Sunday, 30 March 2014

Tips to ensure your Content gets Shared


You already know that content is important. Smart marketers are using quality content to build brand awareness and drive traffic to their sites. Many content creators dream of their content going viral.

Here are 9 tips for creating content that gets shared. 


#1. Identify and understand your target audience

Before you begin writing, take a moment to identify your target audience. It is difficult to get people to share your content if they don’t care about it, so figure out who you target audience is and cater your content to them. All you need to do is ask some basic questions. 
Who: Are you targeting stay-at-home moms, college students, retired couples, teenage girls, marketing professionals, engineers, musicians, or scientists?
What: What does your target audience need? Create something that will help them.
When: When is your target audience online? Publish with those times in mind.
Where: Where do they live, work, and play? Someone who lives in Paris doesn’t need a list of Calgary’s best restaurants.
Why: Why is your audience online? Are they looking for specific information, socialization, entertainment, or validation?
How: How does your target audience experience the internet? Are they using a computer, or do they do most of their browsing on a smart phone? Make sure your content is compatible.

#2. Craft a headline that demands attention

First impressions are essential. It doesn’t matter how good your content is if no one bothers to read it. There are many different ways to write an engaging headline, but here are a few tips to get you started.
  • Include a promise in your title: Everything You Need to Know about Star Wars
  • Numbers let your reader know what to expect: 7 Reasons 80’s Kids Love Star Wars
  • Ask questions to stimulate curiosity: Which Star Wars Character is Your Soul Mate?
  • The Ever Popular “How To” article: How to Become a Jedi

 #3. Be original

The internet is infinite, so the odds are high that someone else out there has already written about the topic you have chosen. What can you add to the conversation? Maybe you have a distinct voice, a funny perspective, or a unique example—whatever it is, bring something original to the table.

#4. Don’t be afraid to make it long

Don’t believe those people who say that younger generations are lazy and have no attention span. Younger people value their time and won’t stick around if you waste it, but if you are providing high-quality, engaging content, you can make it long and detailed. Websites like Hyperbole and a Half and The Oatmeal frequently post long-form stories and young people are still tuning in.
In fact, some studies have shown that longer, in-depth content is shared more often than shorter pieces. Trends are moving away from short, quick-hit posts and toward long-form, magazine-style stories that provide an immersive experience.

#5. Evoke emotions

When people respond to something emotionally, they are often compelled to share it. Jonah Berger and Katie Milkman co-authored a paper called “What Makes Online Content Go Viral?” They shared a lot of interesting insights, but the biggest take-away was probably that content that evokes “high-arousal emotions” is more likely to go viral. The study specifically cited emotions like awe, anger, and anxiety.
They also found that content that aroused positive emotions was shared more than content that evoked negative feelings.

#6. Pay attention to trends

Use current trends and recent news events as inspiration when you are creating content. This makes it easier to think of new ideas, and using trending topics and current events means that you have a built-in audience who is already interested in your content.

#7. Add visuals

People process visual content faster than text. Visual content is also more engaging and more memorable. Smart businesses are incorporating more visual content into their work. Gifs and infographics are increasingly popular. Twitter added Vine for looping videos. Facebook recently made images bigger.
Websites like stockfootage.com or istockphoto.com provide royalty free stock videos and images that look professional, so if you don’t have the skills or equipment to create your own visual content, you still have affordable options.

#8. Make it useful

Content that recognizes and solves problems is also more likely to be shared. Although an article about fixing your bathroom sink may not seem very interesting, it is a common problem many people have to deal with. If someone finds your content helpful, they will share it with others who face the same problem.
If you run a business that sells clothes, write a blog post with ideas about how to accessorize an outfit. If you sell compost, share an infographic with the best times of the year to plant a garden. If you sell craft supplies, share a video that demonstrates how to make your own wreath or decorative pillow case.
Give your customers content that helps them use your product or service, and they might just share it with friends.

