Unhinged Marketing: Break Boundaries and Win

In today's episode, we dive deep into the world of "Unhinged Marketing." Mark Drager teaches us about the power of being different in the crowded marketplace. It's not just about being noticed; it's about leaving a lasting impression.

What will you discover today?

• How standing out can put your brand in the spotlight.
• The secret to knowing your audience and pushing their boundaries.
• Why staying true and authentic keeps your brand grounded.

Every business wants to stand out. But not every business knows how. Unhinged Marketing might be the bold move you've been searching for. Tune in and learn how to take your brand to new heights.

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Key Takeaways

• Embracing Unconventionality Can Drive Results - In a world saturated with similar marketing strategies, being different or unexpected can grab attention and differentiate a brand from its competitors.
• Understanding Your Audience is Key - Every audience has a different tolerance level for what's considered "unhinged." It's essential to know where the line is to avoid alienating potential customers.
• Consistency and Authenticity are Essential - While a single unhinged campaign can grab attention, maintaining that level of innovation and surprise consistently can solidify a brand's identity.

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Top 3 Reasons to Listen

Innovative Strategy: Discover "Unhinged Marketing," a fresh and unconventional approach to standing out in the business world.

Audience Engagement: Understand the importance of knowing your audience's boundaries and how to effectively push them without crossing the line.

Consistent Innovation: Understand the significance of not just a one-time spectacle, but the continuous application of innovative strategies for sustained brand growth.

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Links to This Episode

• Apple Podcast
• Spotify
• YouTube
• Audible

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More About our Host, Mark Drager

AKA the Badass Brand Architect, 5th Generation Entrepreneur, Host of The How To Sell More Podcast

When he's not podcasting, Mark's the Co-Founder & CEO of SalesLoop. He's a dedicated husband to his high school sweetheart, Jacqueline, and a proud father of four.

Mark didn't follow the typical route to becoming a sales & marketing expert. A connected figure in the entrepreneur community, Mark provides listeners with a unique mix of wit, insight, and straightforward advice.

Some of Mark's unconventional adventures include commandeering a Boeing 737-800 for a day, facing harsh criticism from a billionaire, and shedding 70 lbs in his late 30s. Though he never attended college, Mark stands as proof of the might of maintaining a student mindset and being ever-ready to seek assistance.

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A Transcription of The Talk

Okay, so the obvious question is: What is unhinged marketing? It's a recent trend among digital marketers where brands step away from the traditional, polished, super professional image and adopt a more chaotic, spontaneous, even slightly messy approach to their content. This style of marketing involves content that appears bizarre, humorous, or even completely out of character for a big company. It's designed that way to make it feel authentic, relatable, and memorable. Of course, I'm mainly talking about Twitter, mainly social media. We've all heard of companies like Wendy's on Twitter making all sorts of inappropriate comments. We're talking about Duolingo and other brands that, for some reason, step out of their normal culture and approach when they get on social media. They suddenly start acting like a 23-year-old, being snarky, sometimes even incorporating bro culture to seem cool.

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I didn't realize until recently that this approach is called unhinged marketing. It's called that because some brands go completely over the line, going bananas in their approach. I want to break down the four key pillars and strategies of unhinged marketing. Maybe you don't want to go as far as some of these brands I mentioned. Maybe you're afraid of offending everyone. But there are still lessons we can learn from this. We'll discuss what can go wrong, the risks, and the costs. But there are also significant benefits and upsides to this approach. So, perhaps you want to incorporate more authenticity, humor, controversy, and willingness to stand out in your marketing and sales mix. We'll cover all of that and more.

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First of all, let's dive into the main principle of unhinged marketing. It often involves jumping on popular trends, memes, jokes, or topics happening in the world. This makes large corporate brands feel more human, especially to Gen Z and younger millennials. It gives the impression that the brand is part of the joke, in on the culture and buzz. Some companies have nailed this approach, while others have failed miserably. As an outsider, it's easy to laugh, but as someone with over 15 years of corporate marketing and brand strategy experience, I know how painful these conversations can be when things go wrong. I also have sympathy for those who cross the line. You could be a seasoned marketing manager or brand manager, and a 21-year-old with no experience in charge of the internet could destroy your brand. It's kind of funny, in a way, how senior people sometimes entrust the internet to young folks without realizing the consequences.

