Paid Advertising vs. Organic Posts
I’m sure you know what paid advertising is because you’ve probably experienced it at least once today. And if you’re like me, you’ll see them all over the place. Paid ads refer to advertisements that are paid by a brand to promote their product/service on a certain social media platform. These ads can target specific audiences, such as people who attend Rhode Island Comic Con, or young adults who dine in Chicago. Organic posting refers to the regular content that a brand puts out on social media. This content is not being shown to a target audience, but rather to the general following of the account.
There are pros and cons to paid advertising. One obvious advantage is that it reaches a specific audience that you are hoping to bring on as consumers. It’s also much quicker and more direct than organic posting. The downside to all of this is, of course, it’s not free. It’s something that has to be budgeted and can easily be overspent. It’s another thing to worry about when planning a campaign or launch. Additionally, the targeted audience could get irritated seeing your ads over and over again (I know I do), so paid advertising will have to be carefully planned. I bet you can think of some right now that make you scroll away so fast.
But what about the ads that are wildly successful?
I remember watching this ad before the Superbowl and being so distraught over Mr. Peanut’s death. Mind you, I have never in my life thought about Mr. Peanut until that moment but there I was, mourning the death of a personified peanut. It was so random with just enough what the hell did I just watch that it caused a wild storm on Twitter. His death was actually announced the week before on social media, garnishing enough time for people to react and make memes before seeing this ad.
What really makes this an incredible campaign is this commercial that aired during the Superbowl:
I specifically remember the words “Omg is that a baby peanut!? It’s so cute!” coming out of my mouth. I went from grieving Mr. Peanut to celebrating a new life. The very definition of emotional whiplash. And then the second-to-last line, “Just kidding, I’m back.” Mr. Peanut is not dead! All is well again in the world.
I think this campaign was so successful for a number of reasons. For one, a long-living brand killed off its iconic mascot. A tragedy in 30 seconds. Humans are drawn to stories about major events, like death, birth, heartbreak, etc. Playing on those emotions evoked just what the brand wanted.
Not only was it drastically sudden, but it was a risky move. Why kill off a crucial part of your identity? “For the sake of good television.” Incredible. The company also said it was a play on how people mourn fictional characters, as it piggy-backed on the very recent death of Iron Man.
BREAKING NEWS- I just looked up Baby Nut and found a video that Planters released on Twitter in August 2020 about Baby Nut turning 21. This is wilder than I thought.
I am just as perplexed, James.
At the end of every year, premium subscribers on Spotify receive a playlist with analytics of which songs and types of music they listened to that year. There is a short animation that shares those statistics and then it becomes sharable to different social networks. Millions of people then become unpaid advertising for Spotify as they share their playlists with others. Spotify also advertised random people’s Spotify Wrapped playlists or cumulative user data on not only social media but gigantic electronic billboards.
This is an ingenious way for Spotify to invest a little bit of money in paid advertising in order to receive A LOT of free advertising. This is really outside the box and it’s fantastic. It engages their audience because they will either look for their playlist themselves, or someone will see that their friend has posted theirs on Insta so it reminds them to go look for their own.
Spotify has been doing this since 2015, and now many people look forward to reviewing their year through music.
What are some of your favorite social media campaigns?
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