We're Going To Need A Bigger Bait
Amy Francombe writing in Vogue Business on the rise of rage bait in fashion marketing:
"You need to create more and more extreme things in order to be picked up by the algorithm. Brands are content factories and the algorithm is teaching them what to put online," says strategy executive Ana Andjelic, who is hosting an upcoming day summit, Tasteful, exploring how brands can build cultural capital and lasting relevance. "Consumer attention is now bought, and which brand has the most money buys the most attention. But attention is like fast food, it's all empty calories that leaves you hungry. Everyone is left wanting more in this scenario, without ever feeling full."[...]
"Rage bait is synonymous with the era. We live in really fast times, and people are always looking for a quick outcome," says Gabe Whaley, founder and CEO of 10-year-old artist collective Mschf, known for provocative projects that get people talking, from its Big Red Boots to its Satan Shoes collaboration with Lil Nas X. "Engineering rage bait is the laziest approach. It's the least work for the highest ROI of any sort of marketing."
This is the inelasticity of attention shaping what gets made. There's no more time to go round, so the response is to become harder to ignore.
More things. Bigger reactions. Bigger bait.
The article continues:
Rage bait may be a distinctly 21st century term, but the commercial logic behind it is centuries old. Cyberethnographer and author of upcoming book In Defence of Being-On-Line Ruby Justice Thelot traces its roots to the rise of mass media in the 19th century, when cheap, sensational entertainment emerged to serve a rapidly expanding audience — from Britain's penny dreadfuls, which were cheaply produced, sensational fiction sold for a penny, to the scandalous and often politically provocative Grub Street pamphlets.What has changed, Thelot argues, is the technology delivering that content and, with it, the number of things competing for our attention. Fashion's audience has expanded dramatically, and the way we encounter it has been transformed by social media and the feed. "In the '90s, a spread in a magazine allowed you to tell a story," says Thelot. "Now, the image that you spend thousands of dollars making is right next to an amazing comedian, a funny cat video, and your best friend's engagement. You're competing against so many things that people feel the need to shock in order to capture that attention."
But not all attention is created equal. A reaction isn't proof anyone wants what you're making.
Do they want the thing, or do they just want to join the argument? Participation is a hell of a drug!
Whaley sees an opening:
"What a grand opportunity we find ourselves in, where the baseline is so low and everything sucks so much. It doesn't take much now to just make something really good," says Whaley. The difficulty is resisting the incentives that make that harder."That level of cognitive discipline is just going to be really tough for most people," he continues. "It requires setting aside your short-term attention span and your short-term incentives to focus a little bit longer term while everyone else is busy getting attention."
One response to attention scarcity is to become better at engineering outrage.
Another is to stop competing for everyone's attention.
Otherwise you risk becoming very good at making bait for people who never wanted the thing.