How can we prepare for the future of content? What and who plays a role in this? And why is the functioning of our brain so important for strong content? Enough to tell about!
Last week I attended the Content Marketing & Web Editorial Conference of iO. An inspiring day, where various topics impressed me.
AI is a ‘big wave’
This year’s winners of the Nobel Prizes in physics and chemistry have something in common: AI. For example, from physics to the founders of artificial intelligence and from chemistry to monumental breakthroughs in protein research, with the help of AI.
It is not without reason that two such important prizes go to AI, because we finally know what we can do with AI. Technology entrepreneur Peter Hinssen explained in his keynote that we have had the technology for Artificial Intelligence for 40-50 years, but simply did not have the ability to do anything with it.
This is how it happened with flying, for example. The technology had already existed for a long time and had already been invented by someone else, but the Wright brothers knew how to apply that technique for the first time.
Preparing for even more change
There is a lot of development going on in the field of AI and we are far from done with it. So it is best to prepare ourselves for even more change.
Peter Hinssen gave a tip: innovate when you can, not when you have to. In the latter case you are much too late, because developments that used to take 20-30 years now happen much faster.
“There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.” -Vladimir Lenin
In this way, we receive more and more information more and more quickly, but we have less time to turn that into knowledge that we can do something with. IT will therefore become even more important in the future. “We are drowning in information, while starving for knowledge” is a well-known quote from EO Wilson, which is more true now than ever.
Convert information into actions
The fact that we already have the information, but do not always know how to use it, also became clear to me in a session by Enexis. Stefan van den Boom told how they used the face of someone from the communications department in one of their campaigns, because their technical staff are not very fond of the camera.
The result? ‘Mechanic Peter’ can tell you everything about, for example, turning off your gas. Thanks to AI, the knowledge of the technical staff is easily transferred to camera because they can make ‘Peter’ say anything they want.
For me, this is an example of information that was already there (I already knew this was possible), but I had not yet figured out how to use this smartly. I mainly hear ‘scary’ stories about it (you can make someone say anything you want), but you can also use it in a positive way.
Personalization
That was actually only a small part of that session, because it was mainly about how Enexis’s communications department makes a difficult subject such as the energy transition more human with the help of attitude models and personalization.
A number of learnings I got from this:
- Demographic segmentation does not always work. For example, Thierry Baudet and Jesse Klaver live in the same city, but they will have completely different views on the energy transition.
- The communications department of Enexis does not have access to personal data of customers. But they can learn a lot about their target group through social media. Such as interests, hobbies, what television programs they like to watch, what websites they visit. By linking those interests together, they can build a profile.
- Enexis had created clusters of 3 groups, based on psychology and views. Conservatives, high status people and progressives. Then of course you put people in boxes, but Enexis indicated that marketers are used to doing this to respond to needs. They have taken these 3 ‘boxes’ into account in their campaigns, and not without results. Involvement in the energy transition is increasing, behavior is changing and people are thinking more consciously. Thinking in boxes does not always have to be negative.
We all have an opinion
Thinking in boxes and quickly forming an opinion about something or someone: we all secretly do that. Whether we want it or not. This became all too clear in the keynote by neuroscientist Ayca Szapora, about the wonderful functioning of the brain.
Our opinions are very true in our own heads, but do not change what we have an opinion about. A painting can be beautiful in your mind and hideous in my mind. But what does that say about the painting? Exactly, nothing.
Everything is perception, in our own heads. We sometimes have to focus slightly differently, because you never look at the same world as your customer or colleague. So always try to look at something from different perspectives and never just assume something.
Neuromarketing & content
Our brain is constantly at work and we make 99% of our choices unconsciously. Making an effort for something ‘hurts’, it takes energy. So everything must be as easy as possible.
How do you as an organization best respond to this with your content? How do we get consumers to make unconscious choices that we very consciously want them to make? A number of tips that I learned from Ayca Szapora’s keynote and the session by Daan Goote and Justin van Tol from iO.
1. Too many options = stress
Too many options = stress. 3 choices is actually the best, it makes it easier for people to make a choice. And also make use of the ‘middle’ choice, if the most expensive choice does not make much difference in price, people will be more likely to opt for the most expensive choice. Because: ‘ohhhh, that doesn’t make much difference, let’s just do that one’.
