Behind the scenes of video advertising and being brave

Market visually

Pekka Tuominen, the CEO of Digi People Studio, was lecturing us about video advertising. Digi People Studio is located in Lauttasaari, Helsinki and it currently employs eleven people. The company produces different kind of videos, 2D and 3D animations and info graphics. Pekka talked about compressing content and how to visualize it. We got an assignment about writing a synopsis, which is a usual tool for Digi People Studio to do their job. We were also suggested to plan or create a mood board, that Digi People Studio uses for selling their productions.

Compress & visualize

Tuominen emphasized that because people in our hectic world are affected by thousands of advertising messages every day, it's especially important in their job to compress the content.

Another good reason to use more pictures and videos is the fact, that human brain can manipulate or manage a picture about 60 000 times faster than pure text. On the right side of the brain there are all visual things like art and music. On the left side there are all the facts that we're managing in our brain, numbers and language for example. Usually companies try to explain things by facts but actually the decisions are made on the right side of the brain, with emotions, so if you want to make an impact you need to go from the right side to the left side. A blogger Kayla Darling has also written a very interesting post about "left-brained vs. "right-brained" marketing. She tells her view about that there are either left-brained people with logical personality, or right-brained people with creative personalities.

Source: Pinterest

Animation & Info graphics

According to Tuominen his company's goal in producing animations is to keep the animation on high and emotional level. Animation consists of different kind of graphics but for telling the facts the company is used to use also info graphics. Info graphic is the visualization of information so that information is easier and faster to embrace than for example in text format. Whether it's info graphics or videos or films, it always has to start with a good story.

Why, how, what

Tuominen showed us a business guru Simon Sinek's very informative video about "Why?". Sinek stressed in his speech for several times that people don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it. Every single organizations know what they do 100 %. Some know how they do it, but very few people in organizations actually know why they're doing what they're doing. By "Why?" Sinek means what's your purpose, your cause, and what you believe in. Why does your organization exist? The goal is not to do business with everybody, but with people that believe in what you believe. And, therefore goal is neither to just hire people, the goal is to hire people that believe what you believe.

Pre-Production process

When a company like Digi People Studio produces videos or info graphics, there are a lot of things to do before the actual production.

First thing to do is to book a meeting to a client. It takes about 20 phone calls even when you reach the right person and then about 2-4 people allows you to meet them.

Then get a brief in which you need to somehow convince the customer that they need this film or this info graphic tool.

Then you need to produce something to convince the client that your company is the right choice. Producing starts with writing a synopsis, probably creating a mood board. Synapsis is a short story about the film or animation or info graphics. It's mainly plain text and it has to visualize your story when he or she is reading it without you being present. Mood board is mainly only pictures to show the feelings about the possible video. It shows the style, the mood and the atmosphere.

After that comes booking another meeting for presentation with a quote, after which you hopefully get the confirmation and the actual production can start.

Train to be brave

 

Power hour motivates to act

Later this week we got another guest lecturer Ronja Salmi, who is a writer, a host and an entrepreneur. She was telling about courage and being brave. Ronja wanted to remind that being brave is a skill that you can learn like language or another skill. It's not a trait that some of use were born with. She also told that courage is actually something that tells that you are really afraid. Courageous people do feel fear, but they are able to manage and overcome their fear so that it doesn't stop them making action.

Ronja had a good point in there that we really don't need to be brave all the time of our days. You can choose the part that you are brave and the parts that you are going to be afraid and not to do it. Ronja shared with us a very useful tool for being brave. She called it as "a power hour". It means that you choose an hour, five or thirteen minutes a day, any time you need to be brave in your day. On your power hour you can transfer into a brave role, and leave the afraid person behind you for a while. Transferring between different roles of yourself is a skill that is also definitely worth of practicing.

Source: Pinterest

Keep on doing guys!

