Below are my mock-ups: Two social media posts & One paid post
Rationale
The brand that I have chosen is Netflix and the name of this project is ‘A blast to the past’.
To summarise the task, I have been asked to create an online portfolio built around my chosen creative concept (A blast to the past). Netflix have asked me to produce 3 pieces of different content. This includes 3 social media posts adapted to the platform of my choice, an owned blog & an earned user generated content video. As well as that, I had to consider the companies goals and objectives and adapt my ideas around that. The main idea was to attract a target audience of 40-55- & 56–65-year-olds whilst playing on nostalgia, family &/or overcoming societal stereotypes. This age range is known as Generation X & Baby boomers (Armstrong ,2019).
The overall creative concept was to use old shows that our target audience used to watch in previous years, to trigger an emotional response of nostalgia. Throughout the portfolio, I’ve used things like old iconic characters, memorable lines/quotes, and even theme songs that are well known by many. Throughout the portfolio, I decided to mainly focus on the age range of 40-55 (Generation X) through the use of shows that would have been mainly from the 80s, 90s & early 2000s. These shows would’ve aired whilst they were around the ages of 13-33. I decided to aim my content at a specific target customer. This person is likely to be a homeowner without a college degree. Armstrong (2019) mentions that 82% of Gen Xers are homeowners, working full time & have a small/large family to provide for. With this information, we created a concept that not only appeals through nostalgia, but through the aspects of spending quality time with family. The main digital marketing goal is to increase Netflix subscriptions by 25% by the end of June 2022 for the chosen target audience. The aim is to get an older audience binge watching their favourite old shows. This is because Netflix would like to change the perception that their brand is mainly targeted at young people. Netflix’s main competitors are Disney+, Prime video & HBO Max (Aashind, 2022). I decided to follow Netflix’s customer-centric strategy (Haughey, 2021) and ensure the whole concept is centred around the target audience in order to differentiate from competitors.
Each piece of content is targeted at specific objectives. The user generated content video mainly targeted increasing user generated content & Instagram engagement by 10%. The social media posts targeted increasing web traffic & Facebook engagement by 30% & the blog targeted increasing web traffic by 30%. The social media posts were made in the form of two Facebook posts and one Facebook ad. I decided to use Facebook as the main platform because generation X are most active on this platform (Buckle et Al, 2021). The creative concept I decided to go with is relevant to the target audience because Gen Xers prefer marketing that is more personal & authentic (Lewis, n. d.) I used this information and created a concept that is based around shows that they grew up on as well as mentioning how they used to relate to it on top of how differently they may view it now. I realised that we can’t generalise our target audience as everyone has different tastes in what they like to watch, so in the blog, we used a range of different shows that catered to different people in order to communicate with people from different cultural upbringings, locations, and levels of education (Coray, 2018). The companies mission statement is to provide customers with a stellar service. We are showing this through connecting with the target audience on an emotional level. Nostalgia is a positive memory triggered by cues, so I used a range of shows in different ways (as seen in each piece of content) to create small triggers as this is known to push consumer behaviour in a specific direction (Popneuro, 2019). For example, in the blog I use memorable lines from popular shows in hopes to trigger nostalgia and lead to consumers binge watching a series that is mentioned on there.
We have used a fun tone whilst trying to communicate with the target audience. Netflix likes to communicate with their audience like they are fans (Siddiqi, 2019) so I have showcased this in the copy for the social media posts and the blog.
The main font used was Bebas Neue (Font in Logo, 2022). This is the font that is used by the company, so we made sure to incorporate it in all pieces of content alongside Arialle. As well as that, I carefully selected all the images used as it is important that the target audience see characters that they know and connect with them on an emotional level (Coray, 2018). The aim was to use these characters to get Generation Xers to think back to a positive memory of the character, which would hopefully lead to them wanting to binge watch the series as well as getting them to think back to a time of youth & wisdom (Coray, 2018). For the social media posts, I researched what type of copy is suitable for the Facebook platform and found that for a static post, 40-character posts received 86% higher engagement (Lee, n. d.). So, I ensured that the two Facebook posts were around 40 characters long. As well as that, I found that paid posts should have a headline of around 5 words and a description of around 18 (Shleyner, 2018). On each piece of content, I have chosen to use a call to action in both the content piece & in the copy. In one of the posts, we use ‘stream now’. In most of the copy for our Facebook posts, we use ‘watch now’. We choose these short phrases to create a sense of urgency & incorporate the fact that most of them are ‘only on Netflix’ in order to create a sense of exclusivity. On the Face book posts, we also used some copy writing formulas. These include: the 4cs formula (Handley, 2017) which ensure that the copy is clear, concise, compelling, and credible & the BAB formula (Handley, 2017) which is ideal for storytelling. With regards to colour, I decided to use the two colours Netflix is known for (Red and Black). I considered the companies brand guidelines and found the Hex codes, which was #000000 & #E50914, in order to ensure the branding wasn’t altered in any way (UBC, n. d.). For the 3 pieces of Facebook content, I ensured that the shapes and visuals used were kept consistent. As well as that, I incorporated visual hierarchy throughout the social media posts and the blog banner. This is because people tend to read the bigger things first (Bigman, 2019). I wanted to ensure that I was able to grab the reader’s attention through the biggest piece of text then leave the less important information smaller. With the blog, I designed it as if it were Netflix’s homepage, with the incorporation of the top 10 watchlist.
