If you’ve been on the internet in the last year or follow pop culture, you’ve likely seen at least a few ads that stopped you in your tracks. Perhaps it referenced very sensitive issues. Perhaps it used crude humor. Perhaps it started a controversy. Modern audiences often call this ragebait marketing.
As a crypto company, it’s important not just to be aware of ragebait marketing, but also to consider how it applies to your marketing. Should you embrace it? Are there benefits to it? We cover all of this and more.
What is Ragebait Crypto marketing?
First, let’s explain what ragebait marketing is. Simply put, ragebait marketing is a form of marketing that leverages ragebait. Ragebait, in short, is any action, speech, or concept deliberately engineered to enrage people. As the name implies, it baits the audience or receiver into outrage. Ragebait means making a joke you know will offend people or using imagery you know people are sensitive to, and so on. But why would people engage in ragebait marketing?
The simple truth is that ragebait is effective. Rage is one of the most potent human emotions, and when people are enraged, they are paying attention. The worst public response to your marketing is apathy, and rage is the opposite. Crypto marketing can use ragebait, though its benefits are debated.
How Ragebait Can Be Used in Crypto Marketing
If you want to engage in ragebait crypto marketing, how would you do it? There are several ways.
Using a Controversial Figure: This is one of the easiest ways to ragebait an audience: get a public figure who is generally disliked or is very polarizing and feature them in marketing. Think of the recent Sydney Sweeney ad following her previous controversy with American Eagle. The actress has become a lightning rod for controversy in the last few years, and including her in any ad is sure to get people talking, whether positively or negatively.
A crypto marketing strategy can do the same by choosing controversial figures outside the Web3 space; if nothing else, people will stop and pay attention because how could a company use them in its promotion?
Using Controversial Imagery: Marketing efforts and commercials have courted controversy for decades, with some being taken off the air or even damaging reputations. Using imagery people are sensitive to, such as religious imagery, political imagery, NSFW topics, and so on, is a way to get them talking. The shock value of using it at all, and even more attention, can come from using it in an especially clever or provocative way.
Putting Out a Controversial Product or Service: Sometimes, the ragebait isn’t what the product is being used to advertise. For example, if a company releases a product that helps people hack into others’ crypto wallets, it will gain a lot of attention simply because of how controversial it is. Even if the ad itself isn’t very engaging, the product concept is.
Benefits of Ragebait Marketing
Like anything in commerce, a ragebait crypto marketing strategy has some benefits; otherwise, no companies would use it. And there are a few benefits.
- Attention: This is the most obvious benefit of ragebait marketing. People pay attention to brands that successfully beat them into being offended or angry. Think of choruses of angry tweets. Petitions to remove the ad. Reports to official bodies. Articles report the outrage, then the response, and so on. Ragebait marketing, if done well, can expose a business far beyond its initial reach and put it at the forefront of consumers’ minds.
- Sales and Profits: Attention often leads to purchases. If someone becomes aware of your business through your ragebait marketing, they may genuinely look into what you offer and make a purchase. Some might even become lifelong customers. Interestingly, ragebait marketing can sometimes trigger a phenomenon where people engage with a brand in defiance because they support the ragebait or want to spite the people who are offended.
Cons of Ragebait Crypto Marketing
Ragebait crypto marketing can produce results, but it also has downsides to consider.
- A Negative Reputation: Marketing is unpredictable, and you cannot fully predict how people will respond or how long it will last. A minor ragebait campaign meant to bring short-term attention to your business could end up defining your entire identity. To this day, we associate some businesses with poorly done ragebait marketing campaigns. If you don’t want your business permanently associated with these kinds of efforts, you might want to avoid them.
- Diminishing Returns of Shock Value: The thing about kicking off a campaign or Web3 marketing strategy using ragebait is that you have to continuously keep it up. So you want to promote a new token using ragebait marketing. When you have a new token or project to launch, you have to top the previous one, and if you haven’t come up with unique ideas beyond ragebait, you will have to get more and more extreme and provocative. The problem is that the public soon gets tired of gimmicks and eventually stops paying attention. And as we’ve said, the worst response to the public and to your marketing efforts is apathy.
- Legal or Social Repercussions: A huge part of ragebait marketing is touching on subjects that people take very seriously or are sensitive about. While you would ideally want them to talk about your business in response, that may not happen. You cannot control how people will respond, and sometimes, they go the extra mile. This could mean reporting you to advertising bodies, religious bodies, and so on. Businesses have had their ads pulled, been fined, and faced even more severe consequences. When you ragebait, you could end up playing with fire.
Conclusion
Ragebait is not just an internet term, but now a bona fide marketing tactic. Each year, at least a few businesses receive tons of attention online and offline for their ads. Some say these ads were designed to raise the public, and perhaps they were. But from a crypto marketing perspective, ragebait is something to be very, very careful about. If you have an audience that might respond well to this or find it entertaining, it could work.
On the other hand, you have to plan for every worst-case scenario, decide how you will respond, and decide whether it’s even worth trying. If you’re still unsure about whether to pursue ragebait or not, reach out to us here at Preview to discuss your goals and how we can achieve them- rage, debate, marketing, or not.
