Hooks and Red Herrings - InOrbit 2016

@hannah_bo_banna
hooks
&
red
herrings
@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna
right now I’m taking a sabbatical

@hannah_bo_banna
but I used to work for a company called distilled

@hannah_bo_banna
my job was to make things
that journalists wanted to write about
& people wanted to share

@hannah_bo_banna
during 2014 & 2015 we launched
more than 50 creative pieces*
*which left me needing this sabbatical

@hannah_bo_banna
sometimes we nailed it

@hannah_bo_banna
3.8m visits | 475 LRDs | 410,000 ‘likes’

@hannah_bo_banna
other times, not so much

@hannah_bo_banna
31 ‘likes’

@hannah_bo_banna
it’s incredibly difficult

@hannah_bo_banna
so why do it?

@hannah_bo_banna
to gain links & coverage,
and social shares

@hannah_bo_banna
links from highly authoritative sites, increase the authority
of our clients’ sites

@hannah_bo_banna
over time this translates into stronger organic rankings

@hannah_bo_banna
stronger organic rankings = more money
(for the vast majority of websites)

@hannah_bo_banna
but it’s not just about organic rankings

@hannah_bo_banna
coverage on high authority sites builds trust & credibility,
and, over time, increases brand recognition

@hannah_bo_banna
social sharing of the content we create
offers similar benefits

@hannah_bo_banna
plus you can use this content to build audiences
which you can then remarket

@hannah_bo_banna
but it offers even more than that...

@hannah_bo_banna
ultimately,
I do what I do
to help build meaningful brands

@hannah_bo_banna
we have a tendency to use
‘company’ & ‘brand’ interchangeably

@hannah_bo_banna
but they aren’t the same thing at all

@hannah_bo_banna
what does ‘brand’ actually mean?

@hannah_bo_banna
brand
to impress firmly; fix ineradicably; place indelibly

@hannah_bo_banna
a brand is not a brand
unless it leaves a lasting impression

@hannah_bo_banna
& it needs to be a favourable impression

@hannah_bo_banna
I believe that companies need to build brands that
mean something to people

@hannah_bo_banna
content is a great space to play from that perspective

@hannah_bo_banna
if you create content people love,
then by extension,
you’re creating a brand people love

@hannah_bo_banna
I am unapologetically passionate about this

@hannah_bo_banna
I want to do f*cking great work
good isn’t good enough,
& ok is never ok

@hannah_bo_banna
but unhappily,
my work isn’t
always
f*cking great
This piece is a commentary on our society’s
obsession with ‘likes’. I like to think that I’m
not personally obsessed*, but when it comes
to my work this is the validation I crave..
*Actually maybe I am a little obsessed. If you
want to share this deck that would be great,
oh and follow me on twitter.
Oh god. I am that child.

@hannah_bo_banna
it appears that I’m not alone,
I get a lot of emails like this:

@hannah_bo_banna
Hey Hannah!
We made this thinger, and we all think it’s great!
We’ve gone to 200 journalists, but no one’s picked it up,
and we’ve seen no social shares either.
Any idea where we’re going wrong?

@hannah_bo_banna
this next slide is mean
(I’m sorry)

@hannah_bo_banna
when people tell me their
piece isn’t working,
& I take a look,
I typically feel one (or more)
of these things
ugh, this is shallow
there’s nothing new or
different here
I’m confused, I just don’t get it
this isn’t something I’ve ever
wondered
this is so ugly I think my eyes
might bleed
ugh, this is patronising
there’s nothing I can identify
with here
cool, but so what?
if I shared this it would say
nothing good about me
I don’t think this shows what
you’re claiming it shows
this isn’t something I care
about
you promised me something
& haven’t delivered

@hannah_bo_banna
for what it’s worth,
other people definitely feel the same
about some of my pieces

@hannah_bo_banna
but if we want to get better at this
(and I do - desperately)

@hannah_bo_banna
then we really need to look at this stuff

@hannah_bo_banna
who in here has failed like me?

@hannah_bo_banna
who else wants to get better?