About practicing networking Ronja told that she always decides to be brave for 15 minutes and get to know with at least with one person in a party, for example. Ronja also told about her great attitude for new experiences. So that she could learn as much as she can, she often says yes to things that she actually has never done before or doesn't have idea about how to do them. With that attitude you get a lot more opportunities and doors open.

A thing to remember is that you can't gain more if you don't do more. If you stay in your comfort zone you are not going around or expand your zone in any way. But in case that you want to end up somewhere new, you always have to show people something more that you are asked to. So there is no point in waiting that you would become a master of something before you actually do it. You have to be able to present stuff to other people that are not finished and not perfect. Because there will be no moment that you are fully "ready" to do something. Nobody is a master when they start, so you have to get used to the idea that you can be bad in things when you start, and it's a part of the process. Being the best is not important, even doing it is really enough!

Huffington post has written a good article about acknowledging and managing your fears. Here in a compressed form the article's six tried-and-true ways to loosen the grip of fear on life - and become more courageous than you ever imagined:

Be vulnerable.

Acknowledge your fears.

Expose yourself to what you fear.

Think positive! ☀

Manage stress.

Practice courageous acts.

Personal branding and presentation skills

Digital Hello again!

This week started with Anna's lecture about personal branding and Facebook advertising. We have had already one lecture about personal branding on this course a couple of weeks ago by Petteri Avilia, but  the topic is still pretty interesting and I see that there's always something new to learn and realize in any case!

Personal brand is..

• A combination of your image and reputation
• How you conduct yourself daily forms the foundation for your brand
• What words, concepts and ideas do people associate with your name and image. Does it make a clear understanding of what you do and what value it brings?

It is therefore very important to remember that wherever you go, what you say or do, it will all effect to your personal brand. Today, it's especially important to take care of your brand in social media channels and in the internet in general. Your future boss might well check your Facebook profile, even google you. So, make sure that you are the first search result! If you want to be particularly available for employers, you should have a profile on LinkedIn and keep it up to date as much as possible. 

My personal brand, according to my classmates. Got to be proud! 😍

Also in social media you have to stand out from the crowd and make your unique promise of value. Your brand is a promise that you have to fulfill to clarify what makes you special. It tells who you are, what you do, and how you do it. And most importantly, what makes you better than others. Create your own unique selling proposition. Business site Balance have listed some great tips for creating a unique selling proposition.

After the lecture we had a work shop with our team. Our task was to figure out what are our client's, SSM's brand and roles in social media. Social media brand is kind of important for the companies too. Think about what is its role, motivation of the role (what are the advantages), what are the support roles, what are the contents of the natural role and support roles, what social media channels do you use and what kind of marketing campaigns you should make.

Presentation skills

On Thursday we had a lecture about presentation skills from Viliina Kettunen. Viliina is one of our digicoaches and herself a great example of a good performer. She is so lively and really captures and holds peoples attention. 

Viliina's goldworth tips for performing 

• Pay attention to: gaze, shoulders, hands, shifting weight, stepping
• Be aware of the ticks and how to control them
• Take into account what is your audience like and what kind of people does it consist of.
• Talk TO them, not AT, them. And be active.
• They are humans -just like you
• To improve - acknowledge your faults
• Practice beforehand by talking to your mirror or taking advantage of your family or friends.
• Put yourself out of the comfort zone and practice, practice, practice.

Presentation skills are really important especially in the business field and big part of the personal brand as well. Performing is challenging and you can always make progress in it. I think the most important thing to remember when performing is to have a good contact with the audience and just to have fun! When you have fun, the audience have fun, and they are willing to hear all about what you're telling to them.

Looking forward to next week's challenges! Stay tuned ✌

Human centric designing and social media

Hello dear readers!

Let's start it honestly, my head's empty and I don't know what to write! I have pages of notes that I've done during my school days.. but don't know what to say. Maybe I start telling about my weekend instead. Well Friday was kind of basic, I had Russian lessons in Leppävaara and after that I somehow ended up to a shopping marathon in Sello. Not so that the lessons would make me feel so desperate that I fall for shopping. No, I really like Russian lessons, our teacher is so inspiring and supportive, and students as well are so motivated to learn the new language. Hope that I will learn a lot of it during the semester. I meet so many Russian people in my work every week, that it seems kind of important to be able to speak even something in their language.