2. Price pain
Mental and physical pain are the same in our brain. High prices literally ‘hurt’. For example, writing out the word ‘euro’ works better than using the euro sign (I won’t use it to spare you the pain ).
3. Address personally
Using someone’s own name in communication and content creates connection and trust. Personal attention triggers the ‘pleasure’ part of our brain. So keep that in mind when personalizing.
4. Asking about behavior is useless
Asking people about future behavior is useless, because you will get socially desirable answers. You have to let people do it, only then will you see what the brain is really going for.
Daan Goote gave the ‘Sony experiment’ as a good example. For this experiment, people were asked which Walkman (old school) they would choose: the gray or the yellow? The largest group indicated that they would go for the yellow one. At the end of the day, both types of Walkmans were on the table to take away.
And what do you think? The yellow Walkmans were left behind, the gray Walkmans went home. The preference that people had indicated in advance was therefore completely incorrect.
5. End on a positive note
When something ends well, people are left with a good and positive feeling. So make sure that your advertisement or video ends positively, because this also taps into the ‘pleasure’ part of the brain.
Or think of IKEA, for example. At the end of your entire journey through IKEA and the line, you will be rewarded with meatballs and soft ice cream. And another reward: your self-built cupboard after the struggle to put it together. That brings a feeling of pride.
6. Virtual touch effect
People are more likely to buy something if it is visually retained. So take this into account in your content on social media and your website.
A few more small takeaways
- Round buttons get more click interaction. We consider round shapes to be ‘safer’, our brain likes that.
- CAPITAL LETTERS DO NOT READ WELL. The reading speed then decreases. And the more difficult we make things, the faster people drop out.
- Motivate an unfinished task, such as a full shopping cart without a purchase, because an unfinished task continues to occupy the brain (Zeigarnik effect). You can respond to this with copy and design by motivating next steps. In other words: make it easy.
- Use the curiosity strategy in your content. Use signal words and mystery to arouse curiosity and thus increase clicks, impressions or open rates. Think of terms such as: ‘this is how or why…’, ‘this is how you can…’
Gen Alpha / Gen Z / Digital natives
Arousing curiosity is something that needs to happen in a second for Gen Z and Gen Alpha. Otherwise you will lose them. They have extremely short attention spans… right?
Isabella Bolluyt of the Municipality of Amsterdam sees it differently. She says the generations have a bullshit filter. They choose to use their attention differently. From an early age, they are used to everything happening quickly (children these days can already click, swipe and scroll within 9 months!). So they are not used to anything else.
‘Digital natives’, the microgeneration born between 2006 and 2012, are the largest generation ever. And in a few years, the people of this generation will be our colleagues and in many cases already our target group. It is therefore important that we know how to deal with this group.
What you can take into account, now and in the future
This generation…
- looks at ‘kidfluencers’ (such as the Sweet Sisters). They therefore know well that you can make a career online and by creating content.
- knows a lot more than we think. For example, by watching YouTube, they know what is going on in the world. They know things about climate, politics and society.
- will soon start with jobs that don’t even exist yet. They can create this because they can already do a lot (think of AI, skills in creating videos and content, digital knowledge). Older generations sometimes see this as negative, because we cannot do it ourselves. But secretly this generation is very innovative.
- is social, empathetic and understands the importance of diversity. They ask for an explanation about ‘why and how’ and do not easily agree with ‘because that is how it is’.
- loves video. YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram are widely used. Content must therefore also be short, visual, with music and personal. And oh yes, those channels are also used as search engines.
- expect quick responses. Growing up with digital devices, they expect everything to happen quickly. If not, they get frustrated.
- tags friends under products for approval. Seen beautiful shoes on Instagram? @pietje, @jantje, @loesje: wow, cool shoes! Do they respond with a like or positive response? Then the shoes are approved.
- gamet, and that’s not a bad thing at all. Gaming is not necessarily negative. Children learn to think creatively, work together, think solution-oriented and speak and read English.
- seek interaction with their favorite influencers. They also expect influencers to respond to their posts. They feel like they are not that far away.
Hopefully I have been able to inspire you with the takeaways from this conference!
Source: www.frankwatching.com
