by Kris Van Hout -

Recap of last semester

So, a little recap of last semester:

Do I want to dive deeper into this topic (persuasive techniques in commercial media) or do I want to go in a slightly different direction or do I want to go in a completely different direction? I went to have a look into the projects of previous students. I found serval projects that interested me but after reading those projects I was still not convinced of what I want to achieve for my master thesis.

One was about how important social media is nowadays (wiped – Stefan Bergman) one about film production without a crew from Niklas Maximilian Dostal. And another film project about creation awareness and fundraising (Christina Grill)

Last semester I finished my presentation with some examples why some video campains work on one platform but fails at the other. And I’m especially interested how short video is being just on all those different platforms and why it works so well. Why do we like it so much. And I think i wanna dive deeper in to that direction.

With a main question for this semester: Why is short video so popular? And why is it such a powerful marketing tool?

by Kris Van Hout -

Best practice: Right media for right target group

Attracting new users to the world’s most popular language learning app by teaching the meaning of TikTok hashtags.

One really good example is how some brand use TikTok for their Gen-z audience. These brands left the traditional marketing behind. Did research of what the desired target group thinks and acts and make the best media campaigns. One of the big winners is Duolingo

In august 2021, back-to-school season, Duolingo launched a campaign with the objective of increasing awareness and consideration for the brand, in addition to bringing new users to the app. They turned to TikTok to deliver an effective message to both a qualified and massive audience.

In the creative assets, the brand’s owl mascot and other characters teach the meaning of popular hashtags on TikTok, such as #fy, #trend, #stitch and #cringe, and invite the audience to “install now” the app. Using a vocabulary that is common among TikTok users was crucial for the brand to get attention and increase engagement. Now other brands followed this tactic like brand as Ryanair, Paralympics. But as I said before this will only work for a certain target group if you attack the campaign in a way your desired target group is interacting with it.

There is this campaign from Zalando that completely flopped because you clearly felt you were watching a tv commercial adapted to a mobile platform. It’s nice but not relatable. Made the way tv commercials are made: to be looked at, not to look at you

Sources:
Duolingo | TikTok for Business Case Study. (2022, March 22). TikTok for Business. https://www.tiktok.com/business/en/inspiration/duolingo-509

Cardoso, L. (2021, May 27). TikTok Language: A Visual Guide To Why Brands Are Failing On TikTok. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/tiktok-language-visual-guide-why-brands-failing-middleton/

by Kris Van Hout -

Right media for the right target group

“Who are you targeting?” which might explain why a marketing campaign failed. Even with the best imagery, clever copy, and a strong call to action, the best campaigns can fail if not speaking to the right people.

If a media campaign, does it really well for one target group that doesn’t mean this will work for the other groups as well. Research (2016) showed that UK marketers struggle to reach their desired audience online, with 47% of campaigns seen by their target audience.

Travel brands are the most successful at reaching their desired audience with 60%. Entertainment is second (64%) while FMCG (Fast-moving consumer goods) struggle with 40%.

One company result this down to the fact that marketers do not think digital works and use it in the wrong way. They think they can apply traditional marketing to digital. But they should look at every media as digital media as its own.

Targeting accurately also varied depending on demographic. Campaigns targeting to 25 old scored way less than people from around 50 because they are used to the traditional ways.

In the travel sector has focused on targeting segments and audience from the start. It’s targeting reach is helped by the fact it invests time getting to know its customers.

But how do you get to know them?
– Ask them

– Use social listening metrics such as Sinus milieus

– Find ties using insight metrics form your social sites

Sources:
Gee, R. (2016, December 15). Half of online campaigns fail to reach target audience. Marketing Week. https://www.marketingweek.com/online-campaign-targeting/

Hynd, M. (2019, February 27). How Marketing Campaigns Fail When You Target “Your Customers”​. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-marketing-campaigns-fail-when-you-target-your-customers-hynd/

by Kris Van Hout -

Target group segmentation

We there are a lot of option the distinguish different target groups but how can you make one big overview of all of them. I took the two methods that differ in social status and habits (Sinus milieus) and the one that