On Saturday I had a work shift, after which we headed to Itis Party with a couple of my co-workers. Itis Party is organized only for Itis shopping center's employees and there is served a lot of good food and drink. This year we were entertained by rap artists Karri Koira and Seksikäs-Suklaa. I knew in advance that Karri Koira would be there, but Seksikäs-Suklaa with him was a happy surprise! I like them guys. Afterparty was in Maxine, but afterall I didn't go there. Free drink tickets made their duty. All in all very successful night. It's always as much fun to party with co-workers, and it was also so nice to get to know some employees from other stores of the mall.

Social media marketing

On Monday Anna held us a lecture about social media marketing. I found it kind of interesting, and I especially liked the example emotional advertising videos that we watched. In fact, most of advertising campaings are made to be emotinal. And a simple reason to it is that 31 % people's purchasing decisions are based on emotion. 26% are based as much on emotion as on logic. Only 16% percent of purchasing decisions are made completely for rational reasons. This supports well also what author & marketing guru Seth Godin have said: "People do not buy goods and services. They buy relations, stories and magic.

Maybe this is the thing that makes marketing so interesting. You every time have to get inside the consumers' heads and know what they feel. If you don't know what are your target group's values and what they feel and think about the world, marketing is waste of time. You need to convince them why will your product or service make exactly them happy, smart, good looking, desirable or whatever your target group wants to be. In general, however, people are seeking a better life. Better relations and easy solutions for their problems. They also want  that purchasing provides them good experiences. That's why fluent communication with the customers in every step is the key to success. You have to stand out from from your competitors by being the easiest, most effective and most available option. To win consumer's on your side, your company's brand and values also have to match your target group's values. 

Thanks to social media, today's communication with the customers is much easier than before. It have enabled InBound marketing, in which the communiaction is interactive and two-way. Using InBound marketing marketers often seek to entertain or educate, which definitely provides added value for the consumers. This kind of marketing is much more productive than "old styled" OutBound marketing. In OutBound marketing communication is one-way, pushes products or services on customers and provides just a little added value.

 Service designer Anu K. Nousiainen from Futures Fit and senior lecturer Anna Ikonen from Laurea UAS.

Human centric designing and value creation

After Anna's lecture we got a guest speaker, future and value designer Anu K. Nousiainen from Futures Fit. Anu wanted to emphasize that it's a relief and a challenge that services are never ready. That we always have to be thinking what benefit does the company provide to the customer. What is the story behind it? What thoughts does it provoke? Is it easy to use, or does it make artistic or delightful feel? What is the real practical value that your service provides? What is the company's strong vision?

Anu mentioned about being omnipresence in digital and physical world. Being omnipresence means also that a person has two different behaviors of consuming. That's why the better you know the person, the better. To get to know a person, use proper tools of design like interviews, researches and personal descriptions. To understand consumers better, stand in the position of a critic and a dreamer and think "What do I hate, what do I love? What could be better or easier?"

Empathy map helps to see your service through  the customers' eyes, With the map you'll find out what do they say and do, what do they see, think and feel, what do they hear? And ask often; why? According to Futures Fit, today organizations invite people into their production processes while they should try to find their role in people’s value creation processes – every day. Value network map is a good tool in this. There you at first ask "Where, by whom and how meaningful value is created and co-created?" and secondly "What is our organisation's role in the big picture? What opportunities do we have?"

Anu told that in human centric design personas are keys to meaningful and valuable solution design. Keys to a successful human centric design are briefly to:

1. Understand people's every day life and value creation.
2. Identify value networks around personas.
3. Visualize service experience in the contexts of everyday life.

