Interruption Marketing… How Not To Cock It Up!
We’ve all heard those buzz phrases — disruptive entrepreneur, interruption marketing — and we’ve all been really hacked off by them too! Here’s how to do it properly and not turn off your audience.
THERE are two types of interruption marketing — one makes us, as consumers, feel happy, inspired and positive, the other makes us feel so manipulated and bitter we’ll do anything to avoid it.
Am I exaggerating? Maybe so, but I want to give you a scenario we’ll all be familiar with in order to prove my point… and to give you a real benchmark to work to when you’re thinking about writing your social media copy, recording that video or creating your next blog.
Picture your nearest high street. Maybe you’ve finished early for the day, or it’s the weekend and you’re strolling along, shades on, smile in full force, looking forward to the coffee you’re about to sit and drink with your pals. There’s nothing but sunshine and relaxation on your mind.
Suddenly, out of the corner of your eye, you spot them. It’s 75 degrees, and they’re still wearing their shiny suits, ties fastened up to the neck. They’re clutching clipboards in their sweaty little hands and you just know they’re about to assault you with faux friendliness and guilt you into giving yet more of your hard earned cash to another charity every month.
You might be a big supporter of charities. You might already give to several. You might already give to the one they’re representing, but something about their predatory pounce makes your sunny outlook turn to rainstorms and ‘Mission Avoidance’ kicks in in full force.
Maybe you pretend to have forgotten something and make a big show of turning on your heel. Perhaps you fake a phone call and stride past them with your head firmly in ‘important business’. You could cross the street. You could be brave and just say “No thanks”…
Maybe you pretend to have forgotten something and make a big show of turning on your heel. Perhaps you fake a phone call and stride past them with your head firmly in ‘important business’. You could cross the street. You could be brave and just say “No thanks”. Or you could be pounced on and end up being five minutes late to your date with that coffee because they insist on throwing all kinds of statistics at you, telling you why they’re better than every other charity and even asking about your dog.
I’ve yet to meet a single person who appreciates their day being interrupted by a high street charity pro, yet their efforts must work or all those organisations wouldn’t continue to risk irritating their potential donation pool.
Compare this, if you will, to Mr Peewee The Drumming Puppet
Last week, my wife and I were in Chester when we heard some good, old fashioned rock and roll in the middle of the high street. As we got closer, we saw a crowd gathered and then chose to stop and watch as the life-size puppet skilfully drummed along to some of those tracks we all know and love.
While Dave Southern sits hidden away in his one-man circus tent, cleverly built around a bicycle, his hands feed through the sleeves of Mr Peewee’s suit, twirling his drumsticks and playing along to popular tunes from the 50s, 60s and 70s. He’s joined by his faithful rescue dog, who was sleeping alongside Dave’s rig when we saw them, and there are signs dotted around telling the backstory of Mr Peewee’s faithful hound, along with the performer’s philosophy of bringing happiness to the masses.
Of course, his signs also show links to his social media pages and there’s the obligatory hat for passers by to throw money into.
Mr Peewee entertains.
It’s interruption marketing of the magnetic kind. There’s no stepping into people’s paths or waving a clipboard — there’s just feelgood, entertainment magic.
My wife and I watched for a good while. We listened to the laughter and joy bubbling from others in the crowd. We read the signboards. We put cash into the upturned hat. We checked him out on social media and looked up his website. Apparently, he doesn’t do children’s parties, but he’s always interested in being invited to entertain people at the right kind of events.
We took pics, we recorded some video. We’ll upload that onto our own social media channels, and now I’m enthusing about him in a Medium article.
Which kind of interruption marketing would you rather have in your day? The charity collectors or Mr Peewee?
See, we can learn so much from this. Interruption marketing can be really, really powerful… but its power increases monumentally if people actively choose to interrupt their day to listen to your message, as opposed to you forcing an interruption.
We can apply this to our social streams too. In fact, here’s another set of interruption marketing opposites you’ll be familiar with: how much do you enjoy the video you’re watching on Facebook being interrupted by an advert?
You can’t watch the rest of your video unless you watch the commercial. How often do you just feel irritated and switch off?
Compare that to some of those video commercials that have been so clever, so engaging that people actually go out of their way to share them.
