by Kris Van Hout -

Blog #6 – Meeting Daniel Bauer

I think the meeting with Daniel Bauer was very useful. I got a lot of new insights and a lot of new questions where I could find answers for while writing my master thesis.

I explained Daniel what I want to do for my thesis and discussed my exposé the most important feedback I received was that now I have the chance to get a bit of distance of what I’m already doing. I could do something very extraordinary if I want to.

These were the following questions that we came up with:

  • How does a campaign communicate? How is it different from traditional marketing communication?
  • Why is a social media campaign valuable for brands?
  • What is the difference between a €100 budget or a €10.000 budget
  • Would it be better for a company to invest into one movie or a whole campaign?
  • What is a campaign? What does it include?
  • Why does content matter?

The way to continue my research:

Try to get already answers how does social media campaigns communicate. Figure out what kind of content is important. And when I do research on best practice add some criteria what makes a campaign good or bad.
some examples of criteria:

  • Where was it shown
  • Did the target group grown
  • Which communications

Then when I finally will do all the research, I also have to plan the actual campaign and produce it to check if my findings were correct.

Overall, Daniel was very interested in this topic because also at ShotShotShot they struggle to find answers to these questions. So, he would be interested to read the thesis when it is finished

Video is already there since ages and also social media but still there is not a clear answer why is it working and why is it valuable. Or at least a lot of companies don’t see the value of it. And they will just ask someone at the marketing team to just do the social media of the company on the side. And I want to proof it is valuable and it’s not a just a side job.

by Kris Van Hout -

Blog #5 – Expose v.1

The Problem
Short form video is a pretty new feature in the social media world. What is the best way the tackle a live event with it. How can you do preproduction? How will you do edit and organizing content in the most efficient way? Will you edit everything on phone or are the traditional tools the way to go? And how can you gain views on the content you created? What will make a video sharable? A lot of questions, will those have one big answer?

State of research
Since short form video is quite new, there are not a lot of scientific papers about it. There are a lot of papers and books about traditional marketing where I can put out the essence of marketing and put those findings in my topic. I’ll probably also have to interview people to gain some information about best practice.

The question
How to achieve social media campaign goals for an event in the best possible way (focused on short form video)

The hypothesis
This master thesis will provide the guidelines for an optimized social media campaign based on short form video. 

The reference to theory
There are a lot of social media campaigns with short form video but you rarely find the secret recipe to the best way of doing it the right way. Short form video is quite new and therefore, there is a lot to list out what is the best way to do so.

The Method
The method will be based on three pillars:

  1. Best practice, analyze previous campaigns. And interview people who play a key role in defining the industry, are questioned about their social media management processes and point out what the importance is of a good social media campaign.
  2. Theoretical contextualization of traditional and agile marketing/social media methods.
  3. Implementation, of all the findings to a social media campaign for a live event (achtvanbladel)

 All pillars are combined to find optimized guidelines for a social media campaign focused on short form video.

The Material
There are all kinds of sources available: Theoretical books, scientific papers, Tedtalks, Interviews, data of previous campaigns

Bibliography
For the Bibliography I dont have that much sources that I know I’m gonna use for sure.
– Brown, R. E., Jones, V. K. & Wang, M. (o. D.). The new advertising: branding, content, and consumer relationships in the data-driven social media era. Volume 1 Traditional advertising tranformed (Volume 1).
– Coker, K. K., Flight, R., & Baima, D. M. (2017). Skip it or view it: The Role of Video Storytelling in Social Media Marketing. Researchgate.
– Kurzrock, Ethan. (2019). Intensified Play: Cinematic study of TikTok mobile app. 
– Sidorova, E. (2022). Global art market in the aftermath of COVID-19.

Structure

  1. Title
  2. Abstract
  3. Introduction
  4. Literature review
  5. Method
  6. Results
  7. Conclusion
  8. Discussion

Timetable
February – April: Theoretical part, best practice, analyse previous campaigns. And interview people who play a key role in defining the industry, are questioned about their social media management processes and point out what the importance is of a good social media campaign.
April – June: Preproduction for Implementation
July – August: Social media campaign for a live event (achtvanbladel)
August – September: Results, Conclusion, Discussion

by Kris Van Hout -

Blog #4 – What is a good research paper, article, or book?

