Controversy Creates Cash — How You Can Use Outrage to Make Money

“Controversy creates cash.”

This is a term that has always resonated with me. I remember first hearing it used on TV around ten years ago. These days people are more sensitive to controversy than ever, particularly as social media has expanded, so it has never been more relevant

Controversy is often manufactured by businesses to generate a buzz. They go out of their way to offend people who aren’t their target market in order to gain a platform. That exposure then attracts more of their target market and, in theory, will get them to look into their products and services.

Of course, there’s such a thing as bad controversy and good controversy. You need to leverage the right type of controversy to make sure you generate a buzz with the right market, but without upsetting your own demographic.

Let’s take a look at some of the ways in which you can create cash with controversy.

Is this Moral or Ethical?

We have to discuss whether controversy-based marketing is moral or ethical. Obviously, that depends on the person.

The answer is in 90% of cases manufactured controversy is neither moral nor ethical. You’re essentially making people angry and upsetting people to make money. That’s how you can describe controversy marketing.

And this is especially the case if that campaign is offensive to you personally but you’re running it anyway.

Squeaky clean companies don’t run controversy-based marketing campaigns, generally. It creates too much divisiveness.

But history shows us it can work incredibly well. So for the purposes of this article, I’m going to be playing the role of the complete bastard who doesn’t care about any of that.

Case Studies on How to Leverage Controversy

First of all, I think it’s helpful to look at how businesses have used it in the past, so we have a better understanding of how it works beyond just the theory.

Paddy Power — Gambling

I originally got the idea to write this article when I saw English soccer team Huddersfield Town with a huge gambling company sponsorship across their sports jersey.

The company in question, Paddy Power, is well-known for pulling these stunts. The sponsorship is like a huge beauty pageant sash with their name on it. It covers most of the jersey and Huddersfield has already played pre-season games with this jersey.

Now, the controversy comes from the fact that you’re only able to have 250 square centimetres of advertising on the front of the shirt.

You’re telling me that neither the betting company or the team was aware of this? Of course they were and of course they’re not going to start the season in that jersey.

But Paddy Power is now in every newspaper and on every soccer website.

More than half of all English soccer teams are sponsored by betting companies. Only one betting company is now getting exposure for the next week. Sure, they’ll pay a fine, but they’ll probably make more money than they actually pay in the long-term.

Go Daddy — Web Hosting

Let’s look at a second example.

Go Daddy is a web hosting firm. They’ve changed up their brand, but if we look at their early days they commonly used highly sexist and offensive ads to get their name in every news outlet possible.

They flaunted female sexuality because that’s popular with their core demographic of younger men. I don’t need stats to tell you that most web hosts are serving a younger to middle-aged male demographic.

Which demographic was most upset with their sexist ads? Women, which aren’t their core demographic.

So they built a huge brand by upsetting people who weren’t their core demographic. Unsurprisingly, Go Daddy is now one of the largest, most profitable web hosts in North America.

Donald Trump — Politics

Say what you want about Donald Trump, but he’s a master of dominating the media. He dominates everything from social media to traditional TV news broadcasts.

He did it before the election and he continues to do it today.

The things the Republican Party say are aimed squarely at their base. Trump is a master of knowing what to say to his base, whether it’s on Twitter or at one of his rallies.

Sure, a lot of people are furious at him. Yet with every outburst of anger, he continues to dominate the media. The people who’re vocally offended, generally, are those who wouldn’t vote for him anyway.

But, quietly, his base is applauding. And so they’ll continue to vote for him. So Trump is getting what he wants out of the exercise.

These are just three examples of companies and brands that have manufactured controversy to gain more exposure than they would have otherwise gotten. The key is the people they upset weren’t the people they’re targeting in the first place. In fact, the people they’re targeting like it.

What’s the Difference Between Good Controversy and Bad Controversy?

Good controversy is not upsetting your target demographic, getting exposure, and making sure the results are bigger than the consequences. It’s as simple as that.

Bad controversy is upsetting your own target market, receiving heavy blowback from that target market, and ultimately damaging the perception of your brand amongst the people you’re going after.

But there’s also a caveat to that.

Let’s look at all this business with Facebook. This week the FTC fined Facebook $5 billion for its role in the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Granted, this wasn’t a manufactured controversy it just happened.

Let’s analyse it.

They’d already costed the $5 billion fine (for the most part) into their financial plans. From a consequence standpoint, nothing happened. And we don’t even know, truly, how much they were paid for being involved in the first place, along with the value of the data they managed to scrape.

From a brand standpoint, Facebook is almost universally seen as the big bad social media company. Their brand perception has been further shot to pieces.

So was this bad controversy?

The answer is no. That might shock some people, but you have to look at Facebook’s position to understand why.

They were already known as the big bad social media company. The amount of money in fines is pitiful. It won’t make a dent in their plans.

And people aren’t going to leave Facebook for a competitor because there’s no like-for-like competitor. For the exact product they offer, there’s no competition. They have a monopoly.

Facebook was entirely greedy and just wanted to make more money, but there’s little actual downside for them.

Take note, things could change if this prevents Facebook from now launching its new cryptocurrency Libra. Then it becomes bad controversy, but for now Facebook has profited greatly from this whole saga. They’ve got away with it.

How Can You Effectively Incorporate Controversy Into Your Marketing Plan?

