The World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) has conducted research into what really irritates consumers on social media and has drawn seven conclusions, which it has dubbed the seven deadly sins of bad marketing.
It has analysed English-language tweets about advertisements over six months. The findings are based on 670,000 negative tweets posted by users of the social network.
The seven deadly sins of bad marketing are:
- Discomfort with advertising: The length of (TV) commercial breaks or the context of advertisements are some of the reasons for complaints.
- Interruption: the most annoying are commercial breaks during live sports or series.
- Inconsistency: many brands choose the wrong moments and the wrong targets to launch their messages.
- Deception: consumers want brands to always tell the truth.
- Excess: many commercial breaks and sometimes some that are too long (TV).
- Bad targeting: sometimes the algorithms used to reach the desired people fail. This is something that bothers the network.
- Poor quality: many advertisements are poor in creativity and end up annoying consumers.
Results
Among the results reached by the research, it stands out that during the last year there were more than 2 million negative tweets in English about bad publicity. Of these, 37% were retweets (around 750,000 messages).
Another insight from the study shows that the average number of followers who complained on social media about advertising is 1,000 users. The research also indicates that TV ads generate the most negative comments.
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