The Honey Badger brings all the boys to the yard, and marketers should pay attention
Ten's decision to cast Nick 'The Honey Badger' Cummins as its latest bachelor was an exercise in the power of gender. Marketers should be keeping a close eye on what it all means, explains Bec Brideson.
Something very interesting is happening to The Bachelor’s ratings. The Honey Badger is putting the ‘balls’ in eyeballs – attracting 76,000 new fans to the show, only 1,000 of whom are women. The Bachelor ratings success demonstrates their producers have either wittingly or unwittingly – cracked a code for attracting blokes to a ‘romance’ show. And there is a lesson in it for marketers.
Honey Badger is a stark example of the impact that choosing the right or wrong talent and persona has on the gender appeal of your brand. I see it all the time. Clients get “talked/bullied” into accepting the mono-lensed creative idea, where the talent are little more than tone-deaf clichés in service of a cheap gag or product presentation.
Whether it’s a mansplaining ambassador with a condescending voice-over, a credible actress being made to play an air-head, or an insight that simply doesn’t resonate as anything a woman would do or a father should be, it all has the same effect. It fails to deeply engage (this tends to be unconscious and therefore not expressed or uncovered in the concept research). That joke that makes the sardonic hipsters smile on set or in the edit suite has left your market with a negative charge, and a massive media budget wasted.
As the article suggests, Sophie Monk had a big role to play in evolving the show’s perception from being a scrap fight for dating, into an opportunity for character analysis, opportunities for self-reflection and sharing as we voyeuristically watch males and females search for love. Her humour and humanity took the show to a new level.
So why didn’t the previous bachelors resonate like the Badger? Well, sure, he’s famous. But there’s more to it than that. The previous bachelors were Duddly Do-Right clichés – handsome cut-out princes in tuxedos. They were not believable or relatable for the average guy, nor were they ever meant to be.
Matty J from 2017’s season of The Bachelor
Honey Badger is a character that blokes understand and relate to. Like Sophie Monk, he comes across as funny and authentic. Most importantly when you’re watching either of them, you get the sense that you’re in on the joke with them. The regular bloke, irony and humour has given the guys permission to join in the fun.
I was delighted to see this article showing a gender breakdown in ratings. For some time, I have been asking why we don’t publish even more demographics in the regular ratings reports and instead default to the age group data rather than the impervious detail of gender. It matters. A lot.
Answers have ranged from slack-jaw-surprise that I’d even waste time suggesting otherwise, to fire-side chats that “the gender stuff is getting old – you should find a new angle” to agreement that “we just always did it that way”.
Until serious gender-targeting becomes our norm, we will continue to default to the mono-lens view. The success of this season’s The Bachelor on the tail of The Bachelorette display the rewards for moving beyond shallow clichés in brand persona development, in talent performances as well as gender’s powerful relatability in brand sentiment and bottom-line success.
Bec Brideson helps businesses and brands through better understanding the power of gender differences.
well said Bec
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Advertisers want a certain audience, specifically people who are easily separated from their earnings. Reality TV delivers on this.
I don’t know who the honey badger is and I haven’t watched the show, so I make no comment on how cultured or intelligent he may/may not be. But the idea was definitely not to attract an urbane kind of viewer who would make logical decisions about the ads in between the scenes.
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Whilst the gender politics is important…
Let’s not get away from the fact that it’s basically a televised version of when a man walks in brothel.
The difference is that in the Bachelor it takes him 13 weeks to decide which girl he wants to fuck.
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Well said Bec!
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Spot on. Hopefully channel 10 has learnt its lesson – no more cardboard cut-out bachelors!
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I suggest this guy inherit the role of Crocodile Dundee, as his grandson. Be brilliant for tourism – Yanks will love this guy.
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Funny how the celebrities come across as more authentic and relatable than ordinary Matty? Great call on talent
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Great article Bec! You’re right on all accounts here. Huge shift that hopefully other networks will take on board.
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Sophie Monk’s rampant on-set ciggie breaks were also relatable and authentic!
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