Response Marketing || The Pause Project V2

TT eehh
Created by Response Marketing to help brands think about
opportunities and trends in marketing and media.
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thepowertoprovoke.com
2013.V2

thepauseproject.com | PAGE 12013 | Response Marketing | Pause Project | Vol 02
Table of contents
1 // Pixel perfect
2 // Social’s next wave
3 // Conversion psychology
4 // Feeding frenzy
3-16
19-23
25-31
33-39

Burning the midnight oil fidgeting
with line weight, color, and texture,
is the stuff that anyone with an
ounce of respect for their retinas
would ignore. But we obsess,
lose sleep, and rip out hair over
these things.
The following trends have perco-
lated up from the design blogs
and through our Twitter feeds
and pinboards. They are the ones
we have not forgotten, that keep
making their ways onto our
screens and memories. If used
right, the following concepts
can possess that perfect mix of
accessibility and trendiness that
also has specific intentions of
what is trying to be accomplished.
1 Pixel perfect//

2013 | Response Marketing | Pause Project | Vol 02thepauseproject.com | PAGE 4
Poly love
The golden days of Pong, Sega
and Super Nintendo are behind
us, but their spirits live on, pulling
at the nostalgia strings of 20-and
30-somethings worldwide, and
embodying the poly movement.
Characterized by exaggerated
distinctions between polygons, the
poly movement has permeated
design blogs for the past few years
but is finally starting to penetrate
mass market creative. Think retro,
trendy, playful, geek--and maybe a
bag of Cheetos to match.
Pixel perfect

Giampaolo Miraglia created a series of graphics to help promote tourism in
areas known for speciﬁc recreational sports.
Source: http://www.giampaolomiraglia.com/
Pixel perfect

thepauseproject.com | PAGE 6 2013 | Response Marketing | Pause Project | Vol 02
Sherwin-Williams represented color swatches using
low-poly graphics in a recent video campaign.
Source: http://vimeo.com/39901824
Pixel perfect

Response created an abstract geometric reel using low-poly graphics.
Source: http://tinyurl.com/k6c9r5y
Pixel perfect

Interactive data
Interactivity is the difference
between a lecture on water and
snorkeling in the Caribbean. The
ability to interact with something
infinitely increases its learnability,
and the same holds true for data.
A growing wave of interactive
data is educating users while
also entertaining them, leaving
static data in the dust with Furby
and motivational posters.
Pixel perfect

Nikon’s Universcale site lets users explore the human eye’s visibility
range, and the micro and macro ranges available to new Nikon lenses.
Source: http://www.nikon.com/about/feelnikon/universcale/
Pixel perfect

thepauseproject.com | PAGE 10 2013 | Response Marketing | Pause Project | Vol 02
Greenpeace’s Into the Arctic site documents a recent expedition and includes
an interactive map, logbook and wildlife photo gallery.
Source: http://intothearctic.gp/
Pixel perfect

The Chevy Volt microsite explores how much gas and money is
saved with electric cars.
Source: http://gentlemanscholar.com/chevy-volt-interactive/
Pixel perfect

Color
Each year sees a new set of
colors that infiltrate fashion,
technology, design, everything.
And while it’d be mayhem for
a brand to update all materials
based on which colors are in, it’s
invaluable to read the aesthetic
pulse and subtly work it into
campaign elements.
Pixel perfect

Color research institute The Ultra
Bright recently published their spring/
summer 2014 collection, describ-
ing the core focus as “harmony
found in the high-tech and natural
… vintage and modern … man-made
and artiﬁcial.”
Source:
http://theultrabright.com/
Pantone announced Emerald as
2013’s color of the year, describing
it as tuned into the contemporary
zeitgeist and “a color of elegance
and beauty that enhances our sense
of well-being, balance and harmony.”
Source: http://www.pantone.com/
pages/index.aspx?pg=21055
Pixel perfect

Flat graphics
Facebook and Apple made
headlines after shedding their
gradients in favor of 2D flat
graphics, a minimalist trend that
excels at reducing graphic clutter
from small screens, but nonetheless
looks great on big screens.
Characterized by accepting the
limitations of computer graphic
representation, as opposed to
its rival trend skeumorphism, flat
graphics are permeating design
fantasies wide and far, and show
no sign of slowing down soon.
Pixel perfect

Current iOS 6 interface. New iOS 7 interface.
Pixel perfect

Web type
HTML, the internet’s structural language, wasn’t created as a design language
and thus lacked extensive font display
options. And though this meant simpler coding,
it also meant limited typography, which
has always been a major design element
inprint. Luckily these tides turned with
HTML 5’s release, which dramatically
expanded digital type capabilities
and the designer’s toolkit.
Pixel perfect

2 Social’s next wave//
Teenagers are finicky beasts.
Every season they adopt new
trends that define cool and
spread like wildfire, up until the
next season when a new trend
sparks a new fire.
Since its 2004 founding, Facebook
has been an exception to the
teenage cool-cycle, remaining
the go-to source for teenage
online socializing, and eventually
users of all ages.
But recent data predicts turbulence
for Facebook: A March 2013
survey of high schoolers depicted
decline in Facebook’s prestige,
with only 33% of respondents
considering it their most important
social network, down from 42%
just six months earlier.

