Have you ever heard a sad anecdote, at the end of which you just want to ask: and in what place is there to laugh? This is where the offscreen laughter, widely used in Western TV shows and sitcoms, could help out! Such storytellers should be able to hire clappers who would laugh in the right place, like the way they applaud after pre-arranged scenes during a show, and not for free.
However, you can go the other way: master effective communication techniques, including with an audience, and learn how to tell entertaining stories, including to a large number of viewers. This is taught in our Storytelling and Best Communication Techniques courses .
One way or another, a product, including an intellectual one, needs to be promoted. And people have long been looking for ways to draw attention to what they produce. Let's talk about these methods.
In a nutshell, specially hired spectators - clakers - imitate the excitement of a performance or concert in various ways available to the audience. It can be applause, shouts of "Bravo!" and laughter in the right place, if the production is conceived as a comedy, and the audience is not really having fun. By the way, this is where the tradition of offscreen laughter began in the era of television, but we will talk about this in detail a little later.
Likewise, hired claqueurs can express various types of resentment - whistling, stamping their feet, insulting the performers. The first klaks and klakers appeared in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, where the traditions of public performances were developed. Ancient amphitheatres - semicircular buildings with an arena and stands for spectators - have survived to this day in many Mediterranean countries, with which the Greeks and Romans established trade relations and cultural exchanges.
According to widespread historical legend, the ancient Greek comedian Philemon of Syracuse (362-262) hired claqueters to boo productions of his direct rival, the comedian Menander. Due to the fact that Menander specialized in more sophisticated humor, which viewers with average intelligence did not always understand, the trick was completely successful.
Unsuspecting viewers received public support for their opinion that the comedy was not at all funny when they heard the disgruntled whistles and shouts of specially hired claqueters. And they no longer thought about the refinement of humor and their own development and perception of the production.
As a mass phenomenon, the clack spread in ancient Rome, and even the first persons of the state did not disdain to use the services of clackers. In particular, the Roman emperors Nero and Augustus. Later on, Italy held a leading position in the market for the provision of clerk services for a long time. The theater critic of the early 20th century, Vlas Doroshevich, described the clash of opera singer Fyodor Chaliapin with the Milanese clerk mafia in his essay Chaliapin in Mephistopheles.
The local clack, more like a racketeer in the modern sense, demanded money from Chaliapin to applaud his performance in the opera "Mephistopheles", which once failed at La Scala, performed by local stars. Chaliapin refused, sang superbly and was so warmly received by the audience that the attempts of the claqueurs to sow negativity in the auditorium were rebuffed by the audience themselves.
Clinging as a phenomenon turned out to be so tenacious that it migrated into the 21st century. Thus, a note about the activities of the klaka at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow even made it onto the pages of The New York Times. The article Wild Applause, Secretly Choreographed describes in detail, with names and photographs, the work of a team of claqueurs, acting in collusion with the Bolshoi Theater artists and providing them with applause and shouts of "Bravo" support.
Specifically, the production that was discussed in the article was very successful, and it was almost impossible to distinguish between sparkling applause and contractual ones. But if the training of the artists was weaker, they would not have been left without audience recognition. Most people are subject to the so-called "herd instinct", and seeing how others react to an event, they involuntarily join their reaction, positive or negative.
This is especially noticeable at events that require a certain intellectual potential for comprehension. Not everyone is capable of appreciating high art, and no one wants to look like a dark, uneducated person. Therefore, with a high degree of probability, the majority of spectators will join the applause at different ends of the hall.
It is difficult to judge how widespread claque-making is in the theaters of the world today. It seems that in the era of universal digitalization, any mass trend will quickly become well-known thanks to the truly inexhaustible possibilities of social networks and other electronic means of communication.
In view of the fact that major scandals with purchased applause are not so frequent, it can be assumed that clacking, similar to racketeering, has been replaced by claque haters who, for a certain reward, can bombard the artist with negativity on his official social network page. Likewise, for a fee, you can organize a harmonious chorus of voices praising the artist's imperishable creations, if the artist deems such PR management appropriate.
