Here at Hussel, we like to do things a bit differently. Officially called “disruptive marketing”, we think of it more having as much fun as possible … but for money.

This sounds great, and it is, but how do you put this into real terms for other businesses?

Let’s take a look.

Below, we’ll cover our top hacks for how to get the Hussel spirit into your marketing efforts – i.e., how to make your marketing more disruptive.

Understand Your Audience and Industry

We’ll start with the boring stuff.

Even our “hold my beer” style of marketing is backed by research into target audiences, competitors, and other information that helps us understand what truly counts as disruptive.

And this is exactly what you need to do before you can create a disruptive marketing campaign. What is it Picasso said? “Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.”

We’ve found this is very true of disruptive marketing: you need to know how to do traditional marketing in order to break the mould and think outside the box.

So, start with old-school market research so you can understand how you can be different.

Know Your Available Tools

Unfortunately, next comes the other boring bit: platform research. Don’t worry, after this stage, the fun stuff can begin!

Once you know your audience and standard marketing tactics in your industry, you need to look at the tools available to reach your audience.

Generally, disruptive marketing works best on social media. Sure, you might want to back it up with a blog post, but this isn’t going to change the game.

The ultimate goal is to figure out what’s likely to go viral, whether on TikTok, Insta, or whatever, and decide what this would look like for your business.

Think Outside the Box

Now we can start getting a bit weird.

Marketing – whether traditional or disruptive – is designed to elicit an emotional response in your potential customer.

In old-school marketing, this usually means “my life would be better with this product.”

But in disruptive marketing, we aim for more of a WTF moment. Surprise is the name of our game – we want to shock, impress, awe, maybe even tug on heart strings.

What might a disruptive marketing campaign look like in your industry, and how will it tell your story in a way that catches your audience off guard?

Use Unusual Combinations

Looking for weird ways to combine your product is a perfect way to catch people off guard.

This could be weird ingredient combos, such as a chocolate bar served with mayo, or innovative delivery methods. We tried this recently when we delivered cocktails by drone.

Similarly, it could be out-of-the-box ways to sell a product, like our MTV cribs ad for a skip hire company!

The point is that you want to find ways to surprise your audience.

Weird combinations and unusual campaigns are more likely to go viral because people will share your content with their followers.

More interactions mean more leads, so make things as surprising as possible.

Hit a Common Pain Point

Sure, disruptive marketing is all about new ways of doing things.

But it still needs to hit the standard goal of marketing: addressing a customer’s pain point. Innovation doesn’t mean you should be inaccessible to your customers.

If they can’t see what your company does or what problem you solve, then all you’re doing is making a fun video for social media.

But what does this actually look like?

Well, take our cocktail drone campaign as an example. On the surface, it sounds like an amusing publicity stunt. However, our message was simple: to make cocktails convenient.

We delivered ready-mixed cocktails to people in their homes, gardens, parks, or anywhere else they might want a Banana Hammock!

The point?

To get people talking about our client’s bar. We were able to show what our client did (make cocktails) in a way that caught people off guard, generated social media content, and got customers through the door.

Organising the drones might have been one of the more complex campaigns we’ve arranged, but the attention it generated was absolutely worth the hassle from a cost investment perspective.

Can You Be Truly Disruptive?

Making your marketing more disruptive takes a surprising amount of effort. On the surface it looks like we’re playing around (which we are), but there’s a method to our madness.

The bottom line is that it’s still backed by research that helps us know how we can disrupt traditional marketing efforts. If you’re ready to make your marketing more disruptive, see how we can help.

Ready to disrupt the world? Let’s chat!