Tag Archive from: Insight

WKLY by NXTLI - Storytelling at its best

Every week Jeroen tracks the news and developments within Content Marketing. In the Netherlands and abroad. Full of tips, trends and innovations. Critical and open, with an eye to the future within a fascinating world in which digital content has become indispensable.

This week: Barilla, SMS and Slacklining with Red Bull in Rotterdam.

Content of the week

More than 1 million people in four days saw the endearing video of Roger Federer surprising Zizou, a young tennis talent, along with Barilla. No sooner had I heard of Barilla. Turns out it is a pasta brand and after looking up the brand via Google, I recognized the packaging.

A sign of love

The connection between pasta and Roger Federer is somewhat indirect, although the tennis legend is bound to eat a lot of pasta. The connection between the brand story "A sign of love" and Roger Federer, however, is exactly spot on. Federer's high favor factor, his undisputed talent and a likeable, up-and-coming tennis talent who made a "pinky promise" with his hero five years ago are ingredients for a wonderful video.
Needless to say, I will reach for Barilla next time I am in the supermarket.

Insight of the Week

SMS is back! It may sound strange, but this very innovation from the 1990s is proving to be a successful addition to your marketing mix. Why?

Brands must constantly differentiate themselves from each other and try to keep communicating personally with their customer at the same time. At the same time, brands do not want to appear coercive; a risk that is always lurking.

It's about the Ping!

Every day we receive many notifications. Mail, Whatsapp, Instagram, SnapChat, TikTok and then the many pop-ups. But the sound of SMS? We don't hear those very often anymore.
The short attention span, for which brands struggle daily, is further fueled by the distinctive sound. Meanwhile, research shows that 55% of consumers appreciate SMS, and there are several cases where SMS achieved higher conversions than mail. Take advantage of it!

Activation of the week

Did you see him, too? Jaan Roose. Last Tuesday, Aug. 9, the highline athlete from Estonia walked a tightrope stretched between De Zalmhavenentoren and De Rotterdam, across the Maas: 625 meters long, at a height of 188 meters.

Red Bull does it again

We know the energy drink Red Bull, of course, from extreme sports. The marketing department is known for propagating their brand story through sensational activations. Preferably in the streets: as close to everyday life as possible: Cliff Diving in Paris, Fierste Ljepper in Haarlem, Street Football with Neymar Jr. and now Slacklining in Rotterdam.
It provides unforgettable and delicious content, and puts Red Bull back on the minds of many.

Digital content strategy with the NXTLI Dashboard

Jeroen Westermann is Content Strategist at NXTLI. With the NXTLI Dashboard, developed by NXTLI, we provide insight into the results of a brand, club, person or organization on its digital channels. We connect this with value and with commercial results. Based on this we create content strategies and develop digital campaigns that accelerate and optimize growth. Interested in how this can work for your organization? Contact me via email.  

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WKLY by NXTLI - Week 31

Every week Jeroen tracks the news and developments within Content Marketing. In the Netherlands and abroad. Full of tips, trends and innovations. Critical and open, with an eye to the future within a fascinating world in which digital content has become indispensable.

This week: Birthday mail, free content via WaterBear and the rise of BeReal.

Insight of the Week

This week was my birthday. Great for me, but also for brands, which thus have THE opportunity to capitalize on this! I am subscribed to many newsletters and several brands have my date of birth in their database. My thanks therefore go to Bol.com, Praxis, HypotheekVisie, De Wijnbeurs, Wijnvoordeel, Independer and the Australian Webjet for their congratulations and offers. All brands not yet doing anything with a birthday of their customers: start doing it! It is the most positive, friendly and relevant way to put every customer in the spotlight once a year.

Innovation of the week

This week I came in contact with WaterBear through an ad on Facebook. With the slogan "The first free video on demand platform dedicated to the future of our planet" combined with a beautiful trailer of a film about child soldiers who had traded in their guns for surfboards, my interest was piqued.

Content as vehicle, not end product

Immediately, though, my question was: how does WaterBear manage to provide this high-quality content for free? Simple: by working with partners and sharing their sustainable story through content, projects and initiatives. With this great content, WaterBear reaches new audiences and global reach. Through the website and app, users can then donate, sign petitions and download information about projects.
So the content acts as a vehicle, a starting point and to generate interest. The content is not the end product. This is a great example for other organizations. Look at how content can be used to tell your story, rather than using content to focus directly on conversion.

