Teddy Roosevelt has been quoted many a time, “Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care.” And this goes especially for Marketing to Your Audience!
You see, you CAN begin your marketing by sharing your giant Pedigree* of Success, your giant Rolodex* of clients that come at your every beck and call, and your impressive collection of Vintage Star Wars action figures, boxed in mint condition. BUT THEY DON’T CARE!
Okay…maybe the Star Wars figures, I mean especially if they have that one Rare Boba Fett*…
My point being, don’t make your first impression with your audience ABOUT YOU. In fact, you may consider, minimizing the mention of “you” to the smallest amount possible. Your marketing NEEDS to be about THEM.
FOR INSTANCE!
The Mom who is exhausted carrying around a giant purse that contains everything known on the periodic table of elements. She wants to know that you care about her and her plight, when you sell her your amazing, mega-organizational handbag.
Spend the time in your marketing, connecting with her. Show empathy for how hard it is to carry that overgrown purse. Use humor to help her have a chuckle about it because she knows how impossible it is to find that lip gloss when her chapped lips are screaming for moisture, and the kids are clawing their way to find a granola bar in there too. She will totally think to herself, “Been there done that!”
By doing this, you will establish a relationship with your audience, in this case the Moms of the world. Now, they’ll care to listen to YOU! You have their attention because you relate to each other, on an emotional level. You are selling a relationship BEFORE you sell a product or service. So now, proceed to show some of the cool features of this “Heavenly Handbag” and again relate those features to them.
On a side note, keep your features explanation brief. They don’t need to know the process of “cutting and stitching every nuanced detail” that you researched; they just want the HIGH LEVEL facts that relate to them. This will keep them EMOTIONALLY engaged in your marketing.
In the case that you do spend time talking about YOU, make sure it’s to show how you relate to them. The purpose of sharing this piece of you is to connect with them, and not to gloat about you or in any way make you seem superior. If you don’t connect with them, be on their level, share their emotions, they will see right through you and go elsewhere for a solution to their need.
So…QUICK 5 POINT RECAP
Marketing is about THEM
Show Empathy
Use Humor
Emotional Engagement
Sell a Relationship
NOW, get your groove on and practice that Electric Slide together! It’s all about the relationship, and your audience will respond to you once they know that you care about them.
*Pedigree – Pretty sure it’s some type of dog food.
*Rolodex – The Stone Age variety of a contact list on your smart phone. Geesh, writing all those cards sucked.
*Rare Boba Fett – A Boba Fett figure that was designed exclusively as a cereal box mail-in item in 1979. It was advertised with a Rocket firing backpack, but the actual production firing rocket was made stationary, as it was deemed a “choking hazard.” This figure is still highly sought after by collectors and has fetched upwards of 20K at auction.
We love our customers and appreciate the business you all have given us. Without you, we would not be eating.
You would think that after creating animation videos for five years our ideas would run out, but they have not. Success breeds more success, and animation video creation only breeds more video ideas. It’s racking our brains and we just have to make it stop.
You’re going to help us…lol
Over the last year we have come up with some glorious ideas that will certainly go “viral” or at least put you on the map.
For our happy customers, we are going to present you with three video styles and ideas that could change your business forever. These ideas can be adjusted, changed, or adapted to your business, so my hope is that your marketing director will take a look and maybe bring us back some more ideas.
Now, I must warn you that these ideas do not come cheap, nor are they going to be simple. It’s going to take a big budget and for this to work you are going to have to let our professional animators do what they do best:
Create amazing stuff!
I will tell you whom these video ideas are not for…
· Companies with a very tight budget. (Sorry, it’s going to take a lot of time and teamwork. This does not come cheap.)
· Companies that have a hard time pushing the envelope.
· Companies who worry about offending every Tom, Dick and Harry on the planet. These videos will be loved by most, but there will be haters. There always are.
So lets jump in.
I am going to give you examples of these ideas so that you can see what type of traction they have received in the past. Remember, the reason for sharing our ideas is to spark a few ideas of your own.
Video Campaign Number 1
“Fart On A Plane”
All of us have experienced the misery that comes with plane travel. It ranks among the worst experiences – next to death. Personally, I feel like we are being treated like a bunch of lost sheep and I am sure airline workers feel like we are a bunch of dumb lost sheep.
We want to create a series of funny videos. (Five of them to be exact.) These videos are going to show the different scenarios that happen on a plane. It’s something we all relate to and it will bring a smile to the face of the audience.
