by Joyce Turner-Gionet | Aug 19, 2015 | Advertising, Business Success, Communications, Latest, Marketing
Most of us want more: more time, more fun, maybe more money, more apps and upgrades to help us do what we do faster and more efficiently, more stuff to help us minimize chores we hate doing. I believe in ‘more,’ I do. (I want to take more trips!) If something can help me do more in less time, measurably less time, and the time saved allows me to do other things, then it’s all good. If ‘more’ can help me deliver more value to my clients, then obviously, that’s good too. If ‘more’ is going to make me happier, for more than the time it takes for the novelty to wear off, then I’m more-ish! What got me thinking about the value of ‘more’ was a comment this week from my cell phone provider.
Do I need MORE?
“You’re eligible for an iPhone upgrade.” Granted, the upgrade isn’t free. No, I won’t get the latest model, unless I want to pay a LOT more; but I’d get a model that gives me more than the 2013 model I have now. I got excited. I’m an Apple fan from way way back. It was tempting. I’d get a bigger screen with greater pixel density, a more powerful processor, a battery that will last twice as long, a better camera — all good things, all stuff I’d like to have; but that’s not my point. Do I need more? Right now, my phone does what I want it to do, but …
MORE is so tempting…
My MacBook Pro’s getting old. I could do with a lighter, faster, more powerful model; okay, a sweeter one than the one I’ve got.
Apple’s advertising — as always — is smooth, intelligently simple and exciting. For the latest MacBook Pro, it’s particularly appealing: Hey, Joyce, with the new Force Touch trackpad “you don’t just see your content, you feel it.” Hey, Apple! I’m all for “feeling” my content, I’m a writer. The subhead reads: “Press a little deeper, do a lot more.” I’d be able to look up a word in the dictionary by simply pressing a little harder on the trackpad; it can distinguish between a hard touch and a softer one. Haptic feedback, aka kinesthetic communication, is a marvellous thing. (Haptic is from the Greek, relating to our sense of touch.) The new model would scan my retina, bypassing the need to enter my user name and password. Maybe that would prevent my daughter from ‘borrowing’ my 15˝ laptop to watch Netflix on a larger screen (hers is 13˝ and just not big enough for enjoying her shows, it seems). But since I’m not storing secrets that could rock the world on my laptop, do I need retinal security?
But will they allow me to do MORE?
“A groundbreaking retina display. A new force-sensing trackpad. All-flash architecture. Powerful dual-core and quad-core Intel processors. Together, these features take the notebook to a new level of performance. And they will do the same for you in everything you create,” says Apple.
Wow! All of that makes my laptop seem about as current as the era in which we hominids split with our ancestors, the chimps, to walk upright. I could have all of this really cool stuff and I’d love it. But will those features, as Apple’s copy suggests, take everything I create to a new level? Will they allow me to do ‘more’? Maybe!
How much MORE do we need? How much is MORE really going to give us?
I’ve had conversations with my geek pal about ‘more’; he gets excited about the near future and the far future and how much more we’ll be able to do. It’s an exciting world and yes, we need to anticipate, stay current, stay relevant and lean on technology to help us work smarter. Use it and yes, upgrade it, to enrich our lives and make things better in all of the ways that it can. But every once in a while (even if it’s just delaying the inevitability of those unrecyclable parts from my iPhone ending up as e-Waste) shouldn’t we question the value of more? How much more do we need? How much is ‘more’ really going to give us?
The job of advertising is to persuade
The smarter the advertising, the more persuasive. Apple can be very persuasive; but at the end of the day, it still falls to me to be persuaded.
In the near future, NO new phone; but I do see a laptop – if only to get me to the dictionary faster and put that retina scan to work cramping my daughter’s laptop-borrowing style! And it would be really nice to schlep around a lighter laptop. For this week, though, I’ll forego the enticing bells and whistles, stick with my old laptop and continue doing more, with less. I’m not quite ready to be persuaded.
For a futuristic perspective on ‘more’, here’s a peek at what more we might/can expect:
Tomorrow’s World: BBC’s Guide to the next 150 Years
BBC’s Timeline of the Far Future (a thousand years, a million, etc.)
by Miriam Hara | Aug 7, 2015 | Advertising, Branding, Business Success, Latest
The big ‘headline’ first made front page news during the 19th century newspaper wars when papers everywhere were fighting for readers’ attention. You’ve seen it in old movies — the kid on the street corner hawking the newspaper by yelling out the day’s headline! We’re still hawking with headlines. But are they effective? And do the old rules still apply? To be effective, your headlines need to be HOT!