Trend of the week

I'm cheating a bit, because this week's trend has been going on for a bit longer than a week. The new social media network BeReal has been downloaded nearly 1 million times in the past few months.

How BeReal works. Every day, users are given two minutes at the same time to publish a photo. Without filters, with little time for edits or adjustments. Pure and real. In other words, "It's time to be real."

The new generation wants no trappings

And that fits exactly with the new generation. They know better than any other generation what it is like to be online all the time. And it is precisely this generation that teaches us something very important: be yourself, unfiltered and develop your own unique identity. Offline and online. Authenticity and purity; an angle many brands can capitalize on.

Digital content strategy with the NXTLI Dashboard

Jeroen Westermann is Content Strategist at NXTLI. With the NXTLI Dashboard, developed by NXTLI, we provide insight into the results of a brand, club, person or organization on its digital channels. We connect this with value and with commercial results. Based on this we create content strategies and develop digital campaigns that accelerate and optimize growth. Interested in how this can work for your organization? Contact me via email.  

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WKLY by NXTLI - Week 30

Every week Jeroen tracks the news and developments within Content Marketing. In the Netherlands and abroad. Full of tips, trends and innovations. Critical and open, with an eye to the future within a fascinating world in which digital content has become indispensable.

This week: psychological tricks to increase conversion, Instagram reverses own updates and innovation in soccer content.

Insight of the Week

Marketing and psychology are inseparable. It is therefore important to know several techniques that subconsciously play into your customer's mind during the choice process. Kim Pot describes them well in her blog on Frankwatching this week.

1. Paradox of choice

If you give your visitors too many choices, they are less likely to actually make a choice. Hence the "paradox," which you need to avoid. If you offer many products, clear filtering and sorting options are crucial to prevent outflow. Give people the chance to narrow down their choices themselves.

2. Loss aversion

Sometimes the desire not to lose is stronger than to win. This is true in sports, but also in purchasing behavior. Creating scarcity for your product, can accelerate purchase. Think "10 more spots available," or "in the last hour, 4 people bought this product."

3. Decoy effect

When someone is given 2 choices - one cheap and one expensive - the cheapest option is often the best option. But if you add a third option, which is between the cheap and expensive options in terms of price, then the middle option in particular often seems to be the best one. Despite having the same price as the first example. This is called the decoy effect, or baiting. See the image below.

4. Pain of paying

Most people don't like spending money. So when you sell something, you want to remind people as little as possible that they need to spend money. You can do this by not displaying prices too large and by asking for payment as late as possible in the ordering process. Another way is to omit the € sign when showing the price, as Albert Heijn, among others, does in advertisements and on its website (see images). No € sign to be seen!

5. Anchoring effect

The first information you provide sticks the most and serves as an "anchor," a base. From then on, everything is compared to this base. Is the second option cheaper, better, more economical, more convenient than the first information? Then the likelihood of a purchase for this option increases. An example of this is showing the original price, when you offer a discount.

6. Goal-gradient effect

People like to know where they stand, where they are in an ordering process, and how long it will take. So make this visible when you guide someone through an ordering process. For example, with a bar, and by clear steps on the page with information, order, confirmation and payment.

Trend of the week

It won't have escaped many people's notice: Instagram was starting to look more and more like TikTok! It was Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner who opened the attack under the guise, "Make Instagram Instagram Instagram again." Instagram responded and in an interview, CEO Adam Mosseri told them that the changes will be reversed.

This means that the home screen with full-screen photos and videos will be rolled back and the number of "recommended posts" will also be reduced. According to Instagram, they are rolling back the changes not only because of complaints from Kim, Kylie and others, but also because they saw declining numbers in user data.

Innovation of the week

The practice match between AC Milan and FC Köln was not only about soccer, but also a chance to test new innovations in content. Soccer is not known for being very progressive - especially when compared to sports like field hockey, cricket, tennis, rugby, etc. - soplayers with a bodycam are a welcome addition to the game and the fan experience. Whether we will see more of this kind of footage remains to be seen. At least it provided unique content.