The kicker is, after each video we will have branding and a message that applies to your company. It’s marketing without the audience knowing.
Here are some great examples:
Have you ever heard of “Dumb Ways To Die?”
It was a video created by Metro Train Station that has over 100 million views, but it doesn’t stop there. The campaign we would create would mimic theirs in that we would create.
Can either of these examples be applied to your business? “Fart On A Plane” could be perfect for a Net Jets, Magellan Jets, Flex Jets, or a private plane company looking to show the misery of commercial plane travel.
What are the pain points of your business that the audience can relate to?
Video Idea Number 2
“Training Like You Have Never Seen Before”
Have you ever seen “The Bottom of the Ninth?” I’m guessing you have not. It is probably one of the cooler ideas I have seen, but it did not get any traction due to lack of marketing and lack of usefulness.
This style of video is 3D, with 2D elements encompassing a comic book feel.
Take a look:
This style would be perfect for a training video series. Could you imagine being trained by videos and a comic book style pamphlet?
Your audience would not forget it!
They could watch the training video series on their phone, at any time, or they could read the comic style pamphlet. It would be the most effective training ever done on planet earth.
A year or two ago we created a training video for The Cosmopolitan and it was a huge success. I think it is time we push the envelope a bit and really create a training video style that will be recognized by companies all around the world.
We can do this; we just need the right customer to make it happen.
Video Idea Number 3
“Still Coming Up With A Title”
If you have been with Ydraw for a while you will know that we love the Chipotle video.
I have written about it a couple of times before. Check it out below:
They nailed the message and were rewarded with millions of views. We want to create something like this for your company. Once again they took the pain point of the audience and exploited it.
Did you see the poor cow?
Now can you see the challenge that we are facing? We have some amazing writers, Disney animators, and editors, who want to be stretched to the limit.
Currently we are doing a full campaign for National Safety Council. They had the budget and we were able to let our artists create. It has stretched them a bit, but they still have hidden talents that we have yet to see.
Here are some screen shots and scenes.
Let’s chat and discuss ways to make this happen. It’s for the greater good. If these video ideas do not stop soon we might have to start creating them on our own.
It’s our job to build it, and the audience will come… lol
Hope you enjoyed…
The Rise Of Video Marketing Ideas and How To Make It Stop
Excerpt from U.S. Department of Labor
"People tend to eye-minded, and the impacts visual aids bring to a
presentation are, indeed, significant. The studies, below, reveal
interesting statistics that support these findings:
- In many studies, experimental psychologists and educators have found
that retention of information three days after a meeting or other
event is six times greater when information is presented by visual and
oral means than when the information is presented by the spoken word
alone.
- Studies by educational researchers suggest that approximately 83% of
human learning occurs visually, and the remaining 17% through the
other senses - 11% through hearing, 3.5% through smell, 1% through
taste, and 1.5% through touch.
- The studies suggest that three days after an event, people retain
10% of what they heard from an oral presentation, 35% from a visual
presentation, and 65% from a visual and oral presentation.
"Presenting Effective Presentations with Visual Aids" May 1996
OSHA Occupational Safety & Health Administration U.S. Department of
Labor
http://www.osha-slc.gov/doc/outreachtraining/htmlfiles/traintec.html
Excerpt
Recognition Information
To communicate information that people need to recognize, pictures are
extremely effective. In one study (Shepard, 1967), people looked at
600 pictures, sentences, or words. On an immediate test, recognition
accuracy was 98% for pictures, 90% for sentences, and 88% for words.
Another study (Nickerson, 1968) found that people had 63% recognition
accuracy for a group of 200 black and white photographs one year after
initial viewing. Other researchers (Standing, Conezio, & Haber, 1970)
showed people 2,560 photographs for 10 seconds each. After three days,
the study participants recorded recognition accuracy of over 90%. Read
and Barnsley (1977) showed adults pictures and text from the
elementary school books they used 20 to 30 years ago. Recognition
accuracy rates for pictures and text were better than chance, with
pictures alone being recognized more accurately than text alone.
Finally, Stoneman & Brody (1983) found that children in visual or
audiovisual conditions recognized more products in commercials than
children in an auditory only condition. Pictures seem to allow very
rich cognitive encoding that allows surprisingly high recognition
rates, even years after the initial encoding took place.
Spatial Information
Illustrations are superior to text when learning spatial information.
