Money To Burn

I’ve been expecting for a while now that video adverts on Face Book is a waste of money. Which is fine if you have money to burn. But the opportunity cost in lost revenue might be the greater concern if Face Book is your no. 1 strategy in online marketing.

This add was in my feed. The video looked interesting, so I clicked on it.

No Entiendo

Why this advert appeared in my feed, in a language that I don’t speak (or understand for that matter), beats me. The Face Book tanslate function gave me a clue about the topic of the video, but it is not something I’m interested in. Sure, they got me to watch it. But why was it there? I’ve wrecked my mind to figure out how the cookie bots might have gotten the idea that I might be interested in play therapy at all? The sad thing is that Face Book was happy to charge this poor client a Dollar or two for me to watch it halfway.

This right here might be the undoing of Facebook. For two reasons. One, their way of running serving are simply crap. That is to say, deciding where to display the ads. Two, who wants to look at adverts all day?

Google is Your Friend

Yes she is! Big data is walking a tightrope in dealing with all your data while as the same time looking after your privacy. Google, and Silicon Valley as a whole, are getting better at it. Youtube, being a sister company of Google are probably the best kept secret in getting best bang for your buck.

Here’s why:

You only pay for the adverts which are being watched.
You only pay for the part of the adverts being watched. If the viewer only watch half, you only pay for half.
You can (and should) pay for impressions. It is a cheap way- very low in cost – to have your brand been seen. Even if the viewer does not want to watch the whole thing. To spell it out: I’m talking about the 5 second spots or the “Skip Add” on YouTube.
Hallow effect. People might see your video ads only in passing or skip it altogether. Yet, after the 15th time the impression of your branding would have been – well, branded into their minds. That is why it is called branding and that is how advertising works.
To measure it to know. This is an old Greek philosophy adage. And it holds true. The data analytics in Google and Youtube is second to none! You will not only glean from it where it is most profitable to advertise, but also where your pays attention or goes over into action.

I’m not a betting man. I don’t have to be. They might have their faults, but for now my advertising buck goes to Youtube.

via GIPHY

September 5, 2019March 30, 2024

Death by a Single Pinprick

Unless you are a balloon, one single pinprick should not worry you. In ancient China, death by a thousand pinpricks was both a method of torture and a means of execution reserved for the most heinous of crimes. The author of this blog has personally been pricked over a thousand times and is still alive and well. Ah, the pricks has to happen in a short amount of time to be effective, you’d say. And you’d be right. Much has been said lately about the nudge theory based on the book and thesis by the same name. The study of which, gained the father of Nudge, the Nobel prize in economics in 2017.

Nudge-Improving-Decisions-Health-Happiness — Nudge-Improving Decisions Health Happiness

Does It Work and How?

In my experience; as with allot of things, it can be “willed” to work. Through grit and tenacity anything can be used to one’s advantage. The truth is: a 1% nudge is only going to get you 1% down the road. Half the time that 1% on its own will revert back in a short span. As in our Chinese torture example, right off the bat you need to make hundreds of little nudges simultaneously for it to be effective. Sounds like allot of work. Correct. Is it worth though, doing hundreds even thousands of little things? Why not just make one huge move?

The Secret of Nudge

In a certain high level of competition; be it athletics or industry, the huge move of one competitor is normal offset by the same or similar effort of other competitors. There is only that many big moves that one can make. Therefore, in order to gain a competitive advantage over the competition, economist and sport trainers alike, started looking at ways of leveraging many consistent small improvements.

Easier Said Than Done

Nudge and systems thinking should be synonymous. Simply because this large amount of small but constant interactions should be tracked, monitored and tweaked in real time to be effective. Being a video guy in the R of SA, I’ve been jaded allot. Clients get a website. They think it is the be-all and end-all. But almost nothing happens. They get SEO. Almost nothing happened. They hear video and SMM is all the rage, they get that, too slowly things start to happen. A single pinprick will destroy a balloon, but it will hardly harm a man.

Here is a nice info graphic:

August 30, 2019August 30, 2019

Ethnography

Ethnography is the systematic study of people and cultures. It is designed to explore cultural phenomena where the researcher observes society from the point of view of the subject of the study. An ethnography is a means to represent graphically, through video documentation or in writing the culture of a group.

Who has read the book by Paco Underhill,
Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping?

There is a revised edition out for the internet-era. I cannot wait to get my nose in one. Having said that, the new edition is already more than a decade old. It will be a curious read.

After disruption there is a reversion to the norm.

For TV and video producers this is the worse of times and the best of times. Tech is cheap, the tools of the trade is great and the resources on how to use them is ample. But what is missing? Experience, maybe? A deeper understanding of the old systems gave form to the new?

Let me break it down for you

Before we shoot a single frame, we take keywords from the provided script and see how they will behave as search phrases. Below is a screen grab from a company that we used to do work for. This company; like many others at the time, moved all their media in-house. There is nothing wrong with such a move per say, as long as it works. In this case, it seems to me, that it does not.