Digital content strategy with the NXTLI Dashboard

Jeroen Westermann is Content Strategist at NXTLI. With the NXTLI Dashboard, developed by NXTLI, we provide insight into the results of a brand, club, person or organization on its digital channels. We connect this with value and with commercial results. Based on this we create content strategies and develop digital campaigns that accelerate and optimize growth. Interested in how this can work for your organization? Contact me via email.  

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WKLY by NXTLI - Week 29

Every week Jeroen keeps up with the news and developments within Content Marketing. In the Netherlands and abroad. Full of tips, trends and innovations. Critical and open, with an eye to the future within a fascinating world in which digital content has become indispensable.

This week: innovation at Instagram, a redefinition of growth, a missed opportunity for the European Petanque Championship, a survey of podcast usage and a podcast tip. 

Innovation of the week

Instagram has been suffering declining reach numbers for some time. Yet they are not sitting still. The platform is now coming out with a feature that allows a purchase to be made directly through a DM, called Meta Pay. This allows users or followers of a brand, to interact directly with a brand. Once they want to make a purchase, it can be paid directly via a DM. Currently, the feature will only be available in the United States, but there is a good chance that it will be rolled out in other countries within a short time.

Credits: Meta

Insight of the Week

It is time to redefine the definition of "Growth." That is what Chrisiaan Slierendrecht argues for in his article on MarketingFacts.

The world is on fire

After all, the world is on fire. There is war, there is a climate crisis, there is inflation, the housing market is upside down, there is a labor shortage, healthcare is under pressure and so on. So is it still appropriate for Marketers to focus exclusively on growth in margin, efficiency, revenue or profit?

Perhaps Marketers could better focus on growth in the form of connecting with the environment, creating value, helping others develop. In that case, the redefinition of growth would go more toward "transformation.

Research of the Week

While 49% of Dutch people aged 18 or older listen to a podcast on occasion, brands allocate only 8.8% of their media budget to audio, according to the Market Effect Podcast Monitor #7.

Opportunities for brand positioning in audio

This research shows that we as Marketers need to start adapting ourselves faster to keep up with the pace of consumers. At the same time, the success of podcasts may also be a result of the wide range and absence of commercial messages. So the trick will be to be complementary and relevant to the podcast topic, to position your brand.

Podcast of the week

A personal favorite of mine is the podcast "What actually happens in your head?".

The podcast is the product of the company of Klaas Dijkhoff, Bas Erlings and Tom de Bruyne, called Sue & The Alchemists. In the podcast, the men pair current events with theoretical knowledge in behavioral influence and framing. A must-listen for anyone dealing with customers and consumer behavior.

Missed opportunity of the week

My heart beat faster when I heard of about the European Petanque Championship. During the pandemic, I played the French game several times in a park. Neat on 1.5 meters and good for social connection.

For the Dutch Jeu de Boules Association (NJBB), the European Championship was the unique opportunity to improve the sport's image and contribute to the fight against Loneliness. The tournament took place in mid-July in Den Bosch, including a stadium in the city center.

Large target group with great potential

The NJBB has 16,000 members, but that number is considerably higher if we include the visitor numbers of Jeu de Boules Bars and Petanque-playing Millenials in the city park - like myself. So an EK, in the middle of Den Bosch, should appeal to a large audience!

Unfortunately, the tournament's content strategy seems to have become an underthought. A screenshot of the feed on Instagram shows that content distribution (see image) and content quality have not been well thought out. A shame, because organizing an event without properly sharing the resulting content defeats its purpose. 

Let's hope that next year the event also gets the digital attention it deserves. For there is no doubt that the event looked wonderful organizationally. 

Team TOC or NJBB, you can always email me. 

Digital content strategy with the NXTLI Dashboard

Jeroen Westermann is Content Strategist at NXTLI. With the NXTLI Dashboard, developed by NXTLI, we provide insight into the results of a brand, club, person or organization on its digital channels. We connect this with value and with commercial results. Based on this we create content strategies and develop digital campaigns that accelerate and optimize growth. Interested in how this can work for your organization? Contact me via email.  

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