hence trust hacking.

But first, a warning: I am in no way promoting black hat persuasion tactics for the sole purpose of getting money from people. You must first have a good product that will genuinely help consumers. These tactics will help get your product into more of the right hands. If that is not you, stop reading right now. Onward....

Think Nike: just do it. Think Apple: Hello. Think EA Games: Challenge Everything.

If your campaign speak keeps going and going and going like the Energizer Bunny, you may wear people out before they catch up with your this. Make it simple. Get on your Harley-Davidson until you can define your world in a whole new way.

Thinking big about speaking simply is power.

Complexity is difficult. Complexity will drown in the noise.If you can’t speak simply about whatever this is, take a step back, think bigger about simplicity. Do something different with this. Look at the heart and soul of this. Simple will rise above the noise.

Think Big. Speak Simply.