@hannah_bo_banna
ok, so let’s start with the basics

@hannah_bo_banna
it can be useful to think about creative pieces in terms of
3 core components:
the content, the execution and the hook

@hannah_bo_banna
here the content is data from the book ‘Daily Rituals’

@hannah_bo_banna
in this instance the content is the photos & stories

@hannah_bo_banna
the execution is how we display the content

@hannah_bo_banna
this is a 24 hour timeline, with colour coded activities & interactive filters which allow
you to compare & contrast the routines of creative people

@hannah_bo_banna
here we’ve created a photo gallery, when you scroll the photos change
from day to night & the stories appear

@hannah_bo_banna
hook
something which captivates

@hannah_bo_banna
hooks are tricksy

@hannah_bo_banna
the hook is invisible
which when you think about it, is sort of the point

@hannah_bo_banna
if the fish could see the hook, it would be unlikely to bite

@hannah_bo_banna
as such, often the hook isn’t the piece itself,
it’s what lies beneath

@hannah_bo_banna
this is hard to explain in the abstract...

@hannah_bo_banna
explicit = what the piece is

@hannah_bo_banna
implicit = why the piece resonates with us

@hannah_bo_banna
explicit: how creative people structure their days...

@hannah_bo_banna
implicit: great minds don’t think alike, work your own way...

@hannah_bo_banna
explicit: how people live around the world...

@hannah_bo_banna
implicit: how their environment impacts them...

@hannah_bo_banna
the hook is what evokes the emotional response

@hannah_bo_banna
the three components
(content, execution and hook)
are not discrete units,
they work together

@hannah_bo_banna
in an ideal world all 3 components should be strong

@hannah_bo_banna
but interestingly,
a strong hook can make for a successful piece,
even if other components are weak

@hannah_bo_banna
(this is not one of our pieces)

@hannah_bo_banna
this gained coverage on 500 sites

@hannah_bo_banna
‘beer’ isn’t *quite* the reason
here’s what I think is going on...

@hannah_bo_banna
explicit: the beers people drink around the world...

@hannah_bo_banna
implicit: how this maps to our personal preferences & world view...

@hannah_bo_banna
as such I suspect the hook
is the most important component

@hannah_bo_banna
our most successful work
evoked strong emotional responses

@hannah_bo_banna
the work which failed
did not

@hannah_bo_banna
remember this?

@hannah_bo_banna
these issues are tough to deconstruct
because we don’t see creative pieces as component parts,
we see the whole

@hannah_bo_banna
however,
I think that each can be tied back to problems with
the content, the execution, the hook,
or a combination of the three

@hannah_bo_banna
issues with content (?)
different here
wondered
might bleed
with here
cool, but so what?
about

@hannah_bo_banna
issues with execution (?)
might bleed
cool, but so what?
with here
wondered
about
different here

@hannah_bo_banna
issues with the hook (?)
different here
wondered
might bleed
with here
cool, but so what?
about

@hannah_bo_banna
you’ll notice I keep coming back to issues with the hook

@hannah_bo_banna
the hook
is why a piece resonates,

@hannah_bo_banna
if you create something which doesn’t resonate,
people won’t feel anything

@hannah_bo_banna
when we don’t feel anything,
we don’t share, comment, or do anything,
we simply move on

@hannah_bo_banna
as such, I believe that finding a
compelling hook is paramount

@hannah_bo_banna
duh
that’s obvious

@hannah_bo_banna
no one sets out to create content
without a compelling hook

@hannah_bo_banna
so,
why do we fail so often?

@hannah_bo_banna
where are we going wrong?

@hannah_bo_banna
I don’t claim to have all the answers,
but I have identified what I think are 3 of our biggest problems...

@hannah_bo_banna
problem one:
we rarely take the time to truly understand
our audience’s motivations

@hannah_bo_banna
I’d like to tell you a story...

@hannah_bo_banna
my friend @mattbeswick started out making apps on facebook

@hannah_bo_banna
‘snowball throw’ was the most popular app he made (c. 2008)

@hannah_bo_banna
the app let you throw a virtual snowball
at a friend on facebook

@hannah_bo_banna
within a week of launch
over 800,000 people
had thrown snowballs

@hannah_bo_banna
I asked Matt why
he thought the app was so popular

“ummm, people like doing dumb sh*t on the internet?”

@hannah_bo_banna
throwing virtual snowballs
does sound pretty dumb

@hannah_bo_banna
but if that’s the case
why did 800,000 people throw them?

