art, virtual snowballs and the feels - brightonseo

@hannah_bo_banna

art, virtual snowballs & the feels

@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna

hello there!

@hannah_bo_banna

I’ve just started working with this lovely lot @VerveSearch

@hannah_bo_banna

but for most of this year I’ve been on sabbatical

@hannah_bo_banna

prior to that I worked at distilled

@hannah_bo_banna

I’ve been involved in making stuff that gets coverage, links & social shares

since 2011

@hannah_bo_banna

there’s some stuff I’m really proud of

@hannah_bo_banna

this was my first taste of success

@hannah_bo_banna

but it’s been a pretty bumpy ride

@hannah_bo_banna

failure really hurts

@hannah_bo_banna

want to fail less often?

@hannah_bo_banna

that’s what today’s talk is about

@hannah_bo_banna

last time I was here I spoke about a framework for pitching creative ideas

@hannah_bo_banna

I don’t want to spend today covering old ground,

but some of that thinking led to this talk

@hannah_bo_banna

& I think it’s useful to give you a bit of context

@hannah_bo_banna

back then, we found we were having trouble getting our clients to sign off on ideas

@hannah_bo_banna

so we came up with a framework to help us get better at pitching

@hannah_bo_banna

relevant / resonant / different

@hannah_bo_banna

relevantthis is about “brand fit”

here you’re explaining why this is the right thing for the company to do

@hannah_bo_banna

resonanthere you’re explaining why people will care

@hannah_bo_banna

differenthere you’re explaining how your idea is different

from what’s already out there

@hannah_bo_banna

the purpose of the framework is two-fold

@hannah_bo_banna

it forces you to think harder about whether your ideas are any good

@hannah_bo_banna

it also forces you to think harder about whether or not your ideas make sense

for your client

@hannah_bo_banna

I still think this is a really useful framework

@hannah_bo_banna

but the resonant bit has been bugging me

@hannah_bo_banna

resonant: why people will care

@hannah_bo_banna

but resonant is not just“why people will care”

@hannah_bo_banna

I think it’s more than that

@hannah_bo_banna

I also think it’s more important than the framework suggests

@hannah_bo_banna

it’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot

@hannah_bo_banna

this talk is in 3 parts:

a bit about art (yes, really)a bit about work

a challenge for the future

@hannah_bo_banna

part Ia bit about art

@hannah_bo_banna

this year I took a sabbatical

@hannah_bo_banna

I wanted to write a book

@hannah_bo_banna

I went on a writing course& on the first day,

we were asked this question:

@hannah_bo_banna

*why*do you want to write?

@hannah_bo_banna

some said money

@hannah_bo_banna

some said fame

@hannah_bo_banna

one person said revenge

@hannah_bo_banna

none of these reasons sat comfortably with me

@hannah_bo_banna

I think writing is an art

@hannah_bo_banna

& so rather than thinking about why I wanted to write,

I started thinking about why artists create things

@hannah_bo_banna

I’m in danger of getting horribly abstract, so let’s look at some art

@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna

the piece depictstwo children playing with a

no ball games sign

@hannah_bo_banna

but what does the piece really communicate?

@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna

how children are impacted by the urban environments we’re creating?

@hannah_bo_banna

or perhaps…

@hannah_bo_banna

it’s a celebration of children’s healthy disregard for authority

& obsessive regulation

@hannah_bo_banna

you might regard it as a call to arms…

@hannah_bo_banna

“IT IS THROUGH DISOBEDIENCETHAT PROGRESS HAS BEEN MADE,THROUGH DISOBEDIENCE AND

THROUGH REBELLION”

~OSCAR WILDE

@hannah_bo_banna

for artists: money, fame, (& possibly even revenge)

are a by-product of success

@hannah_bo_banna

but how do artists become successful?

@hannah_bo_banna

by makingpeople feel something

@hannah_bo_banna

by capturing people’s imaginations

@hannah_bo_banna

by helping people gain new perspectives

@hannah_bo_banna

by making people think

@hannah_bo_banna

right now some of you are thinking WTF has this got to do with link building

@hannah_bo_banna

but doesn’t some of that stuff sound familiar?