If you don’t pull ’em in with the headline, anything else you write won’t matter.
Five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. That was true years ago and it’s still true. No one reads the body copy and ignores the headline. If you don’t pull ’em in with the headline, anything else you write won’t matter. The medium doesn’t matter either: online or print — whether it’s advertising, journalism, a magazine article, Social Media via Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. — the headline’s job never changes. Where the medium does matter is the sheer volume of headlines we’re exposed to via technology. To stand out, yours has to speak up louder and clearer than the street-corner kid. It must:
1. Grab attention.
2. Speak directly to the target audience.
3. Work as a complete message. Body copy is there only to flesh out the message.
A simple Google search hits the hot spots for a good headline
At its simplest, and strange as it might seem, a simple Google search hits the hot spots for a good headline. You want to know why your goldfish are dying in your backyard goldfish pond, so you type into the search engine: ‘Why are goldfish dying in my pond?’ It’s short, snappy, to the point. I’m not saying it’s a headline, but when agonizing over headlines, it helps to think of them in this way. My Google search about goldfish:
- Grabs attention: the attention of all websites on the subject.
- Speaks to a target audience: everyone who has something to say about dying goldfish (more on this below).
- Is a complete message: I want to know why my goldfish are dying.
I typed the goldfish question into Google and got 336,000 results — those results also illustrate the kind of competition we’re up against in advertising our brands today; thousands upon thousands of headlines with products, services or information vying for consumers’ attention. Now think about the search results; they work in much the same way as a headline.
A good search response, like a good headline, will reel me in and leave me happily fishing in a pond of information.
Results that are concise, descriptive and resonate with me, I’ll click on them. The ones that don’t, I’ll ignore: just like I’ll ignore a headline that doesn’t ‘move’ me. (An aside: all of this also illustrates the point of how important it is to get SEO right, so your website cuts through the clutter and rises to the top in search engine results.)
There’s a global glut of information out there and multiple mediums through which our advertising message can be delivered. So how do we cut through the clutter and get our message across in a way that’s hotter than everyone else’s with a similar product or service to sell? The old rules still apply …
- Make it short. How many words? you’re probably asking. “As many as needed,” David Ogilvy, the father of advertising, used to say. As many as needed is important: it doesn’t mean use a lot, it means exactly what it says: as many as needed to …
- Make it immediately compelling so that customers want to read more.
- Speak to the audience. Vitally important! A headline speaks to a target market, one you’ve researched thoroughly (hopefully!) before you ever start to think about headlines and body copy. It speaks to people who care about what you have to offer and that’s where your focus should be.
- Make sure your headline works with the visual(s). Think about ads you’ve seen. Look at a few critically after reading this. How often is the headline simply describing the visual? What a waste of space. If the visual is so weak you need to describe it, then you have a bigger issue.
- Understand catchy and clever! Sure, we remember catchy, clever headlines, but if we don’t remember the brand and what it’s selling, what’s the point?
- Humour can work, it can add personality, make a headline memorable, when used wisely and appropriately.
For small businesses without the backing of an agency skilled in creating great ad copy, it’s worth taking time to learn more about headlines, because dollars spent on advertising a truly great product using a truly ineffective headline are dollars wasted.
10 Sure-Fire Headline Formulas that work
100 Good Advertising Headlines
The Formula for a Perfect Headline
Best recent headline you’ve read? Send it to me! #SharedWisdom
by Joyce Turner-Gionet | Jul 29, 2015 | Advertising, Business Success, Communications, Latest, Marketing
Addicted to making lists? You’re not alone. We all (well, most of us) love lists. We don’t just make them because we’re busy, or because our memory’s occasionally letting us down. We’ve been ‘listing’ from the beginning.
As kids it was: “Who’s coming to my birthday party,” and we’d get busy making a list. We made impulsive mental lists — deciding we’d eat the icing flower on top of the cupcake first, then lick the icing, then eat the rest (that was the order in which I did it, my little brother did it differently). Back in the day, we had a ‘Pet the Snake’ club on the bank of a river. We’d catch a garter snake and then list names in chalk on the wall under the bridge of those who were brave enough to pet it. You were in the club if you were brave enough. Life was simple. Lists were simple.
Many of us are compulsive list makers
As adults, many of us are compulsive list makers. We don’t always write our lists down, we compose them in our head. Waking up in the morning, we think about what we are going do today: that’s a list. When we mull over solutions to a problem, we’re ‘listing’.