@hannah_bo_banna
*why*
do people do
(what essentially looks like)
dumb sh*t on the internet?

@hannah_bo_banna
what does throwing a virtual snowball really mean?

@hannah_bo_banna
it’s wickedly ambiguous...

@hannah_bo_banna
it could mean...
hi

@hannah_bo_banna
it could mean...
I’m thinking about you

@hannah_bo_banna
it could mean...
I’m thinking about sleeping with you

@hannah_bo_banna
throwing a virtual snowball at your Dad
means something different
to throwing a virtual snowball at that guy you met in a bar

@hannah_bo_banna
but no one can call you on it
without sounding like a crazy person

@hannah_bo_banna
how does the way we use facebook feed into this?

@hannah_bo_banna
in some contexts we favour transparency,
in others we favour ambiguity

@hannah_bo_banna
most of the things we do on facebook are public

@hannah_bo_banna
but you don’t always want your intentions
to be that transparent

@hannah_bo_banna
which makes these virtual snowballs a
pretty useful way to communicate

@hannah_bo_banna
it’s likely that people were throwing virtual snowballs to:
flirt
or
reconnect (without actually reconnecting)
or
just say hi
(the list here could go on and on)

@hannah_bo_banna
plus, as throwing a virtual snowball back is low-effort, the
potential for virality is high

@hannah_bo_banna
now all this might sound like
‘people doing dumb sh*t on the internet’

@hannah_bo_banna
but I think we’re getting closer to the truth

@hannah_bo_banna
this is important

@hannah_bo_banna
“people like doing dumb sh*t on the internet”
shows an alarmingly shallow & dismissive
understanding of people’s motivations

@hannah_bo_banna
“people like doing dumb sh*t on the internet”
is a red herring

@hannah_bo_banna
red herring
something which is misleading or distracting

@hannah_bo_banna
red herrings sound vaguely plausible,
but don’t bear scrutiny
(we’ll see a few more red herrings before this presentation is over)

@hannah_bo_banna
why is this problematic
from the perspective of finding the hook?

@hannah_bo_banna
if you fail to understand
why people do what they do
you’re likely to fail to elicit the emotional response
you desire from them

@hannah_bo_banna
no emotional response = no action

@hannah_bo_banna
ok, let’s move on to problem two

@hannah_bo_banna@hannah_bo_banna
problem two:
we don’t take the time to properly deconstruct success

@hannah_bo_banna
we need to be able to
accurately deconstruct success
in order to have the best chance of replicating it

@hannah_bo_banna
or, even better, to build upon it

450 LRDs | 280,000 ‘likes’

@hannah_bo_banna
why was this piece a success?

@hannah_bo_banna
I hear a lot of nonsense like this:

@hannah_bo_banna
“games get links,
people love games,
people love challenging their friends,
social proof,
blah-blah virality... something”

@hannah_bo_banna
a game is a format,
nothing more, nothing less

@hannah_bo_banna
that’s a red herring

@hannah_bo_banna
I also hear this:

@hannah_bo_banna
people love music - they’ll always share this stuff!

@hannah_bo_banna
music is a topic,
nothing more, nothing less

@hannah_bo_banna
if the game succeeded
purely because it was (kind of) about music,
then every piece we’ve ever created
about music ought to succeed

@hannah_bo_banna
this is a red herring

@hannah_bo_banna
so what happened?

@hannah_bo_banna
when we launched the game,
we couldn’t get a single journalist to cover it

@hannah_bo_banna
aaaarrrggghhhh

@hannah_bo_banna
we submitted it to reddit
(no one gave a sh*t)

@hannah_bo_banna
we did some facebook feed ads
(this had some effect, but it isn’t the full story)

@hannah_bo_banna
then it went hot on reddit
(not our submission, someone else’s)

@hannah_bo_banna
eventually
the social shares began to build
& links and coverage
started to come in

@hannah_bo_banna
most of the links & coverage were coming from
community sites & blogs

@hannah_bo_banna
& we suspect that most of the
editorial coverage (there was a little)
came about as a result of the chatter on
social & community sites

@hannah_bo_banna
why did the piece work?

