Content Yin: When Marketing Makes You Loathe

In the world of online marketing, everyone is hyper-focused on measuring the effectiveness of advertisements and other marketing content from a positive angle (page views, clicks, time on page, conversions, etc.), but are we all missing something? Something that is potentially hugely important. Namely, the potential for content to actually make people actively dislike a brand. The invisible Yin to the visible Yang, if you will.

Basically, does some marketing content not just fail to promote a brand, but actually make you loathe it? I’m talking ‘swear out loud and throwing a brick at the screen when you see the content again’ type loathe. I don't just mean content that contains things that would obviously annoy swathes of people, like political slants and such, but more subtle stuff. For example, content that makes implied assumptions about how you 'should' view the world and society, or that simply insults your intelligence.

I’m bringing this up because, recently, I’ve noticed that more and more content is actually inducing me to feel what I can only describe as “palpable disdain” for certain brands. I won’t name and shame here because, well, I don’t want to get into lengthy arguments - and it might just be that I’m turning into a miserable old git. But, let’s assume that I’m not, just for a moment. Let’s just consider the possibility that, in an online environment so saturated with advertisements and marketing content, there’s stuff we don’t like. I mean, really don’t like. Content that is foisted on us but gets right under our skin and makes us want to set things on fire.

The thing is, how do we measure it? The kind of content I’m talking about probably will engage. You may well be drawn to read it, and even click - in the same way that you stop to look at roadkill, even though it disgusts you (we all do that… right?). Or, in the same way you end up watching certain TikTok drivel, even though you know it’s going to set you off on an hour-long rant about how we now live in a real-life version of the movie Idiocracy.

The point is, yes, this kind of content will engage, and be measured as such, but the engagement is actually fostering outright toxicity towards that brand. This isn't just true in the world of marketing content either. Over the past few years, we've seen huge businesses like Netflix, Amazon, and Disney fall into this trap when it comes to the content produced for their streaming platforms. By using analytical services that lump positive and negative engagement into the same metric, they've ended up producing hugely unpopular (but still hugely expensive) shows - all the time fooling themselves into thinking they are giving their customers what they want.

Seemingly, the only ways to measure this negative engagement phenomenon would be to either conduct frequent large-sample surveys or to track the rise and fall of brands over a long time - neither of which will provide the real-time data needed by today's decision-makers.

Of course, one of the first truths of running any marketing campaign, or any business for that matter, is that you can’t please everyone, so you shouldn’t even try. And, in truth, there’s always been annoying ads and marketing content. However, I can’t help but feel that the way that content is now highly targeted, makes such content feel more intrusive. Maybe, deep down, we feel insulted that the mysterious algorithms assumed we’d like such rubbish.

Is there anything that can be done? On one hand, yes. I do believe, as I’ve explained before, that the overall standard of content is rapidly diminishing (something that may either be addressed or exacerbated by the rise of AI), which is no doubt fueling this issue. On the other hand, the increasingly targeted and personal nature of content will inevitably mean that it has more potential to annoy.

But, perhaps, online marketers should learn from streaming services and be more aware that content can be a double-edged sword.