We regularly ‘list’ at work. Marketing couldn’t exist without lists: leads, accounts, and contacts, even a list of marketing strategies in order to settle on the best. Advertising is no different: a client brief is a list, things the client wants us to accomplish with the advertising. Advertising campaigns require all types of lists: new product names, story options, headline options, tag line options, graphic options, the list is endless. As a copywriter, my job regularly involves creating a list of product features with its corresponding list of benefits.
Outside of work, we make things-to-do lists, friends-to-call lists, books-to-read lists, grocery lists, wish lists and bucket lists. Our New Year’s resolutions are lists. [inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”” suffix=”#3HListAddict”]Try going a day without listing.[/inlinetweet] Apps for list making can take it to the absurd. I recently saw a link to “5 free apps for making better to-do lists.” The link’s title got me. How do you make a better to-do list? Instead of I need to buy cucumbers, oranges and milk, should it read 3 ripe cucumbers, 2 juicy oranges and a pint of fresh milk? I’m kidding, but then again, how much instruction do we need to make a list? Lists, by nature, are meant to simplify our lives; they have a simple purpose.
Why we make lists
Psychologists say we make lists:
- So we don’t forget
- To help us feel in control
- To gain focus by prioritizing
- To prevent procrastinating
- To feel good when we cross something off the list.
Yes, I know, I just made fun of an app for making a “better” list, but Sir Richard Branson, entrepreneur and obsessive list maker, published a listicle recently. Its focus was business, but it’s apt personally too: Top Ten Tips for making lists. I particularly liked #10: Celebrate your successes, and then make new lists of new goals.
Celebrate! Crossing off a task done is worthy of celebration
When we cross everything off a list, we should take a moment to celebrate. Mostly, we don’t. We just make a new list and start the process all over again. But that ‘Wow, look what I did’ moment, the one that comes when we’ve accomplished everything on the to-do list, deserves celebrating. Isn’t that why we made the list in the first place, to feel good about crossing things off, getting things done?
A final thought. A little tongue-in-cheek, perhaps, but my favourite comment on list making was by writer Umberto Eco in an interview with Der Spiegel. He said: “We make lists because we don’t want to die.” What do you think he meant by this?
Last week, we published a blog that focussed on the new term ‘listicles’ and whether they have a place in advertising. [inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”” suffix=”#3HListAddict”]Listicles and our ongoing attraction to them could be an extension of our inherent need to simplify, organize and get things done.[/inlinetweet] Let us know some of the reasons you write lists. What has been your most bizarre? #3HListAddict
by Miriam Hara | Jul 22, 2015 | Advertising, Communications, Latest, Social Media
Origin of the word: List + (art)icle.
Are listicles worthy of advertising? It’s a question that needs to be asked simply because they resonate so well with people and that’s what we want for our advertising messages. We want them to resonate? We want them to promote action, but we also want them to be high quality content. Do listicles fit the bill?
Listicles are everywhere: in print, on the Internet, they show up in news feeds, although some argue they’re ‘masquerading’ as journalism. If you see an article headed: ‘The 10 Best …’ or ‘The 5 Most’ … it’s a listicle. The 10 Best Behinds in Hollywood, The 5 Best Orange Veggies For Radiant Skin, 22 Reasons Your Ex-Mother-in-Law Still Hates You: we all know listicles. Most of us have read a few, maybe shared a few. Buzzfeed.com, land of listicles, offers some truly bizarre ones. This morning’s was: 13 Photos of Terrifying Shark Eggs! I didn’t read it; wasn’t sure I could handle seeing an egg with the power to terrify me so early in the day. But is this form of content creation credible. Is it serious?
Easy to digest, light on cerebral calories
Webster’s defines a listicle (yes, the word has made it to the dictionary, online at least) as “an article structured in the from of a list, typically having some additional content relating to each item.” [inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”” suffix=”#3HListAddict”]Listicles are like popsicles for the soul: guilt-free treats. Colourful, easy to digest, available in a variety of flavours, light on cerebral calories and consumed with no effort. [/inlinetweet]Mostly, they’re just plain fun. You get sucked in because you’ve been wanting to lose weight and the canny listicle language got you: “10 easy ways to lose that last 10 pounds”. The point is, though, it got to you.
My newspaper, a relatively conservative one, also seems to be big on listicles lately. In the last few months, I’ve seen:
- 3 ways to benefit now from historically low interest rates.
- How to shake a dynasty in 10 easy steps: the Alberta election and why it all went wrong for the Progressive Conservatives.
- 10 ways to make people really like you at work
We’re busy. We like reading short, snappy bites that make their point quickly
The jury is probably going to be out forever on listicles, particularly in the realm of journalism. [inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”” suffix=”#3HListAddict”]But we love lists and listicles are essentially expanded lists. We’re busy. We like reading short, snappy bites that make their point quickly.[/inlinetweet] (Think bullet points: there’s a reason we use them. They deliver key points quickly and succinctly.)