@hannah_bo_banna
the game allowed people to discover something about
themselves in a reasonably legitimate way
this is the
hook!

@hannah_bo_banna
people loved playing & sharing the game,
& we gained traction

@hannah_bo_banna
in this case, it seems that when enough people share & talk
about a game, some links & coverage follow

@hannah_bo_banna
but don’t journalists cover stuff that ‘goes viral’?

@hannah_bo_banna
once the game gained traction,
why didn’t journalists cover it?

@hannah_bo_banna
we had a theory...

@hannah_bo_banna
we took what we had learned
& tried to build upon it

@hannah_bo_banna
475 LRDs | 410,000 ‘likes’

@hannah_bo_banna
wait…
the LRD raw numbers are pretty much the same

@hannah_bo_banna
what’s the difference?

@hannah_bo_banna
this time journalists covered the piece

@hannah_bo_banna
because people care more about
emergency stopping distances than music?

@hannah_bo_banna
that’s another red herring

@hannah_bo_banna
the two games are very similar

@hannah_bo_banna
they are both gloriously simple & easy to play

@hannah_bo_banna
& yet, deceptively difficult

@hannah_bo_banna
both games allow people to discover something about
themselves in a reasonably legitimate way
this is the
hook!

@hannah_bo_banna
but this time we gave the journalists something more to
write about than
‘check out this cool thinger!’

@hannah_bo_banna
remember I said that
failure to deconstruct success
is problematic?

@hannah_bo_banna
if we hadn’t taken the time to deconstruct
what worked & what didn’t
we wouldn’t have seen this sort of success

@hannah_bo_banna
ok,
let’s move on to problem three

@hannah_bo_banna
problem three:
we fall in love with our own ideas

@hannah_bo_banna
it’s incredibly difficult to be objective about anything

@hannah_bo_banna
human beings have a tendency
to search for,
& interpret information
in a way that confirms our preconceptions

@hannah_bo_banna
this is called confirmation bias

@hannah_bo_banna
we don’t know that we do it

@hannah_bo_banna
which makes it all the more dangerous

@hannah_bo_banna
in many scientific studies people have been observed to
actively seek out and assign more weight to evidence
that confirms what they already believe to be true

@hannah_bo_banna
ignore or underweigh evidence
that could disconfirm what they believe to be true

@hannah_bo_banna
I HAVE DONE THIS

@hannah_bo_banna
I come up with what I think is an amazing idea

@hannah_bo_banna
I do a bunch of research to see if it
really is an amazing idea

@hannah_bo_banna
as if by magic,
all my research tells me that
YES - THIS IS AN AMAZING IDEA!

@hannah_bo_banna
so we build the thinger,
we launch the thinger

@hannah_bo_banna
AND NO ONE
GIVES A FLYING
F*CK

@hannah_bo_banna
& I’m left to wonder
how could this happen?

@hannah_bo_banna
I did everything right!

@hannah_bo_banna
but the truth is, I didn’t

@hannah_bo_banna
confirmation bias coloured everything I did

@hannah_bo_banna
I misled myself

@hannah_bo_banna
oh god, am I a red herring?

@hannah_bo_banna
fortunately there is stuff we can do about all of
these things

@hannah_bo_banna
one
take the time to try to understand
your audience’s motivations

@hannah_bo_banna
don’t accept shallow explanations
of what motivates your audience

@hannah_bo_banna
if the explanation you’re given sounds overly simplistic,
it might not be the whole story

@hannah_bo_banna
question everything

@hannah_bo_banna
big companies use market research agencies to gain
insights about their audiences

@hannah_bo_banna
they run focus groups,
have user groups, do huge studies...

@hannah_bo_banna
if you have access to that stuff, then use it

@hannah_bo_banna
but most of the companies I’ve worked with don’t

@hannah_bo_banna
but there are things you can do

@hannah_bo_banna
google it!
“love [your company]”
“hate [your company]”
“love [your competitor]”
“hate [your competitor]”
“love [category]”
“hate [category]”

@hannah_bo_banna
talk to your customers
(or people who look like your target audience)

@hannah_bo_banna
stalk your customers

two
take the time to properly deconstruct success

@hannah_bo_banna
run retrospectives,
sit down and try to figure out what worked & why

@hannah_bo_banna
read your coverage!

