Mastering the art of shockvertising in a crowded ad space

Last week, Singapore Realtor Inc's real estate agent, Shahirah Shaik came under public scrutiny for using fliers that emulated parking summons tickets. 

In an anonymous post on Facebook page 'Complaint Singapore Unrestricted', a user angrily bemoaned the misleading quality of the advertisement. “Got this on my windscreen. I must say this is very lame and not funny at all,” the post said as seen by MARKETING-INTERACTIVE. “No driver like to see this kind of joke on their windscreen. And you jolly well don’t litter with your cheap marketing gimmick on our cars,” the post continued.

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The flier bore Shaik's details under the header ‘Notice of no offense’ before continuing that the driver's 'transgression' was them "parking beautifully". It also encouraged users to post and caption the ad saying, “we’ve got your summon” and to tag their Instagram page if users liked the advertisement.

While the anonymous user was upset about the shocking marketing tactic, a majority of netizens expressed their enjoyment over the flier with 29 out of the 48 likes on the post being a laughing face.

Shock marketing, or shockvertising, which is the act of deliberately shocking or startling viewers with a marketing campaign, is not uncommon in this day and age especially considering that there is so much content competing for one's attention. More marketers are attempting to stand out and to do so, employ creative and innovative methods. 

"Researchers claim the average person sees hundreds to thousands of ads in a day from what is now an endless supply chain — it’s easy for brands to get lost in that mix," said Don Anderson, the CEO of Kaddadle "So, it’s no surprise that some marketers may get frustrated and show signs of desperation in their communications, in order for their work to get recognised and for consumers to respond. But there is always a fine line," he cautioned. 

Crafting a good shockvertising campaign

He noted that a good shockvertising campaign will elicit a dialogue on topics that societies may not always want to confront or discuss publicly.

"The shockvertising label is usually applied to advertising that is considerably more of an affront and taps themes that are taboo or provocative in nature, such as topics of culture, race, sexuality, health and social injustice," he said, citing an example of some of the United Colors of Benetton ads from the 80s and 90s which showed a variety of shocking images such as a priest and a nun kissing, a baby still attached to an umbilical cord and actual images of a murder. 

"Although those campaigns yielded an avalanche of hostility and negativity, it knew what it was doing," said Anderson. 

 Agreeing with him, Lars Voedisch, the principal consultant, managing director of PRecious Communications noted that before one can convey any message, they need to grab the attention of their target audience. 

 "Let's be honest - there are way too many similar-looking letters and flyers of real estate agents with limited to no real differentiators," he said. "Generally, the more crowded or dry a topic, the more creative you need to get to stand out."

He added:

Unfortunately, then, the creative approach sometimes overshadows the actual story you want to tell. 

Measuring ROI for shockvertising campaigns

Saying that, capturing the attention of a target audience is not all you need. After all, when you have shockvertising campaigns, you are likely to get a wide variety of responses such as the real estate agent who equally angered some and also got many to laugh at the creativity and the joke of it all. As a result, measuring ROI then tends to become an issue. 

"Brands gauge brand awareness, reach, social media metrics, sales, and other direct in indirect impact metrics like changes in brand perception and consumer behavior," explained Voedisch. "When you go out with a riskier approach, it is harder to predict the direct outcome. For example, even if you get a lot of attention, this might not convert into sales. On the other hand, you might offend a large majority of the general public. But if your objective was only to get a rather niche target group to connect even stronger with your brand, you might achieve your ROI by willingly upsetting larger audiences."

He concluded by noting that the nuances between being witty or becoming a nuisance can sometimes be very narrow saying:

What works for some might upset others. That's the reality for anything that goes beyond being straightforward - today, more than in the past. 

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