What the Wuthering Heights ‘affair baiting’ stunt teaches brands about the attention economy

If you’ve been online for five minutes lately, you’ve probably seen it. Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi doing the Wuthering Heights press circuit. In the movie, they’re lovers.

On the red carpet and in interviews promoting the movie, they’re.. something. The touching, the long looks. Margot Robbie feeling ‘lost’ if her co-star, Jacob, wasn’t close. Jacob Elordi needing to be ‘within 5 to 10 metres’ of Margot. Two very talented, very famous, very attractive people giving us all teasers of a potential showmance.

Plot twist: they’re both partnered in real life. To other people.

Guys guys guys, they’re actors, they are ‘affair baiting’ us. They’re just making it look like they’re in love in real life, even though they’re very likely just co-workers. But it’s working. We’re clicking and we’re watching and we’re outraged and obsessed by the controversy.

Let’s be clear: Australian coverage has not produced verified reporting of an actual affair and regardless, we’re not the morality police. We’re the brand and marketing police.

So what’s interesting to us, is that this PR move shines a spotlight on our attention economy. What’s interesting to us is what kind of tactics it takes to produce interesting enough content for the modern consumer to pay attention: outrage, shock, controversy and being generally contrary.

It’s not just Hollywood. We see this play out in brand marketing campaigns, too.

The ‘outrage them to engage them’ play isn’t exclusive to celebrity press tours. Think about it. We see versions of this all the time in Australian politics during federal elections, misleading Daily Mail (sorry not sorry) headlines, modern consumer brands and anti-smoking campaigns. We know it’s something our social media algorithms (shamelessly) reward - the more provocative, the more outspoken, the more controversial, the better a piece of content performs. Everything. For. That. View. And. That. Click.

Even in financial and professional services. “Your retirement is at risk.” “Your house is on the line.” High-interest. High arousal. Low nuance.

Here’s the tension for brands for the Margot and Jacob of it all. You can manufacture attention and brand awareness by dialling up controversy, outrage, fear, conflict or being generally contrary. However when your business relies on long-term trust, regulatory confidence and internal stakeholder approvals and  buy-in, you don’t get to trade reputation for reach.

Short-term spikes in awareness, views and attention are easy(er).

Long-term trust and industry authority is carefully, consistently, slowly strategised and built.

Why building trust with audiences needs to win (and outrageous, controversial and contrarian content needs to take a backseat)

If we’re continuing with our Wuthering Heights metaphor, outrage is a one-night stand, a situationship at best. Building consumer trust is everlasting love.

And if you’re a B2B, corporate, professional services or finance brand (like many of the clients we work with), chances are your customer journey is long and the path to trust and conversion is long. Not exactly a one-nighter that wins a customer over with one well-timed contrarian opinion to the goings on in the industry.

Your buyer is rarely impulse purchasing. They need to feel confident. Not entertained, not riled up, not recruited into a comment section crusade.

This is why at Brandshake we bang on about the funnel in plain English: awareness, consideration, money. We use a signature  ‘get attention - awarenes, get trust - consideration, get money - conversion’ framework.

Outrage is the easiest way to borrow attention. It’s also a fast way to burn trust. For example sticking with Margot and Jacob - they can never use this play again. For any movie. We’d know straight away. We also tire of it very quickly. Consumers are savvy and we don’t want to be underestimated.  Think about how quickly media outlets have been to label their ‘showmance’ as ‘affair baiting’.

Outrage content and controversial content also gets stuck in approval purgartory

Outrage content can absolutely manufacture reach. But it has a hidden cost: it teaches your audience that your brand’s value is hot takes, rather than serious service or product provider.

If we’re thinking about internal content and strategy approvals,  it also increases the odds that someone internally says, “Yeah… no. This feels risky” and suddenly your content pipeline is stuck in approval purgatory. Nightmare fuel. Also not... everlasting love.

So trust is also your internal currency when you need buy-in. The more predictable, consistent, evidence-led and brand-safe your content is, the easier it is to win leadership

Don’t get us twisted. We want to be first-to-comment at times. We want to position our brands as thought leaders and unique. We want to be early adopters in how we show up online. We still create high-interest content. We just want it to build trust and industry authority, not controversy or contrary opinions for the sake of views and reach.

OK, so what should we actually do? How to Build Trust AND be interesting in your content.

Here’s how to stay high-interest without going low-trust in your content. Some pointers.