One way or another, the game on human weaknesses and instincts will never end. It will only take on new forms, relevant to the time and opening up technical possibilities. Above, we have already begun to say that the laughter in the hall during a comedy production, planned after certain scenes, became the prototype of the offscreen laughter, which became widespread with the invention of television. I think this is an interesting enough topic to discuss it in more detail.
In the early days of television, invented in the 20th century, producers understood their task as finding ways to recreate the atmosphere of a live show, performance or concert while watching TV. Of course, the lively atmosphere of a comedy performance is impossible without the audience's laughter. And, in order not to force the viewer to laugh alone, the American sound engineer Charles Rollan Douglas brought to life the idea that came to his mind to mount an additional soundtrack with laughter in the right places.
Over time, Douglas began to do a real orchestration of the audience's reaction to a variety of situations. During his sound engineering practice, he managed to create an impressive collection of audio recordings of human emotions, which were completely enough to arrange any show without the participation of live spectators. So offscreen laughter turned into a real industry, integral to television and the entertainment industry in general.
How does it work and how good or bad is it? Disputes are still ongoing, and the attitude to offscreen laughter is very different both among ordinary viewers and among psychologists, sociologists, cultural scientists and other representatives of the scientific community. The philosopher Viktor Levchenko in his work "Laughter as a distinction" expresses the idea that offscreen laughter is like an attempt to explain all jokes in a row, thus killing interest in them.
Slavoj ižek, a culturologist from Slovenia, in his article "Giggle me, please" develops the idea that offscreen laughter allows people who turn on the TV after a hard day to emotionally relax and unwind, without performing any actions and getting a boost of vivacity ...
In his subsequent works, ižek used the term "interpassivity" to describe the effect of offscreen laughter, which he borrowed from the Austrian philosopher Robert Pfaller. This term is, as it were, the opposite of the term "interactivity", when they try to involve the viewer in interaction. More details can be found in the book "Interpassivity, or How to Enjoy Through Another".
In general, the topic of laughter in building communications, including with the audience, is so relevant today that scientific congresses with the participation of reputable scientists and representatives of the show business are devoted to it. And also modern show business, television and film industry cannot be imagined without such a phenomenon as product placement. Let's talk in more detail about him.
The Bass brand dates back to 1777, and by the time the picture was painted in 1882, it had won the trust of consumers:
Whether Eduard Manet had some kind of mercantile interest, some kind of agreement with the brand, or the artist simply displayed the reality that was relevant at that time, we no longer know. However, the fact that not every brand is immortalized in the paintings of great artists, and that for a brand this is advertising for centuries in the literal sense of the word, is beyond doubt.
Product Placement in the film industry started almost simultaneously with the invention of cinema in 1895. The founders of the film industry, the Lumière brothers and the producers involved in the process of making films, often turned to manufacturers of various goods so that they could provide their products as props. The producers did not forget to explain that this is an advertisement for the brand throughout the entire time that the audience will watch the film, and among the audience there will certainly be those who need this particular product.
In the 20th century, when marketing reached a qualitatively new level and companies began to scrupulously calculate sales volumes and their own profits, product placement became a real industry. PP (Product Placement) departments have appeared both in film companies looking for sponsors for filming films, and in the offices of manufacturers of various goods wishing to promote their goods to the market through product placement. It should be noted that this really leads to an increase in sales. In this context, it is usually customary to mention a number of companies that have received the greatest dividends from product placement.
Top 3 companies that received the maximum benefit from product placement:
We are unlikely to now get the financial statements of companies for 1992, 1982, and even more so for 1929 to clarify the data, but the very fact of making a quick profit from an investment in product placement is beyond doubt. Otherwise, the idea would not have received such widespread acceptance and would not have turned out to be so tenacious.
Today, product placement is not only a trend in the entertainment industry, but also an object of research for psychologists, culturologists and legal scholars. Domestic show business borrows a lot from Western colleagues, but all these borrowings need to be adapted to our realities and our legislation.