In the proseminar for our thesis we were asked to find several recourses to begin our master thesis and here are some find I did:

First I found this paper: Cinematic study of TikTok mobile app.

But I quickly found out that’s its not the right article for me. This article shows that up to date data is harder to find. This article is from 2019 and is already outdated a TikTok changed already a lot since that so the article is not very relatable any more.
They talk about that all the videos have a different playback speed than other video apps and that video’s only take 15 sec. Which is not the case anymore there are still videos of 15 seconds but there are also videos of 30 and 60 seconds and even videos of 3 up to 10 min.

Even though the article is outdated there is still some information that is still in use. Users still imitate videos of others to jump on the trends. It’s important to look for these trends and try to flip it so it will work with your kind of content and your brand (Autumn Klein,2019)

I have the feeling this paper is more explaining what TikTok is in a basic way than actually going deeper into specific information that you would want to find if you are searching for Paper with TikTok as platform.

For my next blogs I want to find a list of good resources about TikTok, Instagram or more on social media campaigns. Or maybe take inspiration directly from the source, but than its always the question if its a good and reliable one.

Sources:
Kurzrock, Ethan. (2019). Intensified Play: Cinematic study of TikTok mobile app.


by Kris Van Hout -

Impulse #2 TikTok Ted2023

Content was based on people that you knew. Change that to content that you like.

Mission of TikTok: inspire creativity and bring joy.

  1. a window to discover
  2. A canvas to create
  3. Bridges for people to connect

Its easy to gain views on TikTok because you don’t need a big following.

The algorithm learns what to show to the user. Recommendation algorithm.

The app is taking over the whole screen space, a lot of people using that window to discover new things in their lives. People find communities over the recommendation algorithm. TikTok gives small businesses and creators a voice that they otherwise wouldn’t have.

On other platforms you already have to be kind of famous otherwise it’s very hard to get discovered.

You have to have a message that resonates with people than it will create the virality itself.

The rest of the talk was more about safety of TikTok and awareness for addiction for children. TikTok doesn’t want to create addiction and have different versions for younger users and show warnings after a longer period of using the app to get up and do something different.

TED. (2023, 21. April). TikTok CEO Shou Chew on its future — and what makes its algorithm different | Live at TED2023 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zC8-06198g

by Kris Van Hout -

Blog #3 – Acht van Bladel Social-Media Campaign

Here is a recap of the social media campaign for the Acht van Bladel 2023:

Goals:

1. Brand awareness:
– Post reach: Get as many people as possible to reach with our posts.
– Follower: Instagram: started with 508, now 1094 followers
TikTok: started with 0, now with 1001 followers

2. Manage brand reputation:
– Brand mentions and relevant hashtags: Get as many people to mention @achtvanbladel 
– How often are people talking about us, special reach out.

Also got a special report in the official UCI Jury report of the event. That the social media this year was outstanding and this is a good example how other races should spend more energy into their social media aswell. The UCI is trying to put races for juniors like this on the map. And how we tackled the social media this year was the way to do so they said.

The UCI, Union Cycliste Internationale, is the international organization of the cycling sport. It oversees and regulates all cycling disciplines, establishes rules, organizes international competitions, promotes global development of the cycling sport at the international level.

3, Improve community engagement:
As much as possible
Here are the average results of the social media posts:

Instagram Reels
LikesViewsCommentsSharedSaved
475238732314
Instagram Photos
LikesReachComments
858030
TikTok
LikesViewsCommentsSharedSaved
38957623813

As you can see Instagram reels and TikTok have more potential than a photo posted on Instagram. Further you can see that there are very little comments in all the posts we posted. Maybe that is something to work on.
We also put a lot of effort in the after movie which is mostly to show other sponsors what kind of event the Acht van Bladel is. That’s why performance is less important but here are the results from that:

202220232024
YouTube30119??
Instagram9902869??
Facebook16001700??

Reparation before the event:
Since we also made the after movie of the 2022 edition, we knew a little bit what to improve but not to every detail. In 2022 we only made an after movie and did nothing with the social media so that was completely new.

