Snackable content for small screens

New technologies require new content. Large campaigns on small screens - that fits less and less. Many small micro-campaigns are taking their place. This change means a change of pace that challenges everyone. Steve Jobs said in 1997: "In the course of my career, I've realized that the best people are the ones who know about content. And get on your nerves. You put up with them because they're great at content. That's how good products are created. Not through processes. Through content." The success of campaigns therefore depends first and foremost on the quality of the content and the talent of its creators. Three aspects of quality are paramount: social web content must be searchable - in other words, it must be as easy as possible for the user to find. This is because the average web user consults 10.4 online sources on their way to the final purchase decision and starts with a search query in 85 percent of cases.

Searchable content is about the ability to pack in-depth knowledge about behaviors, needs and sensitivities into a story and reach the user at the decisive moment, the so-called pain point. Social web content must be shareable - in other words, it must be of value to the user in terms of being disseminated and shared with other users as easily as possible. After all, shareability is what turns web content into social web content. The competition for content is huge: Facebook alone records 2.7 billion likes every day. And every second website now offers tools for sharing content via social media platforms. The risk of getting lost in the noise is even greater than it is when using traditional broadcast media.

Short attention span requires new recipes

Social web content must be snackable - in other words, it must be consumed as quickly as possible by the user. Snackable content is essential if we want to have any chance at all of bringing ourselves into play as a solution provider for users scrolling past in a hurry. After all, the average attention span that the adult user grants us per snack unit is just 8 seconds. This is due to the total shift of media consumption to small smartphone screens. The social media mobile craze in figures: according to a ComScore study, 98% of all Instagram, 92% of all Pinterest, 86% of all Twitter and 68% of all Facebook accesses now take place via mobile devices. The only exception among the major networks is the business and recruitment network LinkedIn. According to the latest IAB figures, mobile's share of the global online advertising pie has risen from 9 percent (2012) to 17 percent (2013). This is the third highest behind search ads (43 %) and display ads (30 %). According to eMarketer, Google and Facebook dominate within mobile spending, with Google's share shrinking (52.6 % in 2012 vs. 46.8 % in 2014) and Facebook's share increasing (5.4 % vs. 21.7 %). Conclusion: Marketers and their advertisers finally seem to be serious about following the user and are increasingly investing in forms of advertising tailored to small mobile screens and in dynamic social media news feeds. Advertising in small spaces with short attention spans requires new recipes. I call them snack recipes. Let me serve you three of them: Snack recipe adcompression. The TV commercial is still the highest of all advertising sensations.
 
The good news: creative moving image stories also perform well in the new mobile social environment. The bad news: the classic 30-second spot is going to the skip collar. Rumors are circulating about apocalyptic click-through rates. In its neuroscientific study "Making Advertising more of a Science than Art", Nielsen, the leading American moving image marketer, had 70 identical commercials of different lengths tested. The result: in 95 percent of cases, the shortened spots achieved the same or better impact values. Three parameters were measured. Firstly, whether a stimulus met with emotional approval or rejection. Secondly, the extent to which the willingness to remember can be aroused. And thirdly, the attention span at which emotionality and memory occur. Conclusion: brevity is the spice of effectiveness. Endless videos are currently taking the social web by storm. They are recorded directly via a smartphone app and last between two and five seconds. With the Vine app from Twitter, such an endless video can be shot and uploaded in less than a minute. The absolute hit, however, are gifs (Graphic Interchange Format). Several individual images are saved in a file and played as a short animation - a kind of flip book for the social web. There are no limits to creativity. The decisive factor is the quality of the mini-story. Funny entertainment content performs best. But you can also teach users very practical things: Children how to brush their teeth, men how to tie a tie and women how to apply eye shadow.

Tweetability: Twitter cards and newsjacking open up new possibilities

Snack recipe Tweetability. With its 140-character message approach, the short message service Twitter is a driving force when it comes to the development of new short advertising content. We have slowly become accustomed to Vine videos. Now come the Twitter Cards. It is a continuation of the responsive design principle from mobile-responsive to social-responsive. Content from your own web environment can be automatically displayed in tweets in an abbreviated form in real time with little effort. There are various cards. The Gallery Card enables the display of photo galleries, and with the help of the Product Card, every Twitter channel becomes a starting point for sales. This is because the Product Card is designed to display the image, 140-character short description, price and availability of an offer directly from the website in the compactness of a tweet. Twitter cards further increase the importance of social media within the marketing mix. Offers can be taken up more quickly in this snackable form, distributed more easily and at the end the link in the tweet leads to your own website. Provided that the content is designed to be snackable on the website from the outset.

Newsjacking snack recipe. The joy of snacking and announcing news seems to be something we humans were born with. After all, we are social creatures. Brevity is part of the program, as is a certain sensationalism. Accordingly, the often somewhat detailed 0815 news from PR departments usually gets stuck in the newsfeed of the first recipients. One way to brighten up the gray news routine of companies is newsjacking. We inject our own content with news that is making waves on Twitter, Facebook or Reddit. My favorite example - news: "Paris Hilton arrested for cocaine possession." Newsjacking content from a hotel chain: "Paris Hilton banned from Wynn Hotels Las Vegas." Newsjacking requires two things, and both are generally essential for digestible social media advertising: Firstly, open eyes and hearts for the true interests, needs and sensitivities of your own stakeholders. Secondly, quick-wittedness with a little pinch of mischief. Fancy a snack? My tip: if in doubt, popcorn instead of potato chips ;). I look forward to lots of snackables from your practice on my blog www.huerlimanncc.com.
 
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