“Whatever is a terror to others, fears for itself.”
— Seneca
I was reminded of that quote yesterday, talking to some entrepreneur friends. We’d noticed that, on LinkedIn at least, the advertising, promotions, and offers have gotten... aggressive?
I don’t know about you, but I’ve felt inundated with last-minute deals, “Don’t miss out!” offers, and FOMO-focused anecdotes about how much money could be made by buying the right course.
But I’m reminded of my years in advertising agencies. Sometimes I think I kind of grew up in advertising. I got my first job as a digital media buyer at an agency when I was 21.
I made lifelong friends there, and learned lifelong lessons.
One of them being: Major advertising campaigns are often (but certainly not always) the result of struggle, not success.
What I mean is, when a brand goes to an agency to create some new, spectacular and attention-getting campaign, the brief rarely says, “We grew 100% YoY, so we’ve decided to heavily advertise as a way of taking a victory lap around our competition.”
No, the brief probably said something like, “We’re experiencing 30% YoY declines across all channels, so we need an integrated advertising campaign to raise awareness and generate leads.”
You see the advertising and think, “Wow, if they have that much money to spend, they must be rich.”
When, in reality, it’s probably closer to, “Wow, if they need to spend that much money all at once, things are probably pretty dire.”
Think about that the next time you see some huge ad campaign in the market, buying up all the attention they possibly can.
And think about that the next time you see a “Last minute chance to make a million bucks by buying my course!” promotion on LinkedIn.
If they’re trying to trigger your FOMO, your fear of missing out, it’s because they’re afraid of something.
That could be slowing sales, declining relevance, or just impatience and panic.
But if someone’s trying to make you fear, whether because they want you to buy something, do something, or avoid something, remember:
It’s because they’re afraid of something worse.
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