Don't read this email

Every Friday, we share strategies to help you level up your sales, marketing, and lead gen.

This week, Katie shares a counter-intuitive approach to attention grabbing ads.

Enjoy 👇

One of my favorite holiday ads I saw this year was by Patreon, featuring the great comic, Stavros Halkias, with a marketing strategy I don’t see often nowadays:

Reverse Psychology. 

The ad consisted of Halkias playing a mob boss version of Santa Claus, imploring the viewer to NOT gift patron this year, because Christmas is about material goods, not digital communities.

The Santa character is portrayed as a bad-mouthed, angry boss, with elves who try to stop online shopping and gift giving from large companies. He tells listeners that things need to go back to the way things were when it was just Santa (the original same-day deliverer).

It ends with Santa saying with an Italian accent, “Remember, boys and girls, I know where you live,” and big text that reads “ DON’T GIFT PATREON” with the ‘don’t’ in smaller font.

It’s funny, but it also taps into a customer’s curiosity and their psychological reactance.

Psychological reactance often happens when reverse psychology occurs. 

It’s a state of motivation when one perceives their behavioral freedoms to be limited or eliminated. It triggers a need to restore autonomy and often leads to the action that was initially discouraged.

In other words, people want to do what you tell them not to. 

Another very notable reverse psychology ad is from the 2011 Patagonia campaign (over 14 years ago, but it’s still talked about).

They had an ad in the New York Times that urged customers to think twice before buying, to buy only what they need, and to choose high-quality threads, with a photo of a Patagonia jacket that read “Don’t Buy This Jacket.”

The unexpected headline drew the attention of the readers as well as showcased the brand’s commitment to sustainability. Two birds, one stone.

And customers unknowingly began wanting to do the thing they were told not to do. 

This psychology trick really works.

For Patagonia, sales figures reached $10 million after the campaign, which was quadruple their estimates.

It’s shock value, it’s curiosity, it’s reactance. 

When it comes to B2B sales, reverse psychology can be used in advertising campaigns, in a personal thought leader's LinkedIn rants, or anywhere else people tune in.

If begging for customers or listeners isn’t working, maybe pushing them away might.

Instead of us saying, “Orbit Marketing will write you a perfect done-for-you newsletter.”

We could write, “If you can write a perfect weekly newsletter by yourself, steer clear of Orbit Marketing.”

It adds humor, and it makes the reader eager to learn more. 

Above all else, it’s surprising. And people like being surprised.

So, if your audience isn’t listening, tell them to cover their ears.

Uno Reverse!

–Katie