In the podcast 20VC from Harry Stebbings he is interviewing Zaria Parvez – Social media Manager at Duolingo. She is talking about the success of their social media accounts with a special look to TikTok.
Zaria didn’t know a lot about advertising and she had fresh eyes to it. She just started making funny videos with the Duolingo mascot suit that nobody was using at the time. The content she was making was different and unexpected and no other brand was doing that yet. The small human moment is what Zaria thinks which made the TikTok page of Duolingo blow up.
Zaria choose for TikTok as a platform because it felt like a native platform to her. Also TikTok mentioned that they hat 1 billion users (September 2021). “And if People are on TikTok they are not on our app. How do we bring people back to our app.” Zaria. Duolingo doesn’t see other language apps as competitors but apps like TikTok or other social media platforms that are taking attention away from taking your daily language lesion. “How do we bring back the daily lesion or push notification to TikTok” Zaria.
For Zaria TikTok and Reels feels more connected and Shorts feels a bit more distanced. The Content that is made has to be fit with the trends that are going on. “Is the content entertaining to you when you are making it? Or do you have fun making it? Then most likely it has a chance to become viral. Is it sharable?”
Zaria doesn’t believe that the quantity of posting is important what a lot of people suggest but she thinks the quality is far more important.
So, to sum up the things that has been said. Make sure why you are using social media content. And try to be different than all the other main brands.
For Ursula Lagger’s Class we needed to rent a book from another university and I rented this book: The new advertising branding, content, and consumer relationships in the date-driven social media era, volume 1 traditional adverting transformed.
And it surprisingly fits prefect to my topic. So, I probably have a better look at this book once I will start writing my master thesis.
The preface already grabbed my attention: What is new about advertising today? New advertisement is consumer-centric. (Jones et al., 2016, sec. preface) social media made a platform where consumers can be their own publishers. The interactive feature meant that consumers could “talk back”. Today’s advertising consists of brands providing content that consumers want and often seek, be it in the form of entertainment, information, service, or rewards. And it is personal because data that is provided online by consumers can be used to send more relevant messages to individuals. Consumers behavior can be used to predict potential future behavior.
So, this book is split in two volumes:
Volume 1 traditional advertising transformed
Volume 2 New Media, New Uses, New Metrics
And these points of volume 1 could be useful for my research: 2. Consumer Information Overload: Shift to Consumer-Centric Advertising Model 3. Building relationships with Empowered Consumers 5. Customer Relationship Management Strategy: More Important Now Than Ever Before 8. Electronic Word-to-mouth and User-Generated Content: Past, Present and Future 9. Native Advertising: Engagement, Deception and Implications for Theory 10. Streaming Video: Anytime, Anywhere 13. Branding: Changing the “how” and “where” in reaching Today’s Consumers 14. Content Strategy in a Paid/ Owned/ Earned Media World
After the past blogposts, many possibilities have emerged on how to better include children and young people in democracy-related issues. The level of communication and the direction from which it comes is very important. No one wants to be talked down to or overwhelmed with complex explanations. In the following, I name a few ideas on how I can approach the topic as an interaction designer.
Social Media Channel
Designing a social media channel or maybe a tool kit for influencers to enhance young people’s engagement in democratic systems and processes can be a powerful way to reach a wider audience and inspire change. Key elements of such a channel or could include:
– Engaging Content: Providing content that is both educational and engaging, such as videos, podcasts, or interactive quizzes, can help young people learn about democratic systems and processes in a fun and accessible way.
– Influencer Involvement: Partnering with influencers who are passionate about democracy and civic engagement can help reach a wider audience and inspire change. Influencers can use their platform to raise awareness, share stories, and engage with their followers.
– Tools and Resources: Providing tools and resources, such as action plans, voting guides, or advocacy tools, can help young people take action and become more involved in the democratic process.
– Community Building: Building a community of young people who are interested in democracy and civic engagement can help provide a supportive and interactive environment for learning and action.
By providing engaging content, tools and resources, and a supportive community, a social media channel or tool kit designed for influencers can play an important role in empowering young people to take part in democratic systems and processes. Of course, the channel should also be visually appealing to guarantee a professional but also a personal/fun-looking appearance.
Gamification App
Gamification is a popular and effective way to engage young people in learning and taking part in democratic systems. A gamification app for this purpose could include features such as:
– Interactive Quests: By providing tasks and challenges related to political and civic topics, the app can help young people develop a deeper understanding and engagement with democratic systems.
