Category: Assignment #2

4. Second-Year Course Headline (4 marks) Create one headline promoting second-year digital courses in this program, targeted to first-year students.

You must provide:

a) The headline

13 essential HTML tags you will learn in year 2 of the SCC advertising program

b) Explain your reasoning clearly using class content

I started this headline with a specific odd number ‘13’. Numbers in general attract attention from readers when they scan the page, the brain is naturally attracted to numbers. I used an odd number because they improve headline recall and article engagement greatly.The headline also suggests the article content is in the form of a list. Lists are easily digestible and are more likely to engage with the article. Finally, I chose a relatively small number to make the content seem more easily digestible and compact to the headline reader. Long articles can come off as intimidating and a waste of time for readers so keeping my list short and relevant to first year students increases my chances of engagement. 

Secondly, I used the word essential to describe the HTML tags. This gives the reader a sense of importance and urgency related to learning the HTML tags. They will associate the tags with being key parts of their education making them more likely to engage with the article.

Finally I used a unique rationale to persuade people to interact with the headline and article. The  rationale in my headline is  the 13 essential html tags. These tags are relevant to first year students who will need to learn them soon. The headline suggests they will get an advance on needed knowledge for either academic and professional career.

3. SCC Advertising Program Headline (6 marks) Create one headline for an article about the SCC Advertising Program, targeted to local graduating high school students.

You must provide:

a) The headline

7 jobs you could get from graduating the SCC Advertising Program, that make over $100k a year.

b) An explanation of the information missing from the instructions

There was no purpose included in the instructions of question 3. Before writing to any audience you must establish the underlying goal or purpose your content will serve. Goals need to be concrete actions that can be measured or KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). These allow marketers to assign metrics to desired actions to measure success rates and prove their work. The instructions did not give a clear purpose or goal for the headline to achieve.

C) A detailed justification for your headline choice based on course concepts. You are intentionally not being told what questions to ask.

I began this headline with a small odd number. Odd numbers increase headline recall as well as headline engagement. Numbers in general attract the eye, the brain will naturally seek out numbers. The less standard the number chosen is the higher the chances of recall and engagement.

The unique rationale I used in this headline was listing the potential jobs people could get if they graduated from the SCC Advertising Program that make over $100k a year. The first thing most people want to know before joining a post secondary education program is what jobs they can expect if they do attend the program. The job is the endgame of the program and will be apart of these peoples lives for a long time if they graduate.

I made use of a simple call for attention in this headline : $100k a year. $100k a year paying job is widely considered the benchmark for the modern upper middle class lifestyle most people want to obtain for themselves. By saying that the jobs pay over $100k I am playing into the greed of the reader who wants to make as much money as they can from whatever program they graduate from.

Lastly, my headline outlines my content in a list format. Lists are highly popular and effective ways to organize and arrange digestible content. Lists have become extremely popular in article writing in the past 2 decades because of how easy they make content to digest. A list gives the reader a sense of structure and organization making them more likely to engage with my article.

2. Headline Intent vs Outcome (4 Marks) Choose one headline you created in Part B, Q#1 Part B and answer the following:

a) What is the primary intent of this headline? (e.g. curiosity, urgency, clarity, relevance, emotional pull)

b) What action or response is the headline designed to trigger?

c) Explain why this intent is appropriate for the target audience you selected.

“A 60 Year Old Man Says He Will Never Stop Kickflipping.”

The primary intent of my 3rd headline was to build curiosity within the reader while simultaneously being slightly humorous. Skateboarding is a sport heavily associated with youth culture since its conception. The sport is hard and to be able to do it one must be athletically fit and limber. Skateboard Tricks involve complex moves like jumping, spinning and landing at high distances and speeds. People usually associate the sport with young athletic and fearless individuals. What people don’t usually associate skateboard tricks with is elderly men. Elderly men lack a lot of the associate skills and requirements it takes to be a skateboarder. So when there is an elderly skateboarding it is viewed as a phenomenon and greatly builds Curiosity. The mental image of a 60 year old man refusing to stop doing skate board tricks is quite funny.

The main action I want from the reader is for them to engage with the rest of the article. I want my headline to build enough curiosity to drive the reader to click on my article to find out the rest of the story. The subversive and humorous nature of this headline will help to drive this action from the reader.

The intent of my headline fits well with the target audience of the Daily Globe Canada. Which tends to be 40 – 70 year olds who are in the middle class. They enjoy short feel good articles that can be easily digested and re-touted at their daily Tim Hortons friends meet up.

1. Headline Variation (12 marks) Using the article from Part A, Question #1, you are to create three (3) different headlines. Each headline must emphasize a different headline element discussed in class. (3X4=12 Marks)

For each headline:

a) Include the Headline

b) Explain your reasoning

c) Reference specific class concepts

“How to Stay Healthy in Old Age by Skateboarding”

When writing this headline I made use of the “How To” headline writing technique. I am promising readers health in their old age. This is relevant to the author of the article who speaks about currently using skateboarding as his primary form of exercise in his 60’s. Growing old is a fear for everyone, generally making health a bigger priority for people the older they get.. The mentions of skateboarding create curiosity within the reader.

