If you haven’t watched the Ashley Madison documentary on Netflix, stop everything and watch it now!

Happy Monday! So on Saturday morning I sat down to research topics for today’s newsletter but as a recovering procrastinator (and I say recovering very loosely here), I ended up going on Netflix 🙈. The upside is that this otherwise bad habit led me to a very interesting deep dive into behavioral psychology which is what we marketers are really - lifelong students of human behavior.

There are so many shocking things about that Ashley Madison (AM) documentary but what I can’t shake off is the marketing genius of it! So let’s get into the marketing lessons:

1. Know your audience and know them well: I think this was the most fascinating thing about AM. How well they understood their audience. They understood men and women well enough to know that a man had the income and societally men spend money to get women’s attention while women do not spend money for male attention so they knew to charge men and have women join for free. Also in their marketing messages and adverts, you could see how well they understood men's psychology vs women's. In one ad targeting women they portrayed a woman going on a date and the guy she was on a date with was a douche and the message was imagine this for the rest of your life - that def raises a lot of emotion and if someone can relate because they have a douchy husband well then they would def think twice about joining the site because they are offering you a solution. Do you know your audience - no really, do you? What are their fears, likes, and personality types, what would attract their attention?
2. Your audience doesn’t exist in a vacuum - what cultural and societal nuances influence your audience?: AM went on to launch in 15 different countries and their messages changed in every culture they operated in. The message they had in the US / Canada was “Life is short, have an affair” while in India “Your parents arranged your marriage, let us arrange your affair” These are basically the same message but delivered in context. What are the cultural nuances influencing your audience and how can you make sure you deliver your message in context?
3. Creativity is a highly valuable skill: I see many times companies hiring marketing teams based on their degrees and analytical prowess but little value is put in the creative people - these are the people you need in your marketing team. You need people who will think outside the box, be unorthodox, and help you stand out. AM was a difficult product to sell and they faced a lot of barriers and restrictions but they got creative and still managed to get out there without advertising.
4. This one pains me to say but unfortunately good or bad, publicity is still publicity: As a goody two shoes, I struggle with negative publicity but AM proved the old adage that bad publicity is still publicity. AM was receiving a lot of backlash and was restricted from advertising anywhere - instead of seeing this as an obstacle they took it as an opportunity and embraced being bad fully. They then chose to use PR as their weapon and went on all the talk shows they could get on because they knew that the talk shows would 100% take the bait for views and they would have, well, views - it was a win-win and a very brilliant one. The lesson for me here isn’t that you should ruin your reputation but I think for me it liberates me a bit because as marketers and business owners, we are so afraid of saying the wrong thing which hinders us from being creative and trying new things or being unorthodox. Sometimes you have to take a risk - and big risks can equal big rewards. We fear we’ll lose customers and sales if we get bad press but AM proved that as long as you are serving the right audience, you won’t suffer too much - this kinda takes the pressure off of being perfect - if you make a mistake, you can get out of it and you will learn from it.
5. Marketing is all about trial and error: One thing AM did was try everything - every idea they had, they put it out there and learned. This is the secret to marketing - that there is no secret formula and you need to try shit and learn what works for you.

Last but not least: Marketing is a special job - you rarely find your answers sitting on your desk - the answers are out in the world - even on Netflix - so if you want to be a good marketer go outside and watch TV 😉 😜

Have you watched the Ashley Madison story on Netflix? Have I left out any lessons? Would love to hear from you.

My favorite things this week:

Book: Not Nice - If you are struggling with people pleasing, creating boundaries, or speaking up for yourself at work or in relationships I recommend this book. It’s a little long-winded for my liking but def has some gems.

Song: Slowly - Ochiko. Add this to your chill vibes playlist

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P.S: Great satisfaction comes from sharing with others 💜

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