If there’s a TV show that got our minds blown in a span of an episode, it would definitely be Black Mirror. Black Mirror is a British anthology television series composed of stand-alone dramas which are dark, full of suspense, and satirical tales that explore the world of technology in the modern world and its consequences on how it affects us as human beings.
Black Mirror’s Marketing Strategy is Controversial And Provoking
Netflix describe this TV anthology as something that explores the twisted and high-tech future of humanity’s greatest innovations. We can see a lot of viewers being alarmed by the number of times they were provoked by a certain episode but isn’t that the point?
It’s all about technology, the technology is the way we see in the world taking for example some crowd favorite episodes.
The ‘Entire History Of You’ talks about being able to go back in the past and that’s some kind of bullshit and creepy and whatsoever. Through the access of data through the minds, that device connected to your brain will be reviewed. Your memories become files. Would you want that to happen? —reconstructing and building connections through files from your brain?
‘The National Anthem’ talks about leaking information from the web. The situation was too dramatic and came to a point that a prime minister gave in to the black mailing. The point? On how people should handle and react to a situation most especially ‘online’ because everything is possible. Crisis management at least.
And finally, ‘Nosedive’. The most controversial of it all. This episode was so popular because it happens on a daily basis and we didn’t even know it’s happening. This episode is about the players having the “perfect” scores by collecting lifestyle cards and avoiding to tick the one that could mess up their cards. Your ranking affects whether or not you can have access to certain items, changes the way you’re treated by your peers, and can even lead to social ostracization if your score dips too low. Stuck at a 4.2 rating, the protagonist is dedicated to raising her score to a 4.5 so that she can be accepted into a high-class social circle.
This episode was truly unsettling because it happens. People dive into the idea of ratings and we rate everyone we see based on the way their look, their social media accounts, and what they do on business. That’s just a complete fucked up system.
Main Takeaways For Marketers
The idea of having these impactful episodes is connected to the marketing strategy and advertising these advance technologies are trying to say. There are three simple takeaways marketers can get from this show resulting to bigger impact.
BE AUTHENTIC
People would want to see and deal with the real you. This type of attitude is something people want from businesses—the authentic one. 91 % of the consumers want the brands they follow in their authentic spaces for it inspires trust and builds brand loyalty, the very essence that can lead to sales. Let it just flow through your brand voice. Your content should be significant and organic.
NUMBERS AREN’T EVERYTHING
If you have an authentic content, a great number and a good ranking will follow. Many business owners are chasing after the wrong metric–desperately trying to attract more followers and gain more impressions so they will have the appearance of success. What they fail to realize is that actions speak louder than impressions. We are here to chase higher numbers for the follower count, aim to produce quality content that your audience can actually engage with, feel something for, and believe in. With this, social media likes can’t be correlated to more business or even more engagement. Instead of increasing the follower count, strive for audience engagement and conversation.
DON’T BE DESPERATE
Businesses use sales promotions on social media because life lately as we know, social media is everything. It may seem like a great way to bring business in quickly, but your audience will sense the desperation—expecting quality content. More often than not, their brand loyalty is what will drive them to your business and not the promotions.
The main point here is to don’t crash a wedding to get business. There are many ways to engage with your audience and desperation is not one of them. Spamming inboxes, posting deals, self-advertising, badmouthing competition, or trying to win over the business of people that don’t relate to your product will all lead to dislikes, unfollows, and lost business. Your business would want to develop content that is relatable, sharable, interesting, and informative for your audience. The more desperate you are for attention; the less people will care to notice you.
