From English Novelty means “novelty”, the advantage of being new, original, unusual.
The Novelty approach to content marketing aims to set a brand apart from its competition by relying on unusual visuals, copywriting, formats and overall original content creation. Often much of the inspiration comes from the various trends – what will be trendy in graphic design, what are the preferred platforms for sharing and communication, what is the behaviour of users, what excites them today and whether they will be excited tomorrow. It wouldn’t be right to generalize, but we can give you more clarity if we make you imagine the user as a surfer, and Novelty as the crest of the wave – either riding it or letting it wash over him.
In the following lines we will reflect on several questions:
How is Novelty evolving and what is the impact on consumers?
Is it right and when is it good to choose Novelty as your main content strategy?
How does Novelty work?
And if you’re patient enough (don’t scroll right away!), we’ve also got specific examples of Novelty in social content for you. Let’s get started.
How is Novelty evolving and what is the impact on consumers?
Let us exclude for a moment that we are in a time of pandemic. We have the extraordinary chance to be tourists in a small village on the French Riviera, absolutely stunned by the view, the architecture and the delicious food. Seven days later, our vocation is over and we say goodbye to the man who prepares les plus délicieuses waffles. But leaving feels more like a sentimental parting with our beloved relatives from another city. What we are trying to say is that on the first day of our experience we find ourselves at the starting point of Novelty, which represents the most interesting moment. During our stay we are guided by Curiosity which brings us to the next point – research, obtaining new information, and the cycle ends with the absolute feeling of comfort in an already familiar setting. But does that mean staying another week in this fantastic place will lead to… boredom?
Not necessarily, but BetterMarketing’s Steve Genko has his arguments for viewing the new and familiar as a kind of continuum – a path that the consumer must walk. If at all we give him a strong enough motivation to trust us and skip the moment of “confusion”. Genko claims that many times “novelty” refers to the word “unknown”, and from there to “uncertain”, “frightening”, etc. So if the novelty is not in the context of something already well known, then we have put our users on the crest of that wave, but without the surf. Who would travel to the Côte d’Azur in the big wave season without their board?
We agree that sitting in our comfort zone, however, will not help us at all – neither to develop a quality communication strategy, nor to retain the interest, trust and loyalty of our audience. Call it brand new, fresh from the oven, supernova, even – anything new triggers dopamine production. The neurotransmitter that increases one’s motivation to act, to try, to test – and behind it all is the biological explanation that our experience will bring us potential new information through which to learn something new about how to survive. Assuming that somewhere very deep the Novelty strategy is about learning to survive, how responsible would that sound to you?
We step back to look at the big picture and let the dopamine do its work, where the Novelty approach doesn’t have to choose the new over the familiar, nor confront them, but instead finds the right way for them to complement and live together.
If you’re testing a new format to increase traffic to your client’s site, then try to keep the visual identity, trust that commonly used and best performing call-to-action and assure your audience that if they meet your goal (link clicks), they’ll get more of the same, which is why they always trust you, more added value.
Is it right and when is it good to choose Novelty as your main content strategy?
Product improvement and offering a completely new service are a constant goal of any small, medium or large business that wants to be competitive, to fight for a larger share of the market, to win new customers and, most of all, gain their trust. Tapping into an undeveloped niche that people didn’t know they really needed is a real hit on target. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne call the move an exit from the crowded “red ocean” and the creation of a “blue ocean.” They are professors of strategic management at the INSEAD Institute of Business Management in France and we assure you that when it comes to business strategy, you can trust them and their book “Blue Ocean: Transition”. We go back to the depths of marketing and content, which must respond to the customer’s innovation while making consumers choose his brand again.
Marketing designed to encourage immediate or short-term behavioral activation can and should take advantage of Novelty’s proven ability to attract attention. The approach works for large campaigns or social media content strategies of well-positioned brands with high consumer recognition. Upgrade your Instagram posts, start using Instagram Guides or Reels, think about your presence on other social networks where your audience might be active right now – TikTok, LinkedIn, etc. And as for a campaign – look for a small but significant pain point that the brand solves, and turn it into a strong trump card around which to spin an atypical, intriguing Novelty-style campaign.
If your client is a new brand and your goal is to build identity, positioning and long-term recognition work, then prepare your audience, use Novelty in reverse, in the background, reinforcing familiar brand associations without interruption or unnecessary distraction.
In any case, the Novelty approach will only produce positive results when it is in line with the users’ intentions at the time. If novelty-based marketing isn’t tailored to where the audience is on the consumer journey, it’s more likely to be ignored or devalued, as the strategy will exacerbate the consumer experience and distract from the person’s current intentions and goals.
We believe that testing different approaches and new formats is the way to make our clients successful. Whether it’s with ad-hoc posts, entering a new social network, or a bold creative campaign, it’s important that our decision is well thought out. The assumptions we have made so far need to be validated, we need to know our audience perfectly – what triggers their actions, what excites them, what they will react strongly to. Only if you’ve done your homework well can Novelty be both an exciting marketing approach and one that achieves measurable results for your customers.
How does Novelty work?
We will be clear and specific on this, summarising everything that has been said so far.
The human brain is accustomed to working most easily and pleasantly with the recognition of specific patterns and templates – we tap through our Instagram feeds quickly. In this way, we automate our behaviour – we continue scrolling aimlessly through our Facebook news feed, spending less energy and avoiding unforeseen risks. But what does this lead to? Can you think of anything you’ve gone through on Instagram just a little while ago? We doubt it. This is where the need for Novelty – which aims to hold the user’s attention on the branded content, to engage with it and remember it – is born.
To achieve this, it is important to:
- Define “normal” or familiar – a product post where the user sees the brand, product and message in the first second;
- use Novelty in only one area of your creative (in the sense of novelty in the context of the familiar, which we talked about above).
How do we use the Novelty grip when creating content for our clients? Take a look at our examples.
Examples of Novelty in Content for Social Networks
In our last campaign with Viessmann, we presented their new product without showing it for a month, but we used all the visual and text elements well known to the audience.
On the occasion of March 8th with our clients from Prestige 96 we’ve decided to surprise 8 ladies with personalized video cards with a message from their loved ones.
If you’re currently reading this from a phone, we guarantee you a wonderful experience on the occasion of our 5th birthday, which we celebrated on social media via canvas format:
Did you know that recipe carousels are some of the most-liked content on Instagram? Any self-respecting foodie will keep this recipe super fresh too:
It’s important to step into the consumers’ shoes. We even go into their trunk when they are heading to the sea and sympathetically remind them that it is important to leave room for the spare tire.
How often do you get your audience to go into the bear’s mouth?
Have you thought of an option where you could say more about the product and make users sit longer on the profile looking at your photos? We suggest you test a fresh gallery post just like this one from Fresh Brothers.
It is increasingly necessary to talk about taboo topics. Why not make it visually pleasing and trendy?
Not only tasty, but catchy, and the brand from the first second.
Long posts have been our big favorite lately. Mostly they generate a high number of clicks, but with the right trigger you will realize quite a few comments as well.
Two products with one video. Who said it wasn’t possible within the first second?
These are a few examples of the integrated Novelty approach in the content we create for our clients. With them, we try to show you how creative you can be if you change just one very small detail in a look, after thinking your strategy through.
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