Sparking a national conversation on Social Media about budgetary inequality by transforming a dedicated research into a digital marketing strategy.

Overview

A social digital marketing campaign to create awareness and change attitudes regarding budgetary inequality between Jewish and Arab society in Israel.

0 K+
Users Reach
0 K+
Video Views
0 %
Video View Rate
Givat-Haviva-Protest-1

Background

Givat Haviva and FES Israel have initiated a campaign on budgetary inequality between Arab society and Jewish society as part of a wide-ranging activity to promote social justice in Israel.

As part of the campaign, aChord Center for social psychology at the Hebrew University conducted a preliminary study on the effectiveness of various message delivery techniques, the conclusions of which were later applied in the creation of the campaign videos and messaging.

All this to improve the effectiveness of the digital marketing activities, maximize user’s engagement and create a dialogue around the topic on social networks.

The campaign was managed on 3 different platforms: Facebook, Instagram and YouTube and included several types of user journeys respectively with excellent results.

The preliminary study for the campaign

aChord Center at the Hebrew University wanted to examine which messaging methods or psychological mechanisms are more effective in different groups that differ in their attitude to social inequality.


Classification of Target Audiences Into Different Groups

The theoretical model on which the study is based is related to a person’s perception of social identity in relation to other groups in the population.

The model argues that when “favored” groups in the population are presented with some inequality, in our case the issue of budgetary inequality, they are faced with two main threats to their “social identity”:

  • Image threat to the group to which they belong (Jews in Israel).
  • A threat to the prevailing belief that your status and abilities in life can be achieved through hard work and talent.

The target audiences in the study were divided into 4 groups according to the type of protection against these threats (when presented with the issue of budgetary inequality):

  • Deniers – do not recognize/deny inequality and claim that it is not true, if not the opposite – that they are in the disadvantaged group.
  • Distancers – Recognize the phenomenon of inequality but claim that their opinion is unimportant and no matter what they do it cannot really help.
  • Dismantlers – Adopting behaviors and activities aimed at reducing budgetary inequality, striving for proactivity to correct the situation.
  • Defenders – “defend” inequality and claim it is a justified thing.

>> Click here to download an explanation file on the theoretical model and groups


Messaging Methods

During the campaign, two types of videos were created based on different psychological techniques.

1. Self-Affirmation and “Foot in the Door”

3 videos made separately for men, women, and young people (Instagram).

Self-Affirmation Theory

Self-affirmation theory emphasizes the motivation of the individual to maintain a positive self-image during a situation of threat to his or her self-image.

The threat to self-esteem in the videos is reflected in the exposure to the issue of budgetary inequality.

“Foot in the Door” Technique

A technique that aims to persuade people to perform a certain action through a request to perform a “smaller” and more negligible action earlier.

In our case, the request from the users to recall a significant post they uploaded on social media.

2. Social Belonging 

The social belonging theory claims that there is a basic human need for belonging to a particular group. Social belonging serves as an excellent motivator for action when each of the research groups was typographically presented in the video.

In our case, it is about the need to belong to the “right” group in response to the threat to social identity and act accordingly – share the post and respond.

The Preliminary Research Set-Up

The study was in a “before and after” format in which people’s attitudes were examined regarding budgetary inequality between Jews and Arabs, classified into the mentioned groups, before and after seeing a particular type of video through personal-frontal interviews.

The Study Results

The study found that technique number one (self-affirmation and “foot in the door”) yielded better results in terms of changing attitudes toward the deniers and distancers groups.

In the more “extreme” groups – Defenders and Dismantlers there was no significant change before and after watching the videos.

Digital Marketing Strategy and Selection of Advertising Channels

Following the preliminary research, the campaign was conducted according to the following digital marketing strategy:

Target Audiences

Focusing on the “distancers” and “deniers” groups with division into men and women while examining engagement data of the two video types (self-affirmation vs. social belonging).

We defined the target audiences in Google & Facebook advertising platforms (Google Ads & Facebook Ads Manager) according to the research groups demographic and behavioral data such as education, age, socio-economic level, religiosity, and tendency towards political ideology (right or left).

Creating a Buzz effect

Advertising to the group of “dismantlers” (divided into men and women) in order to create a viral effect and buzz on the net, assuming that the percentage of responses and shares will be relatively high.

Marketing Channels

Advertising on Facebook (for women and men) and Instagram (for young people) in order to match the messaging and visual language to the platform.

In addition, the videos were promoted on YouTube to increase diversity and total exposure and to promote more meaningful learning of the subject by directing to a landing page with additional data.

Remarketing

A remarketing campaign directing to a landing page to deepen the learning and awareness of the topic in the various target groups.

Social Media Dialogue

Promoting dialogue on social networks – taking an active part in the dialogue by responding to comments on Facebook to increase user engagement and exposure.

The Results

The campaign lasted about 3 weeks during which more than 500,000 people were exposed to the contents of the campaign and more than 100,000 people watched the various videos.

Significant exposure was created that contributed greatly to the Jewish public’s awareness of the issue of budgetary inequality and created various collaborations that led to actions on the ground.

A Concluding Presentation – Digital Marketing Campaign Analysis Along with Insights and Recommendations

Which Messaging Technique Worked Better?

Contrary to the hypothesis of the research and experiment in laboratory conditions, the video with the social belonging motif worked better in comparison to the self-affirmation technique.

A significant difference can be seen in the user’s engagement data of the 2 videos.

It is likely that the research hypothesis regarding the messaging technique was found to be incorrect since the study was done in face-to-face interviews, in a physical classroom, with the subjects devoting special time to participating in the experiment.

This contrasts with the average Facebook user who scrolls his feed quickly along with loads of other posts and content that compete for his attention.