Dude you will not believe what just happened to me.
Checking out at Target, getting some deodorant, soap, electric toothbrush heads, a vacuum sealer — James and I are on a sous vide kick, but you know, the essentials.
And as the cashier is ringing me out she asks
“Do you want a protection plan for $3?”
I’m like oh yeah sure, totally. For $3 how could I not protect this $100+ sous vid supporting purchase. That $3 would’ve just been spent on steak anyways. She adds the protection plan and continues ringing me up.
She holds up the vacuum sealer box and asks:
“Do you want a protection plan for this too?”
And I’m like…
But I reply:
“Yes, isn’t that what the $3 protection plan is for?”
I feel like an idiot even asking this question because I instantly know the answer and am still equally baffled.
“No, that protection plan was for the toothbrush replacement heads.”
TOOTHBRUSH
REPLACEMENT
HEADS
🙃
Can you BELIEVE THAT ABSOLUTE NONSENSE?!
WHY ON PLANT EARTH would ANYONE need to financially insure any item that will be entering someone’s body orifice?!
My mind was doing soul cycle trying to think of how that insurance policy could possibly work.
This is America.
But while I was on the way home I was listening to the radio — I know, how 90s kid of me 😏 truthfully my phone was dead so it was between the radio and the disco mix CD but I wasn’t in the mood to groove tonight. Anyways I was scanning through the channels and thought to myself like “Wow, when was the last time I even did this?”
I remember as a kid I was always begging my mom to let me scan through the radio channels during commercial breaks but she wanted to keep it on her favorite channel 98.1 Cat Country.
I still listen to 90s Country when I feel sad/homesick. Did I tell you I surprised my mom with Shania Twain tickets for her birthday?! It’s going to be EPIC. I need to find a red cowgirl hat like I used to wear as a kid (yes, even on Christmas😂).
Sorry for the unsolicited baby pic but I’ve been obsessed with making and sharing photos and videos my entire life.
Something about the way photography encapsulates nostalgia has always resonated with me. The way it can bottle up a series of sights, smells and sounds all into a distilled media that uncorks those emotions at the pure sight of it. It’s powerful.
As a kid I would always flip through photo albums again and again to see if I could put the story together from that day. Remembering always held me in that safe space when things around me didn’t feel worth remembering.
I do however vividly remember watching the VHS tapes of Shania Twain music videos on repeat because they were so dramatic and fun. I can’t wait to finally see her with my Mom, my heart might actually explode from pure joy.
Emotions are such a funny thing. So taboo to talk about in the workplace but they fuel our very existence and reason for being. You’re like great, here she goes again with the feelings, but stick with me here.
Emotions are what make impactful marketing and build influential businesses.
The other day I saw this awesome grid on LinkedIn about emotional marketing activation (I’ll send you a link to the post, but I’ll show you the grid I made. I just changed the word to “activation” because the word “arousal” gives me the ick) 🤢
There’s two columns, “Low Activation” and “High Activation”. Think of those as your engagement metrics (more on that later).
Then there’s two rows, “Positive” and “Negative”. Now like most things in business (besides churn) you want to focus on going up and to the right📈. Aiming for that high activation, positive emotion.
These emotions (awe, excitement, amusement, and humor) are viral high activation touchpoints because they make people feel good when they interact and share them with others. Everyone loves to share a good meme they found with a friend.
On the bottom of the grid are the negative emotions you should try to avoid (sadness, confusion, anger, anxiety, disgust) because even if they are “High Activation” it would be for the wrong reasons which could hurt your brand more than grow it.
The last quadrant is the upper left, where most “good” content falls (contentment, delight). It’s good but nothing to write home about or share.
Why isn’t good good enough? One word: Robots 🤖
As content marketers compete with artificial intelligence for their jobs and livelihood we have to lean on our superpower as humans: EMOTIONS.
AI will soon over populate “good” content making your “good” content less effective. Meaning we need to strive for high activation now more than ever.
I’m getting ahead of myself, enough about emotions and AI. Back to the radio thing…
What type of radio listener were you?
