Title: Content creation rationale
In this student project I was asked to produce an online portfolio on Netflix built around my own creative concept based off the creative brief and produce three pieces of content applying it to a marketing strategy. The three pieces of content includes a social media mock up, an owned blog piece and a user generated content video. I have chosen Netflix as the brand I would base my student project on. Netflix is an American subscription streaming service and production company. Netflix first started out as a DVD mail order sales service which then later moved to streaming videos instead. Netflix generally attracts users from all walks of life of their target audience which are younger generations between the age of 18-39. However, based on this student project its goal is to be able to change the whole perception of Netflix being for younger audiences. Therefore, Netflix’s digital marketing goal for the first quarter of the year their goal is to increase new subscribers by 25% within the age range of 40-65s by the end of June 2022. Their objectives is to reach by the end of quarter 1 are to increase engagement on their Facebook by 30%, increase engagement on Instagram by 10% and to also increase user generated content by 10% all by June 2022.
Therefore, considering the brand’s guidelines, goals, and objectives within this project I have created three pieces of content aiding this project to speak to at least one of the brands objectives using three social media platforms that have substantial number of users which for this project target audience; 40–65-year-olds, accordingly use, which are Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Content marketing, creative concepts and theory
Content marketing is the marketing and business process for creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage, (Judge, 2020) The discipline of creating quality branded content across all media channels and platforms to deliver engaging relationships, consumer value and measurable success for brands. (Dzamic and Kirby, 2018). In other words, successful content marketing incorporates a clearly defined and understood target audience with the objective of driving profitable customer action. There are many different established frameworks that can be used to organise and execute this marketing for instance, Paid, Owned and Earned which are phrases simply used to analyse where content produced is positioned. Owned media is usually free content that is often leveraged of a channel a brand creates and control e.g. a company blog, website, facebook page etc. The brand does not strictly ‘own’ the page or channel however you do have control over them and do not have to pay for basic usage. Earned media is customers, press or public share your content via word of mouth and discuss your brands and these mentions are done voluntarily. Paid media is when you pay to leverage a third-party channel such as sponsorships and advertising on third-party sites.
To align with Netflix’s digital marketing goals of increasing engagement on Facebook & Instagram, & increasing user generated content, I firstly brainstormed ideas and strategies based on the creative brief to enable me to come up with a creative concept. Barry, 2020, suggests that the following process when thing of a creative is…
Strategy + Concept + Campaign & Tagline = Execution
I created a creative brief using Miro which allows me to create a virtual board which I can brainstorm ways in which I believe the older generation of people would be drawn and encouraged to subscribe and generate engagement within these apps through content produced. I believe this can be done through creating an advertisement that could reference old generation culture whether it be through films, music, trends, which can attempt to create a nostalgic feel bringing them back to the days they were young to draw potential subscribers as people are looking for ways to connect with their past through content they enjoy, (Bamford, 2022). Also, the use of memes can add to evoking a nostalgic feel when memes are relatable, witty, and easy to consume. Another way to possibly engage users can be by showing empathy towards the target audience by showing we understand the viewer e.g., Showing we recognise how existing customers take care and pride in using a specific service and that’s a reason why new users should also too. Whilst creating ideas, I also used some creative concepts and tools that allowed me to generate more possible ideas such as the 1-in-10 tool, that allowed me to creatively come up with more ideas than intended when it came up to creating taglines, visuals, and headlines for my blog piece. This allowed me to then choose which specific idea I would like to go through as I had many options to choose from.
Design elements
For my social media mock-ups, I decided to create 1 design which is applied to 3 different platforms which are Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. For my Facebook piece I created a 5 second mock-up advert based on price to attract and acquire new members to subscribe. In this post I used a call to action which was ‘Join for a free trial’ to engage customers that they can receive a free trial and we’ll be able to give customers a taster before being able to use it. This will allow us to showcase this high value product that we have upmost confidence in to people who may be unconvinced about the service which in return will give users an increased confidence in the product, (Zenagency, 2021). SEO is defined as the practice of improving an organisation’s place in the SERPs using organic or free methods usually abbreviated to SEO, (Hanlon, 2019). SEO can also be introduced using free trials, as signing up to a free trial can allow Netflix to target those who wasn’t interested after their trial finishes. Within this post I used an image in the background which was carried all through all 3 social media posts which is linked to ‘A Fair Lady’, a film released in 1965. I used this image to bring users back to that nostalgic feel for new users to feel connected and would want to look into this further. I’ve also added the release date in which this film will be released and able to view to entice the user more. All posts carry the same elements in terms of fonts and colours used based off HEX colour confirmed by Netflix’s guidelines, for instance Netflix red Hex colour is #E50914, according to (U.S. Brand colours). Hex codes are a format for identifying colours, so from this I created a palette on Canva, the app used to create the social media posts, using a brand kit tool to be able to continuously use these through all the pieces created, consistently.
According to Siddiqi (2019) Netflix manages to market by communicating with its customers like fans rather than taking a very corporate approach. Therefore, In relation to the blog piece, which is an owned media piece, I chose to configure a ‘Top 5 romantic classics to watch with your other half’ blog post as my topic as this a great opportunity for our target audience to again tap into the emotional side of being connected to our posts. For instance, our target audience may struggle rekindling love at an old age. So, my blog post that I’ve created aligns with brand’s goals and objectives about still being able to generate as this concept taps into a reality for them. Within the blog piece I have still stuck to the brand colour scheme and added hashtags within the blog to make it a bit more fun and enjoyable to read without it being too confusing. I have decided to add in hyperlinks of stars who feature in the film suggested by other viewers to allow users to see what other films they are in and base their judgement on that too. I have tried to also write in some unconventional ways to make the blog a bit quirky and interesting but also still getting information across. As well as the blog piece the video user generated video is the content for the third portfolio piece, an earned media piece, which is an influencer repackaged video used to increase user generated content by 10% all by June 2022. This influencer video produced will be mostly useful for mobile, as this is how it will largely be viewed. Most of the internet usage is now on a mobile device, according to Statcounter global stats was overtaken in 2016 and most of the traffic are form mobile device, (Waters, 2020). Hence why this influencer will be made and edited on an app called Tiktok which is viewed vastly on mobile, it will then be formatted into a MP4 video. I will then add any copywriting using the Canva app to maintain consistency through all pieces made in terms of any fonts, logos and more.
Reference list
Stoll, J. 2022, Number of Netflix paid subscribers worldwide from 3rd quarter 2011 to 1st quarter 2022. Hamburg: Statista
Siddiqi, M. 2019, The Complete Guide to Netflix’s Marketing Strategies. England, Better Marketing
Barry, P. 2020, The advertising concept book: think now, design later : a complete guide to creative ideas, strategies and campaigns : with over 500 illustrations, 3rd edn, Thames & Hudson, New York, New York.
Hanlon, A. 2019, Digital marketing: strategic planning & integration. England, SAGE Publications ltd
Waters, A. (2020), Conf!dent Digital Content How to create and manage amazing social media and web content for a futureproof career, 2nd edn. New York, Ny: Kogan Page, Limited
Dzamic, L. Kirby, J, 2018, The Definitive guide to Strategic Content Marketing. New York, NY: Kogan Page, Limited
Bamford, M. 2022, How to tale your content marketing back to the 80’s with nostalgia!, 1st edn. England: Bear Content
U.S Brand colours, 2022. Netflic colours. U.S Brand colours
Zenagency, 2021, What we can learn from Netflix’s marketing strategy?. Glasgow: The Zen Agency
Judge, L. 2020, Is It Time to Add a New Definition for Content Marketing?. Content Marketing Institute