Team:
Director/ Preproduction/Camera/Edit/Social media: Kris van Hout
Camera 2: Mirre Roymans
Social media 1: Nele van Hout
Social media 2: Richard Caddock
Drone: Ruud Hooijen
Photographer: Peer van Rooij

Planning
I didn’t do the whole campaign on my own but I was the “director” if that’s the right word. But I also did most of the preproduction work. We rented all the gear so we were fully equipped for the weekend.

DP 7588 Panasonic S5 body
LO 8372 Fader ND 82mm Kenko / Hoya
LP 7239 Panasonic Lumix S PRO 70- 200mm f/2.8 OIS
AM 8112 SD card 128GB 95MB/s
We also used the Panasonic S5 from my cousin (Mirre)

For social media we looked deep into similar similar cycling tour account to come up with inspiration and saved already a lot of music so we could use it on-site. So, we have a list of wished content what we wanted to post. The only thing is that we had to get those right shots.

Further we had all the routes of all the stages but we had to figure out a good schedule to get as much footage as we could in the short period of time.

All with all we made already a lot of progress compaired to 2022 but there is still a lot to improve for the next edition.

Sources:
https://blog.hootsuite.com/smart-social-media-goals/
https://www.instagram.com/achtvanbladel/

@achtvanbladel
by Kris Van Hout -

Impulse #1 – Master thesis research

We had to do some research about the master thesis form previous years. We had to choose on and analyze it. I choose for the one of Florian Reithofer (CMS17) – Projektmanagement für motion designer. This thesis was about how motion design studios and freelancers face the challenge of freedom and unstructured thinking combined with completing milestones and finishing deadlines in time. Something what I also struggle with as a freelancer so I that’s why I choose for this one.

I think it was really interested to see how the thesis was build up compared what I’m used to of my bachelor thesis that I wrote in the Netherlands. I saw a lot of theory but less practical stuff what I would have expected. I also could not find a good result of the thesis (which is possible) but there was not really a product with the thesis only a theory of what could be the best way of managing a project.

Besides that, the thesis was well structured and well designed. Which was very pleasant to read. I also found a lot of other theses in the library that were less clear. But it gave some insight what is possible for my thesis. I discovered it’s quite open what the end result could be.

by Kris Van Hout -

Blog #2 – Skip or view it

What is the best way to engage consumers with videos? What is the role of video storytelling in social media. And what is the goal you want to achieve?

Why video?
“If text was the medium of the analog era, video is definitely the medium of the digital age” (Berthon, Pitt & DesAutels, 2011, p. 1047). It has the ability to grab our attention, stimulate our imagination and gives us possibility to share our own story to the world around us. Video has credited with being a quick attention grabber in digital marketing (Lessard, 2014).
A big challenge for brands is holding consumers attention long enough so that they actually tune in to the video on social media.

In this research paper there are two execution styles being tested: the straight-sell style and the storytelling style. However, the straight-sell style is very popular, social media is known as a tool where brands can share their story.
Storytelling helps us sharing messages and wisdom to navigate and explain the world around us. Story ads place the brand within “narrative elements (e.g., goals, actions, outcomes) it creates empathy. For a brand, storytelling works to help build awareness, empathy, recognition and recall.
Stories can be used to enter the consumer’s thought processes and to bring meaning to everyday objects. (Twitchell, 2004). Consumers tend to think in narrative terms rather than in argumentative terms. (Woodside et al., 2008).
Stories help consumers focus on story elements and allow consumers to be immersed in the story, rather than directing their attention to brand characteristics. People connect those stories to their lives; they compare the story to their lives and match their personal experience.

The positive effects of storytelling can propose that storytelling may increase the consumer engagement with video on social media. Which will lead to positive word of mouth, sharing, promoting and skipping vs viewing behavior. The emotional link between the audience of an ad and the brand is strengthened because stories are memorable and easily absorbed.

Video ads with a storytelling style the consumer will be less likely to believe that the ad is trying to persuade them to do something. It is most likely that storytelling style result in a more favorable change in attitude towards the brand than the straight-sell style. Consumer engagement is more than the purchase, it’s more participatory and involved interactions with the brand on social media.

There is also a finding that the storytelling style is more successful at creating a stronger affective response ore emotional connection with the brand. And created a shareability factor and higher intention to promote the brand.