Info-Elite 18%
Established
Performers

Info-Scanner 20%
Conservatives
Modern Mainstreamers
post-Materialist

Analog ♀ 13%:
Traditionals

Analog ♂ 10%:
Traditionals

Selective user 12%:
Adaptive-Navigators
Consumption Oriented

Digital entertainment oriented 20%:
Digitial Individualists

Mediamuffle 9%:
Consumer Hedonistic

It is really important to know how different groups use media. Are they a lot on social media. Or do they read only the paper and watch the news. Because you can make a whole campaign but when it turns out your target group is not using this kind of media you have to start over and make new ideas. In the next post I’ll go deeper how this can affect a campaign.

by Kris Van Hout -

Media-user Types

The classic way of media planning is planning according to buyer and user target groups in the corresponding product or service area.

Target groups can be defined using demographic characteristics. Different age groups, genders or occupational groups differ significantly in their behavior.
In recent years, qualitative target group models have increasingly found their way into marketing planning. There enables communication planning differentiated according to values, lifestyles and preferences, which in turn takes into account the psychologically different brand positions in the target group definitions.

One of the Psychographic target group models is Sinus milieus what I talked about in my previous blog post. But other ones are Sigma-milieus, Limbic-types, Uranos Clåss.

You can also differ target groups in Market-related models. Think about Food, Living, Health, Cars, Finance, Fashion, Innovation.

But Different target groups also means different type of media to approach them. (e.g. Magazines, newspapers, posters, TV, radio, internet, mobile and apps) these are each divided into 7 types that describe the intensity of the use of media. In this way, the media planner can see at a glance wheter his target group tends towards the preferred medium or not.

Type 1 Info Elite 18%:
Gets information several times a day and expect a wide range of news form various information sources. Newspaper and other printed media. Willing to pay for journalistic offers on the internet. Product suggestions from influencers. Podcast are used on a wide range of topics. They network professionally and privately via social media
Demographic info:
from 20 to middle age high level of education and high income, time independent. Woman and men are equally represented.

Type 2 Info scanner 20%:
Media consumed several times a day as a trusted source of information from this well-educated, highincome guy. Analoge and digital. Print plays a important role in their routine. Political, economic and cultural topics arouse the most interest. But health, nature and DIY are also important. Social networks and internet are used carefully with focus on data protection to maintain private contacts.|
Demographic info:
Older age group 50+ years old

Type 3 analog ♀ 13%:
daily use of newspaper and television. Most focus on handcrafts, cooking, celebrities. There is also a big interest in folk music, telenovelas and homeland movies. Media use is based on entertainment and escapism. Paper is still important, for example the weekly magazines. While the internet, tablets and smartphones are hardly used.
Demographic info:
age: begin 60s people over 70 are well represented. female dominated. Rather low-educated, low income

Type 4 analog ♂ 10%:
Regional daily newspaper and television. Likes to find out about regional topics, sports or politics and like to watch Krimis and folk music programs. Social media is almost non existing
Demographic info:
Age: begin 60s people over 70 are well represented. male dominated. Rather low-educated, low income. Often retired

Type 5 selective user 12%:
Topics such as sports, cars and computers are very popular with the predominantly male type. Diversity of information and trustworthy sources are less important. They often use streaming platforms, linear television, topic-related magazines. Fictitious series are also part of their everyday life.
Common social media are used to maintain contacts while business networks are irrelevant.
a part of the selective users uses both digital and analog distribution channels.
Demographic info:
Either very young or middle-aged

Type 6 digital entertainment oriented 20%:
Focus on shows, soaps entertainment and lifestyle access through video and audio streaming. Influencers and bloggers also provide strong impulses and to buy on social media. Messenger services and Instagram are used more frequently to make and maintain contacts than networks like LinkedIn. Fast availability as well as time and location-independent media use via smartphone and tablet are of great importance. In case of print, is this target group in minority unless some persons are interested in some segments of print.
Demographic info:
Young mostly student

Type 7 mediamuffle 9%:
They have no special expectations of the media and use all media under-proportionally.
Demographic info:
Middle-aged cohorts are disproportionately represented, men and women to the same extent. Low educational qualifications or some are still in training. Income is low.