In this regard, the book "Product placement in Russian" by Polina Kiseleva is interesting, practical recommendations from which are always relevant. The advice from Olga Berezkina's book “Product Placement. The technology of hidden advertising ”, which discusses in detail how to make advertising using PP.
It is worth noting that another problem has arisen with the proliferation of product placement: what about the accidental appearance of the name of a brand in the frame? Indeed, today this can no longer be avoided, because any scene on the street in a big city is a whole exhibition of brands and names of brand stores.
In addition, many high-profile producers truly believe that their participation in a film can help a film rise in ratings and views, so the filmmakers, not the owners of the brand, should pay for the use of the brand.
The answers to these questions are given by director Andrei Konchalovsky's book "Low Truths", where he describes his experience in implementing the RR. He writes that “the right to shoot this or that object must be certified. It happens that a company demands that it be paid for this right. It happens that she is ready to pay herself, but her consent must be in any case. If there is no such consent, the name of the company or brand should not appear in the frame”.
As you can see, the methods of promotion, the methods of forming the image and the attitude of the general public to this or that product are becoming more sophisticated. In these circumstances, any mention of a brand or product must be thought out in terms of future implications and sales. It is on this that such a promotion tool as a pseudo-event is based.
What is planned in advance cannot be an event in the strict sense of the word, so the term "pseudo-event" is used. Typical examples of pseudo-events generated to promote ideas, products and brands are various ceremonies. For example, the Academy Awards, Grammy Awards, American Music Awards, Golden Gramophone and others. In fact, these are marketing events presented as socially significant events.
How it works? An early announcement and the excitement created around the upcoming pseudo-event allows attracting the attention of a large number of people to the entertainment industry and, as a result, increasing receipts from the sale of tickets for movie sessions, concerts of popular singers, etc.
In exactly the same way, it is customary to refer to pseudo-events as all kinds of brand anniversaries, birthdays of stores, banks, travel companies and other, of course, necessary organizations that they use for additional advertising of their services.
In general, the mere fact that 5 or 10 years have passed since the official registration of a legal entity can hardly lead to any significant consequences for the brand or an increase in sales. However, a properly planned event, timed to coincide with the required date, leads exactly to such consequences.
More details about how a pseudo-event is organized and how it works can be found in special literature, for example, in the book "Advertising and PR-communications in the media". Those wishing to delve into the history of the issue can be advised the work of the American publicist Daniel Burstin The Image: Or, What Happened to the American Dream.
By the way, beauty contests became a mass phenomenon only after they acquired a marketing load. The first historical evidence of beauty contests dates back to the 7th century BC, and they were held in ancient Greek Corinth in honor of the goddess of fertility Demeter of Eleusis.
Later, similar competitions in beauty appeared on almost all continents, but the formalization and unification of the rules took place only in the 20th century in the United States. The American beauty pageant tradition begins in Atlantic City, where the first Miss America pageant was held in September 1921.
The purpose of the competition was to attract additional tourists, because in September, the tourist flow decreased, and such a bright event, of course, contributed to the attraction of wealthy citizens, the extension of the tourist season and the support of the tourism industry. In principle, since then, all beauty contests are commercial, sponsored by brands, and a victory, in addition to prestige, brings the winner good dividends in the future.
With all the ambiguity and constant criticism of such a format for evaluating a woman as a beauty contest, the organizers try to select the participants so that they are the standard not only of beauty, but also of morality. In most countries, divorced women and girls who were filmed in candid photo shoots in the "nude" style are prohibited from participating in national beauty contests.
Bans do not help much, and scandals around compliance with competition requirements happen on a regular basis. By the way, this does not mean that scandals always interfere with the promotion of a personal brand, company or product. Very often, everything is strictly the opposite, and scandalous fame helps better than years of hard work. For example, if the so-called hidden marketing is used.
How long has this method started? It's difficult to say, but in the 19th century it was already there. And even became the basis for one of the episodes of the book "Kings and Cabbage" by the American writer O'Henry. According to the plot, two entrepreneurs went to trade in shoes and boots in Africa, where the aborigines never wore any shoes due to the hot climate and their uselessness. Then two enterprising businessmen drove a boat with thorns, which were then scattered throughout the island. The natives had no choice but to buy shoes so as not to injure their feet.