For example, Bartram (1980) arranged for college students to learn how
to get from a starting point to a destination using a minimum number
of buses. The researcher presented the bus route information via maps
or lists and asked the students to provide as quickly as possible the
correct list of bus numbers in the correct order. Bartram measured the
time it took to correctly complete each bus route task. The study
found that the students learned the bus route information more quickly
when they used a map than when they used lists. Bartram believed that
the students performed a spatial task, and the maps were superior to
lists because the map presentation of information is consistent with
people's preferred internal representation of spatial information.
In an exploratory study, Bell and Johnson (1992) allowed four people
to select pictures or text for communicating instructions for loading
a battery into a camera. Qualitative results showed a strong
preference for pictures rather than text. The researchers believed
that the information to be communicated was spatial, and that the
results supported the hypothesis that spatial information should be
presented pictorially. "
"Multimedia Information and Learning" by Lawrence J. Najjar, School of
Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology, 1996 Journal of
Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 5, 129-150.
http://mime1.gtri.gatech.edu/MiME/papers/multimedia_and_learning.html
Excerpt
"Long-Term Retention
One of the basic ways that illustrations aid retention relates to the
well-researched (but not undebated) dual-coding theory of memory
(Paivio, 1971). This theory proposes that information is stored in
long-term memory both as verbal propositions and as mental images. It
suggests that when information is presented verbally and visually it
has a better chance of being remembered. Corroborating research shows
that concrete words are remembered better than abstract words, and
that pictures alone are remembered better than words alone (Fleming &
Levie, 1978). From the dual-coding perspective, an explanation is that
concrete words help us generate associated mental images, and that
pictures alone help us to generate associated words, in addition to
detailed mental images. The combination of verbal proposition and
mental image establishes multiple pathways by which the information
can be retrieved from memory...
Retention in Working Memory
Illustrations can also be seen as assisting the short-term or working
memory by making more information readily available. Illustrations can
present simultaneously all the information needed to explain a topic
or perform a task. Where a linear string of words must use a series of
semantic cues to its organization over the course of its passage, an
illustration can use lines, boxes, arrows, space, color, typefaces,
and the relative distance between elements to communicate information
about the relationships of those elements. Because the reader can see
this information at a glance or with minimal study, graphical
presentation can be more efficient than words alone (Winn, 1987). For
example, charts with multiple columns and rows can reveal the complex
relationships between large amounts of information. Such information
would be difficult to present and even more difficult to comprehend in
words alone. When students read prose or hear exposition, they have to
hold information in working memory long enough to relate it to
information presented later– a difficult task in a long passage.
Simultaneous presentation can reduce the processing load on the
working memory and thus help students better see relationships within
the information."
"The Instructional Role of Illustrations" Cooperative Program for
Operational Meteorology, Education and Training
http://www.comet.ucar.edu/presentations/illustra/illustrations/illustrations_new.htm
Excerpt
"Mayer and Anderson's (1992) contiguity principle asserts that
multimedia instruction is more effective when words and pictures are
presented contiguously in time or space. Studies involving multimedia
instruction have shown that learners perform better on problem solving
and recall tasks when related text or narration are close to an
illustration or animation sequence rather than when they are far away.
In a series of studies reported by Mayer and his colleagues (Moreno &
Mayer, 1999; Mayer, 1997) students read a text passage or listened to
a narration describing a cause and effect system (e.g., how a bicycle
tire pump works) and either studied a diagram or an animated sequence
illustrating the process that was described verbally. In each study,
students receiving text contiguously in space (text physically close
to the diagram or animation) or time (narration chronologically close
to the animated sequence) performed better on recall and problem
solving tasks than students under less contiguous conditions. The
current research was designed to determine whether the contiguity
principle applies to leaning from geographic maps. Comparing rollover
and hyperlink features to a separate narrative allows us to study this
variable experimentally....
It was hypothesized that learners who study a map with animated
features would more successfully encode both map feature and map
structure information than learners who studied a static map. Few
research studies have been reported on the role of animation in
learning from geographic maps. However, research integrating animation
with simulations (Rieber, 1996), graphic organizers (Blankenship &
Dansereau, 2000) and problem solving tasks (Ok-choon Park & Gittelman,
1992) have shown positive effects for animated over static displays."