#9. Make information accessible

There is a LOT of information online. When people are reading online, they skim the page to see if the content they need is there. If a reader doesn’t find what they are looking for at your site, they will move on quickly. Here are a few tips for making information accessible:
  • Use headings and sub headings to clearly identify your topics.
  • Use lists to make information easy to organize.
  • Write short paragraphs. Shoot for 3-4 sentences.
  • Use straightforward language. Your vast vocabulary may be impressive, but that doesn’t make it accessible to the average reader.
  • Use images to illustrate your points.
  • Create an infographic to explain complicated data and statistics. Infographics like the one in this post are easier to understand and more fun to read.
  • Use white space. Giant blocks of text are intimidating, and it is difficult for readers to quickly identify the information they want in long passages.
Creating content that people want to share is hard work, but it will pay off when the traffic to your website hits a new high. Use these tips to create high quality content that your users will be compelled to share.

Read more at http://www.jeffbullas.com/2014/03/31/9-tips-for-creating-content-that-gets-shared/#JgrSTePoKxPfL8cg.99
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Friday, 28 March 2014

Most funny parodies in commercials ! Ads making fun of ads



Parody advertisement


A parody advertisement is a fictional advertisement for a non-existent product, either done within another advertisement for an actual product, or done simply as parody of advertisements—used either as a way of ridiculing or drawing negative attention towards a real advertisement or such an advertisement's subject, or as a comedic device, such as in a comedy skit or sketch.

Overview

A parody advertisement should not be confused with a fictional brand name used in a program to avoid giving free advertising to an actual product, or to the use of a fictional brand name in an actual advertisement used for comparison, which is sometimes done as opposed to comparing the product to an actual competitor. (In some countries, Germany or Norway for example, it is illegal to make disparaging comments about a competitor's product in an advertisement, even if the statements are proven to be true.[1])
A parody advertisement can be one in which the advertisement appears to actually be a real ad for the false product, but then the advertisement is somehow exposed to be a parody and if it is an actual advertisement the actual brand becomes clear. If it is simply a parody it may or may not indicate that it is one.

Notable examples[edit]

Film[edit]

  • Tropic Thunder: In addition to Tropic Thunder's (in)famous fake movie trailers, the film has a parody ad for the fake products 'Booty Sweat' energy drink and 'Bust-A-Nut' candy bar. As part of the film's marketing 'Booty Sweat' has been made into a real life energy drink.[2][3][4]
  • Bamboozled: Spike Lee's satire has fake ads for 'Da Bomb' malt liquor and a racistly named parody of Tommy Hilfiger. In addition to the appearance in Bamboozled, 'Da Bomb' makes appearances in three other Spike Lee films, Clockers, Inside Man, and Sucker Free City.[5]
  • Grindhouse: The film Grindhouse, which is essentially the movies Planet Terror and Death Proof combined, has trailers for a number of fictional films. These include Machete, in which the FBI hires a mercenary rather than risk their own agents on a potential suicide mission; Werewolf Women of the SS about a group of women who run a nazi death camp; Don't, an exploitative horror film;Thanksgiving, a slasher film in the genre of the Halloween series; and Hobo With a Shotgun about a vigilante killer similar to the premise of the film Death Wish. The trailer for Machete was so well received it has actually been made into a full length feature film as well as Hobo with a Shotgun.
  • RoboCop: Parody advertisements are seen throughout the RoboCop franchise for products such as the "6000 SUX", a parody of the low fuel economy of many American-made cars at that time, the game "NUKEM", a parody of Battleship, and "Magnavolt", a car security system designed to electrocute and kill would-be carjackers.[6]
  • UHF: The Weird Al Yankovic film UHF has a few fake ads within the film, such as "Spatula City", a store that sells nothing but spatulas, as well as promos for fake TV shows and movies like "Conan the Librarian" and "Gandhi II".
  • Cяazy People: The 1990 film Cяazy People is about an advertising executive who work in a psychiatric hospital with a number of patients to create "truthful" advertisements, often over-the-top and with explicit language, for mostly real-life products and brands.
  • The 2013 film Movie 43 featured a few parody ads such as "iBabe" spots, "Machine Kids" (a mock public service announcement), and a faux Tampax commercial.
  • C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America: The 2004 mockumentary about the history of how the fictional Confederate States of America rose to power after winning the American Civil War is presented as a documentary airing on Confederate television. As such, the movie has commercial parodies that are racialist and are aimed towards white slave-owning families. Many of the products advertised in the film actually existed in the past.