It is possible that the palm of covert or aggressive marketing belongs to the Russians, not the Americans. So, in 1863, the company “N. Shustov and Sons ”, and already in 1864 specially hired people walked around the drinking establishments located in the district and invariably ordered“ Shustov ”cognac.
When there was no such thing, and visitors were offered another very good cognac, they made a scandal, often with a fight. The incident got into the reports of incidents, of course, with an indication of the cause of the incident, and in a couple of months the brand managed to gain fame, for which other producers and sellers of alcohol have been fighting for decades.
For a century and a half, this story has been wandering from one marketing manual to another. Businesspeople who are not lazy to read books, from time to time, adapt this experience to their circumstances. Rumor has it that in the early 90s, this is how the producers of one very famous mineral water "took the market". But they themselves disown this story, claiming that the matter is exclusively in the high quality of their product.
The events of 2020 showed that hidden marketing is still alive today. The technology of creating a problem, offering a solution for money and punishing those who do not want to fork out, is flourishing and gaining momentum. If anyone else doubts this, just remember that in 2019 it would never have occurred to anyone that a medical mask is a must-have for every citizen.
However, fines for the lack of a mask plus active attention to the disease have done their job, and now everyone buys masks, whether they want it or not. Soon, it is quite possible that everyone who does not get free vaccination will pay for the vaccine in the same way when the infection rate exceeds 1%. For those who often watch TV and are ready to tell us how wrong we are, here are some statistics:
Now clearly:
Thus, during the year of the epidemic, less than 1% of the total population of the planet fell ill, and about 99% of the population suffered from the restrictions associated with the epidemic. At least, because it is harmful to stay at home for a long time. The diseases acquired by most of us in 2020 due to physical inactivity and lack of fresh air, we will also heal at our own expense, and at the same time replenish the pocket of all our saviors and benefactors.
It remains to add that covert marketing can work as a self-sufficient measure or in conjunction with a set of other measures. For example, product placement. Covert advertisements for Sputnik, BioNTech and Pfizer vaccines are elegantly embedded in all television news broadcasts several times a day.
We in no way deny the existence of a problem and do not plan to talk about the effectiveness of vaccination before its results, however, we note that the very presence of signs of aggressive marketing attracts attention. This means that someone paid for this marketing, and they pay for marketing only when they expect to make a profit.
In this regard, since the time of O'Henry, little has changed in fact, it just took on a different scale. Once upon a time, the natives in a certain limited area were forced to buy shoes so as not to cut their feet. Now we are buying masks so as not to pick up and spread the virus. By the way, the schematic images of Covid-19 strikingly resemble the notorious thorn, and the population and the government of individual territories only have to react to a situation in which it is hard to believe the accident.
Now you know how the main methods of promotion work, which have come to us from time immemorial and have perfectly adapted to modern reality. You can master them too if you complete our Storytelling and Best Communication Techniques courses. And in order not to get confused, what's what, we suggest passing a small test.
However, you can go the other way: master effective communication techniques, including with an audience, and learn how to tell entertaining stories, including to a large number of viewers. This is taught in our Storytelling and Best Communication Techniques courses .
One way or another, a product, including an intellectual one, needs to be promoted. And people have long been looking for ways to draw attention to what they produce. Let's talk about these methods.
Clack and claquerae - what are they?
Perhaps the oldest method to artificially induce a mass attitude towards an event is the klaka. This term is also called the organization of success on order, and the organization of the failure of competitors, also on order. The term comes from the French claque, which means a claque-like sound. This concept is used in relation to various performances - theatrical, concert, other public actions.In a nutshell, specially hired spectators - clakers - imitate the excitement of a performance or concert in various ways available to the audience. It can be applause, shouts of "Bravo!" and laughter in the right place, if the production is conceived as a comedy, and the audience is not really having fun. By the way, this is where the tradition of offscreen laughter began in the era of television, but we will talk about this in detail a little later.