– Virtual Representation: The app could include virtual simulations of political decision-making, allowing young people to experience the democratic process in a fun and interactive way.
– Social Interaction: Encouraging social interaction and collaboration through the app, such as team-based missions or debates, can help young people develop their communication and leadership skills.
– Rewards and Recognition: Providing rewards and recognition for accomplishments, such as virtual badges or points, can help motivate young people to continue learning and participating in democratic systems.
By combining education, engagement, and fun, a gamification app for democratic systems can help young people develop the skills and knowledge they need to become informed and active citizens.
Interactive Game for the classroom
Another solution could be an interactive game similar to the Peace Game. This would make it possible to teach children of primary school age about the importance of democracy. In a crisis-ridden time like the present, it is especially important to convince children and young people of their active participation. Even if this participation only means going to the voting booth every few years. Unfortunately, there are very obvious reasons why people are turning away from politics right now (corruption, miscommunication, shift to the right), although it is precisely in times like these that an active understanding of democracy is indispensable. Inclusion starts with information. If this information is acquired at an early age, people enter the official voting age with a democracy-friendly consciousness, which can only be an advantage for people and the state.
I realise with this topic that I am not quite at the end yet. There is still a lot to discover or research. I think it would be exciting to take up this topic again for my master’s thesis, let’s see what happens 😉
Especially in the European Union, the inclusion of children and young people is very important. There are many initiatives, think tanks, platforms or networks that work to make politics or democracy accessible to children and young people. But if there are so many initiatives, why do we still have the problem described at the beginning? It seems as if the platforms are there, but unfortunately the information and communication does not (yet) reach the masses. This gives me the impression that perhaps the wrong communication channels are being used and that there is still more potential to reach children and young people more directly.
Bayrischer Rundfunk: Instagram Channel “news_wg”
News-WG is a information format of the Bavarian Broadcasting Corporation on Instagram. It is a platform where young people can receive information about current political issues and events in Bavaria and Germany. The format leverages the popularity of Instagram to reach a young target audience and strengthen their political awareness. Its goal is to inspire young people for political issues and help them form their opinions and beliefs. News-WG provides a platform for young people to share and discuss their opinions and thoughts on current issues. The format is an example of how traditional media can expand and enhance their content and target audience through the use of social media. It shows the importance of reaching out to young people and giving them the opportunity to form and discuss their opinions and beliefs.
The News-Wg now has over 150,000 followers and has written almost 1300 articles to date. Probably not only the simple explanations but also the direct way of communicating with the followers are the recipe for the success of this political instagram-channel.
“Der Erfolg unseres Accounts macht deutlich: Junge Leute suchen auf Instagram nicht nur Oberflächliches. Sie haben wirklich Lust auf informative Inhalte.”
News-WG-Host Helene Reiner
“Young people have always been very political,” says Martin Fuchs, who advises governments on digital communication and monitors what is happening in social media. “Political and social debates don’t pass by even those who usually give make-up tips.” Moreover, working as an influencer also allows one to develop oneself.
His definition of being an influencer is not limited to the role of being an advertiser: “These are people who have built up a reputation and a community online, use this value to present themselves and then make influence visible in social issues, but also in the commercial sphere.”
Digital opinion leaders communicate informally and far away from organisations, which makes them appear more credible. Their potential is built on personality and proximity. Because they spend their time where young people spend their time: on the net. Especially with participation formats in which the community can ask politicians questions, they enable active political participation of the younger generation.
People began experimenting with aspect ratios for films early on. Étienne-Jules Marey, for example, created the first vertical moving picture in 1894. This was published under the name “Falling cat” and shows exactly what the name describes: a falling cat (IMDb).
Australian television series “Content
The series consists of seven parts and belongs to the genre ScreenLife. The basic idea of the series is that it is shown exclusively from the perspective of the main character’s phone screen, which can be particularly exciting when the viewer receives private text messages or app notifications (Haridy, 2020).
The Stunt Double by award-winning filmmaker Damien Chapelle
The whole nine-minute film was produced in 2020 as an advertisement for Apple using an iPhone 11 camera. The whole film is basically a replay of famous moments from the past century of cinema, but from a vertical perspective. Chapelle’s experiment takes advantage of the vertical perspective by consistently directing the viewer’s gaze upwards or downwards through clever design techniques (ibid., 2020).