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If we delve into unhinged marketing, there are four key pillars and strategies that make this work. The first pillar is authenticity. This approach thrives on being genuine. Brands and companies need to show they're real, unfiltered. Often, in conservative spaces or larger companies, direct conversations are saved for private meetings, pitches, or one-on-one interactions. But when it comes to written content like blog posts, social media, or advertisements, we tend to become overly polished, safe, and vanilla. This is where authenticity comes in. Brands that embrace authenticity are relatable and honest. They allow customers to connect with them personally. It's not about being polished; it's about being real and unfiltered. Being more authentic is something we can all work into our marketing mix.

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Now, let's move on to pillar number two: adaptability. Brands need to keep up with fast-paced trends and memes that change day-to-day. Whether it's Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, or even LinkedIn, trends can change quickly. Being able to respond in almost real-time is essential. If a trend peaks for just a couple of days and disappears, you must be able to respond within that window. This approach forces you to think about how fast you can react and capitalize on trends. Adaptability becomes a mindset and a skill that yields win after win. The benefit of moving quickly is that it's also light enough to throw something up and throw it away if it doesn't work. Unhinged marketing encourages quick responses and quick disposals.

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Let's move on to pillar number three: creativity and surprise. Depending on your personality and team, you might love or dislike this aspect. Creativity is key in unhinged marketing, where breaking the mold is the norm. This approach forces innovation, daring moves, and surprises. You can incorporate unexpected images like memes or GIFs, use off-the-wall humor, sarcasm, or even post random content as long as there's a connection or point. It's about attention, engagement, and awareness. The way you say things matters more than what you say. Creativity and surprise grab attention, create memorable interactions, and help people recognize your brand, as attention is the new currency.

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These are the three pillars we've discussed so far. The fourth pillar is **marking your territory**, metaphorically speaking. Unhinged marketing lets your brand be seen and heard, even in a crowded space. It's about finding your unique angle and style, not conforming to industry norms. This doesn't mean disregarding your core values, but it does mean taking calculated risks to stand out. When done right, you won't be easily ignored or forgotten.

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I hope you've found these insights into unhinged marketing useful. It's about embracing authenticity, adaptability, creativity, and marking your territory. These pillars can help you enhance your marketing approach, even if you don't go full-on unhinged. Remember, it's all about being true to your brand and staying relevant in a rapidly changing world.

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And number four, engagement. Listen, how many times do you want to build a community? Do you want to launch something? Do you wish you had more likes, more views, more comments? Maybe you're running a podcast, like I have two podcasts, and I throw a question of the week out there, and the audience doesn't respond. It comes back with crickets. Engagement can be really challenging. If you're a perfectionist, used to engagement being all positive, the more you put yourself out there, the more negative engagement you're going to get. But with this type of marketing and this approach, engagement is engagement is engagement. All engagement is good engagement because it helps with the algorithms, the platforms. It puts you out there more and more. And if you're really embracing this unfiltered approach, when someone comes swinging at you, you go swinging back or you provide more context and kind of correct the record. When everyone else is looking at this thing where someone came swinging at you, the way you respond shows others whether you're reasonable, smart, or good. And if you do this right, from a reputation management point of view, you make the other person look like a bit of an idiot. So, engagement is what this is about. It's a two-way street. It's not enough to just post wild content. Brands need to engage with their audience. You need to engage with your audience. If you love social media, this isn't a big deal. You're already on social media all the time, your team's on social media, you're on it. But maybe you're like me. I spend a lot of time looking at social media, but I'm not much of a commenter. I'm actually an introvert. I go to mastermind groups and sometimes don't talk at all. I attend networking sessions and don't really want to meet anyone. I hear great stories, and I feel like they're amazing, but I don't have much to add to the conversation. I'm not sure my point of view adds anything. So, when I'm on Instagram, Reddit, or other platforms, I have to actively work to comment on whatever comes to my mind first. It's a skill I've had to develop because I see something and think it's cool, but I have to force myself to write a comment, like "This is amazing" or "Great job." If I see something and think it doesn't make sense, I have to push myself to put those thoughts out there. If you can embrace even a bit of the unhinged marketing approach, it will help you. It will force you to reach out to people. This means you can respond to comments, create interactive content like polls, and involve your audience by asking for responses. The big goal is to spark conversations and foster a sense of community around the trend, topic, or your brand.