Likewise, hired claqueurs can express various types of resentment - whistling, stamping their feet, insulting the performers. The first klaks and klakers appeared in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, where the traditions of public performances were developed. Ancient amphitheatres - semicircular buildings with an arena and stands for spectators - have survived to this day in many Mediterranean countries, with which the Greeks and Romans established trade relations and cultural exchanges.
According to widespread historical legend, the ancient Greek comedian Philemon of Syracuse (362-262) hired claqueters to boo productions of his direct rival, the comedian Menander. Due to the fact that Menander specialized in more sophisticated humor, which viewers with average intelligence did not always understand, the trick was completely successful.
Unsuspecting viewers received public support for their opinion that the comedy was not at all funny when they heard the disgruntled whistles and shouts of specially hired claqueters. And they no longer thought about the refinement of humor and their own development and perception of the production.
As a mass phenomenon, the clack spread in ancient Rome, and even the first persons of the state did not disdain to use the services of clackers. In particular, the Roman emperors Nero and Augustus. Later on, Italy held a leading position in the market for the provision of clerk services for a long time. The theater critic of the early 20th century, Vlas Doroshevich, described the clash of opera singer Fyodor Chaliapin with the Milanese clerk mafia in his essay Chaliapin in Mephistopheles.
The local clack, more like a racketeer in the modern sense, demanded money from Chaliapin to applaud his performance in the opera "Mephistopheles", which once failed at La Scala, performed by local stars. Chaliapin refused, sang superbly and was so warmly received by the audience that the attempts of the claqueurs to sow negativity in the auditorium were rebuffed by the audience themselves.
Clinging as a phenomenon turned out to be so tenacious that it migrated into the 21st century. Thus, a note about the activities of the klaka at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow even made it onto the pages of The New York Times. The article Wild Applause, Secretly Choreographed describes in detail, with names and photographs, the work of a team of claqueurs, acting in collusion with the Bolshoi Theater artists and providing them with applause and shouts of "Bravo" support.
Specifically, the production that was discussed in the article was very successful, and it was almost impossible to distinguish between sparkling applause and contractual ones. But if the training of the artists was weaker, they would not have been left without audience recognition. Most people are subject to the so-called "herd instinct", and seeing how others react to an event, they involuntarily join their reaction, positive or negative.
This is especially noticeable at events that require a certain intellectual potential for comprehension. Not everyone is capable of appreciating high art, and no one wants to look like a dark, uneducated person. Therefore, with a high degree of probability, the majority of spectators will join the applause at different ends of the hall.
It is difficult to judge how widespread claque-making is in the theaters of the world today. It seems that in the era of universal digitalization, any mass trend will quickly become well-known thanks to the truly inexhaustible possibilities of social networks and other electronic means of communication.
In view of the fact that major scandals with purchased applause are not so frequent, it can be assumed that clacking, similar to racketeering, has been replaced by claque haters who, for a certain reward, can bombard the artist with negativity on his official social network page. Likewise, for a fee, you can organize a harmonious chorus of voices praising the artist's imperishable creations, if the artist deems such PR management appropriate.
One way or another, the game on human weaknesses and instincts will never end. It will only take on new forms, relevant to the time and opening up technical possibilities. Above, we have already begun to say that the laughter in the hall during a comedy production, planned after certain scenes, became the prototype of the offscreen laughter, which became widespread with the invention of television. I think this is an interesting enough topic to discuss it in more detail.
Offscreen laughter
Offscreen laughter is, as the name suggests, the laugh we hear offscreen when we watch a humorous show, sitcom, and any other television show where laughter is appropriate. However, this phrase entered into mass use in a meaning that implies artificial insertion of human laughter into the necessary episodes of the show during editing. Why do you need to insert offscreen laughter where it was not originally?In the early days of television, invented in the 20th century, producers understood their task as finding ways to recreate the atmosphere of a live show, performance or concert while watching TV. Of course, the lively atmosphere of a comedy performance is impossible without the audience's laughter. And, in order not to force the viewer to laugh alone, the American sound engineer Charles Rollan Douglas brought to life the idea that came to his mind to mount an additional soundtrack with laughter in the right places.
