HAAS PARTY #12: Non-sponsored content
Making brands a part of our social media lives for... reasons?
Imagine that last night, you hosted a bachelor party for your best friend. You ordered in pizza from a cool local place, picked up burgers from a new pop-up, and you had tons of beer delivered from a micro-brewery. Everyone had an awesome time. Naturally, you share a photo of the party on Instagram. You then tag all your friends in the photo.
You also tag the brands: the pizza place, the burger pop-up, and the brewery.
The low-key celebration of your friend’s upcoming marriage has gone from a meaningful personal memory to some kind of sponsored content post — except it wasn’t sponsored. You paid for all of that stuff. Probably didn’t even get a discount.
You can stop imagining now because one, I’ve seen this happen fairly recently, and two, you can almost surely picture it happening in your own feed. Or maybe you’ve seen someone post a photo of a recent online purchase where their caption says something to the effect of, “thanks for the (item that was received in exchange for money), (insert brand name here)!”
I can’t help but wonder… why do we do this?
I say that as someone who posted a photo of his niche bike tagged with the makers of nearly every part on it. At a base level, this is free advertising. On a secondary level, maybe it makes us feel included? Are we showing off that we know and/or purchase from Cool Brands Only™? It’s inviting companies that mostly exist to market their products to you into your personal life. You’ve gone from being marketed to, to marketing for them. Okay, maybe it’s your friend’s company. Or maybe you’re really proud you spent $7,000 on a bike.
Brands and products were obviously in our lives well before social media came along, but now they seem like they are a major part of our lives. Maybe we tag them thinking that this is the one photo that’s going to make the brand give you a product for free, or at least a healthy discount. (Despite the fact that you can get 10-15% off many brands simply by putting your name on their email list.) Or maybe we are hoping to see our photo regrammed on the brand’s account which will give us a double dose of dopamine. If a brand does repost your photo, they then actually have used your photo as advertising for free. You get a dopamine hit, they get a little push to their followers in the middle of considering making a purchase. Then the cycle may well repeat itself.
As someone who works in advertising, I can confirm that, yes, brands very much do want you to tag them in any and all photos. You are now participating in advertising, but you are getting nothing out of it. No money. No residuals. No free product. No boost to your social status. The brands have everything to gain, you maybe get a brief and unquantifiable “happy” feeling. (This is all true unless you aspire to be an influencer, in which case, ew.)
I suggest we all stop doing the selling for them. We’re the consumers. We decide who gets our money. We have the oh-so-desired “purchase power.” Brands should be offering discounts or free product just to get us to even consider trying them out. (Ever had a free sample at the grocery store?) They are supposed to be coming to us and begging to be included in our lives, not the other way around.
Think of it this way: tagging brands in your Instagram photos is kinda like mailing your family Christmas card to the Amazon head office.
Personally, I don’t think Jeff Bezos is going to be opening it.
—Glengarry Glen Haas