The first time I remember this happening with one of the early Evian swimming babies adverts. People were sharing it, emailing it, enjoying it, without being forced to do so.
Which one is more powerful?
Being forced to watch a video often leaves us with a bitter aftertaste, whereas enjoying something so much we actively choose to watch it and share it is much more likely to create brand advocacy, isn’t it?
Whether you’re updating LinkedIn, your Facebook page, Insta or your blog, think about the feeling you want to leave people with. Do you want to be the shiny suit with a clipboard or Mr Peewee? Do you want to force people to consume your content or create advocates who love to share your message far and wide? Do you want to be a snare or a magnet?
Whether you’re updating LinkedIn, your Facebook page, Insta or your blog, think about the feeling you want to leave people with. Do you want to be the shiny suit with a clipboard or Mr Peewee? Do you want to force people to consume your content or create advocates who love to share your message far and wide? Do you want to be a snare or a magnet?
No… please… not clickbait!
Apply this rule to some of the clickbait posts you see too. The messages that try to guilt you into sharing them, the ones with headlines that bear no relevance to the content and were designed just to get your email address. How much do you want to engage with those?
No matter how great that little video or meme is, the second I see words along the lines of ‘only people who really care will share this’ or ‘80% of people will just scroll by’ you can guarantee I’ll switch off. Make the message informative, educational or entertaining enough for me to WANT to share it. Stop trying to manipulate me, goddamn you!
Honestly… the more organisations try to use ‘clever’ clickbait to get me onside, the more I’m likely to unsubscribe and be massively turned off.
The trouble with that ‘clever’ clickbait is that it’s not really clever at all. It’s a clumsy attempt at NLP at best. And it insults the intelligence of many of the people they’re trying to get onside.
What about headlines then? Aren’t they clickbait too?
Well, sort of. But… in a world of information overload, a snappy, relevant headline can be precisely what we need to be a Mr Peewee in a social stream of shiny suits and clipboards. You want people to stop scrolling and consume your content BECAUSE THEY WANT TO, not because you’re stepping into their path and blocking their way to the content they want to get to.
So, what’s needed? What does your headline need to say in order to magnetically grab attention? You’ll need to hold onto your integrity and keep producing content that matters. Don’t try to trick people into signing up. Don’t attempt to guilt people into absorbing your message. Keep it clean. Remember the power of Mr Peewee.
Remember how easy it is to cock things up. Arguably, all those charities have a really important message to share — they probably have all kinds of stories we’d want to know more about, maybe even want to share with our own audiences. But the street collectors, however effective they might be to the bottom line, are becoming a cliché in their own right, aren’t they?
Nobody wants to be accosted on their way to grab a coffee with friends. That’s interruption marketing gone wrong, no matter how powerful the message. Nobody likes them. They’re the modern-day double glazing salesmen. Good intentions, strong message, irritating delivery.
Next time you’re about to get stuck into some content creation for your brand, your product, your services, take off the shiny suit, put down the clipboard and work out how you can become your very own version of Mr Peewee.
Spread a little happiness. Create some of that feelgood vibe. Make people WANT to look you up and share your brilliance with the world.
Until next time,
#UnleashYourAwesome
Taz
x
Taz Thornton is the author of Awesome Sauce — a free, weekly positive life and business round-up, with good news stories, positivity tips and visibility hacks for your brand. In a few minutes each week, you get a dose of optimism and some awesome advice to get seen and stay happy.
Taz is a best-selling author, inspirational business speaker and multiple TEDx speaker, consultant on confidence, personal brand and visibility, and an award-winning coach (UK’s Best Female Coach 2018 — Best Business Woman Awards). She is also the creator of the #UnleashYourAwesome and #BrandMastery personal and business development programmes, as well as #UNLEASHED — an affordable confidence, content and cashflow building programme for coaches, healers and therapists, and #LIFEFORCE — an affordable online spiritual empowerment and coaching programme for people wanting to bring more optimism into their lives.
Taz has been featured on BBC, ITV, in HuffPost, Diva, The Daily Mail and countless other newspapers, magazines and podcasts. Taz is also a regular columnist for the America Out Loud talkshow network. In 2019, she was named as one of the most inspirational businesswomen in the UK and, in 2020, she was named as one of the world’s top 50 women in marketing to follow.
Find her on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Insta, Ko-Fi and TazThornton.com.