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Now, off the top, I mentioned that this can go really right or really wrong. Let's buckle up, and I'll share a few stories where brands completely messed this up. So, here are some ways it can go wrong. I'll go through this list quickly. First, you can offend your audience. If you're spontaneous, unfiltered, chances are you'll offend somebody. Everyone seems to be offended by something. Frankly, I think that's a good thing. If you're saying something that's worthy of offending people, you're saying something worthy of attention. You can risk coming across as inauthentic or trying too hard. If your brand isn't genuinely humorous, don't try to be funny. If you're not funny, don't try to be relatable if you're not relatable. Don't try to be spontaneous if you're not spontaneous. This comes down to brand values, voice, perception, and strategy. You want to embrace this true to yourself. And what are the costs of this? Well, you can damage your reputation, lose customers, or turn people off, which may mean you're gaining other people. That can be kind of neutral. You can pick up a bunch of negative media coverage, which could play the wrong way. But here are a few examples of where people didn't do this great. Let's look at Duolingo. Duolingo is the language learning app. Now, this app has used unhinged marketing to inject itself into places where it has no business being. It's quirky, memorable, and done well on TikTok. Their most successful TikTok clip, playing on a riff of Dua Lipa, got almost 40 million views. But here's where it went wrong. The brand took a hit when they pulled a clip of Katy Perry from 2010 when she got covered in green slime at the Kids' Choice Awards. Duolingo's brand colors are green, and it's an owl. They made a joke suggesting Katy Perry getting covered in green slime was the owl ejaculating on her sexually. I hope I'm using the right words. Without being crude, do you understand what I mean? But that seemed to cross the line for a lot of people. They had to apologize and do a lot of damage control. They offended many people after getting 40 million views with the Dua Lipa pop song. Sometimes being unfiltered and edgy means you'll miss the mark. I would never have been comfortable making that joke. I don't even know if I'd think of it if I worked for them. But this is what they're doing. So, with success comes risks.

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Okay, that was Duolingo. Let's look at another brand that maybe didn't do this well. Burger King. They attempted unhinged marketing, but it backfired when they posted a tweet sarcastically taking on a campaign to promote scholarships for female employees. What did they write? This is a quote: "Women belong in the kitchen." Hmm, that didn't go well. I don't know what they were thinking, why they thought it would be funny. I guess they were trying to appeal to the 17 to 21-year-old boy culture, bro culture. I don't really understand why they did this. But it didn't go over well. A lot of people found it outdated and misogynistic. There was a huge backlash, especially because it went out on International Women's Day. Yikes, let's not do that. Let's agree that we won't make those kinds of mistakes. Those are just two quick examples, but there are many more out there. If you Google "unhinged marketing mistakes," you'll probably have as much fun as I did on this.

 You might be asking, "Is this even worth the risk? How can I do a risk analysis or cost-benefit analysis to determine if this is something I should approach?" As I mentioned earlier, you don't have to fully embrace unhinged marketing. Most brands don't. But there are lessons to learn from it. Here's a simple breakdown to help you decide if this is something you want to pursue. 

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 **Step 1:** Define your goals. Just like any campaign or strategy, you need to define your goals. What does success look like for you? Are you trying to increase brand visibility, strengthen customer relationships, improve reputation, or boost sales? Your goals will guide your decision-making process. 

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 **Step 2:** Understand your audience. Where are they? What platforms do they use? Do they like this type of content? What's their age and sense of humor? Unhinged marketing is about being unfiltered, but as we saw with some examples, everyone has a different sense of what's appropriate. You need to understand your audience's preferences.

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 **Step 3:** Calculate the total cost. Tracking trends, deciding which ones to respond to, crafting authentic responses, and staying on top of comments in real-time takes effort and time. You'll need to calculate a budget for this approach and tie it back to your goals.

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 **Step 4:** List potential benefits. Look beyond the risks and consider the rewards. Brand awareness, audience engagement, customer acquisition, and differentiation from competitors are all potential benefits.

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 **Step 5:** Consider the risks. Identify the downsides and what could go wrong. But remember, doing nothing is also a risk in business. Compare the potential risks against the potential rewards.

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 **Step 6:** Compare costs and benefits. Weigh the costs, potential benefits, and risks against each other. If you're comfortable with your analysis, make a decision to move forward or not.

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So, let's wrap things up with a three-point roundup.

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**Point 1:** Authenticity and relatability matter. Brands need to feel real and authentic, and unhinged marketing with its candid and offbeat content can help humanize your brand and build more meaningful connections.

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 **Point 2:** Risk can lead to reward. Unhinged marketing can be high-risk, high-reward. If you're willing to play that game, it might be right for you.

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 **Point 3:** Unhinged marketing isn't one-size-fits-all. This approach won't work for every brand, industry, or audience. It tends to resonate more with a younger, social media-savvy audience and might be better suited for B2C rather than B2B. However, the core principles of authenticity, creativity, boldness, and engagement can be applied to any marketing strategy in any business.

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