Hello, Wednesday!
Today’s advice… If you haven’t already you should start your content creation strategy. Content marketing brings in 3X as many leads as traditional marketing and costs 62% less. Content equals business growth.
🇺🇦
Together with Melon
In today’s edit 👇
Latest industry news
Deep-dive: Why brands should think less about designing a logo, and more about designing a sound
Instagram’s Creator Lab
Wishu’s powerful lead generation strategies for 2022
New jobs. Jobs. Jobs.
The Dropout, Super Pumped, and WeCrashed try to break up our love affair with tech founders. They don’t totally succeed. Can TV take down the cult of the tech founder?
Thanks to AR, navigating cities and airports could soon be like playing ‘Mario Kart’. This augmented reality map might be the future of finding your way in dense urban spaces.
The advertiser exodus from Russia is going to get awkward. When advertisers say they’ve pulled the plug on ads in Russia, it doesn’t mean they’ve stopped paying…
After Walt Disney, Robert Iger Heads to the Metaverse. The former CEO and chairman has joined the board of a startup that offers tools to create and sell virtual goods.
Elon Musk challenged Putin to single combat over Ukraine.
Twitter rolls back its decision to force you into the out-of-order timeline. Last week, Twitter introduced one of its worst product decisions in a while: the service would default to showing the algorithmically served Home feed while the reverse-chronological Latest feed was accessible in a separate tab.
Together with Melon
Create stunning live streams with ease
Melon is the #1 free live streaming app used by top creators, podcasters, companies & more. Multistream to Facebook, YouTube, Twitch & LinkedIn with ease.
Join hundreds of thousands of companies and creatives hosting on Melon.
Why brands should think less about designing a logo, and more about designing a sound
Motion and sound have long been “nice to have” elements in branding, rather than driving the creative process.
Digital billboards and moving online interfaces are becoming ubiquitous, as are a myriad of voice technology applications. Animated album covers on streaming platforms are replacing traditional, static covers, while motion logo mnemonics are making 2D identity expressions seem archaic by comparison.
And it’s all for good reason: Sound is the fastest human sense, faster than smell, taste, sight, and even touch. Combine that with the fact that music elicits emotion, which is a big driver in brand loyalty, and the potential for sound in branding is crystal clear.
One of the most successful examples of this is McDonald’s long-running “I’m Lovin’ It” campaign and jingle.
Companies like Mastercard that have invested in developing high-quality audio assets have gained significant ground on their rivals, creating what Amp calls “a stark audio advantage gap.”
Here’s why: Statistics show that sound moves important brand metrics in significant ways, including a 26% increase in brand awareness and a 46% increase in brand favorability. What’s more, an 86% correlation has been made between reaction to sound and a desire to return to that experience.
Similarly, motion can create deeper, more memorable emotional connections between customers and brands, conveying deeper meaning, amplifying personality, and enhancing interaction. Companies such as Netflix and Vodafone have taken note, using 3D advertising on the massive Piccadilly Lights screen in London to great effect. The future is 3D.
Given such opportunities, you’d think that most companies would be embracing sound and motion as essential components for their brands. Surprisingly, for many, that’s still not the case.
What’s stopping the rest? Inertia. Motion and sound have long been “nice to have” elements in branding–extensions rather than primary deliverables. Creative departments can often be filled with practitioners of traditional, mostly 2D, visually based design and art direction. And few strategies include sound and motion as core strategic elements. This can translate into lost opportunities to make the brands they work on truly come alive, creating memorable and lasting emotional connections.
To successfully make this shift, brand leaders need to prioritize a motion- and sound-based strategy, pivoting from using these components as an added layer to using them as a core idea. Currently, it’s common for motion and sonic elements to be explored only after creative direction has been established—condiments to the meal, but not the meal itself. Simply asking how sound and motion can be used to answer a strategic brief is a great place to start.
“Creator Lab”
Instagram’s looking to help creators get a better understanding of key posting best practices and processes via a new Creator Lab initiative, which hosts videos and insights from a range of successful creators on key elements.
The Creator Lab, which you can access here, includes specific sections on channel growth tips, monetization, safety notes and more, all hosted by established Instagram stars.
Monetization is a growing focus for Instagram, as it looks to combat the rise of TikTok. While hugely popular, TikTok’s monetization systems are not as refined as those on Instagram or YouTube, which could be a key weak point in its process, and could eventually see more big creators move to the more established apps instead.
In order to win in this element, however, Instagram and YouTube need to highlight the revenue potential that they respectively provide, which is a part of what this new initiative is all about.
The fact that these notes of advice are coming from creators, who’ve actually gone through all these processes before, makes it even more valuable, and it’s interesting to hear the insights direct from users, as opposed to reading Instagram’s help center guide notes.
If you’re looking to maximize your Instagram performance, it’s worth a look, and worth going through each section one-by-one to glean what you can from the various tips and notes, which could have a big impact on your understanding, and subsequent posting strategies.
Wishu’s Powerful Lead Generation Strategies for 2022
No matter what stage you’re at in your business, you need a consistent flow of leads to keep it running and increase your revenue.
Lead generation strategies are tactics that capture the attention of leads, bring them to the sales funnel, and convert them into clients. The process helps enhance your brand’s awareness and build interest in your product or service. As you can imagine, this is pretty essential for freelancers.
Let’s look at a few strategies you can implement to generate more leads.
Continue reading
Interesting: Here’s where to find the best free Zoom backgrounds
Quick read: Are IG hashtags still important in 2022?
Watch this: How To Be An Interesting Person
Think about: What to do when you’ve run out of ideas
Featured job openings 💸
Sony Music UK: Social Media Content Producer (12 Month FTC) (UK)
Sony Music UK: Freelance Podcast/Radio Producer Talent Pool (UK)
OK COOL: Freelance Creative Strategist Social Media (USA)
OK COOL: Freelance Content Producer (UK)
OK COOL: Freelance Creative Producer (UK)
Alpher: Content and Community Lead (UK)
Thread: Junior Photographer (street style) (UK)
Browniegod: TikTok Content Creator (UK)
nDreams: Video Creative (UK)
IMG Studios: Assistant Producer (UK)
Ideal Insight: Senior Filmmaker (UK)
Hamlett Films: Freelance Producer (UK)
Bridge & Tunnel: Freelance Motion Graphic Designer (Social Media) (UK)
Browse more open roles, or add your own, at The Creative Lead job board.
How did you like today’s newsletter?
With your feedback, we can improve the newsletter. Click on a link to vote and add your comments 👇