Sources:
Zielgruppen •. (2022, October 4). Gesellschaft Für Integrierte Kommunikationsforschung. https://gik.media/best-4-planning/zielgruppen/

Marktstudien •. (2022, October 4). Gesellschaft Für Integrierte Kommunikationsforschung. https://gik.media/best-4-planning/marktstudie/

Mediaplanung •. (2022, November 28). Gesellschaft Für Integrierte Kommunikationsforschung. https://gik.media/best-4-planning/mediaplanung/

by Kris Van Hout -

The gold standard for target group segmentation.

Sinus-Milieus

The Sinus-Milieus are a social model and are considered the gold standard of psychographic target group segmentation in the German-speaking market (in this case Austria). This model arranges people with similar values, lifestyle and comparable social situation. The Transition between milieus are fluid.

The Sinus-Milieus illustrate the motivations behind the various lifestyles in our society.

Conservatives 5 %
The older, structurally conservative elite: Strongly characterized by Christian ethics, high estimation of education and culture. Skeptical towards current social development.
Demographic info:
Age: 60+
Men are Academic schooled
Woman are housewifes
Retired
2 person household

Established 8 %
Strongly focused on status, exclusiveness,
responsibility and leadership

Demographic info:
age between 40 – 60
high educational level
Senior servants and self-employed and freelancer
High income
Life in a 3 or more household

Performers 8%
Flexible and globally orientated. Individual performance, efficiency and success have top-priority; competent in business and IT.
Demographic info:
Age: under 30
Most of them are still in school
Education level is high
Good income

Digital individualists 9%
Individual, networking, digital avant-garde.
Mentally and geographically worldwide mobile, cross-linked online and offline, permanently looking for new experiences
Demographic info:
Age: Under 35
small self-employed or freelancers
trainees, pupils and students without income is high.
Net household income is still above average. Thanks to good situated parents.
A lot of singles

Adaptive-Navigators 12%
The young pragmatic middle stratum. Strong desire for anchorage, membership, security, performance-orientation but also the wish for fun and entertainment

Demographic info:
Age 30-60
Personal households
Child friendly
Middle-income employees, civil servants or
skilled workers

Post-materialist 10 %
Open-minded social critics. Variated aspects of culture; cosmopolitan orientation, but critical towards globalization; socially engaged.

Demographic info:
Age: begin 30
after school they work in qualified and leading jobs.
high income
big households with kids

Modern Mainstreamers %
Adaptive mainstream. Seeking professional and social establishment, secure and harmonic circumstances, support and orientation, peace and a slow pace.

Demographic info:
Above 50
Simple educated
Jobs in administration, business and culture
Employed and unemployed

Traditionals 12 %
Emphasizing on security, order and stability. Rooted in the old pretty bourgeois world, in the traditional blue collar culture or in the rural milieu

Demographic info:
65+ (Boomers)
A lot of women in this milieu
A lot of traditional jobs (skilled worker/ farmers)

Consumption Oriented 8%

Materialistic lower class striving for participation. Sense of discrimination. Striving to stay connected with the consumption standards of the middle class.

Demographic info:
Younger and middle age group to 50, focus under 30
Simple to medium education.
Students and trainees are high.
Middle rage income

Consumer Hedonistic Milieu 8%
The modern lower middle class, living for the excitement of the moment. Seeking fun and amusement; rejection of traditional standards and conventions.

Demographic info:
Wide ranch up to 60
Most completed elementary school or secondary school.
Lower income.
Social disadvantages such as unemployment, illness or incomplete family often make the situation even more difficult

Sources:
– The gold standard for target group segmentation. (2023). https://www.sinus-institut.de/. Retrieved January 11, 2023, from https://www.sinus-institut.de/en/sinus-milieus
– Sinus-Milieus® Austria. (2018). https://www.sinus-institut.de/. Retrieved January 11, 2023, from https://www.sinus-institut.de/en/sinus-milieus/sinus-milieus-oesterreich
– PDF Sinus milieus (2009)

by Kris Van Hout -

Understanding the literature and painting, advertisement pictures

Leo Spitzer

The philological method is usually applied to works of art. But art had become a part of our daily lives. Never before has this kind of art played the role as it does today.

