Troll marketing – no longer just for trolls.
Trolls. At the mention of this concept, one’s back shivers, and at first glance, one constantly thinks of sarcastic, malicious „things” sitting on the throne behind a computer. Of course, this word suggests different things to everyone, yet somehow in the modern world we already associate our concept with the computer and the world of the internet.
A „troll-ness,” as a marketing tool appears more and more frequently in various campaigns. But can this tool remain interesting (and viable) in the long term, or is it just a dead end, a big „about-face” against everything that the advertising industry and marketing have represented so far?
Let's decide this for ourselves, but first, let's analyze a few super examples of what I only call: troll-marketing.
Oh, that wonderful ALDI!
I would place ALDI at the imaginary top of the troll podium. Because of this, many may stone me, but I could hardly bring examples of such genius wordplay and phrases from the past years. And ALDI has maximized this! Not only in print but also online, they have gone crazy, and with such cunning "word twists," they astonish week after week, which can only be interpreted as trolling. („Little Aaron” and „Sparkling Flavors”).
The most important stage for trolling is, of course, social media, where fans can immediately interact with individual messages. Thanks to the tried-and-true recipe, competitors are now also coming up with increasingly original puns.
Get lost, UPC!
In recent weeks, UPC has also mobilized the troll army. Reflecting on current news and events, they threw in „The four stripes in the garden” slogan (freely after Majka's interview?). But they didn't just shoot the gag in the communication of Facebook posts, but even in comments. they further stretched that certain humor string. Well, they definitely played it quite well, that's for sure.
„Get dressed!”
The bare reality is that selling anything is easier with a naked female or male body. When all this turns inside out (or rather is turned inside out), something genius happens. The Griff Collection has done this.
They decorate their clothing transport vehicles with the body of the man shown below, along with this text: GET DRESSED! Yes, this sentence from the Griff Collection is more than original. If you haven't encountered the car yet, don't be discouraged: they also use the gag in their online communication.
Here comes the Media Markt joke train!
The Media Markt communication team does what others haven't dared to do. Mostly on their Facebook page, they churn out increasingly painful, almost „sick” jokes. The good news is that laughter has a healing effect, so if we crave content that destroys the remaining brain cells while pumping endorphins into our pituitary gland.
In my TOP3, I have „Fun is the main thing,” „Tamás Végh,” and „Choose the original.” It's definitely worth visiting their page for the full joke extravaganza.
And Telenor logo!
As a closing note, I would mention an advertisement spot. We love Telenor ads, as they are all about friendship, family, and love. As it is written in the great book (#Coca-Cola). However, the advertisement is effective not only on TV but also on the radio.
The script is simple but great. The Telenor logo appears in the product advertisement packshot, and the narrator almost casually mentions: „And now the Telenor logo!”. Moreover, in version 2.0, the phrase „Let that Telenor logo spin” is audaciously heard at the end of the advertisement. What else is this, if not trolling?
In a word: the advertising industry fortunately and to everyone's great joy resonates with trolling methods, ready to deploy them. Although troll marketing is still in its infancy, more and more people are starting to pave the way there. These pioneers may one day become heroes, but it is also possible that this will signify the end of the advertising industry as we know it.
Or perhaps a new era will open in this field, led by expert mega-trolls for a better, more enjoyable, and laughter-filled world.