Over time, Douglas began to do a real orchestration of the audience's reaction to a variety of situations. During his sound engineering practice, he managed to create an impressive collection of audio recordings of human emotions, which were completely enough to arrange any show without the participation of live spectators. So offscreen laughter turned into a real industry, integral to television and the entertainment industry in general.
How does it work and how good or bad is it? Disputes are still ongoing, and the attitude to offscreen laughter is very different both among ordinary viewers and among psychologists, sociologists, cultural scientists and other representatives of the scientific community. The philosopher Viktor Levchenko in his work "Laughter as a distinction" expresses the idea that offscreen laughter is like an attempt to explain all jokes in a row, thus killing interest in them.
Slavoj ižek, a culturologist from Slovenia, in his article "Giggle me, please" develops the idea that offscreen laughter allows people who turn on the TV after a hard day to emotionally relax and unwind, without performing any actions and getting a boost of vivacity ...
In his subsequent works, ižek used the term "interpassivity" to describe the effect of offscreen laughter, which he borrowed from the Austrian philosopher Robert Pfaller. This term is, as it were, the opposite of the term "interactivity", when they try to involve the viewer in interaction. More details can be found in the book "Interpassivity, or How to Enjoy Through Another".
In general, the topic of laughter in building communications, including with the audience, is so relevant today that scientific congresses with the participation of reputable scientists and representatives of the show business are devoted to it. And also modern show business, television and film industry cannot be imagined without such a phenomenon as product placement. Let's talk in more detail about him.
Product Placement
Product Placement is indirect advertising of a product or brand through its use in a work of art - a movie, cartoon, TV show, music video, painting, etc. The origins of product placement date back to the 19th century. For example, signs of product placement can be seen in Edouard Manet's painting "Bar at the Folies Bergère" , where in the lower right corner on a beer bottle you can see a label with an image similar to the logo under which Bass beer was sold:
The Bass brand dates back to 1777, and by the time the picture was painted in 1882, it had won the trust of consumers:
Whether Eduard Manet had some kind of mercantile interest, some kind of agreement with the brand, or the artist simply displayed the reality that was relevant at that time, we no longer know. However, the fact that not every brand is immortalized in the paintings of great artists, and that for a brand this is advertising for centuries in the literal sense of the word, is beyond doubt.
Product Placement in the film industry started almost simultaneously with the invention of cinema in 1895. The founders of the film industry, the Lumière brothers and the producers involved in the process of making films, often turned to manufacturers of various goods so that they could provide their products as props. The producers did not forget to explain that this is an advertisement for the brand throughout the entire time that the audience will watch the film, and among the audience there will certainly be those who need this particular product.
In the 20th century, when marketing reached a qualitatively new level and companies began to scrupulously calculate sales volumes and their own profits, product placement became a real industry. PP (Product Placement) departments have appeared both in film companies looking for sponsors for filming films, and in the offices of manufacturers of various goods wishing to promote their goods to the market through product placement. It should be noted that this really leads to an increase in sales. In this context, it is usually customary to mention a number of companies that have received the greatest dividends from product placement.
Top 3 companies that received the maximum benefit from product placement:
- Spinach Can's canned spinach sales rose 30% after the introduction in 1929 of a cartoon character, a seafarer named Popeye, who can instantly increase his physical strength by eating a can of spinach.
- Sales of Reese's Pieces from Hershey's have grown by an average of 65-70% since the release of Steven Spielberg's 1982 film Alien, in which they were treated to an alien.
- Sales of Jack Daniel's whiskey rose fivefold after being drunk in one scene by the heroes of the 1992 film Basic Instinct.
We are unlikely to now get the financial statements of companies for 1992, 1982, and even more so for 1929 to clarify the data, but the very fact of making a quick profit from an investment in product placement is beyond doubt. Otherwise, the idea would not have received such widespread acceptance and would not have turned out to be so tenacious.