Work progressing

Of Thursday's guest speaker's lecture I didn't get so much. But what I remember from it is that we should spend more time on LinkedIn than Facebook. In case of job searching, I really don't question it.

After the lecture our team showed to Anna and our digi coaches what have we done. We had therefore made SSM's company analysis almost ready, excepting trends and key factors. Next we'll go on to the customer survey/analysis and creating specific buyer personas. This far I'm very proud for the good teamwork, so looking forward to the upcoming tasks!

Here some motivational music for the new week!➷

Project kickoff and other meetings

Behind me there is undeniably one of my busiest but also the most fun weeks for a while. I hadn't a single day off this week, but I am nevertheless glad that I got to meet all the new great people and spend time with my dear friends. This week has included studying, work, career planning, getting to know new exchange-students, as well as partying until the wee hours at the Freshmen party. I am sure that especially about hectic weeks such as this, it is certainly fun to read afterwards.

Brief for the main project of the spring

On Monday, we had guest lecturer Pasi Latva who is sales and marketing manager in SSM, Suomen Suoramainonta. He presented us the company and its business operations, and as a most important thing; our main project that our team will be working on this spring. Our first task in this project is to make a company analysis, in other words make clear what services the company provides and who the customers are, and making a research of the target group and analysing the results. 

SSM is Finland's largest private direct mail company, whose distribution network reaches 2.1 million households at the same time twice a week. The company works closely with a huge number of city newspapers and national and local direct advertisers.

Reasons why direct mail is an effective marketing tool

• People remember direct mail better and for longer than traditional paper ads. Therefore, unaddressed direct mail is an effective media channel that has managed to maintain and increase its significance, in an increasingly digital world. Direct mail help consumers gain information about offers in shops and online.

• Targeting makes it possible to reach a certain target group or all households in a district. The smallest distribution area is a district and a district is a couple of blocks. When combining your ad with a competition, which requires a coupon to be returned, you are able to collect names and addresses, whilst gaining a better understanding of how your campaign is affecting people.

• About 85% of all households accept unaddressed direct mail. This means that a large number of people will receive and read your advert.

• When you print your advert, you have multiple choices of formats to select. Your product can be a tiny flyer or a thick catalogue; it can really be any size and format you want.  With the use of coupons, QR Codes, etc. you get your customers actively involved.

        Source: Suomen Suoramainonta

Check also the tips that Summer Gould, president of direct marketing company Eye/Comm, have listed in her Forbes article to help increase interest in direct marketing in 2017.

Creating a personal brand

On Thursday morning we focused on a completely different topic, when a company shareholder and a show dancer Petteri Avilia told us about personal branding. He told us a very interesting way the different stages of his life; as an entrepreneur starting from 2004, being jailed for serious drug offenses in 2010, and the present life and his new attitude to life.

Petteri wanted to stress the importance of personal brand and networking. He reminded that being successful always means that you're good to be around, because no matter how rich or smart you are, alone you won't succeed. By being authentic and honest people will probably forgive you more easily, as well in relationships as in the business world. Petteri highlighted that honesty is especially important in digital marketing, because in social media things blow easily out of proportion, and once you screw up your reputation in the social media, it's done and will be remembered for ages. 

Social media is a remarkable thing also when building your own personal brand. You have to keep in mind, what do you want them to know about you, what do you want them to do, and what do you want them to feel about you. 

According to Petteri there are 3 important points to remember when creating a personal brand:

1. Creativity
2. Reliability
3. Reputation

I certainly agree with Petteri Avilia that the key to happiness is to be and stay real, and of course positive. And  what comes to networking, I have to add that blending in is not an option, standing out is a key!

Case EsPa

After Petteri's lecture we got to think about in teams how to develop EsPa's (Etelä-Espoon Pallo) digital marketing so that it would especially increase the sales of supporter cards. Working as a team was once again very rewarding and we came up with many ideas together. I would say that the most important areas of development are updating the website, media manager, new slogan and commercial or high light videos in social media.

Di6iBrainiacs working on it 😃