@hannah_bo_banna

just like money & fame are a by-product of success for artists,

links are a by-product of success for content

@hannah_bo_banna

people link to your stuffor share your stuff

only if it resonates with them

@hannah_bo_banna

if your content makesthem feel something

@hannah_bo_banna

if your content captures their imaginations

@hannah_bo_banna

if your content helps them gain new perspectives

@hannah_bo_banna

if your content makes them think

@hannah_bo_banna

this stuff is really important

@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

I get emails like this fairly frequently:

@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 may sound mean (but it’s meant with love)

@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

this is shallow, or this is patronising

if I shared this it would say nothing good about me

I don’t think this shows what you’re claiming it shows

there’s nothing I can identify with here

there’s nothing new or different here I’m confused – I don’t get it

this isn’t something I care about

this isn’t something I’ve ever wondered

you’ve promised me something but haven’t

delivered

cool, but so what?

@hannah_bo_banna

what do all those things mean?

@hannah_bo_banna

“this piece doesn’t resonate with me”

@hannah_bo_banna

right now, you’re probably thinking all this is pretty obvious

@hannah_bo_banna

you’re right

@hannah_bo_banna

no one sets out to create content which doesn’t resonate

@hannah_bo_banna

no one sets out to create content which is patronising,

confusing, shallow, unoriginal,uninspired, or leaves people feeling nothing

@hannah_bo_banna

& yet sometimes, that’s exactly what

we do

@hannah_bo_banna

where are we going wrong?

@hannah_bo_banna

Part IIa bit about work(or where I think we’re going wrong)

@hannah_bo_banna

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

@hannah_bo_banna

we *think* we understand why a piece was successful, but we’ve not looked deeply enough

@hannah_bo_banna

(this is not a piece I created)

@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna

this gained coverage on over 500 sites

@hannah_bo_banna

why?

@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna

beer isn’t *quite* the reason, but it’s easy to jump to that conclusion

@hannah_bo_banna

from time to timewe’re all guilty of taking things at face value

@hannah_bo_banna

we only see what’s explicitly depicted, rather than seeking any deeper meaning

@hannah_bo_banna

hold on to your hats,I’m bringing back the art

@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna

explicitly, the piece depicts

two children playing with a no ball games sign

@hannah_bo_banna

but that’s not why the piece resonates with people

@hannah_bo_banna

what resonates is what lies beneath, or what’s being expressed implicitly

@hannah_bo_banna

maybe it makes you think it’s abouthow children are impacted by the urban

environments we’re creating

@hannah_bo_banna

maybe you see it as a celebration of children’s healthy disregard for authority

& obsessive regulation

@hannah_bo_banna

maybe you regard it as a call to arms…

@hannah_bo_banna

let’s try looking at the beer map in a similar way

@hannah_bo_banna

what’s going on here?

@hannah_bo_banna

explicitly this shows the beers people drink around the world

@hannah_bo_banna

“…the first thing I like to do, is relax with a cold glass of the local amber nectar.…

“glancing around the countries filled me with nostalgia”

“I can still remember the amusement when I discovered that that Skol was still going strong in Brazil, when in Britain it was a long-forgotten lager synonymous with the 1980s. Of course, it tasted somewhat more pleasant at sunset on Ipanema beach than it did in rainy west London. ”

@hannah_bo_banna

this is not a beer map – it’s a trip down memory lane

@hannah_bo_banna

when I first saw this piece…

@hannah_bo_banna

America - land of the free, & the home of the Bud Light drinker

@hannah_bo_banna

this is not a beer map – it’s something I can torture Shelley Wilson with

@hannah_bo_banna

having a clear understanding of this stuff is important

@hannah_bo_banna

if your takeaway from this piece ispeople like beer

we should make something about beer

@hannah_bo_banna

then you’ve missed the point entirely

@hannah_bo_banna

also, the success of this piece has nothing to do

with the damn format

@hannah_bo_banna

no one shared this *because*

it was a map

@hannah_bo_banna

no one shared this *because*

it was an infographic

@hannah_bo_banna

people do not share formatsthey share ideas

@hannah_bo_banna

some solutions…

@hannah_bo_banna

practice taking ideas apart & putting them back together again

@hannah_bo_banna

review successful pieces:try to figure out what worked & why

@hannah_bo_banna

read the coverage!

@hannah_bo_banna

read the comments!

@hannah_bo_banna

read what people said on social media!

@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

ok,let’s move on to problem two

@hannah_bo_banna

we rarely take the time to truly understandour audience

@hannah_bo_banna

I’d like to tell you another story

@hannah_bo_banna

we’re going back to 2008

@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna@mattbeswick was making facebook apps

@hannah_bo_banna

‘snowball throw’ was the most popular app he made

(this was c. 2008)

@hannah_bo_banna

the app let you throw a virtual snowballat a friend on facebook

@hannah_bo_banna

within a week of launch over 800,000 peoplehad thrown snowballs

@hannah_bo_banna

I asked Matt why he thought the app was so popular

@hannah_bo_banna

“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 casewhy 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 mean?