"Effects of Fact Location and Animation on Learning from Online Maps"
Jul 31, 2001 by Steven M. Crooks, Michael P Verdi, David White Texas
Tech University.
http://tigersystem.net/aera2002/viewproposaltext.asp?propID=3303
"IS THERE A DIFFERENCE IN THE LEARNING PROCESS WHEN MULTIMEDIA IS
INVOLVED? At the University of Maribor in Slovenia,
electroencephalography (EEG) was used to measure brain activity when
exposed to different media... The results show that students find it
difficult to form mental models from text alone. Multimedia
presentations trigger visualization strategies such as mental imagery,
which is crucial to many kinds of problem solving."
"The Affect of Multimedia on the Learning Process" Encyclopedia of
Educational Technology
http://coe.sdsu.edu/eet/Articles/Affectmulti/start.htm
Contact Ydraw for more information about video scribing and whiteboard animation. Or if you just wanna say hi to us.
Introducing Yswipe… the new cut out videos created by Ydraw.
These videos are a great way for businesses to market their products, ideas, and to help explain difficult concepts in a simple way. Ydraw had never attempted a video like this before, but after some thought and innovation we are so happy to announce that we now offer these as an option to all of our clients! The Yswipe videos are a new spin on the original whiteboard video and we are obsessed with them!
Let’s check out the stats these videos produce. We ran some tests here at Ydraw and the results are pretty impressive (if we do say so ourselves). In just a short period of time, the page where the video is embedded has been loaded 145 times by 114 people. 91% of these people played the video a total of 122 times, and spent a total of 3.1 hours watching it. On average, each of these viewers watched 86% of the video! Now that…is what we call incredible. We are certain that as the video continues to receive views, the stats of the video will maintain these high percentages and hopefully even increase viewer engagement.
At Ydraw…we are always looking to create and implement new ideas. So, when you see something you want…chances are Ydraw can do it. We love a good challenge and trying new things. So let us know what you think! And be prepared.. we have another awesome Yswipe video coming out in the next few weeks…it will blow your mind! So be smart!..and get the new Yswipe video…the Ydraw version of a typical cut out video.
While our elected officials argue and point fingers, is your message getting to your leads, contacts, and customers?
Unlike Congress, you need to be focused on results, not just making a lot of noise. Can you imagine not having a budget for your company, campaign, or project? You need customers and you need sales, it’s as simple as that. To do that you need your marketing to work for you 24 hours a day, seven days a week and not take extended holidays, costly vacations, or disappear for golf outings every Tuesday.
In today’s online driven world of marketing it’s a numbers game. You need to get in front of as many potential leads as possible, make them listen, entertain them a moment, and most importantly move them to action … for you! To get those numbers, your marketing can’t work like a part time intern. You need workaholics – and I’m not talking about you personally, I’m talking about your marketing materials and content.
How? There are a lot of answers to this question, but here are a few to focus on:
1) Know your customer/audience (or find out… fast)
2) Be where your customers are
3) Keep testing to make sure they like it
1) Know your customer/audience. Sounds easy enough, but have you taken a close look lately at who your customers really are? What keeps them up at night (besides increasing taxes, worthless government programs, and endless debates)? What do they need, and what kinds of questions are they asking to solve their problems? Some of the answers you might be able to pull from past experiences, but there could be some other info right under your nose.
Tip: Go to Ask.com and type in a question or problem your customer typically has. You’ll see a number of questions, related questions, answers and resources all pop up. This is a great snapshot to see what people are asking, what your competition is offering, ideas for your marketing efforts, and how to tailor your message to meet your customers’ needs.
In just a few minutes you can compile some great insights into what’s most important to your customers right now! They might even be asking questions you weren’t aware of, or thought were less important. Just think of how this kind of information can help improve your company’s efforts, and not just in marketing, but in a number of areas.
2) Be where your customers are. If a senator gives a speech and no one is there to listen, did it really happen (and did it really matter)? In political terms it’s often called a filibuster – taking up time, talking about anything or nothing, so the other person can’t speak. You… don’t have that luxury to ramble on. You have a message you need to deliver, and that message needs to reach your target audience.
So… deliver that message where your customers hang out. Again, sounds easy, but it takes a little research to be most effective. How? You need to ask. On web forms, in surveys, even in your everyday sales efforts, make sure you are asking, “How did you find us?
3) Keep testing to make sure they like it. You’re not gonna know what your customer likes without a little testing. And once you have that figured out, you’re going to need to continue to test. Is what they like now the same thing that they liked 5 months ago? Have their tastes changed? Is that same marketing content getting stale to them? Test, test, test…just like high school.
Let us know if you have any questions or comments concerning marketing for us here at Ydraw. As always, we are here to help!