In the same vein, a recent Pew
report1
noted that “in focus groups,
many teens expressed waning
enthusiasm for Facebook. They
dislike the increasing number of
adults on the site, get annoyed
when their Facebook friends
share inane details, and are
drained by the ‘drama’ that they
described as frequently happen-
ing on the site.”
These Pew focus group observations
line up with those of social media
researcher Danah Boyd, a NYU
professor and researcher at
Microsoft, who conducted a 2.5
year study on teenage social
media habits. Among her obser-
vations were the decline of status
in social networks when “teens
are forced to navigate social
situations with people they do
not want to interact with, namely
those they do not like, those who
hold power over them, and those
who have malicious intentions.”
Parents and employers fall into the
“those who hold power over them”
group, and their presence on net-
works such as Facebook causes
a contextual collapse among
teens who must consider wildly
different audiences when posting
content. Uploading a photo that
will entertain both friends and
Great Aunt Miriam is tricky.
Thus the answer for millennials is
simple: move.
A new wave of messaging apps,
including Whatsapp, Kik and
Snapchat, are among the hot
new destinations for teens, and
threats to Facebook. Though only
a few years old, these messaging
networks have gained significant
user bases, and continue to grow
at a rapid rate.
Social’s next wave
1
http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/Teens-Social-Media-And-Privacy/Summary-of-Findings.aspx

Growth rate of new messaging networks
2009
+50M
Registered
Users
WhatsApp
Kik
Snapchat
+200M
2010 2011 2012 2013

Messaging apps
One-to-fewOne-to-many
Facebook

Audience size is a major difference
between messaging apps and
Facebook, with the former focusing
on small group communications
and the latter focusing on posts
that are seen by a user’s entire
friend network.
In an April 2013 article2
, Business
Insider interviewed Jacob
Robinson, a 15-year-old British
highschooler who said the Kik
messaging app “blew up” among
his friends, and that Facebook
“has really started to lose its
edge.” Robinson said his Kik
sessions go late into night “just
on Youtube searching for funny
videos, then [quickly sharing] it
with your friends.”
Aside from the conversations that
Robinson has with friends, there’s
no interaction with exclusive Kik
content. Kik is instead the shar-
ing mechanism for content found
across the internet.
Due to the limited brand function-
ality of messaging apps, brands
will do better to focus on getting
their content on messaging apps
instead of formal brand presences
such as Facebook pages.
And while there’s no secret
ingredient to creating engaging
content, brands can at least
improve their chances by creating
content that works in many social
network contexts, so that whether
it’s shared on Facebook, Twitter,
or Kik, the image or video still
displays correctly and doesn’t
violate any upload restrictions.
Brands will never adapt to networks
with teenage speed, but malleable
content at least gives branded
campaigns a running chance.
2
http://www.businessinsider.com/teens-using-messaging-apps-in-threat-to-facebook-2013-4

3 Conversion psychology//
At the core of marketing we are
ultimately trying to persuade some-
one to use our product or service.
To understand behavior and how it’s
influenced, first we must understand
there are three main goals that we
as humans are motivated by:3
Approval
We seek approval from others
and society as a whole. We often
look at the behaviors of others
to reinforce our choices and we
typically don’t want to be the
outsider or non-conformist.
Reviews are a key component
that can drive perception that the
product is approved and enjoyed by
the masses. Having positive reviews
next to a call-to-action can serve as
a reinforcement that the consumer
is choosing a product that others
approve of.4
This also indicates the
impact a social share can have in
influencing purchasing decisions
amongst friends.
3
http://www.spring.org.uk/2010/07/3-universal-goals-to-influence-people.php
4
“Using Psychology to Increase Conversions” - Pardot

Accuracy
We want to be right. From a
consumer’s standpoint, this
means we want to believe that
we are making a good choice
when we decide to buy and want
that decision reinforced.
The post-purchase relationship
is the perfect time to reinforce
that the consumer made a good
choice by choosing your brand
or product.
Positive Self-Perception
It’s important for humans to stay
true to their beliefs and often-
times the emotional takes over
the rational. Staying consistent
and reliable is a strong part of
this belief system. That is why
trial leading to comfort and
familiarity is often so powerful
beyond just initial experience
with a product.
It is often not just the firm belief
that a particular product is better,
but rather the familiarity with that
product that drives us to choose
what is familiar rather than take a
chance on something new. That
is why it is easier to get a customer
to renew with your product rather
than earn their business when
they are already satisfied with
another product.
Conversion psychology