Subjection of man to the impersonal necessities of social, economy and political life. An emphasis on the beautiful has penetrated in all levels; it has also penetrated to the forms of propaganda used to advertise these goods.

And the success of such attempts at aesthetic appeal achieved by modern advertising is confirmed by many exhibits of original commercial designs which have attracted a large public.

There exists today whole literature devoted to the requirements of effective advertisements

(H.F. Adams – Advertising and its Laws/ H.E. Burtt – Psychology of Advertising)

In such treatments the emphasis is generally placed on the psychological element and on the utilitarian efficacy of the propaganda

Attempt to appeal aesthetic
The success of modern advertisement in its attempts to appeal aesthetic.

In this Commercial for Sunkist oranges is the scene so perfect with a nice mountain view snow that shimmers in de sun and the color of the juice is perfect. > but in the whole commercial there is nothing said about the juice itself how healthy it is and how nice the taste is. There is no human only the nature and how you can experience the miracle you would experience when you drink the orange juice.

The fact that these oranges have to be transported kilometers to end at our house is not a matter.

Advertisements need to be aesthetically pleasing and need to provoke a feeling you get the product out of the ideal world. The origin of the product doesn’t matter. The aim of the advertisement is to sell and make money and not inform people.

Sources:

by Kris Van Hout -

Impact of Persuasive Techniques on consumers

For my research topic I want to dive in the world of persuasive techniques used by video productions and commercial use. Because we are pushed in directions of buying products and form an opinion about brands thinking we made up our own discussions but with persuasive techniques the industry tricked us in believing their product is the best and we need to buy that.

So let Coca cola think their product is the best drink in the world even though the drink is really bad for you because of all the sugars but still a lot of people (even me) buys it.

But persuasive techniques are not something new. The evolution of brainwashing is found in the beginnings in torture and religious conversion. And with science nowadays neuroscience is adapted in media. The book ‘Dark Persuasion” explains the gripping traces of these evaluations.

Companies use several elements within their advertising to improve the reception by the audience. At one time there was subliminal advertising in movies that showed the product in only one frame, invisible to the naked eye but noticed by the brain. This was outlawed. Here are some of the strategies used by advertisers today.

  • Repetition. Advertisers seek a certain level of frequency in ad placements to drive home their message, some to the point of irritation.
  • Sounds. Music, songs, and sounds to build pleasant positive associations with the product.
  • Colors. Used in an effort to both identify the company (with the same color used in all communications) and possibly specific to the product, and again, to create pleasant associations with the product.
  • Emotions within the ad. Emotions are also very important in decision-making. They are used to create very positive, sympathetic, or angry (political ads) emotions. This is designed to help the audience associate with, remember, and take action to purchase the product.
  • Inserts. Product placement in shows and movies. A subliminal signal promoting the product that might not be noticed by the audience. This was very popular in the 1980s and 90s.

Sources:

  • What are some “brainwash” tactics that companies use and we don’t notice that makes us more vulnerable into buying their products? (z.d.). Quora. https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-brainwash-tactics-that-companies-use-and-we-dont-notice-that-makes-us-more-vulnerable-into-buying-their-products
  • Dimsdale, J. E. (2021). Dark Persuasion: A History of Brainwashing from Pavlov to Social Media. Amsterdam University Press.
  • Magloff, L. (2019, 1 februari). Repetition as an Advertisement Technique. Small Business – Chron.com. https://smallbusiness.chron.com/repetition-advertisement-technique-24437.html
  • Mindvalley. (2020, 11 maart). How Coca Cola Lies to the World [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6onQFdenV28
  • Blake, I. A. (2017, 21 november). Brainwashing-Style Techniques in Advertising. Your Business. https://yourbusiness.azcentral.com/brainwashing-techniques-advertising-8941.html
  • Ferdman, R. A. (2019, May 13). How Coca-Cola has tricked you into drinking so much of it. Chicago Tribune. https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-coca-cola-soda-politics-20151005-story.html