Anton Naianzin, Co-Founder of A&K American Educational Consulting.
In the race for eyeballs, some brands have found that there’s a surefire way to make their content impossible to look away from—infusing it with “cringe.” A healthy dose of unsettling weirdness can help companies stand out and get people talking about the brand, even if it’s just to poke fun at it. In marketing, that can often count as a win.
Cringe can be converted to likes.
Cringe content can break through the noise of buzzword-filled ads and posts that are continuously deluging social media. It can also help a brand unlock its individuality and highlight what makes it unique, while engaging audiences beyond its existing client base.
For instance, a tech company turning a product reveal into a parody song performance could get people laughing and sharing on social media. This in turn raises brand awareness among those who may have never heard of the company and can boost loyalty among current customers who might view the company as more down to earth.
I’ve noticed cringe humor can be particularly helpful for companies in ultra-competitive industries, where boosting a brand’s profile on social media is vital to survival. It’s a great tool for helping a message stick as people tend to remember humorous media that entertains, while making them slightly uncomfortable.
How is this accomplished?
One common cringe tactic is featuring people who graduated high school when the term “rad” had cultural currency butchering youth internet slang. This “how do you do, fellow kids” style can be an eyeball magnet and make a brand seem relatable to anyone over the age of 30.
A brand can also play off stereotypes about the industry it’s in to get viewers chuckling. For instance, poking gentle fun at some common behaviors of tech engineers could go a long way toward relatability for a company selling B2B software.
Marketers are borrowing from comedy.
The virality potential of cringe marketing mirrors the explosive popularity of cringe humor more generally. Cringe comedy has long gone mainstream, with television shows using it to captivate audiences.
I think cringe comedy’s appeal is explained well by marketing professors A. Peter McGraw and Caleb Warren, who posit that much of humor is premised on violation of social norms as long as the transgression is benign.
Tread cautiously.
Cringe by definition can be a turnoff for audiences, which makes it a high-risk, high-reward marketing choice. It’s only worth experimenting when the stakes are low, in cases where the chief risk is making audiences turn away from the ad but not the brand.
Cringe humor should be off-limits when engaging with sensitive topics like healthcare products or social justice issues. Be warned: Cheekiness can be interpreted as facetiousness that crosses into unintentional cringe.
Balancing considerations of cringe-fueled reach and the appropriateness of the content for the audience is key. It’s wise to consider the primary demographic of the audience and think about what the addressees of an ad might find funny but not tasteless. In other words, perhaps don’t go too far with the Boomer jokes if your primary audience is in the 65+ age cohort.
It’s important to be aware of what goal the content is trying to accomplish. An all-out self-deprecating ad could be warranted if the goal is to simply raise brand awareness, while a more restrained approach might be needed to avoid distraction if an ad includes technical details about a new product.
Authenticity is key.
I’ve found that amplifying your brand’s reach by going the cringe route is worth it only if the humor comes off as authentic. A self-deprecating video or post should resonate with a brand’s personality and highlight a specific aspect of the business.
Think about what makes your brand unique. For example, if you are running a cybersecurity consultancy, try lampooning the level of subject-matter geekery that powers your company. A good litmus test is if the humor resonates with your coworkers who know your organization from the inside.
Harness the quirkiness of your business so that even if the cringe doesn’t reach 10 million people, it’d still make your brand feel more human to the devoted followers who do engage with it.
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