Viral Marketing Lessons From The BuzzFeed Video For ACA 2015 Enrollment

The latest BuzzFeed video touting enrollment in ACA-compliant health insurance plans is a winner.  Plenty of social media addicts grokked its significance immediately, and plenty more people shared it enthusiastically.  Millions of people clicked on Healthcare.gov as expected.  I must admit I could not make hide nor hare of it when I first watched it.  There must be a generational divide at work.

Effective advertising normally requires some build-up to a call to action.  In this video, the call to action "sign up for health care" is buried in the middle at 0:50-1:00 with no context other than the star making funny faces.  The ad could have ended right there to make its point, but later wanders into the #thanks meme that diminishes the ad's message.  Mentioning the meme calls attention to Healthcare.gov's critics without addressing their criticisms.  That's why this doesn't work as a traditional ad.  Compare it to the most beloved Super Bowl ads of any year.  The typical blockbuster ad manages to be cool by associating cool images (people and/or animals having fun) with a call to action at the end: drink our beer, test drive our car.  The product is also displayed visually somehow (the car in motion) with the brand superimposed.  This is so even the most ADHD-afflicted viewers can't miss it.  Compare that very effective messaging to this BuzzFeed video, which depends on tech-savvy people who are already cued in to the message to explain it through social media shares.  Again, this would not be effective messaging in a passive medium like a TV commercial.

Viral sharing among Millennials turns traditional advertising inside out.  I shared this video via Facebook and saw the generation gap firsthand.  My slightly older friends at the high end of Generation X thought it was pointless.  My younger Millennial friends loved it for the main star and the disguised message.  They didn't even notice the non sequitur text explanation under the video of how a selfie stick somehow leads to a desire to sign up for health insurance.  The mere display of a link to something is enough of a call to action for Millennials.

The video is phenomenal for its innovative take on the #thanks meme.  The original #thanks propagators were critics of the health care mandate who saw their premiums increase or had serious problems logging on to enroll.  In a capitalist economy, any corporation that saw its brand name dragged through the mud by millions of customer complaints would immediately rectify the situation with some combo of lower prices, better service, and a marketing campaign to explain their progress.  The BuzzFeed video mocking the #thanks complainers turns that customer service philosophy on its head.  Complaints about health care services are meaningless when a mandate compels compliance.

It wouldn't have mattered if the star of this video were a notable human or Grumpy Cat.  Social media addicts only need to recognize two things:  a celebrity appears, and there's a link to be clicked.  YouTube has trained humans to click embedded links that appear in fun videos with the expectation that another fun spectacle awaits.  Facebook has trained humans to click the Like button after watching something funny.  Clicking ahead to a government compliance site is exactly what a trained audience is supposed to do.  No critical thinking is required.

America is not a monarchy, despite the pretensions of our hereditary elite.  Our leaders endear themselves to us by exhibiting self-deprecating humor.  President Nixon showed us how to have fun when he said "Sock it to me?" on Laugh-In.  America loves to be entertained.  Mandatory health insurance can be entertaining, mostly for those who watch the payments roll in.  A spoonful of sugar from a viral ad helps the medicine go down.

The Limerick of Finance for 08/12/12

The SocSec surplus is a lie
That "trust fund" is bound to run dry
None of us will get paid
By the time we have grayed
Your check is just pie in the sky

The Haiku of Finance for 01/02/12

Generation X
Started dot-coms that went bust
Now they own nothing

(Did I already use this one?  If so, I apologize.)

Your Canceled Bonus Went to Your Rich Neofeudal Boss

It's a slow news cycle Saturday. Let's check out another signpost on the road to neofeudalism:

Regulators and politicians who want to curb the huge bonuses paid to financiers in the wake of the global credit crisis may find the banking sector's response even more unpalatable.

More money for the highest flyers and less for the rest.
(snip)

Britain's finance watchdog said in March: "Although it is hard to prove a direct causal link, there is widespread consensus that remuneration practices may have been a contributory factor to the market crisis."

Ya don't say? Really? A compensation consultant quoted in the article is incredulous that guaranteed bonuses could prove to be perverse incentives. That's disingenuous; that consultant is paid by investment banks to justify those bonuses. Some people can make themselves believe any kind of bunkum if their paycheck depends on it. I witnessed that self-delusion when I worked for large investment firms and I even came pretty darn close to accepting it myself. My resistance and ultimate rejection of such temptation bought me my termination notices.

But how can banks afford to continue the largess for their top pedigreed preppies? By taking the money from you:

Fifteen percent of employers surveyed by the Society of Human Resource Management reduced pay in the past six months — a threefold increase from earlier this year. Companies like Hewlett-Packard, Caterpillar and the New York Times have taken the pruning shears to wages.

Granted, this excerpt is from an opinion column, but facts are facts. The only social class in the United States that has ever had any social cohesion is the ruling class (thank you G. William Domhoff and E. Digby Baltzell), and that class is now circling the wagons to defend their Olympian redoubt from the proletariat. Look for media stories over the next few years to happily chronicle the noble lives of the struggling poor, to make it seem as if remaining poor is natural and desirable. Look for Hollywood dramas and comedies to sing a similar tune. The programming is being prepared.

What is to be done about this? As far as most Americans are concerned, nothing. After all, doesn't God want you to be poor? As far as I am concerned, I am as focused as can be on taking care of myself financially before the door to upward mobility slams shut in my face forever.

Gex X Loses American Dream to Destitute Boomers

Members of Generation X (myself included) will never have upward mobility as long as Baby Boomers refuse to retire:

The impending retirement of America’s 78m-strong “baby boomer” generation has caused consternation among policymakers for years. Now the “silver tsunami” may be on hold. “Older workers are actually coming into the labour force – many are
finding jobs,” says Richard Johnson, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute. “It is being driven by economic insecurity . . . they have become so desperate that they are returning to work.”

These geezers didn't save because they have been living for today since the 1960s. Now my crowd has to make do with less. I work for myself now, so I no longer have to face the prospect of waiting twenty years for a promotion out of an entry-level position. The majority of my generational cohorts will not be so fortunate. A lot of people younger than me are going to waste time and money pursuing MBAs that they will never use in management positions that won't be available. We will also be paying for the Boomers' Social Security and Medicare via the hidden tax of inflation (thanks to the Fed's quantitative easing).

I probably shouldn't tar an entire generation with such a broad brush. There are undoubtedly many Boomers who did save responsibly for their futures, just as there are many in my generation who have no savings. I've worked with some of those X'ers who won't save, and I'm not proud of them. Savers of all ages will be taxed and diluted to support people who don't value their own futures.

Thanks for nothing, deadbeats of all generations. You will never be the Greatest Generation.