Television

  • The American sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live produces fictional commercials on a regular basis, usually shown after the guest host's monologue as an "introductory commercial", prior to the beginning the main show. Many of these ads, while they parody actual TV commercials are simple comedic parodies of the style of the real advertisement rather than its product.
  • Likewise, many subsequent sketch comedy programs have utilized parody advertisements, including MAD TV, In Living Color andThe Idiot Box.
  • Short Circuitz, an MTV sketch comedy show starring Nick Cannon, often featured parodies of popular advertisements. Its accompanying website, ShortCircuitz.mtv.com, allows users to upload their own parody advertisements to compete for a cash prize and a spot on the show.

Fictional advertisements for real products

  • In the 1990s, the most famous series of parody advertisements were those for the Energizer battery. A parody itself of a Duracellbattery commercial, in its initial commercial episode first shown in October 1989, a toy pink rabbit, is being filmed in a commercial. The toy, powered by the battery, escapes the studio and begins a rampage, pounding a drum and rolling through other commercials being made, including those for coffee, wine, a fictional upcoming TV series, long distance service, breakfast cereal, and sinus medication. A total of 120 fictional commercials and 4 real ones (for Twinkies, Purina Cat Chow, Pepsi, and Duracell) in both Englishand Spanish involving the Energizer Bunny were made.
  • In 1991, Eveready Battery Company sued the Adolph Coors Company over an ad for Coors beer it was producing, which showed actor Leslie Nielsen in a full-size rabbit suit pounding a drum, which was parodying Eveready's Energizer Bunny commercials, which themselves are parodies of Duracell advertisements and television program previews. Eveready claimed Coors' ad constituted copyright and trademark infringement. The court ruled that Coors' ad was a valid parody of Eveready's, considering that Mr. Nielsen "is not a toy, and does not run on batteries." Eveready Battery Co. v. Adolph Coors Co., 765 F. Supp. 440 (N.D. Ill. 1991).
  • The GEICO insurance company ran a series of television commercials in which a victim in a disadvantaged situation hears their fate from the antagonist, that they have good news, only the good news is for the antagonist (The antagonist will usually say as the punchline, "I just saved a bunch of money on my car insurance by switching to GEICO"). Some examples involved a fictional congressional hearing where the witness (the victim) is being informed he is subject to criminal penalties while the chairman of the committee (the antagonist) has saved money on his car insurance, a home repair show reminiscent of Bob Vila showing a victim couple with a home badly in need of repair, a fictional news report on a volcanic eruption, and a fictional hair restoration commercial. Another example parodied advertisements for reality TV shows, by showing a couple getting married, and getting disgruntled at living in a tiny house (the punchline: a voiceover saying "The drama may be real, but it won't save you any money on car insurance", followed by the wife asking her spouse in their tiny hot tub "Why haven't you called GEICO?").
  • The Coca-Cola company's lemon-lime soft drink Sprite ran a series of ads for other fictional drink products, which had actual or fictional celebrities endorsing the other product, with the implication that the fictional product was inadequate for quenching one's thirst.
  • The gimmick of characters from a commercial invading other spoof ads was first used by the British Lager brewers Carling Black Label. The advert featured a wild west outlaw being roped by a posse and dragging them off their horses and into adverts for a love compilation Album and Washing up powder.
  • "Poser Mobile" ran an advertising campaign for T-Mobile's pay-as-you-go cell phone plan featuring a racially diverse group of hip-hopposers. The group of five ambush the cell phone customer and explain that he has to pay hidden charges and fees. One customer in a commercial calls them "clowns". It is somewhat of a parody on Boost Mobile's "Where You At?" advertising campaign which features prominent hip-hop artists such as Ludacris, Kanye West, and The Game.

