Increasingly incorporating elements of shock value as an intrinsic and pivotal part of their advertising methodologies (known in the going jargon as ‘Shockvertising’) has become a kind of favorite ‘past-time’ for marketing professionals everywhere – particularly within the media industry (charged with selling their print and electronic produce for the sake of generating higher profit yields for their investors). The practice is eponymously titled, and relies on advertising content that seeks to lure-in the attention of potential customers through the net of the generalized promotional smokescreen constructed by other commercial entities targeting the same audience base. These advertisements achieve their disorientating functions by the deployment of prose and/or multimedia content that willfully tries to break sociological codes of morality and propriety – in an attempt to evoke either a feeling of disgust, intense pity or scathing irony in the mindset of the affected viewer. Although the idea of ‘shock value’ has a host of negative connotations attached (in lieu of its observed practice), the said marketing device can also be deployed in the service of promotional campaigns aimed at highlighting issues of social reformation and betterment. Certain entertainment companies, like COX Cable (among others), easily fall into the latter category – and have launched many public CSR ventures utilizing such advertising tactics as Shockvertising to raise awareness of human rights abuses in several developing countries.
The briefly-elaborated list below details the top 5 strategies of introducing shock value into your blog (and its affiliated promotional content – such as SEO optimized articles and graphic advertisements for circulation on search engines & social media platforms).
1. Use Pithy and Provocative Titles:
As every advertiser knows, no lengthy textual composition can match the emotive intensity of a punch-line-like heading or sales pitch – with the ideal being one that is concise, fully expressive of the entire promotional content of the advertisement, and accompanied by a related graphics-piece. However, if you really want to ‘up’ your marketing game by playing with neat headlines, throw in a short-worded shock statement along the lines of ‘You won’t believe what…’, ‘We dare you to…’ and ‘Get a load of this…’; among others like them. Some advertisers also make sparing use of innuendo-laden texts such as ‘Get them hot for…’ or ‘Seduce your…’ etc. to appeal to targeted audience groupings thought to be interested (by default) in the products/services that they are engaged in selling.
2. Use Sensational Imagery :
Nothing brings a product or service home to the consumer (in a manner of speaking) more potently than a large, graphically-intensive image piece used to popularize it in the advertisement space. A quality picture, particularly if it features cheeky or provocative content – in the manner of skimpily-clad women or the suggestive placements of certain objects in predetermined angles strategically put there to evoke an instantaneous response – can deliver a message much better than any text box can ever hope to. Oftentimes, it is the very nature of the graphics-content that captures attention, and makes way for the piqued consumer to go further and read the associated texts. Graphics can also take the form of motion-media or flash-based ‘gif’ offerings – which may portray classic movie or cartoon scenes with subtitled dialogues that come off as being fittingly astute in certain situations (and express an idea similar to the way that emoticons do – only with more nuance and substance). COX Cable advertisements, being responsible instances of effective marketing practice; often make use of short-timed motion picture shots to arouse the fancies of consumers.
3. Use Flash Media in place of traditional text headings:
Seeing that prospective online information-consumers are faced with a continuous bombardment of enticing content from all directions on the internet (and that the window of opportunity for captivating their interest effectively is rendered increasingly smaller as a result of this), it thus becomes even more important for bloggers aiming to increase their webpage’s traffic-ratings to make use of novel advertising techniques with regard to the headlines of their content postings. Instead of adhering to long-standing convention – that of using basic text headlines – why not experiment with using media files like ‘gif’ media as the headings. In this way, marketers can turn the odds in their favor – by substantially increasing the target space potential consumers gain access to using their high-speed internet connections (COX Internet & others).
4. Be fearless – loose the ‘negative publicity’ conscience:
In terms of developing a certain mindset when setting out on your various advertising ventures, nothing beats the standard entrepreneurial advice of being consistently innovative and non-redundant when formulating any part of your promotional content – be it the instant attention-grabbers (headlines and graphics) or the main content (the ‘nitty’ that you are trying to sell). But this cannot happen if marketers remain consistently trapped by the ‘what if’ kind of speculation-thinking; by the prospect of controversy being linked in any way to their main product. If, on the other hand, they do decide to be bold and enterprising – and even willing to be a tad bit provocative in their message delivery – they can hope to reap-in considerably more traffic (particularly at the very outset of their projects, since negative publicity sells fiercely in the short run).
For advertisers interested in learning more about the results-guaranteeing uses of shockvertising in the media industry today, they can consider researching on COX Cable and its aggressive market campaigns; all of which have steadily culminated in the company luring-in legions of loyal customers with each passing day.
About The Author
Angelica Dowson
Angelica Dowson is a writer and blogger with verified skills. She likes to write about technology, digital media. Currently, she is working with Cox Internet deals which are in ceiling business of cable, internet and phone. To know more about her find her on Twitter @angelicadowson1
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