@hannah_bo_banna

it is 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

which makes virtual snowballs apretty useful way to communicate

@hannah_bo_banna

now all this might sound like“people doing dumb sh*t on the internet”

@hannah_bo_banna

but I suspect we’re getting closer to the truth

@hannah_bo_banna

there’s an important lesson here

@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

if you fail to understandthe people you’re trying to engage withyou’re likely to fail to create something

which resonates with them

@hannah_bo_banna

if you fail to understand your audience,

you are in danger of creating something that leaves them feeling one

of these things

this is shallow, or this is patronising

if I shared this it would say nothing good about me

I don’t think this shows what you’re claiming it shows

there’s nothing I can identify with here

there’s nothing new or different here I’m confused – I don’t get it

this isn’t something I care about

this isn’t something I’ve ever wondered

you’ve promised me something but haven’t

delivered

cool, but so what?

@hannah_bo_banna

people link to your stuffor share your stuff

only if it resonates with them

@hannah_bo_banna

if you take the time to listen to your audience

you might make better things

@hannah_bo_banna

this allows you to create a playlist of the hits, (or the obscure stuff) from the artists of virtually any major festival line up

@hannah_bo_banna

it wasn’t our idea

@hannah_bo_banna

it started with a tweet from a journalist…

@hannah_bo_banna

what did she really want to do?

@hannah_bo_banna

“I figured thata list of the least popular songs

from the artists playing Glastonbury might get me a bit of traffic…”

@hannah_bo_banna

hmmmmm

@hannah_bo_banna

we can do that…

@hannah_bo_banna

but actually,maybe we could make something

even better

@hannah_bo_banna

we added a couple of extra features

@hannah_bo_banna

in addition to creating the playlist, the piece also tells you how mainstream the

festival is:

@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna

& we included historic line ups, so you can use the Playlister as a time machine:

@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna

& journalists at the Mirror have featured it again & again & again

@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna

750k visits

@hannah_bo_banna

your audience can be a great source of inspiration:

take those ideas & build upon them

@hannah_bo_banna

part IIIa challenge for the future

@hannah_bo_banna

when you start working on thatnext ‘thinger’

@hannah_bo_banna

think like an artist

@hannah_bo_banna

set out to capture people’s imaginations

@hannah_bo_banna

or help them gain new perspectives

@hannah_bo_banna

or make them think

@hannah_bo_banna

right in the feels

focus on making people feel something

@hannah_bo_banna

NOTone of these things!

this is shallow, or this is patronising

if I shared this it would say nothing good about me

I don’t think this shows what you’re claiming it shows

there’s nothing I can identify with here

there’s nothing new or different here I’m confused – I don’t get it

this isn’t something I care about

this isn’t something I’ve ever wondered

you’ve promised me something but haven’t

delivered

cool, but so what?

@hannah_bo_banna

revisit this throughout the process

@hannah_bo_banna

does this content make people feel any of these

things?

this is shallow, or this is patronising

if I shared this it would say nothing good about me

I don’t think this shows what you’re claiming it shows

there’s nothing I can identify with here

there’s nothing new or different here I’m confused – I don’t get it

this isn’t something I care about

this isn’t something I’ve ever wondered

you’ve promised me something but haven’t

delivered

cool, but so what?

@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 SmithHead of CreativeVerve Search

send questions and/or pictures of cats to: hannah@vervesearch.comtweet things @hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna

big love to the team at Verve who helped me put this together

images:no ball games: http://banksy.co.uk I’m out of bed & dressed - http://banksy.co.uk/nobody likes me: http://www.iheartthestreetart.com/street-2/#lightbox[group-26481]/39/ alien: http://www.wired.com/2010/02/0205hr-giger-born-science-fiction-artist/beer map: http://vinepair.com/wine-blog/most-popular-beer-every-country-map/economist coverage: http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2015/03/countries-favourite-beerseditors: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_End_Has_a_Startfestival playlister: https://playlister.expedia.co.uk/feels: http://i1.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/531/319/99f.gifdanbo - https://www.flickr.com/photos/nomadic_lass/6889892777/in/set-72157629144987013unicorn - http://queenofheartsonthesleeve.tumblr.com/post/58736423727/ok-not-much-but-here-it-is-3

credits