Flipping between commercials?
Loyal to one station through and through?
Music only?
Talk show only?
Headphones vs. speakers
Alone vs. usually with others
It’s funny how everyone has their preferences on how they listen even after having a preference of what they listen to. Like me and Yoga with Adriene, people have a preference of how content fits into their lifestyle which got me thinking…
Podcasting is just well-distributed radio.
Think about it, before YouTube there was, TV, and before TV there was radio.
In that comedy writing book I’m reading I learned that in 1944 only 100 people owned televisions in NYC. 100 people! Imagine how easy it was to track the success and failures of programs when you only have to please those 100 people.
Now think about the amount of people with a smartphone with access to any streaming service. We’ve come pretty far. And as with everything that evolves, the game has gotten harder.
It makes me wonder how these listener types translate to content today 🤔 What do you think?
What I do know is that there are a million and five ways to try to quantify success of a brand or creative project but I’ve found the key is brand affinity > brand awareness.
Metrics creators should be tracking: Brand Affinity > Brand Awareness
Always choose brand affinity over brand awareness.
First off…
BRAND AWARENESS ≠ BRAND AFFINITY
WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE
BRAND AWARENESS
Tracking by awareness assumes that everyone who sees your brand would recommended it. This simply is not true and can be misleading.
BRAND AFFINITY
Tracking affinity focuses less on reach and more on engagement and retention with the target audience. Basically, is your brand resonating with the people you want to connect with not just with any Joe Shmo who comes across and has no use for it.
HERE’S HOW ARE THEY ARE TRACKED
Brand Awareness Metrics
IMPRESSIONS
How many people saw your post in their feed, regardless of if they interacted with it.
VIEWS
Some platforms count views as 3 seconds of an auto-play video which is not a true measurement of engagement. That’s like someone writing a review for a movie based on the trailer.
Brand Affinity Metrics
VIEWS
On the other hand if the platform counts a view as watching at least 30 seconds of the video, it’s safer to assume someone actually watched your content vs scrolled by it.
COMPLETION %
You want over 50% of episode/post consumed to show true engagement. Translate this to minutes (depending on the content) and this is how long they are spending with your brand touchpoint. Building a relationship takes time.
SUBSCRIBER/FOLLOWER GROWTH
The more time people spend with your brand the more likely they are to become brand champions. People who are subscribed or follow you show that they have an allegiance toward you and are likely recommend you over another person or brand they don’t subscribe/follow.
NOTIFICATIONS ON (YOUTUBE SPECIFIC)
The highest intent audience will want to be alerted every time you post by turning on notifications or “clicking that bell” as the YouTubers say. This is an extra step subscribers can take to ensure they never miss a video or post. People who do this should be considered brand champions. Like your Myspace top 8.
Interacting with you and your brand should feel like a relationship, like a friendship. Focus on the activities that build real friends, not make you the most popular girl in school. I mean you saw they did to Regina George!
At the end of the day you can’t please everyone (even Beyoncé can’t do that) so stop trying to. My advice for all creators is to focus on making what matters and you’ll find your people. It’s better to have a small strong niche community than viral brand awareness that quickly fades.
Trends and virality come and go
but being yourself never goes out of style.
We’re seeing this with the rise of “de-influencers”. With more than 200 million views on TikTok alone this trend can be summed up by creators going against trendy (and often expensive) products promoted or recommended by influencers.
Some creators will go a step further and tell people what they shouldn’t buy. This flips the paid influencer marketing strategy on its head but completely makes sense.
People don’t need more lifestyle recommendations from their celebrity idols (sorry Shania), they need people they trust to make their lives easier and better.
De-influencers are building trust quickly with their audiences by saving them money (clear value with no extra action needed). Basically acting like that friend you text while shopping and they respond with “do you remember how annoying it is to pee in a leotard?”.
That’s a good friend.
*Distant dramatic meowing*
Okay that’s Noodle letting me know it’s his dinner time. Let me know what you think, I want to know what type of radio listener you were! Talk to you soon. Byee!
Brand Math | Sorry I Missed You (5)