Social media is like teenage sex!

Working in a social media agency, one often comes across similar sayings. Social media is like teenage sex, everyone wants to do it but only a few are doing it right. We have often had a laugh around this exact saying while standing around the stairs, ideating & strategizing on what to order for lunch, whose turn it is to throw a party, and so on and so forth. But once ever so often; as anyone who works in a digital marketing company would know, we do talk digital. No, I do not mean the latest tech out there; I mean digital marketing, the outlandish cut. Our over the top strategies, limited just by the realities of the digital sphere. Our creativity constantly designing, strategizing and altering those strategies on the fly based on the group’s critique; modifying it to fit the realms of our current digital state. But what do we compare these insane and overly ambitious strategies to? Award winning campaigns? Maybe… or maybe not. So while we are still ambitious let’s set a new benchmark to compare to. You seem confused, so I will make this simple. My way too overly ambitious benchmark as odd as it may seem, would be when the campaign can compete with porn.

Sounds retarded, right? I am almost sure many of you are already convinced that this is all bull s**t and are ready to close this tab and go back to the cat video you were just watching (it’s a 50-50% shot, I am right there). BUT what if I told you, no, convinced you; that even here there is a small ray of actual factual data that does make quite a load of sense. So my fellow digital marketers, I’d like you to now think back, to the best campaign you have ever run or that you are well aware of. For the ones not so digital, brace yourself, some insane numbers coming your way! Just a heads up though, I won’t be giving you names of websites you can look up instantly after reading the next few lines! So you might want to call it a day if that’s what you were here for.

So after some hardcore research (pun intended) this is what I found. The world’s largest porn site is… responsible (see what I did there) for a mind boggling 4.4 BILLION clicks a month (via the dailymail.co.uk). To put that into a little more size related comparison, the total population of humans on the earth right now is 7.096 Billion (via Wikipedia). That site on average streams 50GB of data per second, and on peak hours this website provides 1TB (1000 GB) of data, PER SECOND!!! And its competitors for traffic; are outmatched by the likes of Google and Facebook. Just to remind you, this is just one site we are talking about. The internet, N2H2 claims, is host to close to 260 million porn sites. So what makes them so popular?

I’m sure there are a lot of reasons why people visit porn sites, considering they amount to 30% of the internet (via the Sunday-guardian.com). Let’s try and get to the bottom of this though. So think of the last time you watched porn, (focus now… no do not open another tab). What compelled you to do so? Was it a biological need? Were you bored? Or was there something new you heard around and you just wanted to check out? Or maybe all of the above and many more… and here’s the kicker it’s addictive. While that may sound sic or not even true, let’s take a look, not on a global scale but a lot closer to home. In a survey published in Jan 2013, almost 75% of male Pre-University (PUC) students in rural parts of Mysore, Chamarajanagar and Bangalore are addicted to porn (via the Sunday-guardian.com).

Getting back to the benchmark, even though we can still be very ambitious; let’s look at a realistic benchmark. Let’s see what we can learn from porn as an example (talking purely digital here). What does porn do? On the most crude/basic level, all it does is satisfy a need. But that need is something that built up over a period of time. So here is my take on what we can learn from porn (still digital talk). It goes without saying that your proposed campaign must satisfy a need. But what if you could generate that need? After all demand needs supply right? Sure sex sells, but curiosity sells better. Keep your TG glued to your brand. Let your products tease them. The best campaigns I have seen; have all left me wanting for more. While I may only partially agree, a popular quote from the movie – Field of Dreams 1989, “If you build it, they will come”, may seem quite true right now.

So next time your client asks you for the next kickass strategy, my suggestion is simple. Get the launch ready as it should be, and spend your time on the pre-launch bit. Get your customers addicted to your brand. Not loyal, I mean addicted. You need to be a part of their thought process. You have to be that one item that completes their day.

And as I exit, I will leave you with just one simple thought. Find the need; or better, create it. While this may sound bleak for most accounts, just remember to get your customers curious about your product. After all, curiosity did kill the cat!

Think something else, as seemingly outrageous as porn has marketing lessons hidden?

Share your thoughts and we can explore together! (yes, I’m still talking purely digital here)