Be careful with your hooks

Our job (at least at Brandshake for our clients) is not to match the internet’s energy. Our job is to lower buyer anxiety and build trust.

A simple gut check: will this post make a decision-maker feel more confident, or more activated? We want the former, obvi.

For example, there’s a difference between:

“Your marketing is failing because…”

and

“The gap we’re seeing in most B2B marketing plans right now are [x].”

One creates defensiveness (or outrage). The other creates curiosity.

You can create tension, be contrary to popular believe and interest without creating fear. Less one click-wonder, one-night stand, more of that  everlasting love with your target customer.

Raise a problem and then fix it.. like, immediately

Creating content from your target customer’s pain points and frustrations is gold-class content. A +. Though a good rule of thumb is if you’re going to raise a problem, you should offer a fix.

Don’t (be contrarian and go straight for the sell), for example

“Your sales scripts are useless. Use our method instead.”

Better (tension + fix):

“Most B2B sales scripts fail because they focus on features before buyer anxiety. Here’s a 3-step tweak that improves response rates.”

See the difference?

You’re still naming the gap. You’re still creating tension and pointing out a pain point. But you’re not trying to insult your audience into buying from you.

In professional services especially, fear-based hooks like:

“Your retirement is at risk.”

“Your brand is invisible.”

…might spike attention, but our job isn’t to trigger panic. It’s to reduce uncertainty.

When you raise a problem and immediately provide structure, clarity or a next step, you position yourself as a steady hand. Not a shock jock. That’s what builds trust. That’s what gets shared to other decision makers and saved for when the time is right to buy from you. And that’s what moves someone from “huh, interesting post” to “we should talk to them.”

Back up thoughts you’re putting forward with evidence and value

If you want to build authority in B2B, your content needs evidence and it needs to provide value to customers. Do this using outside sources and don’t be afraid to rely on first-party data and anecdotal evidence from your brand’s own experience in a field. Either way, it’s the evidence, the backing up, or the providing of knowledge and value that’s key to building trust with audiences.

Instead of:

“Most agencies don’t speak corporate.”

Try:

“We’ve worked with financial services and property groups where compliance sign-off adds two weeks to every campaign. If your agency and content strategy doesn’t factor that in, it will stall. Here’s how we plan around it.”

Evidence builds confidence. Value builds trust. The more specific, the more credible.

Most brands need more than engaging social content to move people through the funnel, anyway.

Remember the point, anyway, is usually to get more sales. So build assets around your social content that build trust and get people flowing through the funnel towards a sale (a la the BS get attention, get trust, get money framework).

Think in layers:

• A high-interest post that identifies a tension, pain point, frustration  or is controversial within the industry

• A deeper blog unpacking the system or thinking behind it

• A downloadable checklist or template

• A short email sequence that expands on the idea

• A clear, low-pressure offer at the end

Get attention. Get trust. Get money. Long, long, everlasting love.

Every strong post should have somewhere sensible for the reader to go next. Not a hard sell. A logical next step.

The temptation to provide a hot take

There will always be industry drama. Regulatory changes. Competitor scandals. Media moments. Cultural flashpoints.

When there’s opportunity to comment in the industry (think key opinion leaders who comment to media regularly), use this test:

• Is this verifiable?

• Does this materially affect our clients or our risk profile?

• Can we add clarity rather than outrage?

• Will this still look smart in six months?
  
  

If the answer isn’t strong across the board, it’s probably best to rethink commenting..

You don’t need to have an opinion on everything to be seen as an industry leader.

Make your own job as a marketer easier internally

Your content isn’t just for the market, remember. For most marketers, it’s for internal approval chains too. Imagine a piece of content is being seen by the CEO/CFO/CMO. Would they see it as commercially aligned and brand safe? Or as a risky attempt at releva

The Margot–Jacob discourse will pass. The next outrage cycle will arrive. The algorithm will keep rewarding heat over nuance. So where does that leave my brand?

Your brand does not have to play that game. Let’s not rage bait or affair bate people into clicks, people.

If you are a B2B, finance, corporate or professional services brand, you are competing for confidence. And confidence is built on consistency, clarity and trust.

The brands that will win the next five years are not the shock jockiest. They are the most reliable. The ones that make complex decisions feel simpler. The ones that understand their audience deeply and make them feel seen, heard and understood.

Generating outrage is easy. Building trust and authority is hard. But it lasts longer and actually results in sales. You do the math, Margot and Jacob!