近期，一段在Coldplay演唱会上出现的“kiss cam”视频在社交媒体上病毒式传播，视频中疑似一位科技公司CEO及其人力资源主管在镜头前拥抱后匆忙躲避。这一事件迅速被特斯拉、Netflix、StubHub以及西雅图水手队等众多品牌抓住，并借此进行营销。这些品牌通过在社交媒体上发布幽默、调侃的帖子，巧妙地利用了“ColdplayGate”这一网络热点事件，以吸引关注、提升品牌相关性和“酷感”。这种做法是品牌在“注意力经济”时代，为打破传统广告噪音、保持品牌活力的一种策略，相较于过去，品牌在社交媒体上的表达更加大胆和灵活，但仍需注意避免触及敏感政治话题。

💡 品牌借势热点事件：特斯拉、Netflix、StubHub等品牌迅速捕捉到“ColdplayGate”这一社交媒体病毒式传播的“kiss cam”视频事件，并积极利用其进行营销活动，展示了品牌对网络热点的敏锐度。

🚀 营销策略与目的：这些品牌的营销行为旨在通过幽默、调侃的社交媒体内容，吸引用户注意力，提升品牌在“注意力经济”下的相关性和“酷感”，以在信息爆炸的时代脱颖而出。

🌐 社交媒体的演变与风险：与过去品牌谨慎的线上沟通方式不同，如今品牌更倾向于参与当前事件，尽管这增加了品牌“出格”的风险，但涉及非政治敏感话题时，被认为是相对安全的营销手段。

⚖️ 营销的边界与考量：尽管借势营销效果显著，但品牌仍需谨慎，避免触及如政治、战争等敏感话题，以免引发负面反响，例如Duolingo曾因在日本市场对死亡的玩笑处理不当而受到影响。

Brands such as Tesla, Netflix, and StubHub are capitalizing on "ColdplayGate" for marketing buzz.The viral "kiss cam" concert clip appears to show a CEO and his head of HR embracing before hurriedly ducking out of frame.Brands often use social-media humor to stay relevant and break through the noise.

ColdplayGate has emerged as the latest marketing free-for-all.

Tesla, Netflix, StubHub, and the Seattle Mariners are among a growing number of brands that have quickly seized on the viral internet video, in which two people who appear to be a tech CEO and his company's head of HR were filmed embracing on a "kiss cam" at a Coldplay concert before quickly untangling and ducking out of frame.

The companies' official accounts have posted on social media poking fun at the duo, who Coldplay front man Chris Martin and much of the internet speculated could be having an affair.

"Posting a pic of you enjoying your loaner Tesla while your own one is in service is the equivalent of taking it to a Coldplay concert," reads a post from the company on its X account. "Your car will know."

"We have Coldplay tickets for you and your favorite coworker," StubHub wrote on Facebook.

Such cheeky social-media reactions are brands' way of exploiting the "attention economy" to stay relevant at a time when it isn't as easy to break through the noise with traditional advertising, Boston College communications professor Michael Serazio told Business Insider.

"It's not only your friends and influencers and creators hopping in with jokes and memes," he said. "It's brands wanting to get into that space as well and come across as edgy and cool."

Whereas a decade ago brands were often reserved with their online messaging, today they perceive it less risky to weigh in on current events, with the exception of geopolitical matters like the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, Serazio added. Besides, he doesn't expect people's interest in ColdplayGate to last long anyway.

"This falls under the heading of internet ephemera," he said.

Still, it can be wise for brands to take some caution with their online marketing. Earlier this year, Duolingo did just that when it staged the death of its owl mascot in all of its markets except Japan.

"It turns out that in Japan, joking about death is not as kosher," Luis von Ahn, the company's CEO, said on an earnings call at the time.

In the case of ColdplayGate, though, brands can feel relatively safe to chime in, said Brooke Erin Duffy, an associate professor of communication at Cornell University who studies social-media culture.

"It doesn't have the same moral tenet as something that would take brands into an unequivocal political space, especially at such a fragile political moment as we find ourselves in," she said. "It's not something that's going to offend people for the most part."