Honest marketing is the future of marketing
Source: Elon Musk’s Twitter
We’ve all seen Ryan Reynolds’ ad that kept us hooked on his videos, and had us sit through the entire one-minute-long ad.
And we’ve also seen how Elon Musk didn’t use any form of marketing to sell his tequilas and flamethrowers, and yet people are still willing to buy them.
While when we see ads on YouTube or Instagram, we tend to skip nearly everything and are not convinced to buy any of them. Influencers might help, but that alone isn’t enough to convince people to buy your products.
Why is that?
It’s not because Ryan Reynolds and Elon Musk are the most influential people on earth (even though they now are).
There are other influential people out there like Bill Gates, but he didn’t have the same power as them when he tried to convince people to get vaccinated. One look at Bill Gates’ YouTube and Instagram comment sections can pretty much sum up how people view him.
So what did Ryan Reynolds and Elon Musk do that made them so convincing that we are willing to open our wallets for the products they offer?
Remember, the point of marketing is to get people to remember your product — and you.
In this article, I’m going to break down how people like them managed to get us hooked on their marketing without breaking a sweat, and how you can use this method in a product you want to advertise.
1. The power of genuine honesty
The title is self-explanatory; being genuinely honest is the best way to tell others about your product.
With this approach, the advertising feels honest, instead of sugar-coating the item, and waiting until the person gets the product and it's half of what they expected. By being honest, you are not forcing someone to buy your product. There’s genuine empathy by doing this.
Their ‘whys’ aren’t like those cheesy ads you see every day: “Why you should buy this,” or “You should buy this...”. Fake gurus and obnoxious influencers do this a lot; that’s why it’s getting annoying to see them.
Honest marketing just goes right to the point, telling the true purpose of why they should buy it. Most have nothing to do with why the product is awesome, but by being downright truthful, this means they really get out of their ‘professionalism’ for the sake of honesty.
And of course, you must have courage in order to tell this much truth to the public.
For instance, remember the time Burger King told us to buy from McDonald's and their other competitors?
“We never thought we’d be asking you to do this, but restaurants employing thousands of staff really need your support at the moment.” — Burger King’, 2020.
The ad immediately went viral after the post, and I’m sure you’ve seen this a lot on social media. Burger King and other restaurants did not release their sales update after this post, but it did win the hearts of many people online and was the trending topic of the week.
The post was self-deprecating and genuinely honest. It told nothing about the product but the reality behind it. They really stepped out of their professionalism in order to save some people from being unemployed.
This may be a little unprofessional to do, but the responses from the people said otherwise, and I think it’s safe to say that they achieved their goal of earning money as well.
🔍 Related: Content marketers may go ‘counter-intuitive’ in 2022
2. ‘Self-deprecating’ is the best way to connect
The best example of being self-deprecating is Conan O’Brien. He always made fun of himself and didn’t care if he would look ridiculous — so long as people laughed.
While some may think that self-deprecating jokes are a way to conceal someone’s insecurities, it’s actually doing the opposite. It’s a way to lift people up and have a laugh with you.
It’s why Conan’s travel shows and Clueless Gamer got more views than his interviews with celebrities — and are so memorable.
His technique of self-deprecation is used in honest marketing as well, where companies really go out of their way to tell the behind-the-scenes story of the products.
An example of this is a game trailer called The Outer Worlds 2. Last July, during the E3 conference, their trailer’s narrative had nothing to do with the storyline of the game.
Instead, the narrator went literal on the game:
“Now, we see our hero, but only their silhouette, because the developers haven’t finished the design or finished the story.
Or finished any gameplay that’s actually ready to show. In fact, the only thing they have finished… is the title.”
(Screenshot taken from the trailer)
Do you see how it has nothing to do with the game plot as most gameplay would do? They were making fun of their own developers — and while you may fear that people would diss them as well, the responses were the opposite. No one was dissing the developers. They were praised for their honesty.
The response to this trailer was received positively. In fact, when I was watching the E3 press conference, where I’d usually skip to the games I’m not interested in, with The Outer Worlds 2, I actually sat through the entire trailer and that became the most memorable game trailer I’ve ever watched.
3. Be very specific on the honesty
If you noticed the words of The Outer Worlds’ honest marketing, they were being literally specific in their advertisement. They literally describe everything, specific to the product, to the point they can’t make up any BS.
And because of that, sometimes it becomes absurdly funny to the point that it’s memorable.
“It seems we may never know what 5G is, so we’re just going to give it away with every plan until we can figure that out” — Ryan Reynolds
This 30-second ad got 3.8 million views and still counting. Ryan was being truthful when he said he didn’t understand the technicality of it.
We as customers expect that the CEO should understand their own product, and we’d call them out if they don’t even understand their own. But in Ryan’s case, he flat out told us that he himself didn’t understand this and would give them out for free as some sort of ‘compensation’.
As you can see here, because it’s so technical, it’s hard to actually force words of positivity to the ad. Thus, making the ad funny and memorable.
Conclusion
I think the basic point here is to pretty much ‘be honest’ and ‘humble’. Sure, your product might not be the best in the world, or you’ve got other competitors up to your nose, but being straight-up honest is pretty much the best way to get people’s attention.
To recap the techniques of ‘honest marketing’, the best way is to be:
Genuinely honest
Self-deprecating
Very specific to the point you can’t BS it
In a way, everything starts with you. Are you willing to embody all those traits? To be down-to-earth, humble, and genuine with your marketing, instead of telling how great your product is?
Would you be willing to be this truthful and honest about your product? Because a brand being really self-deprecating is rare to see nowadays — but when we do see it, it’s a rare gem.
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