Make an IMPACT: Step into a world of imagination with these visual advertisements! [Thursdays: FYO!]
Are you familiar with the story of “Alice in Wonderland?”
In this children’s novel, Alice travels to a world full of magical objects… and talking animals!
WONDERLAND.
But, does Wonderland even exist?
In the story, some say this place was only brought to life by Alice’s rich imagination.
—
In the field of marketing, imagination has a role in the creative promotion and differentiation of a brand’s products or services. This enables you to squeeze your creative juices and think of marketing strategies that appeal to your target market.
Imagination also helps consumers connect with you and your brand. They can visualize your brand’s offerings in their minds and assess whether or not they will act on your call-to-action.
One of the things that trigger consumers’ imagination?
Visual media!
Visual media refers to perceptible tools used in advertising such as TV, film, photography, painting, etc. These tools help grab consumers’ attention and stimulate their curiosity about a certain product or service.
Examples:
A TV commercial showcasing a new mouth-watering burger that is made of vegan-friendly ingredients…
… a short film about two star-crossed lovers who were connected by a candy product from a particular brand…
… or a painting of a happy family enjoying the sea breeze at a famous beach resort.
When consumers see these visuals, chances are they’ll be interested to know more about the product or service being advertised. If these ads are stellar, viewers might even take immediate action to order the new burger, try the candy, or go to that famous beach resort!
The main point?
Visual media is an important marketing tool for business owners and marketers like you.
Here are some ways on how visual media helps improve your advertising campaigns:
- Visual media is easy to process.
A study published by the Gale Academic Onefile journal states that as we continue to live in the “Digital Age” (the economic domination of information technology), the amount of data we see gets higher every minute. In fact, the research says that our eyes register up to 36,000 written messages per hour!
That’s outstanding!
However, this fact poses a problem for brands or businesses due to the intensified challenge of standing out to potential customers. This is where the role of visual media comes in.
The tools for visual media, such as pictures and videos, communicate your message to your target market faster than a block of text can. Since your marketing message is conveyed through a graphic medium, consumers will find it easier to imagine or visualize your brand’s offerings.
- Visual media increases brand awareness.
If you want your target market to build an affinity towards your brand, make sure they visualize the benefits of your offerings in their everyday lives.
Consumers shouldn’t just look at your ads; they also need to see through your product or service and imagine how it can make their lives easier, more convenient, and more comfortable.
Once your target market sees the consistency of the visual elements in your ads, campaigns, and posts, they will do the next step of transacting and engaging with your brand, spreading the word about your business to their peers, following your brand on social media, visiting your brand’s website, and more.
- Visual media appeals to your audience.
If you want your visual media to appeal to your target market, you need to aim for 3 things: To be clear, concise, and relatable.
| – | Your target market needs to understand your product through a clear message in your visual ads. You may do this by creating easy-to-follow visual information. |
| – | The requirement of a visual media is simple: It should be concise but substantial. Ads that are concise yet informative are generally preferred by most consumers. |
| – | Your visual content must provide illustrative situations that your target audience can relate to. Through visual media, your target market can make a decision on whether or not they’ll act on your brand’s call-to-action. |
When your visual media meet these three points, there’s a high chance that your target market will pay attention to your ads… and the more consumers pay attention to your ads, the easier it’ll be for them to recall your brand.
miHoYo
miHoYo is a Chinese video game development and animation studio in Shanghai, China. It has produced a number of successful games, such as “Honkai Impact” and “Tears of Themis.”
In September 2020, the video game developer debuted one of its most successful games of all time:
Genshin Impact!
―an open-world action role-playing game released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Android, and iOS. The game follows the story of Traveller, an adventurer who traverses multiple worlds to reunite with a long-lost twin.
Visual Media from Genshin Impact
Genshin Impact’s storyline promises an imaginative adventure. miHoYo made the most out of this video game’s launch by releasing social media ads with captivating narratives and photos of graphic locations in the game.
What’s more?
miHoYo focused on these visual strategies:
- Customized creatives. The video and picture promotion for the game was tailored for different countries.
