When Johnny Depp filed a 50-million defamation case against his ex-wife, Amber Heard, it blew up all over the news and on social media. It has become one of the most talked-about cases in the history of America, understandably, because the case involved famous Holywood stars. And most people would argue that after the pandemic and with the war going on between Russia and Ukraine, the world needed a distraction and it felt like this defamation case was exactly what humanity needed.
What’s also interesting is that since the entire trial was shown to the public, a lot of marketing lessons can be learned by watching it play out. Here are 6 lessons we can learn from this trial that we can apply to marketing strategies.
1. Your reputation is important
When the jury awarded $10.4 million to Johnny Depp instead of the $50-million claim, most people thought Johnny’s camp must be unhappy about the decision. However, they still consider this an absolute win. Because according to Johnny’s lawyers, it was never about the money. It was about restoring his reputation and they did just that.
The trial has shown that it isn’t always about the money. Because the money that is lost can be earned. While your reputation, once damaged, is extremely hard to recover.
This just shows how important it is for business owners to protect their reputations. Because a good reputation can spell the difference between a business’s success and failure.
2. Know your audience
When it was Amber Heard’s turn to take the stand, a lot of people noticed something odd about how she answered the questions thrown at her. Instead of facing the person who asked the question, she would turn to the jury to explain to them what happened.
Perhaps this was her team’s strategy to help sway the jury’s decision in her favor. While it’s true that her fate in this trial is in the jury’s hands, they’re not the only ones who were watching her defend her reputation. There were the those in the courtroom and the rest of the world outside who was tuned in. All these people were forming opinions of her too. And if Amber wanted to prove herself as the victim, it was the public who made her the villain.
If your product or service caters to a younger audience, it doesn’t mean you can just ignore or even “badmouth” the older demographic. Because in one way or another, their opinion of your brand matters too. Imagine selling toys to pre-teens and telling them that in order to be “cool”, they need to “speak their minds” or “challenge the rules”. However, their parents would think you’re encouraging their children to act rebelliously and therefore would not want to purchase the product for their kids.
3. Use content to increase visibility
A few statements that were said during the trial such as “grab a mega pint” or “not even for one million alpacas” became so popular that memes went viral online.
Also, hashtags like #justiceforjohnnydepp, #amberturd, #amberisapsychopath, etc. were abuzz online. Using these hashtags helped content from creators to be seen. This means that if you can see that opportunity or there’s something going on now, use that hashtag in your content to increase your visibility online
And the popularity of things said during the trial was not limited to the digital world. they were printed on T-shirts that were put on sale. If you didn’t know anything about the Johnny vs. Amber trial, the statements wouldn’t make sense. But if you followed the trial, owning merch such as this gives you a sense of belonging to a population who supports Johnny Depp. And for those who manufacture these shirts, that’s A LOT of people you can market your product to.
This means that once you have a better understanding of who your audience is and what appeals to their emotions, you can now identify marketing opportunities and build your strategy around that.
4. Use video content
One of the contributing factors to why this trial gained a lot of the public’s attention was the short-form videos that everybody else was posting on social media. The trial can be seen live but it usually lasts a couple of hours per day. And since most people don’t have time to watch the entire thing, they just look for highlights, compilations, or reaction videos where they can have the gist of what went on.
That is the power of video content, especially short-form videos (Tiktok, IG Stories, Shorts). Because people nowadays have short attention spans. And if you can get your message in front of your audience in a form that they can digest easily and wouldn’t take much of their time, then the more likely your audience will respond to your content.
5. Build trust with your consumer base
In terms of public trust, we have a clear winner and a very clear loser in this trial. If Amber was to position herself as a brand, it would be one that can’t be trusted. Just imagine a brand you follow “pledges” to donate a certain amount to charity. Then when asked if they have “paid” the said donation, they will say yes because “pledge” is pretty much the same as “pay”. We all know that making a promise is not the same as fulfilling that promise.
Consumers lean on trust as a leading factor when deciding whether they’re going to do business with the company or not. They want to know if this business is able to deliver on their promises of whatever product that they’re providing.
As a business, you can build trust by sharing your methods and providing social proof like testimonials and case studies. Basically, you need to show people how you can give them the results that they’re looking for, and that you’ve helped others like them before. And be honest about what you can and can’t do. Because your customers appreciate honesty more than empty promises.
6. Competence matters
Most people argue that the reason why Amber lost this case was due to her “incompetent” lawyers. Remember when one of her lawyers objected to his own question? During the trial, it was clear that Johnny’s lawyers were outclassing Amber’s team and it ended up making her look really bad.
The same goes with how you market your brand. You may have a good product or service to offer, or you may have worked so hard to build your reputation from the ground up, but if your marketing is done poorly and placed in incompetent hands, it could all end up in a disaster.
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If you need assistance with your digital marketing strategy or if you would like to place it in the hands of people who know what they’re doing, contact us. Our team is more than happy to help.