Welcome to August’s edition of Impression Picks! This digital marketing roundup serves as some food for thought for you from Impression’s experts and the wider marketing community. Each month, we will highlight an interesting article, insight and campaign of the month.
This month features thoughts from our strategy team, including; Head of Behavioural Science, Michael Wier, Senior Digital Strategist, Laura Arens, and Senior Digital Strategist, Rebecca Edwards. As always, we hope you enjoy the content and insights we provide as a part of our monthly roundups.
Understanding Message Framing
We spend our lives communicating with new and existing customers. However, controlling the way an audience receives your marketing messages can make a huge impact on your performance and even brand perception. While the concept of message framing is certainly not new, it’s definitely not one to be ignored.
This month’s article is what I’d describe as ‘old but gold’ and is actually a video of a talk from Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman at Ogilvy.
Our everyday perceptions are based on mental models – collections of ideas, thoughts and patterns that we retain about the world and which affect how we perceive the world around us.
In this short and fun video, Rory examines how a slight shift in the way information is nuanced can have dramatic impacts on how we perceive something and the value we ascribe to it.
Why is this important to us as advertisers?
If we change the perceived value of a choice and the outcome, we can increase the value of taking the action and boost the motivation to do so.
Sometimes in marketing, we can’t alter certain friction points, for example, the cost or time of delivery, but we can shift people’s perceptions of value.
Here are a couple of simple examples of how this can be done:
- Rather than displaying a product price, display the ‘FROM £XXX’ and ‘NOW £XX’ price.
- Rather than stating a website is merely loading, tell the user it’s working hard and running thousands of calculations to get them the best deal.
- Telling new potential customers that thousands of people are purchasing the product right now.
In his talk, Rory goes on to further examine the tendency for decision makers and people more broadly to want to naturally lean towards seemingly rational decisions to solve problems because of the bias that most people believe themselves to be rational, despite most psychologists and neuroscientists agreeing that we are not.
He also covers the idea that people are off put by ambiguous outcomes and won’t make decisions unless the outcomes are certain.
The evidence of this can be found in the importance of projections for new business. Clients are far less likely to gamble on an outcome, rather than invest in something that seems certain to have a positive outcome.
There are a whole host of psychological principles explored in the video, and at just over 18 minutes with 1M views – it’s highly worth a watch.
Article reviewed by: Michael Weir
Barbie vs. Oppenheimer: Getting to know the fans behind the latest blockbusters
The internet phenomenon of Barbenheimer has been trending worldwide. The term was coined by film fans encouraging others to go and watch both rival films rather than picking a side. But with two very different storylines, are these films really appealing to the same audience?
On paper, these two films are likely to attract the attention of very different audiences. One is a fantasy comedy following the story of Barbie and Ken on a journey of self-discovery, while the other is a biographical thriller telling the story of a famous American physicist and ‘the father of the atomic bomb’.
But, with the films creating such a buzz in recent weeks, YouGov has created an interesting infographic that explores the audience profiles and digs deeper into their differences.
Unsurprisingly, Barbie predominantly has a younger female following while Oppenheimer fans are more likely to be male and aged 40+. Similarly, Barbie fans’ top interests and hobbies are celebrities (43%) travel and holiday (39%) and National News (29%), while in comparison, Oppenheimer fans prefer National News (50%) Science (42%) and travel and holidays (42%) – one of their few shared interests.
One of the most interesting insights looks at their difference in attitudes to advertising. Overall, the data suggests that Oppenheimer fans have a more negative attitude and lower engagement levels with adverts. Only 33% of Oppenheimer fans notice adverts on trains, compared to 62% of Barbie fans. Similarly, 29% of Oppeheimers admit that an email from a brand can influence their purchase decision, while Barbie fans are more easily influenced, with more than half (52%) saying it would persuade them to buy.
Despite both of the films trending across social media, the infographic highlights that while the fans do share the same space on popular platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, nearly twice as many Barbie fans have TikTok and Snapchat accounts than Oppenheimer fans – a likely reason why #barbie or #kenergy have been amongst the top hashtag trends for the past few weeks (plus the rumoured $150million marketing budget).
While it may feel obvious, understanding the data behind these different audience profiles makes an interesting and fun read for any marketer, so why not check it out?
Insight by: Laura Arena
Laughing through it with Audible
In their latest comedy campaign, online entertainment giants Audible show us how simplicity can be key to making your campaign memorable and impactful.
To mark the launch of several new comedy shows, Audible has taken a new, refreshing approach to their latest campaign ‘Laughing through it with Audible’. The concept is simple and something many of us can all relate to, the idea of laughing through the tough times, no matter how trivial or challenging they may be.
Created by Fold7, the campaign will run across VOD, online video, Cinema, OOH and social, and it’s already capturing the attention of many consumers for its lighthearted and commercial creatives.
I first saw the TV advert and while some may say it’s pretty simple, for me this is what makes it so effective. In today’s world where brands are focused on using high-tech visuals or abstract ideas, the simplicity of the ad made it more memorable for me. To start, there is no music, no voiceover, just footage of a woman who continues to experience a series of unfortunate events after her car breaks down. While many of us would probably break down ourselves, the woman continues to hysterically laugh her way through it – which seems pretty odd until she pulls her hair behind her ears to reveal she is listening to a comedy show on Audible.
For me, the fact there is no obvious branding at the start or signals on who or what the advert is about is more captivating as it presents the consumer with something new and likely leaves them intrigued to know what on earth was happening.
Besides being highly relatable for many, the concept is strong, making it a great multi-channel campaign that can appeal to a wide variety of audiences.
On their OOH adverts, they’ve pushed the creative boundaries and branched out to touch upon different comical scenarios. From a person landing in a bin to a bike stranded in cement, the ideas are fun, attention-grabbing and undoubtedly memorable.
Sometimes we don’t need to go outside the box or create something weird and wonderful to leave a lasting impression. Humour can go a long way and sometimes it’s the simplest things that bring a smile to our faces after a long day.
For me, Audible nailed its brief; it’s fun, it’s memorable, it has a tagline, it appeals to a wider audience, it relates to the products being promoted, it’s adaptable and it works perfectly across several key channels.
Campaign reviewed by: Rebecca Edwards
Look out for our next Impression Picks in September for more digital marketing articles, insights and campaigns to inspire your digital strategy. Have any further questions? Get in touch!