The venerable New Yorker sums up our attraction to listicles perfectly: “The article-as-numbered-list has several features that make it inherently captivating: the headline catches our eye in a stream of content; it positions its subject within a preexisting category and classification system … it spatially organizes the information; and it promises a story that’s finite, whose length has been qualified up front. Together, these create an easy reading experience, in which the heavy mental lifting of conceptualization, categorization, and analysis is completed well in advance of actual consumption …”
Hmm! That sounds a lot like advertising’s job. So do listicles have a role to play in advertising? Some say they do!
Listicles are “a great tool to reach consumers”
From an Advertising Age guest post: “… news syndication company Mobiles Republic showed that consumers are “news snacking.” The study showed that while new consumption is increasing, consumers are checking the news for a shorter amount of time. They’re hungry for news but “snack” throughout the day. Listicles can help feed their appetite. It appears listicles are here to stay and advertisers should take note. They’re a great tool to reach consumers.” Why?
I’m summarizing the author here, but I’ve linked to the entire article farther below:
Listicles …
- Are social in nature and easily shared.
- Engage consumers, typically with something that resonates.
- Can reach the right consumer at the right time with the right message
- Allow advertisers to be creative.
- Can work across platforms.
Listicles are here to stay, and advertisers should take note
Chances are, now you’re thinking about them, you’ll see listicles in places you hadn’t noticed them before. Or at least, you’ll recognize them as such. What’s your take? Listicles have a place in advertising?
[inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”” suffix=””]Send me the best listicle or listicle ad you’ve seen this month. #3HListAddict[/inlinetweet]
A few more lively listicle commentaries:
From Forbes:
Five reasons why millenials love listicles
From The New York Times:
In defense of the listicle
From the Smithsonian:
Listicles that went viral long before there was an Internet
by Miriam Hara | Jul 15, 2015 | Advertising, Latest, Social Media
I hate to break the news to you, but the social media channel is media; as such, it is a channel that is increasingly necessitating the use of advertising. Advertising is alive and well … and the social media channel can be thanked for that!
Advertising, or successfully advertising, is about reach and frequency. Of course, it’s about creative and messaging too. But if you don’t have reach or frequency, well, it’s like winking in the dark. Your message won’t be heard, let alone seen. Reaching your target audience, casting a wider net, etc., is what advertising “promises” and how and what it delivers. Ultimately, the very definition of advertising is the act or practice of calling public attention to one’s product, service, or need; using paid announcements in newspapers and magazines, over radio or television, on billboards, and yes, digital properties.
Those saying that advertising is going the way of the Dodo bird, well, they might be in for a surprise – they may just look outside and see a Dodo walking around in their backyard!
It’s not hard to make the leap to understanding why the social media channel is, or should be, considered as advertising. Understood, the aspect of “paid” is inherent in advertising. However, I would challenge this type of thinking. Paid for distributing a message, or paid in terms of creating the message, still makes it advertising. Content marketing has developed as a core tactic because of the social media channel, and content, no matter how “grassroots” or professional it is developed, is still advertising. You only have to look at Facebook. The different formats of social media advertising available to brands is quite varied. You can build your brand page — that in itself is a form of advertising — where your target audience can choose to follow you, come and see what your brand is up to on a daily basis, if you desire. You can “boost” your brand post, for a nominal fee of course. You can create display advertising, targeted to your niche, which I feel is pretty “conventional” thinking. Suffice to say, all this what I term as social media advertising.
The social media channel with all its diverse properties was made for advertising.
Or did the reverse occur? Advertising has evolved the social media channel into an advertising channel, simply because of its potential and ability to reach niches and masses alike. The creative aspects of creating the messaging based on the media channel will vary, of course. But then again, they always have! You wouldn’t create a magazine ad and place it on an out-of-home billboard? (Although, I have seen that, unfortunately). Advertising, done well, delivers the appropriate type of creative for the channel. Advertising on the social media channel is no different. Posting on your business blog is advertising, isn’t it? It establishes your business as a leader, as an expert. It garners relationships and spreads the word about your business. Advertising has never been about one-way relationships. The essence of advertising is about awareness and provoking an action: “Hey look at me! I’m here. Come see me. Get to know me”. It has transcended the relationship between product and customer, brand and consumers, business and client from pure physicality to one of connectivity and viewership.
[inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”” suffix=”#SharedWisdom #ExceedBeyond”]What are your thoughts on the role social media plays in advertising?[/inlinetweet]
