Our CEO, Jason, dives how to attract jaded audiences by taking a page from entertainment brands in Inc. Magazine.
For brands that need to hear this: most people don’t open social media hoping to see an advertisement. They’re there to be entertained, distracted, or to feel something. So, when brands show up assuming there’s an audience for their message, they’ve already completely misunderstood the platform.
It’s not that social media storytelling can’t be novel anymore. Audiences have just gotten much sharper. They know when something is trying too hard, when it’s overproduced, or if it’s just another version of something they’ve already seen. At the same time, brands trained them to feel this way. Years of safe, repetitive, overly-polished content has made everything start to blur together. Now, the default reaction is skepticism. People assume it’s not worth their time unless brands prove otherwise.
Entertainment brands understand this well. They live in a world where attention is the product. As a result, they don’t treat social as a basic distribution channel, they see it as a stage – a lesson for all brands, regardless of size or sector.
Look at Netflix. They’re building moments around the heart of each show with memes, commentary, real life activations, and clips that feel native to how people already consume content. A perfect example is their account @Netflix2, a private “finsta” filled with humor and chaos to connect directly with Gen Z fans. But even brands outside of the entertainment space are taking notes – like Stanley, who has leaned into follower moments like gifting a new car to the woman whose cup survived a terrible incident in her car and community behavior like recipes to follow while using their product instead of traditional campaign thinking. Or Lowe’s, who has taken a different route by focusing on utility as entertainment, with short-form content that leans heavily into quick, satisfying DIY tips and home hacks that are genuinely useful but also highly watchable.
That’s the pivot – earning attention by being part of the culture instead of serving their own interests. Brands need to stop trying to dive into the wave and learn to surf on them.
A shifting mindset
When it comes to posting on social, brands often come to the medium with a lot of misperceptions. There’s still this belief that better content means bigger production. That comes from how marketing used to work with big budgets, huge shoots and gigantic campaigns. But social doesn’t reward that in the same way.
Instead, people want quick ideas executed well with a strong point of view, a timely reaction, and a simple format that’s easy to repeat. Low cost strategies that work are usually closer to how people naturally create. Take Alo Yoga’s lo-fi creator-style feed, which feels closer to a person filming than a brand production. Or Dunkin’s spider donut series around Halloween where a single donut turned into repeatable, recognizable content that people looked forward to now annually with super basic edits. Then there’s Starbucks, a brand that has leaned more into nostalgia and inside jokes specifically for community members. These are approaches that resonate with even skeptical audiences because they are true to the spirit of the platforms while delivering on the promise of entertainment.
Here’s how more brands can follow their lead:
Shift how you define success: Instead of asking “does this content align with our campaign?” ask “would someone actually choose to watch this?” Most brands still define success by metrics analyzed after a campaign wraps – impressions, clicks, and conversions. Those matter, but they’re lagging indicators. It’s better to judge by what happens in the first few seconds. Did someone stop? Did they watch it? Did they come back for more? Did they share it with someone else? Brands can also look at repeat behavior. Are people recognizing the format? Are they engaging before they’re even prompted to. If the content isn’t earning attention upfront, none of the downstream metrics really matter.
Commit to an audience-first approach: Brands should spend more time studying how people behave on the platform and not how each brand wants to show up. Social listening can help identify patterns at scale – what people are talking about, what sentiment looks like, what’s trending – but that only gets you so far. The more important piece is actually spending time in the feeds watching how people interact, what they skip, what they engage with, how they talk in the comments, what tone works and what feels off. Brands can’t take shortcuts. It takes treating the platform like a living environment, genuinely participating in it.
Stick with what works: Build ongoing formats instead of one-off posts that disappear. This allows brands to move faster, notice what’s working and adjust in real time. The formats that work tend to be simple and repeatable. If people understand what they’re getting and it’s worth their time, they’ll keep coming back. A great place to start is:
- Series-based content where the audience knows what to expect and comes back for it
- Reactions or commentaries on something already happening in culture
- Point of view content where the brand takes a stance instead of staying neutral
- Behind-the-scenes or process content that shows how something actually gets made
- Answering real questions from the comments and turning them into content
Most importantly, brands have to stop assuming attention is guaranteed and treat it like something you have to earn with every single post, even if it’s a simple story. That’s how you build content that not only doesn’t get skipped, it’s in-demand.
Featured Image: Getty Images