@hannah_bo_banna
read the comments!

@hannah_bo_banna
read what people said on social media!

@hannah_bo_banna
you should definitely do this for your own content, & you can
also do this with competitor content

@hannah_bo_banna
don’t be lazy

@hannah_bo_banna
those tools we’re all so fond of can tell us
*what* was successful,
but not *why*

@hannah_bo_banna
knowing why is infinitely more useful

@hannah_bo_banna
go make friends in the bar -
over beers you’ll often hear the real story behind the success

@hannah_bo_banna
speaking of which, you should also try to deconstruct your
failures & the failures of others

three
what the hell do we do about
falling in love with our own ideas?

@hannah_bo_banna
we know we have a tendency
to search for,
& interpret information
in a way that confirms our preconceptions
this is
confirmation
bias

@hannah_bo_banna
which could be dangerous when we’re trying to figure out
whether or not
we’ve come up with a good idea

@hannah_bo_banna
the bad news...

@hannah_bo_banna
knowing that confirmation bias exists doesn’t cure it
(which is a shame because that would be a nice easy fix, huh?)

@hannah_bo_banna
*but*
I suspect that being aware of it, does help

@hannah_bo_banna
looking for evidence
that something is a ‘bad idea’,
rather than a ‘good idea’
might actually take you further off-track
(these things are rarely binary)

@hannah_bo_banna
doing more research
won’t necessarily lead you to the right answer
(data is not the same as insight,
most of the time you need more insight, not more data)
this
does not mean
‘screw the research’

@hannah_bo_banna
here’s what can help

@hannah_bo_banna
step away
(I believe the chances of you suffering from confirmation bias are heightened
when you’re too close to the idea)

@hannah_bo_banna
seek to build a diverse team
who trust each other,
respect each other, and push each other

@hannah_bo_banna
if that’s not possible
build a diverse support network
(go & make friends in the bar tonight)

@hannah_bo_banna
stay open & don’t make it personal
(this is really hard)

@hannah_bo_banna
pay attention to the unexpected

@hannah_bo_banna
& avoid jumping to conclusions

@hannah_bo_banna
‘beer’ is rarely the answer

@hannah_bo_banna
whisky might be...

@hannah_bo_banna
above all else,
don’t be too quick
to either embrace, or write off ideas:
it’s likely that they’re neither 100% ‘good’, nor 100% ‘bad’

@hannah_bo_banna
refine, refine, refine

@hannah_bo_banna
one final thought

@hannah_bo_banna
when you start working on that
next ‘thinger’

@hannah_bo_banna
focus on making people feel something

@hannah_bo_banna
but ideally NOT
these things
different here
wondered
might bleed
with here
cool, but so what?
about

@hannah_bo_banna
revisit this throughout the process

@hannah_bo_banna
does this content
make people feel
any of
these things?
different here
wondered
might bleed
with here
cool, but so what?
about

@hannah_bo_banna
if the answer is yes,
try to find a way to fix it

@hannah_bo_banna
you may not be able to solve all the issues

@hannah_bo_banna
but do the best that you can

@hannah_bo_banna
launch things!

@hannah_bo_banna
learn things!

@hannah_bo_banna
& seek to continually evolve & improve

@hannah_bo_banna
good luck out there x

@hannah_bo_banna
Hannah Smith
Content Strategist
& Drunken Ne’er-Do-Well

credits
Big love to Mark Johnstone who helped me put this together.
images:
nobody likes me - http://www.iheartthestreetart.com/street-2/
I’m out of bed & dressed - http://banksy.co.uk/
phone lovers - http://banksy.co.uk/
no ball games - http://banksy.co.uk/
don draper - http://www.thewrap.com/7-questions-with-mad-men-star-jon-hamm-emmy-contender-quickie/
no finish line - http://www.quotesvalley.com/images/50/there-is-no-finish-line-5.jpg
danbo - https://www.flickr.com/photos/nomadic_lass/6889892777/in/set-72157629144987013
unicorn - http://queenofheartsonthesleeve.tumblr.com/post/58736423727/ok-not-much-but-here-it-is-3

Hooks and Red Herrings - InOrbit 2016

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Hooks and Red Herrings - InOrbit 2016