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Attention Harvesting

This is news we can all use - how to get a hamster to out-perform the S&P 500. The story is a winner at so many levels. First off, it is a great lesson in marketing - how to write a headline (or email subject line) that will grab the reader's attention immediately. In this case "A hamster has been trading cryptocurrencies in a cage rigged to automatically buy and sell tokens since June - and it's currently outperforming the S&P 500"

The audience will fall in one of few categories - trades crypto and stock, trades crypto, trades stock, everyone else. Since this is in business insider the readership has basic understanding of both crypto and stock even if they are in the group that does nothing with either. That being said, that line has something for everyone. If you are trading crypto you want to know if the hamster outperformed you along with S&P 500. The stock traders among the readership will want to know if displacement by hamsters is looming in their future. For folks that dabble in both they may experience a crisis of confidence reading this line - maybe they are leaving money on the table that the hamsters are mopping up. 

Everyone else is peanut gallery in this context and experiencing a bit of schadenfreude - this is indeed the proof point of blindfolded monkey theory: “A blindfolded monkey throwing darts at a newspaper's financial pages could select a portfolio that would do just as well as one carefully selected by experts.”

So no matter what group you fall into as a reader, you will want to read the rest of the story. And you will learn that the hamster has a Twitter handle and is livestreaming his work for the world to see. The idea is to draw the reader in as a participant and it will likely work. At the time of writing Mr. Goxx had about 3000 followers on Twitter and Twitch. Strictly speaking this story is not attention-harvesting but it is how to do it right, not leave the target feeling depleted. It gets their attention, gives them something to chuckle about and leave them with food for thought. 

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