Digital Marketing Evolution: Kiss and Style

Style - The eye eats with

From a psychological point of view, a key message and a meaningful picture act as a communicative anchor. But what exactly does that do? After just a few milliseconds, people subconsciously decide whether or not they find their counterpart likable. That may sound unfair or superficial, but we cannot defend ourselves against it. We have been conditioned for thousands of years as part of evolution.

This reflex is not only important for the assessment of people, but also for looking at advertising. In addition to the assessment of sympathy, we also filter immediately on relevance. Say, two factors directly contribute to the communication of advertising messages.

The simpler the message, the higher the interaction

You can also understand this effect very nicely by simple evaluations of contributions in the social web. Let's take the example of the reach and interaction quota of a Facebook posting.

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These are usually the larger, the simpler and more visually appealing a message is packaged. On the first place are clearly high-quality posting pictures with a crisp core statement. The longer the text, the less Likes.

Elaborate is no better

Similar effects can also be observed in websites and applications. There are technically very sophisticated pages where web developers snap their tongue. The normal user is often unaffected.

In contrast to this, technically unpretentious applications lie behind a loving and successful surface. On the developer side, they quickly provide boredom, but on the other hand users are enthusiastic.

Red pencil in design?

It is all the more astonishing that design is often one of the first topics where companies use the red pencil as part of their budgeting. However, the opposite should be the case. This is reinforced once again with the triumph of mobile devices.

This is not just the look and feel, but above all also the usability. Say, a campaign must not only look beautiful and feel good, but also on a smartphone to be optimal to use. The demands on the areas of style and design are therefore considerably increased!

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This sharp approach is imperative to raise initial attention and interest. This is the only way to provide more detailed information.

KISS and style

The firing formula KISS and Style is essential not only for digital but also for virtually any advertising. If one observes these points and the points outlined in the preceding chapters, one approaches the goal which many companies long for.

They do not just want to buy reach (today also often referred to as paid media), but the topic of conversation (earned media), not as advertising, but as added value - be it on- or offline: as digitally shared content in the social web as well as at lunchtime, in the evening in a bar, among colleagues and friends, by the way - and yet at the center of the conversation.

Make the customers talk

Sounds too good to be true? It is unfortunately often too. But those who consistently follow the procedures described, from the idea generation to the conception to the implementation, and, above all, consistently, make it possible for plausible advertising to become really relevant messages. That's the key successto really become a topic with a brand.

The potential for this is available. We live in a consumer society. Many people love to share new products, good services and experiences. Whoever makes it a business to become part of these conversations gains a decisive competitive advantage.

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His messages are perceived less as advertising, but rather as a recommendation in the form of oral propaganda. This is considered to be one of the most valuable, since most effective forms of customer acquisition.

Word of mouth effects

A study by the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) has also shown that rating marketing increases the impact of classic advertising channels by an average of 15 percent. It thus serves as an amplifier for TV, radio, printer goods and the like. Offline recommendations, in particular, have a great effect. They have a five times greater influence on a purchase decision than classic advertising messages. 46

So the bottom line is that it's fair to say that creating conversation material should be one of the key objectives of virtually all actions. Ideally, there will be a kind of positive upward spiral in which word-of-mouth and classic measures will stimulate each other.