Magazines and print

Mad Magazine

Mad Magazine was notorious for regularly running obviously fictional ads for nonexistent products. However, many of these nonexistent products were clearly intended to be parodies of specific well-known brands of real-world products; frequently, the fictional advertisement in Mad parodied a specific genuine ad campaign for a recognizable brand-name product. For example, in the 1960s (when cigarettes could still be advertised on television), Kent Cigarettes ran a commercial featuring a series of line drawings illustrating the lyrics of a catchy jingle titled "The Taste of Kent". Mad promptly ran a fake print ad, using drawings which parodied the style of the line art, illustrating verses about lung cancer and emphysema to a lyric that parodied Kent's jingle, now titled "The Taste of Death".
According to Frank Jacobs's biography The Mad World of William M. Gaines, Mad's parodies of real advertisements generated so much attention that Mad publisher William Gaines received requests from the promotional departments of many real products, asking Mad to run parodies of their advertisements. Gaines's standard reply to such requests: "Come up with a really stupid ad campaign, and we'll be happy to make fun of it."

Hustler[edit]

The most serious incident involving a fictional advertisement in a magazine caused a lawsuit which reached all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, when Hustler Magazine ran a parody of a liquor ad which would ask people about their "first time." In the actual ad, what we are led to believe is that the person is being asked about their first sexual experience, when it turns out the question is about their first time they used the sponsor's product, a liqueur.
In the parody advertisement in Hustler, the Reverend Jerry Falwell is supposedly quoted describing the first time he had sexual intercourse with his mother in an outhouse while intoxicated. Falwell sued Hustler Magazine and its publisher Larry Flynt for invasion of privacy, libel and emotional distress. The jury found for the magazine on the issue of libel (the fictional advertisement clearly indicated it was a parody), but awarded Mr. Falwell $350,000 in damages for the emotional distress and invasion of privacy claims. The Supreme Court ruled that, since the advertisement was so obviously a parody that no reasonable person could have believed it, Falwell was not libelled and thus is not entitled to damages for emotional distress, and he was not entitled to damages for invasion of privacy because he is a well-known public figure. Hustler Magazine, Inc. et al. v. Jerry Falwell, 485 U.S. 46, (1988).

Other examples

  • The Adbusters Media Foundation's magazine Adbusters features advertisement parodies that are intended as sharp commentary on the social implications of either the product or the advertising campaign involved (also known as "Culture Jamming"). One example is a parody of the "Joe Camel" advertising campaign for Camel Cigarettes, with a pseudo Joe Camel in a hospital bed, his head bald and an intravenous drip bottle leading into his arm, with the legend "Joe Chemo" on the faux ad, implying that the many years of smoking cigarettes has left "Joe" with cancer and requiring chemotherapy treatment. [1]
  • The Wrigley Company created fictional print ads for Juicy Fruit, such as boy bands, an upcoming fictional movie poster, and a phony handheld game system.
  • Games Magazine, a monthly publication featuring game- and puzzle-related material, through the 1980s carried a fake ad feature noted (without page number) in each issue's contents with the tagline"Which of the pitches is full of hitches?" One featured item was an abacus simulator running on PCs made by the nonexistent Nat Soh Software Co. of Hong Kong. The challenge to readers was to scrutinize all of the ads to spot the fake.
  • Puppet Shed Films creates and publishes a number of parody commercial advertisements on YouTube source website

Miscellaneous

  • Superhero-themed rock band The Aquabats are notorious for styling their live shows after Saturday morning cartoons, including engaging in scripted onstage battles with costumed monsters and villains. Normally, when these villains crash the stage, the concert will "cut to commercial" and a video screen behind the band will project a pre-recorded advertisement for an outlandish (and obviously fake) toy or product before returning to the show. In 2012, The Aquabats produced their own television series, The Aquabats! Super Show!, which also regularly features such parody commercials.

References

  1. Jump up^ Germany's "Act against Unfair Competition" or "Gesetz gegen den unlauteren Wettbewerb" (UWG) of 3 July 2004, § 6 generally forbids the use of comparative advertising. Technically it is not "illegal" in that almost all actions under the law are based on private lawsuits, e.g. typically the company whose product is being mentioned sues, rather than the government prosecuting.
  2. Jump up^ Booty Sweat Energy Drink
  3. Jump up^ Booty Sweat Energy Drink
  4. Jump up^ .com/x-281-Caffeine-Examiner~y2008m8d22-Tropic-Thunder-energy-drink-turns-real--and-doesnt-really-taste-like-Booty-SweatTropic Thunder energy drink turns real - and doesnt really taste like Booty Sweat
  5. Jump up^ Trivia for Inside Man
  6. Jump up^ RoboCop - A Few Words From the Future
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