What Is Your Brand’s Annoyance Footprint?

Advertising is an expenditure of energy. Sometimes that energy is sublimated into Being Worthwhile. It’s good. It goes viral. People sing its praises and engage it, share it, participate in it. Virtue streams forth. We all win.

But sometimes it is a pollutant. Sprawled in a haze over the internet. Dodged and avoided and warned against on bad days (April Fool’s Day should have a hazardous air warning online).

Just as companies must consider their carbon footprints, so, too, must their marketers consider their Annoyance Footprint.

Is your brand coughing out bilge into the wider internet? Are you neutral, providing just enough good content to offset your pop ups and pre-rolls?

Realistically, we can’t expect every brand to achieve Annoyance Negative status. But can you be doing better? What steps can you take to reduce your Annoyance Footprint? And how can you still achieve your business goals with such challenging standards?

It’s a long, complicated answer. I wouldn’t say I’ve got it all figured out, either. But what can help is thinking in terms of community: identifying where you want to belong, discovering what that community cares about, and expending your brand energy generating more of what they care about. Maybe that’s elevating relevant influencers, maybe it’s contributing content with less agenda and more entertainment value, maybe it’s backing off some of the more invasive tactics in favor of organic work. Every brand needs to try their own approach.

But imagine a less annoying world. Together, we can achieve it.