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

1. Provide the heading
2. Explaining your reasoning clearly using 

7 Reasons You Should Be Excited For Digital Classes In 2nd Year

7 Reasons You Should Be Excited For Digital Classes In 2nd Year

After analyzing the target audience I realized there’s a major factor in their decision making which is uncertainty. First years are in the course, yes but there’s still a point of uncertainty for many of them so they would be more adverse to a headline that comes off as a warning to them for the second year. By having a headline that leads to content that highlights exciting parts about the course you create a more positive impression. 

Of course using the number 7 will immediately catch their eye but more subtle wording like incorporating ‘You’ creates a more inviting and personalized headline. The headline is designed to add the most relevant information first and the least relevant last. It also has a promise for information about the Digital Classes and what they should expect from it.

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

b) An explanation of the information missing from the instructions

c) A detailed justification for your headline choice based on course concepts 

How You Can Make 107K A Year After Graduating This Course

The question I derived from the goal and the audience was ‘what are highschool grads looking for after college’ and a few answers came to mind but the most obvious was a job, but not just any job. They are looking for success and prosperity.

The headline focuses on creating curiosity, develops an emotional pull while still being relevant to the target audience. It creates curiosity by promising a solution to a relevant problem for the target audience, that being what course would get me the best job after college. I also decided not to directly mention the name of the course and instead create intrigue by giving the reader just enough relevant information to get them to click and learn more. I used the number 107k because not only is it a relevant number for a highschooler looking for a high paying job but by using a specific number it creates a sense of trust and authority. The number feels like a stat or even more realistic and less boring by adding that 7 at the end, instead of just saying 100k. Another factor would be that 107k looks bigger than 100k even though the difference is only 7 thousand dollars. I focused on making the headline clear to avoid having the reader think too much. The one thing I want them to think is ‘What course would this be?’ thus creating an incentive to want to click and learn more about the possibility. The headline is a lot like a carrot on a stick that leads the reader to a certain point.

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.

The 3rd headline: Do You Know These 12 Facts That These People Didn’t? Has the primary intent of creating curiosity in the reader. By the headline being proposed as a question while offering a promise of 12 facts it creates intrigue. Starting with a question will lead the reader to read the rest of the headline because it immediately follows with the incentive. ‘Do You Know’ leaves the reader wondering what they don’t know which creates a need to know. The headline urges the reader to click and learn about facts in a way that places them within the equation. The target audience who is looking through Buzzfeed wants to find an article that feels important to them and the headline creates importance by using curiosity and suspense.

For Buzzfeed clicks are everything and the target audience is looking for information. By promising information those who are curious will click because the headline is descriptive enough about the content while still not overbearing the reader or revealing what they are about to read.

These 12 Obvious Realizations Have People Questioning Everything

This headline creates curiosity and builds suspense while being concise. What sort of realizations would have that level of impact? That’s the main question that is derived from the headline. The word ‘Obvious’ creates a contrast with the impact that is implied at the end. It continues to emphasize the promise of facts or realizations, as this is the major selling point of the article. I kept the number 12 as it’s an important factor in generating intrigue, and numbers are a powerful tool.

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3. Click Motivation (8 marks) 

a) Provide a different headline you recently clicked on

b) Include the exact headline and a screenshot 

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

d) Tie your reasoning directly to course concepts

“New Game Was Like The Sims Meets The Truman Show, But You Will Never Get To Play It”

https://gamerant.com/new-game-sims-truman-show-canceled-why

I clicked this one because it was suspenseful. It promised to tell me a secret and built curiosity. It was relevant to me as I am familiar with both the Truman Show and the Sims. The way I find it generates curiosity so effectively is that when you read between the lines you realize there are two questions that are promised to be answered in this article, that being ‘what game is this’ and ‘why will I never get to play it?’. Even though I did not immediately think of those questions, after reading the headline it was something I subconsciously asked myself which compelled me to click on the headline. Curiosity played the biggest role but without relevancy I would not have been as compelled, the pop culture that was mentioned was enough to entice me into clicking and learning more. Something I also found captivating was the word ‘New’ right at the beginning. When we discussed the F pattern and the hierarchy we discussed how we should put important information that we feel the audience would want to know first. Saying ‘New’ instead of starting with the word ‘The’ for example creates intrigue and excitement for what’s to come. We all like when something is new so using the word in the beginning immediately triggers a sense or feeling of importance. The last thing I noticed about why I found it so emotionally enticing and why I clicked it was because two keywords popped out to me, that is ‘New Game’ and ‘Never Get To Play’ this one left me feeling both cheated and intrigued. Why can’t I play the new game? This one question was a primary motivator for why I clicked the article.

Was the headline in Question #1 An accurate representation of the article content?

a) Explain your reasoning clearly

b) Reference course discussion on misleading vs effective headlines

The headline effectively communicates what the content is through its descriptive wording. The headline promises realizations people had ‘Late In Life’ and the content is quotes from people who realized something with nobody younger than 30. The promise of realizations however can come off as exaggerated in some cases but out of 12 there were some that were actually interesting fun-facts. The headline was not necessarily misleading but some parts are exaggerated, this makes sense because the headline was captivating enough the content just had to fulfill the basic promise of interesting fun-fact realizations.

1. Headline Resonance (6 marks)

Find one (1) headline you recently encountered that you felt was effective.

1. Provide the exact headline
2. Explain why it resonated with you
3. Tie your explanation directly to specific headline elements

“I Felt Like An Idiot When It Dawned On Me”: 12 Late-In-Life Realizations That Are Extremely Chaotic And Painfully Relatable

https://www.buzzfeed.com/trendyghost618/oh-shit-moments

I chose this headline as it felt relatable and exciting, it promised me possible knowledge on something that I didn’t already know, this means it combines facts and secrets which incentivized me to click. It is specific by using words such as ‘Late-In-Life’ and it’s descriptive by using words like ‘Extremely’, ‘Chaotic’ and ‘Painfully’ this creates a sense of excitement and intrigue. The title is unique because it uses specific numbers, those numbers feel exciting and provide a dopamine hit leading to intrigue. It is quick and to the point while still being able to elaborate and pull me in.

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