It would be easier to build a community and enhance brand meaning, while proving their consumers that their product will add value to their life (Hirschman, 2010) This approach has the potential to be effective in a social community where consumers are connected with opportunities to be brand influencers, sharing brand messages with others. Which will lead to more positive publicity.
A video with a storytelling style is more likely to be viewed. This is important because there is no reason for marketeers to invest in expensive content when consumers are going to skip it.

There is a little correlation between social media use and purchase intention. Heavy and light users alike react similarly to the ads with a straight-sell style. While storytelling ads produce a stronger reaction from heavy social media users and react positively. In that case you really have to know your target group.

But the most important question is what is the goal of the video and what goals has more effect in the long run. So, storytelling creates a better brand community but if people don’t know your product in the first place the straight-sell style would be a better match.
The example in this research:
Brands like Coca-Cola may have started with straight-sell styles earlier in the brand’s life to introduce product. However, as the brand and product became more well-known overtime, the brand may have moved on to the storytelling approach in marketing communications.
Thus, if the brand wishes to use a straight-sell and storytelling execution style for its videos on social media, then it would be wise to start with the straight-sell approach and follow up with the storytelling approach, in that order.

Source: Coker, K. K., Flight, R., & Baima, D. M. (2017). Skip it or View it: The Role of Video Storytelling in Social Media Marketing. Researchgate.

by Kris Van Hout -

Blog #1 – Topics thesis question

Recap:
Last semester I ended my design and research with the topic ‘’short form video’’ And with this topic I created thesis questions. Which could help me finding a clearer view of what I want to do in the 4th semester. Which are:

  • Exploring the storytelling potential of short form video content on social media platforms.
  • The impact of editing techniques in creating engaging narratives in short form videos.
  • Analyzing the effectiveness of different video formats (e.g., vertical, square, horizontal) for short form video platforms.
  • The aesthetics of composition and framing in short form videos: Techniques for capturing attention.

For the design and research course this semester I would like to dive deeper in these questions and see how much potential they have and how I can make them worthy as a thesis topic.

To make it already clearer by forehand what short form video is and other terms in these questions. I made a glossary for terms that I think will be very handy to know.

Glossary:

Short form video:
Short form video is to a type of video content that typically has a shorter duration compared to traditional long-form videos. These videos are often created for social media. Short form videos are made to capture viewers’ attention quickly and deliver content in engaging way, they usually are between a few seconds to a few minutes.

Social Media Storytelling:
Social media storytelling uses content on social media, such as posts, pictures, videos or interactive content, to tell a story about your company, product or brand.

Short-term storytelling:
Story telling which lasts for one piece of content.

Long-term storytelling:
Story telling which takes place over multiple pieces of content and over a period of time.

User participation interaction:
The engagement and involvement of users in the content or experience. It provides the chance for users to actively participate, contribute, or interact with the content or the overall experience.

Content Trends:
Content trends refer to the popular and prevailing themes, topics, formats, or styles that are prominent in a particular period.

by Kris Van Hout -

Short form Video and the Goldfish Effect

In the 00’s the human attention span was measured at 12 seconds. And fast forward to today out attention span has markedly decreased. As a consequence, short form video is now more popular than before.
The average human attention span is now shorter than a goldfish’s, it is estimate to be just around 8 seconds (one second below a goldfish).
TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels among many other similar applications are now trending and showing no sign to slow down that decrease.
For marketer, this has opened up new avenues to reach the consumer. As a result, that short-form videos are one of the most in-demand social media marketing tools in 2022.

In 2021 Google was the most popular website worldwide. However, towards the end of 2021 TikTok surpassed Google. I now even use TikTok as a search engine rather than I use google.

These videos have higher retention rates, making them more likely to capture the viewers’ attention and for longer in comparison to long-form videos’, notes and graphics.
It is difficult to define how short a short video is. As this variates form platform to platform. It differs from 15 seconds long to 60 seconds to 3 minutes. But on YouTube they talk about short-form video when a video is 5-10 minutes long. Research suggest that the length at which engagement is highest is just under 60 seconds.

TikTok
There is a possibility to upload 3-minute videos but all indicators show that shorter videos are still dominant. TikTok’s algorithms compute the average watch time.

Facebook
Facebook is more a sharing platform rather than a place to build original content. But now competing with Instagram, YouTube shorts and TikTok. With possibility of interacting with websites, this has been seen as a viable medium for marketers to reach the consumers.