To optimize conversions we must
appeal to the part of the brain
that controls the decision making
process. There are several things
to consider when trying to trigger
that part of the brain that into action.5
Self-Centeredness
We are primarily concerned with
how a product affects us. What
does it do for me? When advertis-
ing hits home and shows us how
it will solve our pain point, our
desire for that product increases.
Storytelling becomes an effective
persuasion tool because it can
help guide our thought process
and put us in scenarios we
otherwise may not have imagined.
When immersed in that experience
we don’t pay as much attention to
that which doesn’t match up with
our own experience.6
Contrast
This provides a framework to decide
how a product impacts us. For
example, before/after and with/
without provide a picture of how a
product may make our lives easier
or how challenging it may be
without using that product.
Tangibility
Concrete numbers as opposed to
ambiguous statements are easier
for us to process.
Appealing to instincts
5
http://www.thattrainingguide.com/blog/neuro-optimized-content-creation/
6
http://www.spring.org.uk/2012/01/why-stories-sell-transportation-leads-to-persuasion.php

Scarcity
There is evidence that “the desire
to avoid loss is 2x stronger than
the desire to seek gain.”7
Limited
quantities or limited-time offers
are strong motivators for action
as the chance of missing out can
make a purchase decision
become a higher priority.
7
“Using Psychology to Increase Conversions” - Pardot
Amazon showcases the scarcity
of the product with “Only 2 left in
stock” messaging.
“The desire to
avoid loss is 2x
stronger than
the desire to
seek gain.”

Anchoring
The beginning and end of state-
ments holds the most power
when it comes to grabbing our
attention. Much of what is said
in the middle is often lost. So
it’s important to have the most
important information as close to
the beginning as this helps and
repeated at the end of a statement.
Anchoring also comes into play
with pricing. The value of an item
that has a new lower price or is
on sale can only be completely
grasped when the original price
gives it context.
Apple is reinforcing their statement “Why you’ll
love an iPhone” at the beginning and also in their
call-to-action.

Visuals
The reaction to visuals reaches the
brain first, which can immediately
turn off or connect.
In a Journal of Consumer Research
study, they found that the horizontal
positioning of a product image
related to how favorable a
product was rated. In that study,
products with new technology
were rated more favorably
when placed on the right, while
products where age played a role
(e.g.-antiques or wine) were rated
more favorably when the image
was placed on the left.8
As the image-based web continues
to grow and attention spans
become shorter, the importance
of imagery becomes even
greater. Images that accompany
a value statement make that
statement seem even more credible.9
This is a classic example of
show don’t tell. For example,
if a product benefit is that it will
give the user “peace of mind”,
showing an image of someone in
a calm, zen-like state makes that
statement more believable.
What we do is often different
than what we say
We’re all predisposed towards
certain behaviors. As we consume
more media, and are inundated
with more options, information
and distractions, our instincts
and decision-making are forced
to act that much faster to make
decisions. While research and
focus groups can give us some
insight, it is often not what people
say which will determine how
they will ultimately act. By keep-
ing in mind that what triggers
behavior is often not the rational
but the emotional, driven by our
instincts, we can align messaging
to what truly motivates.
8
http://www.jcr-admin.org/files/pressreleases/030413105404_HoeggRelease.pdf
9
http://www.neurosciencemarketing.com/blog/articles/persuade-with-pictures.htm

4 Feeding frenzy//
As we’re inundated with more
information coming at us faster
and more ubiquitous than ever
before, the challenge of attract-
ing attention becomes even more
competitive. Especially when it
comes to advertising. Enter the
world of feed-based advertising.
Whether it’s native advertising,
sponsored stories, or content
marketing, getting a marketing
message into the overall flow of
content we’re consuming, the
race is on.
Why is the race on? For one,
advertisers are seeing success.
In a study by IPG Media Lab, they
found that consumers looked at
native ads 52% more, had a 9%
higher lift in brand affinity and
18% lift in purchase intent when
compared to banner ads.10
If you
add in the decline in performance
of banner ads, click thru rates
were 9% in 2000 and .2% in
201211
, then there is a compelling
story to tell for new space open-
ing up for advertising.
While “native advertising” is not
necessarily feed advertising, the
idea of creating ads that are
unobtrusive to the user and
doesn’t take away from the overall
experience of what someone is
doing is shaping the digital world.
“The real fact of
the matter is
that nobody
reads ads.
People read
what interests
them, and
sometimes it’s
an ad.”
-Howard Luck Gossage
10
http://www.sharethrough.com/2013/05/infographic-native-advertising-effectiveness-study-by-ipg-media-labs/
11
http://mashable.com/2012/12/13/infographic-native-advertising/

