To greatly paraphrase Tolstoy, you can explain anything to a complete ding dong if they know nothing about the topic, but you'll fail to explain it to the greatest minds if they start with any preconceptions. Cognitive bias is powerful. People will pay more for a worse product if they think the brand is better.
BuzzFeed built a digital brand that can only be understood by living online during its heyday. The way reposted videos of TikTok fill Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook, is only slightly more pervasive than the level to which BuzzFeed content once filled social feeds. Everyone knew BuzzFeed, but few loved it.
The media company built traffic without an audience. BuzzFeed appeared to show you a compilation of oddly satisfying power-washing videos or a quiz to learn what kind of potato you were. Like the big-name cola that isn't Coca-Cola, people knew the brand, but it was a preference for very few.
This episode is also available as a blog post: https://www.masonpelt.com/buzzfeed-news-and-twitter-blues/
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