YouTube Shorts
YouTube has come with a ‘’Short fund” to pay creators for making content for YouTube Shorts. The advantage that YouTube has over other platforms: an extremely wide target group.
Shorts’ content has already yielded success in commercial advertising, with brands receiving a high volume in reach and engagement with their intended audiences.

Instagram Reels
Following the success of TikTok and YouTube also Instagram also moved towards video. With first IGTV but now changed to Reels. And have plans to focus primarily on growing Reels.

Content Trends
User Generated Content
Capturing content from followers and fans gives them to have a voice and speak on their behalf of the brand.

Behind the Scenes
Consumers are seeking personalization and authenticity from brands. A short video of a normal day in a company could provide insights that would otherwise more often be over looked at.

Educational and informational
Tutorials and DIY videos are the key things to consider when passing out educational videos. Short video can provide quick and doable solutions to normal day-to day situations and problems

FAQ’s
Commonly asked questions and various commonly misunderstood industry related issues can be easily cleared up with a short video

New product Teasers
By announcing a new products and service brand can pull more traffic presenting an opportunity to sell the products and or services.

Starting a Challenge
A fun and engaging form of short video. And connects the consumers on a personal level.

Conclusion Short form Videos are all about quick, snackable, digestible content. We are constant learning, and staying on level of improvements, marketing trends and updates to keep the clients ahead of the game.

Resource:
Mwandango, G. (2023). Short Form Video: The Most Powerful Marketing Tool Today. Digital Marketing Content Services | Training Data | Data Management – Reactionpower. https://reactionpower.com/why-short-form-video-is-the-most-powerful-marketing-tool-today/

by Kris Van Hout -

Influence of social media short video marketing

Short video originated from a Vine application released by the USA in 2009. Users can use the software to create videos within 10 seconds and share them on social platforms. Since then, short video has entered people’s life.

Short video is a ‘new’ type of video that can be shared, forwarded and viewed on social media platforms within 3 minutes, mainly using just a smartphone for shooting and editing.

The reason why short video is widely concerned by scholars is mainly because of its great value to the marketing. The role of short video is to enhance brand awareness and foster customer brand loyalty by generating brand associations. Compared to traditional video, short video is more interactive, so if you can effectively take advantage of short video marketing, it will promote the brand.

Interesting content
the essence of short video marketing is content marketing. The interestingness of marketing content can arouse consumers’ willingness to spread and share more than other characteristics, and the interestingness of content promotes consumers to have a positive image of the brand, and thus to have a positive attitude towards the brand.
The key to a good effect of content marketing is that the information it conveys must be useful and interesting. If neither of them is satisfied, the expected marketing effect will be difficult to achieve

Scene-based experience
short video marketing often builds real-life consumption scenarios for consumers in advance, which helps consumers estimate brand value and consumer experience. It can provide more accurate information, and it’s easier to be accepted and understood by people.

User participation interaction
In the new media era, active questioners, responders and communicators will replace passive listeners, consumers and target users in the traditional media era. People are no linger satisfied with passive acceptance of information, but are more willing to participate in the production of information.

If users often communicate actively with brands, users will easily form a strong relationship, and they will be more likely to believe in the information sent by each other

5 variables:

Interesting Content
it refers to the novelty, entertainment, fun and uniqueness of the content, which can stimulate consumers to generate strong interest and curiosity
Scenario-Based Experience
Using short videos to create different consumer and life scenarios for consumers, organically integrate the environment of consumers, products, services and brands to help consumers estimate brand value and consumer experience in specific consumption scenarios.  
User Participation Interaction
The degree to which users participate in the production of short video content, establish interpersonal relationships among different users, communicate and exchange brand related information, and obtain emotional support and trust. This includes the interactive behavior of searching for information, obtaining information and publishing information.
Brand Perception
It refers to the habitual tendency of consumers to react to a brand in a way of liking or not, which is acquired through learning and strengthening. It consists of three dimensions: cognition, emotion and behavior.
Consumer Brand Attitude
The overall impression of the brand in the minds of consumers, the consumer’s perception and perception of a brand on the short video platform of social media is the consumer’s overall perception of all aspects of the information elements of the brand.

Source: Copyright © 2019, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).