Manufactured controversy has the potential for great rewards. It also has the potential for great damage. It’s really a fine line and it’s not going to be right for every business.

However, if you do want to incorporate it into your marketing plan, you need to go about it the right way.

Know Your Demographic

I can’t stress how crucial it is to know everything there is to know about your ideal customer. You need to know their ages, their genders, where they’re likely to live, their socioeconomic profiles, and their habits.

It takes months and years to build up an accurate depiction of your target market.

The reason you need to know this is so you can give them something that isn’t going to upset them. People outside your demographics don’t matter. You can make them cry all day as long as it keeps giving you exposure.

Use Social Media

The average business does not have the money to create controversy on TV and at major events.

The one arena where everyone has an opportunity is social media. Blowing up social media with something offensive is easier than ever these days. It’s why so many companies do offensive Tweets and offensive Instagram posts.

Don’t believe them when they say they misjudged something. They knew what they were doing. They’re either a bunch of liars or a bunch of morons.

Understand the Consequences

Take note you may be breaking the rules if you go too controversial. Companies accept fines all the time for illegal advertising and offensive marketing.

And they pay those fines happily because their returns were bigger.

Are you in a professional association where you could be fined for saying something? Is that fine worth less than what you expect to get back from that marketing campaign?

If the answer’s yes, then go right ahead.

Using a Controversial Marketing Campaign in Action

Here’s how I would do it.

We’re going to assume I run a fictional clothing firm that specialises in sports, cars, and other stereotypical guy things. I sell casual clothing to young people between the ages of 18 and 30. I know those people are mainly male and they’re of a strongly Republican mindset. I also know most of my sales are happening in places like Texas, Florida, and the Midwest.

Yes, politics matter more than ever in the US, which is why I would want to know this.

My customers love sports like football and NASCAR. They love hot women, they love cars, and they love guns.

In this case, their socioeconomic background is unimportant because I’m selling low-cost apparel.

Take note you do have to stereotype and generalise your customers based on data. That’s how you get the ideal customer profile.

How would I incorporate controversy into this business?

I attack it with a number of ideas:

1. The Sex Appeal Campaign

I find the hottest woman in my area to model my clothes. I make it as racy as humanly possible because sex sells and that’s what my customers are into.

I go extra racy by maybe having her lifting a t-shirt so she’s showing part of her breast without the nipple. The brand hasn’t done anything pornographic but it’s done something totally sexist and over the top.

People decry my business as sexist. They’re disgusted. It starts to get shared on social media.

But my target market loves it. The people who hate it would have never bought some NASCAR shirt from me in the first place.

So their anger only fuels my marketing campaign. I don’t care what they think because their value to the business was $0 to begin with.

2. The Political Campaign

Everyone knows that you have to be extremely careful about going into politics when you’re a business. For most companies, they shouldn’t even go there.

But in my case, I know my demographic is mainly living in hard Republican states and mainly vote Republican.

So I take advantage of the highly charged political climate of now. I post controversial Trump quotes. I post his face in memes on social media. If my demographic is strongly Republican, I take advantage of that and I post things about today’s “Send them Back!” controversy that has been making the rounds.

I then take those posts and I ram them into Liberal hashtags on Twitter and Instagram.

What’s going to happen?

A huge explosion is going to happen. My posts are going to get more traction. People are going to be furious.

But my base isn’t. My target demographic is delighted.

They’ve now found a company where they can think, “This is a company that believes what I do.” and “This is a company that has the same values as me.” and “This is a company I would love to support.”

Suddenly, they’re more likely to buy a t-shirt.

Trump made a bunch on MAGA hats for a reason.

And if you run a business where most of your target market is Liberal, votes Democrat, and is residing in California and New York you can turn this completely on its head. The point is you’re only upsetting the people who would never have anything to do with you anyway.

You’re gaining value from perpetually $0 value customers.

3. Attacking Current Events

Do you remember the Pepsi ad from 2017 with Kendall Jenner?

In that ad, there’s a faceoff between protesters and police. Kendall Jenner walks out and offers one of the police officers a Pepsi and the situation is resolved. Hallelujah!

But this ad received five times more downvotes on YouTube than upvotes. It also generated 1.6 million views in just a few hours. The ad was then later pulled and Pepsi issued an apology.

This was just after Trump was inaugurated and protesting was still a huge thing.

Pepsi made the mistake of trivialising a serious situation. Their product was aimed heavily at young people, yet they essentially made a mockery of something young people tend to be interested in.

Great idea and intention, but terrible execution.

The point is that businesses can use current events in their marketing to garner some of that heavily charged atmosphere. You don’t necessarily have to take sides, but you can poke fun at something.

So what could you do to create controversy in this situation?

I would make a simple black t-shirt with white lettering that says “Go Home!”. I would then post that on social media with, “What do you think about my new design?”

And thus the Internet explodes. But my base loves it.

If I’m feeling really ballsy and I get hugely positive feedback, I print that t-shirt and make money from that controversy directly.

Companies Know What they’re Doing

Don’t be fooled when a company apologises for something they did. In most cases, they likely had the prepared statement ready before they even launched their offensive campaign.

They know what they’re doing. It’s important to look at how companies act with a critical high.

The corporate apology always comes out when there’s too much heat or their campaign has met its target.

Ethical? Not at all. Moral? Hell no. Effective? Definitely.

What do you think of controversy-based marketing?