According to Social Peta, an ad and marketing intelligence platform, Genshin Impact’s media advertisements in Western countries predominantly showed Amber, a mature, adventurous, and lively game character. This was because miHoYo believes Amber represents the confident nature of a lot of Westerners.
Meanwhile, for Asian countries, miHoYo showcased Qiqi, a small and cute game character. miHoYo believes Qiqi has attributes that are similar to a lot of Asians―the reason why she was shown more on Genshin Impact’s ads in Asian countries.
- Three waves of visual promotions. Genshin Impact had clear advertisement trends: Pre-release, release, and post-release.
For the pre-release, Genshin Impact’s visual media directed viewers to the registration page so they could download the game for free.
Then, on the day of the game’s release, miHoYo launched over 400 different visual ads to promote Genshin Impact! These ensured gamers from all over the world would see the ads and download the game.
As for the post-release, miHoYo published several media advertisements featuring the newly released storyline and characters from Genshin Impact.
With the help of the buzz generated by visual media, Genshin Impact and miHoYo achieved these results:
- App Annie, a company that focuses on mobile app analytics and app market data, reported that Genshin Impact garnered 17 million global downloads during its first 4 days on Google Play and App Store.
- Genshin Impact ranked as the second grossing mobile game worldwide during its launch week.
- The video game won the “Best Game of 2020” on Google Play and the “Best iPhone Game of the Year 2020” on the App Store.
- According to the newspaper company South China Morning Post in 2020, Genshin Impact was the mobile RPG (role-playing game) with the biggest international launch for a Chinese-developed game. In fact, just a month after it was launched, the game earned a whopping USD 245 million on mobile downloads!
Last but not the least…
Genshin Impact’s player count reached 23 million by the end of 2020!
These achievements tell us how miHoYo effectively used visual media to promote Genshin Impact. Not only did this marketing strategy do a great job in raising awareness about the new game, but it also captured the attention of a lot of video game enthusiasts worldwide.
That is the charm of visual media: It is both eye-catching and compelling!
As a business owner or marketer, you may take a page out of miHoYo and Genshin Impact’s book and incorporate visual media into your future marketing campaigns.
Use this marketing strategy to trigger your target market’s imagination, demonstrate your product’s benefits or features, or associate your brand’s offerings with a situation that appeals to consumers.
REMEMBER: Visuals are important too!
Leave a mark in your target market’s minds and help them easily FIND YOU online through captivating photos and videos!
About The Dynamic Marketing Communiqué’s
“Thursdays: FYO! Find You Optimization”
Why should you stop thinking SEO and start thinking FYO?
We’re not saying that you should abandon Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Don’t get us wrong, of course, we know this is something very important, especially in today’s digital marketing age.
The internet landscape is vast, and a world of its own. You really need to distinguish yourself and make your brand/company/website known and easily searchable.
Better yet, get to the top of page one for Top Results on Google or any other search engine.
However, what is the purpose of SEO? It’s that customers Find You!
That’s what matters. So, while SEO is one factor of FYO… it really is only one, and we ought not to abandon all the myriad of ways digitally and offline for improving your FYO.
How can we look at this from a different and better perspective?
Let’s say you have it in the bag! You and your team are experts in SEO. Awesome. But did you ever wonder what else you could do to push it further and give your SEO skills a boost?
FYO! Find You Optimization!
You need your target audience to FIND YOU—your brand, product, service, or offer. This is SEO plus other tools that increase visibility online (and offline).
Every Thursday, we publish content on how you can get your target market to find you, beyond the typical “type and search.” There are other things you can do along with your SEO to give your online advertising process a boost.
Try considering other tactics beyond it—WOMO (Word Of Mouth Optimization), RO (Referral Optimization), and “All-Other-Means-Of-Getting-Your-Target-Market-To-Find-You” Optimization (AOMOGYTMTFY, if you’d like a long acronym).
Part of a great marketing strategy is knowing how to adapt new methods and make use of different types of marketing and promotion that best fit your business goals and which give you the results you want.
Hope you’ve found this week’s insights interesting and helpful.
Stay tuned for next Thursday’s FYO!
Cheers,
Kyle Yu
Head of Marketing
Valens Dynamic Marketing Capabilities
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www.valens-research.com