On a smartphone, it makes the viewer feel as if they are diving right into the format and shows some creative ways of framing vertical films. On a conventional horizontal screen, however, the vertical film makes little sense. The question now is whether consumers want to watch elaborately produced productions on a small smartphone or tablet (ibid., 2018)?
Quibi – Streaming platform for mobile devices
Jeffrey Katzenberger, who not only led Walt Disney through the upheaval in the 1980s and 90s but also founded DreamWorks Pictures together with Steven Spielberg, hardly missed an important trend in the entertainment industry. And he also registered the trend towards the use of smartphones and founded Quick Bites (Quibi) in 2018, which was to be a completely new kind of streaming platform (ibid., 2018).
The content will be produced for younger audiences in the form of 10-minute episodes to be played on smartphones either vertically or horizontally. Many big names from Hollywood embraced the novelty by creating lots of content all around 10 minutes long. In 2020, the app was bought by Roku, which regularly uploads new content that can be consumed for free (ibid., 2018).
V2 – Escape from Hell
Filmmaker Timur Bekmambetov began in 2020 a production on a blockbuster about World War II: V2- Escape from Hell. The film was shot in vertical aspect ratio and the $10 million budget was partly financed through a partnership with MTS, Russia’s largest mobile operator. The film was produced in two versions: horizontal for cinemas or large TV screens and vertical for “younger audiences” on mobile phones. Bekmambetov had often realised unusual projects before. In 2019, he had already realised the Snapchat series Dead of the Night in the same format (ibid., 2018).
19:6 Livestream
But vertical formats have also arrived in livestreaming. In 2021, for example, the Supercup was broadcast vertically for the first time in the UK and Ireland in 16:9 format via TikTok and the SkySport app. The producers are pleased with the ratings and confirmed that more viewers were reached, and more followers followed the brand (DFL, 2021).
Vertical video in commercials
With 75% of the world’s video use happening on mobile phones and many users holding them in vertical mode, it is hardly surprising that ads are also being produced in these formats. Vertical video fits both of these factors, creating an intimate, immersive and distraction-free viewing experience (Gilliland, 2019).
After Snapchat pioneered the format in 2013, more and more platforms and brands are picking up on this trend. However, not all brands use portrait formats for their videos but still insist on landscape format to convey more context and depth (ibid., 2019).
A very well-known brand where the videos work very well even though one would think they should be played out in wide format for the content is National Geographic. Despite the nature footage and sometimes long documentaries, the brand has many views on Instagram and was even chosen as a launch partner for IGTV at the time (ibid., 2019).
The Spotify brand has also picked up on the trend very successfully, engaging a number of big-name stars to shoot exclusive vertical videos for its mobile app. One notable example is Selena Gomez, whose “Bad Liar”. But other stars have already produced their music videos in vertical format alongside the classic horizontal videos (ibid., 2019).
Closing Remarks
But besides Mercedes Benz, Netflix and many other brands, Instagram has probably also shaped the trend with its daily vertical stories. In the meantime, Youtube and TikTok have also made the format their own, as they had to keep up with the trend in order not to fall behind (ibid., 2019).
For brands investing in mobile video advertising, vertical video is here to stay, but even long content can work in the format, as National Geographic shows.
Being vertical doesn’t automatically guarantee success, of course. As long as content is viewed on TVs or laptops, there will always be places with cinematic style of landscape. Moreover, videos are not only watched on mobile phones. This means that it should be seen as an additional or alternative format, or as part of a platform-specific campaign.
However, as the producers and brands above show, 9:16 has proven to be a creative, engaging and practical format for mobile audiences.
Haridy, Rick. (2020, September 1). The ups and downs of vertical cinema. https://newatlas.com/home-entertainment/vertical-cinema-smartphone-history-aspect-ratio-quibi/
Gilliland, Nikki. (2019, November 23). Five examples of brands using vertical video. https://econsultancy.com/brands-vertical-video-social-examples/
Techsphere. (2020, September 9). Apple Short Movie | Shot on iPhone by Damien Chazelle – Vertical Cinema. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5f1WymwaOVo&ab_channel=Techsphere%F0%9F%A5%B2
DFL. (2021, August 23). Vertical Video: Supercup erstmals im Format 9:16 übertragen. https://www.dfl.de/de/innovation/vertical-video-supercup-erstmals-im-format-9zu16-uebertragen/
Gilliland, Nikki. (2019, November 23). Five examples of brands using vertical video. https://econsultancy.com/brands-vertical-video-social-examples/
