One of the most effective branding strategies these days is to create quality content that knows how to grab the user’s attention, locking them in for a few moments and making it possible for them to complete other actions, such as an online purchase or newsletter subscription.
What matters, in a historical phase when people scroll through their content at a prodigious speed, is to bring to life content that can stand out from all the others, and therefore possess unique and unrepeatable characteristics.
There are many ways to generate relevant content, and one of them-perhaps the most immediate-has to do with the proper management of social media, with understanding their grammar and functionality, but also in their valuable ability to virtually connect all spaces of the web, as if they were an interactive and experiential network in which to immerse all users.
In order to start creating truly unique content, brands will first have to change their mindset, and make sure that the communication and social media team fully shares this crucial mental shift.
In a way, social media content creators must temporarily abandon the plane of rationality and try to place themselves higher up, in the heavenly regions where everything becomes possible.
It is the mental leap that is needed to create exciting, non-trivial content that can easily imprint itself in the minds of viewers.
Sometimes, in order to stand out, one must have the courage to dare, to propose unconventional content that intrigues the user, stimulating his critical thinking and his awareness of being in front of something unusual, unique and bizarre, the result of a conceptual elaboration absolutely out of the ordinary.
The Courage To Dare
Unconventional content, by its very nature, is highly dangerous, especially because it risks creating deep rifts among the web audience and attracting media attention, which in most cases results in heavy image damage for the company (with inevitable fallout in terms of sales and reputation).
The difference between those who intelligently use unconventional communication and those who fail to do so, often achieving grotesque and deleterious results, lies entirely in the ability to properly handle provocative, countercultural and irreverent content, carefully calibrating its destructive power and employing it only when it will not be able to cause any harm to the company.
In most cases, it’s a matter of knowing how to master the words that are used to enliven these advertising messages, carefully choosing them from a vast and articulate linguistic repertoire, capable of generating veiled allusions to certain themes without ever naming them explicitly.
Sometimes, surfing social media such as Twitter, one comes across some funny and provocative posts made by some of the biggest global brands such as McDonald’s or Burger King, even as a simple response to a tweet made by a celebrity, influencer or any user.
Often, social media posts that appear on other accounts provide the perfect opportunity for brands to design a witty, funny and provocative response that could even go viral within minutes.
All it takes, in addition to a natural readiness and constant monitoring of the network, is the ability to be daring and to create potentially questionable content, without any fear.
These answers will also inevitably imprint themselves in the memory of the most loyal users, reinforcing in them the impression that they are dealing with a fun, innovative and up-to-date brand that is not afraid to dare.
The Ideal Staff
In a nutshell, if you want to change the rhythms of your corporate communication by trying something new and totally unconventional, you should first make sure that you have on your staff a professional with a thorough journalism background, endowed with that rare sensitivity that can grasp the differences between the multiple messages of communication, weighing them, filtering them and even blocking them, if the situation calls for it.
In some cases, the experience and sensitivity of a single professional has saved the brand from colossal gaffes, from proverbial blunders. In a way, these professionals represent true sentinels for the brand’s reputation.
Sometimes, the first step in turning your company’s fortunes around-perhaps through an unprecedented communications campaign-is precisely to hire an extremely qualified professional figure, capable of withstanding pressure and handling all kinds of content, even content that is not exactly classical or conventional.
The network audience nowadays wants to be amazed all the time, wants to be fed with unusual content that makes them laugh or cry, or that simply entertains them, giving them moments of total escape from the reality of everyday life.
One of the purposes of online communication, in fact, consists precisely in projecting users into an alternative dimension, in which only the strong emotions related to pure entertainment find their place.
It should come as no surprise that among the most popular brands, in 2022, are precisely those that have had the courage to be daring, proposing content that is often considered provocative and countercultural, and that have thus forcibly imposed themselves on the attention of users, who will almost certainly never forget them.
Unconventional strategies can take different forms and guises. An example of a strategy crowned with full success, in recent years, is certainly provided by the world of online gambling, which has voluntarily chosen to offer vast assortments of games that are free and accessible to all users, from anywhere and at any time, in total security.
The slot machines proposed by some of the best online gambling portals, for example, are able to represent an exceptionally entertaining pastime for any player, even the most demanding ones, who in this way will have a valuable opportunity to familiarize themselves with the games’ features and to effectively prepare themselves for an even more exciting gaming phase, namely the real-money one.
In addition, the numerous guides and reviews on the site are a very valuable ally for all new members, but also for all those who are entering the world of online entertainment for the first time.
To strike at the heart of your target audience, you must first surprise them with content – or a series of content – that they never expected to find.