My headline also makes use of psychological biases by associating old age and skateboarding two things that aren’t usually associated with each other. Skateboarding has been a primarily youth – young adult activity for most of its lifespan. By telling people they can stay healthy in old age by skateboarding it makes them curious as to how because they wouldn’t normally associate skateboarding and old age. I’m creating a curiosity gap within the reader to where they have enough info to be interested but not enough info to be fully satisfied. They will still want to seek out the additional article content.

“13 Amazing Things I learned while skateboarding into my 60’s.”

When writing this headline I used the word amazing to describe the benefits of riding a skateboard into old age. This is a powerful adjective that creates excitement and anticipation for the reader making them wonder what lessons they could learn for themselves while skate boarding.

I’m providing the user with a unique rationale: These amazing lessons can only be learned through skateboarding into your 60s, something very few people can say they have done. So the only way for the reader to get these lessons would be to read the article my headline is attached too. My content is also organized numerically in a list making it easy for the viewer to digest the material and enjoy it.

Finally, I’m using an odd number at the start of my headline to attract attention, and to better help people digest and recall information. The number is odd making it easier for readers to recall the headline associated with the number. I also included the number 60 to exaggerate the curiosity behind the headline.

“A 60 Year Old Man Says He Will Never Stop Kickflipping.”

I used a number at the start of this headline to attract attention and build curiosity. Human eyes are naturally drawn to numbers especially in walls of text. People generally associate numbers with proven statements of facts. The general consensus is that “Numbers Don’t Lie”: People are more likely to trust your content if you can include numbers in the headline. The number also reveals the age of the man kickflipping. People usually associate skateboarding with youth culture, my headline subverts these expectations by associating a 60 year old with skateboarding which will build curiosity from the reader.

By mentioning the act of a 60 year old skateboarding in creating a picture in the mind of the reader that doesn’t make sense. This creates a curiosity gap or a void in the reader that will make them want to know how or why a 60 year old wont stop doing kickflips. People are naturally curious and will want to fill these voids in their knowledge by interacting with my headline.

3. Click Motivation (8 marks)

A)Provide a different headline you recently clicked on.

“I found the 4 best USB-C chargers for recharging your phones and gadgets”

https://www.cnn.com/cnn-underscored/reviews/best-usb-c-chargers

B) Include the exact headline and a screenshot

C) Explain why you clicked it, not why you liked it

I was looking for a new usb-c cable / charger. I wanted to buy a cable that was high quality and wouldn’t break. This list does a lot of the research I needed to for me and summarizes it in a very digestible format. It talks about 4 of the best usb-c cables giving me options to choose from as well.

D) Tie your reasoning directly to course concepts

I clicked on this article headline because it understood my search intent. They knew I was looking for high quality cables, they knew my use case for these cables, and they gave me options. The headline includes a number making it visually stand out compared to other USB-C related article headlines. The headline is clearly advertising to me that the article content will be useful to me and organized in an easy to understand format like the F pattern or a list. The headline is telling me that CNN already found the 4 best USB-C cable /gadgets, saving me time and resources as a consumer who just wants useful and relevant content.

2. Accuracy & Representation (4 marks) Was the headline in Question #1 an accurate representation of the article content?

A) Explain your reasoning clearly

The headline is accurate to the article for the most part. Both the headline and article are written in the pov of the author. The content of the article explains the authors journey in life with skateboarding from being a young boy now to the age of 60. He expresses his gratitude for never giving up on his passion and cherishes the memories he has made with friends and family over the years while skateboarding. This theme of gratefulness for skateboarding is also conveyed in his headline. The headline is definitely an accurate representation of the article content.

B) Reference course discussion on misleading vs effective headlines

Headlines should act as a universal representation of your articles’ content . It should be written in plain language so the average person can understand it. The headline is what is evaluated before your article is read and the easier the reader can understand your headline the more likely they will be to engage with it.

1. Headline Resonance (6 marks) Find one (1) headline you recently encountered that you felt was effective.

A) Provide the exact headline

B) Explain why it resonated with you

The headline interested me because I’m interested in skateboarding. Its use of age raised my intrigue because skateboard tricks are very difficult for elderly people especially flip tricks like a kick flip.

C) Tie your explanation directly to specific headline elements discussed in class

The headline touches on multiple headline writing techniques we touched on in class. This headline uses  numbers, and psychological biases to grab attention from readers. The headline includes a number at the very start, the human eye is attracted to numbers by default more than it is to regular text. Numbers are candy for your brain in wales of plain text or ‘vegetables’. The number is specific and relevant to the content of the article; it is also typed out instead of spelt making it stand out more in the headline. People also associate numbers with facts and logic making the use of numbers another trust builder between customer and brand. By listing the age of the skateboarder in the headline the headline author subverts the psychological bias of the reader who does not associate skateboarding with old age. This headline creates interest through its unlikely nature and subversion of psychological biases to create curiosity gaps in the reader’s mind..