Today, product placement is not only a trend in the entertainment industry, but also an object of research for psychologists, culturologists and legal scholars. Domestic show business borrows a lot from Western colleagues, but all these borrowings need to be adapted to our realities and our legislation.
In this regard, the book "Product placement in Russian" by Polina Kiseleva is interesting, practical recommendations from which are always relevant. The advice from Olga Berezkina's book “Product Placement. The technology of hidden advertising ”, which discusses in detail how to make advertising using PP.
It is worth noting that another problem has arisen with the proliferation of product placement: what about the accidental appearance of the name of a brand in the frame? Indeed, today this can no longer be avoided, because any scene on the street in a big city is a whole exhibition of brands and names of brand stores.
In addition, many high-profile producers truly believe that their participation in a film can help a film rise in ratings and views, so the filmmakers, not the owners of the brand, should pay for the use of the brand.
The answers to these questions are given by director Andrei Konchalovsky's book "Low Truths", where he describes his experience in implementing the RR. He writes that “the right to shoot this or that object must be certified. It happens that a company demands that it be paid for this right. It happens that she is ready to pay herself, but her consent must be in any case. If there is no such consent, the name of the company or brand should not appear in the frame”.
As you can see, the methods of promotion, the methods of forming the image and the attitude of the general public to this or that product are becoming more sophisticated. In these circumstances, any mention of a brand or product must be thought out in terms of future implications and sales. It is on this that such a promotion tool as a pseudo-event is based.
Pseudo-event
In the context of promotion, the prefix "pseudo" should be understood not as a false or non-existent event, but as a pre-planned and orchestrated event. In the original sense, the word "event" means something that happened or happened in the past tense. For example, hurricane, earthquake, flood, accident, war, revolution.What is planned in advance cannot be an event in the strict sense of the word, so the term "pseudo-event" is used. Typical examples of pseudo-events generated to promote ideas, products and brands are various ceremonies. For example, the Academy Awards, Grammy Awards, American Music Awards, Golden Gramophone and others. In fact, these are marketing events presented as socially significant events.
How it works? An early announcement and the excitement created around the upcoming pseudo-event allows attracting the attention of a large number of people to the entertainment industry and, as a result, increasing receipts from the sale of tickets for movie sessions, concerts of popular singers, etc.
In exactly the same way, it is customary to refer to pseudo-events as all kinds of brand anniversaries, birthdays of stores, banks, travel companies and other, of course, necessary organizations that they use for additional advertising of their services.
In general, the mere fact that 5 or 10 years have passed since the official registration of a legal entity can hardly lead to any significant consequences for the brand or an increase in sales. However, a properly planned event, timed to coincide with the required date, leads exactly to such consequences.
More details about how a pseudo-event is organized and how it works can be found in special literature, for example, in the book "Advertising and PR-communications in the media". Those wishing to delve into the history of the issue can be advised the work of the American publicist Daniel Burstin The Image: Or, What Happened to the American Dream.
By the way, beauty contests became a mass phenomenon only after they acquired a marketing load. The first historical evidence of beauty contests dates back to the 7th century BC, and they were held in ancient Greek Corinth in honor of the goddess of fertility Demeter of Eleusis.
Later, similar competitions in beauty appeared on almost all continents, but the formalization and unification of the rules took place only in the 20th century in the United States. The American beauty pageant tradition begins in Atlantic City, where the first Miss America pageant was held in September 1921.
The purpose of the competition was to attract additional tourists, because in September, the tourist flow decreased, and such a bright event, of course, contributed to the attraction of wealthy citizens, the extension of the tourist season and the support of the tourism industry. In principle, since then, all beauty contests are commercial, sponsored by brands, and a victory, in addition to prestige, brings the winner good dividends in the future.
With all the ambiguity and constant criticism of such a format for evaluating a woman as a beauty contest, the organizers try to select the participants so that they are the standard not only of beauty, but also of morality. In most countries, divorced women and girls who were filmed in candid photo shoots in the "nude" style are prohibited from participating in national beauty contests.