Whether it’s turning users off
more and more or not, ads within
our news feed are here to stay.
Why? Because they are extremely
effective for advertisers. Using
Facebook Exchange, ads run in
the News Feed saw a 197.3%
higher ROI, 17x higher CTRs and
48.4% lower CPC than standard
ads in the right rail.12
Ads within
our news feeds are driven by mobile
consumption and fit in with the
increasing majority of users who
are accessing Facebook via
mobile. Within Facebook, the
intention isn’t usually reading or
discovery, but rather quick scans
of what friends and family are
doing. What Facebook is trying
to do from a user experience
is increase engagement. Ad-
vertisers also want to increase
engagement. The engagement
for advertisers is happening in
the news feed.
Feeding frenzy
Facebook
12
http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/early-stats-how-facebook-exchange-ads-perform-news-feed-149262

BuzzFeed has become one of
the most talked about digital
publishers. Their content is highly
shared and they’ve inspired many
other publishers to take a similar
approach to content. They have
completely abandoned banner
advertising altogether, instead
relying on “social advertising”
that “engages consumers,
inspires sharing, and produces
social lift, or “earned media.”13
Their meteoric rise is because
they are getting results for
brands. Click-thru-rates routinely
are over 20x industry average
and their average story gets 30%
earned engagement. How do
they achieve these results? For
one, they know their audience.
75% are specifically seeking
content to share across their
social networks. Also, they know
the types of content that people
will share and work with brands
to produce interesting, relevant
content designed just for that.
Feeding frenzy
Buzzfeed
13
BuzzFeed

Promoted Tweets, Promoted
Accounts and Promoted Trends
have existed for a while now.
Their ad product continues
to evolve. They’ve recently
introduced Lead Generation
Cards and Targeted TV Ads.
Lead Generation Cards are
designed with the major focus
being, in Twitter’s words, “generating
leads, and ultimately driving
purchases.”14
Twitter users can
share their name, @username,
and email address, which will be
prefilled within the Card.
This ad product is a perfect
balance of what the advertiser
wants and what the user
wants. The advertiser wants to
generate a lead or conversion
while the user, when interested,
doesn’t have their experience
taken too far off track by an ad.
Since their info is pre-loaded,
there is a frictionless way to get
info and let the user get on.
Feeding frenzy
Twitter
14
http://advertising.twitter.com/2013/05/Capture-user-interest-with-the-Lead-Generation-Card.html

After introducing ads within their
homepage news feed, Yahoo has
clearly seen the opportunity for
feed-based advertising to turn
around their business. Native
ad spending is predicted to
increase to $4.57 billion by 2017
compared to $2.36 billion in 2013
and they want their piece of that
pie. Hence, their acquisition of
Tumblr, a platform that has yet to
fully dive into monetizing through
advertising. While promising not
to screw up the Tumblr that users
know and love, they see the huge
promise it can deliver as a feed-
based advertising platform.
Feeding frenzy
Yahoo/Tumblr

Are banner ads dead? If so,
then why are they predicted
to continue to grow? The truth
is that not every impression is
created equal and not every
metric means the same thing for
every tactic.
If a banner ad is designed to help
increase brand awareness and
help support a search campaign,
its true measurement shouldn’t
be its click-thru-rate.
The importance of brands and
organizations to understand how
the tactics that are part of their
overall marketing mix do their
part to contribute to the end
goal is increasingly important. As
that any good ad gets us to do
or feel something. Content driven
advertising is only as good as the
content itself.
attribution models are defined,
a more holistic look at how each
element works together can take
each tactic out of its own silo
and help further define their value
as a cog in the wheel.
What’s next
Scalability becomes one of the
biggest challenges. What banner
advertising can do at scale is
target users based on behaviors
and estimated intent. An ad that
is irrelevant to you or obtrusive to
how you are consuming the
content is ineffective no matter
the placement. Every second
spent with content has to continually
earn more of the user’s time or
they will disengage. The fact is
Feeding frenzy
Fitting into the mix

Feeding frenzy
2012
Display spending
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
$1.63
$3.70
$3.00
$2.36
$4.30
$2.85
$5.00
$3.40
$5.70
$3.98
$6.40
$4.57
Native* spending
Note: includes desktop and mobile platforms and local and national spending; excludes
social marketing/measurement platforms and services, social commerce and virtual
currency; *branded content integrated directly within a social network experience.
Source: BIA/Kelsey,“Annual US Local Media Forecast; Social Local Media
2012-2017”, April 10, 2013
www.eMarketer.com
“Every second
spentwithcontent
has to continually
earn more of the
user’stimeorthey
will disengage.”

Thanks for pausing.

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