With regards to SEO I used on page & added in hyperlinks on each picture so that the consumer can easily access the show that they want to watch.
The whole portfolio follows the PESO model. This model is a mixture of different types of media. One being paid, which is the paid Facebook advertisement, the next being earned, which is the user generated content video. Next is shared which could also be the influencer video and lastly, owned which is the blog. Some of these types of content fit into more than one category (Turgeon, 2020). For example, the paid post would also fit into the owned media category.
Another model I used is AIDA, which stands for awareness, interest, desire and action (Hanlon, 2022). This framework is based around different stages in the customer buying journey. The first stage is awareness. We used the two static Facebook posts to create awareness about the old shows that were being brought back onto Netflix. The next stage is interest. We used the influencer video to create interest whilst engaging with our target audience through a fun video that used sound to bring nostalgia to our audience. After that, the next stage is Desire. At this point in the journey the customer has seen the paid post. They are now intrigued and thinking about subscribing to Netflix. And finally, at the last stage is Action. This comes from the Blog post. At the stage of reading their blog, the customer has had a small recap of their favourite shows and decided to add them to their Netflix watchlist to binge watch.
References
Lewis, D. (n. d.): Marketing to Gen X: How Your Ecommerce Strategy Can Successfully Convert Them. Available at: https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/gen-x-marketing/#who-is-gen-x
Siddiqi, M. (2019). The complete guide to Netflix’s Marketing Strategies. Available at: https://bettermarketing.pub/netflix-marketing-strategies-8c6623fb1741
Popneuro (2019) How the Psychology of nostalgia Drives the Content Strategy Behind Stranger Things. Available at:
Haughey, C. (2021) How to Master Modern Marketing Strategy Like Netflix. Available at:
Font in logo (2022) Netflix [online] available at:
Aashind, A. (2022) Top 5 Netflix Competitors. Available at: https://cybercrew.uk/software/best-netflix-competitors/
Coray, T. (2018) How to Market to Seniors. Available at: https://www.sheerid.com/blog/how-to-market-to-seniors/
Lee, K (n. d) The Ideal Length of Everything Online, Backed by Research. Available at: https://buffer.com/library/the-ideal-length-of-everything-online-according-to-science/#the-ideal-length-of-a-facebook-post-is-less-than-40-characters
Shleyner, E. (2018) The Ideal Social Media Post Length: A Guide for Every Platform. Available at: https://blog.hootsuite.com/ideal-social-media-post-length/#Facebook
Buckle, C. & Moran, S. (2021). Social: GWI’s Flagship report on the latest trends in social media. Available at: https://304927.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/304927/Social%20-%20GWI%20Report%20-%20Website.pdf?utm_campaign=220203%20Social%20flagship%202022%20report%7C&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=202821734&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9VIxdAjfw0fZSi3iVdVMxUpxC21Ysa0pvxMqS6c2w3LsE5fLitsiqBm1qK4O9fouiJ9oRc9GtUj755_batz7MMuUTk9brl0AGiCHO0ahFUY-6T_jM&utm_content=202821734&utm_source=hs_automation
U.S Brand Colours (UBC), (n. d.). Netflix colours. Available at: https://usbrandcolors.com/netflix-colors/
Bigman, A (2019) 6 Principles of Visual Hierarchy for Designers. Available at: https://99designs.co.uk/blog/tips/6-principles-of-visual-hierarchy/
Hanlon, A (2022) The aida model. Available at: https://www.smartinsights.com/traffic-building-strategy/offer-and-message-development/aida-model/
Turgeon, V (2020) PESO Model for Pr. Available at: https://www.brandpoint.com/blog/earned-owned-paid-media/
Bibliography
Armstrong, G. Et Al (2019), Marketing: an introduction, Global Edition
Handley, A. and Wiley, J. (2017). Everybody writes : your go-to guide to creating ridiculously good content. New Delhi: Wiley India Pvt. Ltd.
