Shaking Sh*t Up - How Thrillist Engages Consumers Through Additive Advertising

One of my favorite sessions at South by Southwest this year, "Keeping Loyal Consumers Engaged by Shaking Shit Up" was led by co-founder and CEO of Thrillist, Ben Lerer.  If you're not familiar with Thrillist, it's basically a guys website featuring restaurants, sports, things to do, etc broken down by topic and city.  You can also sign up to be sent one email every day featuring a new restaurant, event or hot spot in your city.

What's particularly interesting about Thrillist, and the aspect I found most interesting about this session, is the unique way Thrillist approaches advertising.  They makes most of their revenue through advertising, but rather than just accepting ads from anyone who will pay, they ensure ads add value for readers and enhance the overall Thrillist experience.

Ben Lerer explains that traditionally, advertising is the price you pay for consuming content.  If you want to look at the magazine, or watch TV, you've got to look at or watch the ads too.  The ads themselves add little or no value - they're costs to the consumer.  On the other hand, Thrillist makes a point to work with advertisers to develop ads that actually create value for the reader.  In many cases, they even develop content for their advertisers.  Ben mentioned that many women say they read Vogue for the ads - why can't this desire for ads be created deliberately?

The most notable example Ben used was a vodka brand whose ad details instructions and tips for making the perfect Bloody Mary.  The contrary approach would be the trite picture of a bottle of vodka and some tagline about how great it tastes or cool it makes you.  The difference - one clearly adds value, the other is blatant promotion and a cost to the audience.

I'll certainly be thinking about advertising a little differently.  Do your ads add value? Or are they merely the cost of accessing content?

A couple more examples of Thrillist's unique and creative strategies...

When McDonalds announced that it was re-introducing the McRib, Thrillist used their clothing arm, JackThreads, to create a McRib T-shirt and donated all profits to the Ronald McDonald House.  For several weeks, if you searched McRib on Twitter, you found JackThreads.  This created a win-win situation and resulted in enormous visibility for Jack Threads at little cost.

Jack Threads also partnered with the popular TV show, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, to make and sell the t-shirts the guys wear on the show.  Needless to say, the shirts were very popular and the strategy was a huge success.