Bans do not help much, and scandals around compliance with competition requirements happen on a regular basis. By the way, this does not mean that scandals always interfere with the promotion of a personal brand, company or product. Very often, everything is strictly the opposite, and scandalous fame helps better than years of hard work. For example, if the so-called hidden marketing is used.
Hidden marketing
Covert marketing is a method of transmitting information for commercial purposes in such a way that the recipient of the information does not suspect the advertising component of the information. It is often called aggressive marketing because it uses aggressive marketing techniques.How long has this method started? It's difficult to say, but in the 19th century it was already there. And even became the basis for one of the episodes of the book "Kings and Cabbage" by the American writer O'Henry. According to the plot, two entrepreneurs went to trade in shoes and boots in Africa, where the aborigines never wore any shoes due to the hot climate and their uselessness. Then two enterprising businessmen drove a boat with thorns, which were then scattered throughout the island. The natives had no choice but to buy shoes so as not to injure their feet.
It is possible that the palm of covert or aggressive marketing belongs to the Russians, not the Americans. So, in 1863, the company “N. Shustov and Sons ”, and already in 1864 specially hired people walked around the drinking establishments located in the district and invariably ordered“ Shustov ”cognac.
When there was no such thing, and visitors were offered another very good cognac, they made a scandal, often with a fight. The incident got into the reports of incidents, of course, with an indication of the cause of the incident, and in a couple of months the brand managed to gain fame, for which other producers and sellers of alcohol have been fighting for decades.
For a century and a half, this story has been wandering from one marketing manual to another. Businesspeople who are not lazy to read books, from time to time, adapt this experience to their circumstances. Rumor has it that in the early 90s, this is how the producers of one very famous mineral water "took the market". But they themselves disown this story, claiming that the matter is exclusively in the high quality of their product.
The events of 2020 showed that hidden marketing is still alive today. The technology of creating a problem, offering a solution for money and punishing those who do not want to fork out, is flourishing and gaining momentum. If anyone else doubts this, just remember that in 2019 it would never have occurred to anyone that a medical mask is a must-have for every citizen.
However, fines for the lack of a mask plus active attention to the disease have done their job, and now everyone buys masks, whether they want it or not. Soon, it is quite possible that everyone who does not get free vaccination will pay for the vaccine in the same way when the infection rate exceeds 1%. For those who often watch TV and are ready to tell us how wrong we are, here are some statistics:
- The population of the Earth as of December 2020 is approximately 7.8 billion people.
- Covid cases as of December 17, 2020 - approximately 74.8 million people.
- First COVID case in the world in Wuhan, China - December 8, 2019.
Now clearly:
Thus, during the year of the epidemic, less than 1% of the total population of the planet fell ill, and about 99% of the population suffered from the restrictions associated with the epidemic. At least, because it is harmful to stay at home for a long time. The diseases acquired by most of us in 2020 due to physical inactivity and lack of fresh air, we will also heal at our own expense, and at the same time replenish the pocket of all our saviors and benefactors.
It remains to add that covert marketing can work as a self-sufficient measure or in conjunction with a set of other measures. For example, product placement. Covert advertisements for Sputnik, BioNTech and Pfizer vaccines are elegantly embedded in all television news broadcasts several times a day.
We in no way deny the existence of a problem and do not plan to talk about the effectiveness of vaccination before its results, however, we note that the very presence of signs of aggressive marketing attracts attention. This means that someone paid for this marketing, and they pay for marketing only when they expect to make a profit.
In this regard, since the time of O'Henry, little has changed in fact, it just took on a different scale. Once upon a time, the natives in a certain limited area were forced to buy shoes so as not to cut their feet. Now we are buying masks so as not to pick up and spread the virus. By the way, the schematic images of Covid-19 strikingly resemble the notorious thorn, and the population and the government of individual territories only have to react to a situation in which it is hard to believe the accident.
Now you know how the main methods of promotion work, which have come to us from time immemorial and have perfectly adapted to modern reality. You can master them too if you complete our Storytelling and Best Communication Techniques courses. And in order not to get confused, what's what, we suggest passing a small test.
