Bird cage effect is a famous psychological phenomenon, which was discovered by James, an outstanding psychologist in modern times.
1907, James retired from Harvard University, along with his good friend physicist Carlson.
One day, they made a bet, and James said, "I will definitely let you have a bird soon." Carlson disagreed: "I don't believe it! Because I never thought about raising a bird. " A few days later, on Carlson's birthday, James gave a gift-an exquisite birdcage. Carlson smiled: "I just think this is a beautiful handicraft." Don't bother. Since then, whenever guests come to visit and see the empty birdcage beside the desk, they almost always ask, "Professor, when did your bird die?" "
Carlson had to explain to the guests again and again: "I have never had a bird." However, this kind of answer often gets the puzzled and distrustful eyes of the guests. In desperation, Professor Carlson had to buy a bird, and James's "birdcage effect" worked. In fact, around us, including ourselves, don't we hang a cage in our hearts first, and then we can't help putting things in it? The birdcage effect is also called the empty vase effect. There is a story that a girl's boyfriend sent her a bunch of flowers. She was so happy that she specially asked her mother to bring a crystal vase from home. As a result, in order to keep the vase empty, her boyfriend sent her flowers every few days. Of course, this is the sweet embodiment of this effect.
As the saying goes, a harmonious neighborhood is not a small fortune. Zhang Chang and Qing Liu are neighbors. Because of work, Zhang Chang had to move, and most of his family's things had to be sold. After cleaning up all the furniture, there is only an elegant desk left. This table is expensive. If you sell it as a defective product, you won't get much money back. So Zhang Chang decided to give it to her neighbor Qing Liu as a souvenir, and Qing Liu accepted it with great gratitude.
After the desk moved back to his library, Qing Liu found that the dilapidated wooden rattan chair in the library was really an eyesore compared with the desk, so Qing Liu decided to buy a good leather swivel chair to match the desk, so he spent 250 yuan to buy a suitable swivel chair and felt much more comfortable. ...
One day, a friend came to visit Liu Qing's house. Qing Liu invited his friends in to see his new study. My friend praised the desk and swivel chair. The friend said, "Yes, yes, but it would be better to change the bookcase." Qing Liu took a look and thought that the bookcase was a bit shabby and really should be changed, so he spent money on it. ...
On this day, a friend visited Liu Qing's home and came to the study. He was still full of praise, but in the end he was always full of flaws: "Everything is fine in your study, but the light is dim." If you can open the wall and build a floor-to-ceiling window, it will be brighter. " Qing Liu felt the same way after listening to it, so ... Qing Liu was very upset about a study, and it was all because of the desk. Why bother? ! As Socrates said: "If people are tired of luxury life, then a happy life will be farther and farther away from us." Yes, just like having a luxurious cage, you will definitely raise a bird that matches the cage. This is the "cage effect".
The theory of "birdcage efficiency" has played a very prominent role in enhancing the influence of satellite TV's integrated communication and promoting the breakthrough of satellite TV's advertising revenue. However, the value of "birdcage effect" is not limited to satellite TV. For other channels, the "birdcage effect" is also of great significance for increasing the time that viewers stay in the channel and promoting the operation of channel advertisements. Media management at the realistic level is, in the final analysis, a struggle for the attention of the audience. Whoever catches the audience will also lay a high-quality guarantee for his good media operation. Therefore, the "birdcage effect" has a strong reference significance for other media.
On the surface, a channel is composed of a series of programs, which are broadcast at different times and have different positioning. It seems that there are not many connections, but in fact, as a channel or even a member of a media family, these programs are inextricably linked. How to string these programs together to form an organic whole is the effect of "birdcage effect". In the concrete practice process, many TV media also take this as the pursuit goal. Although there are different forms of expression at the specific implementation level, after careful study, their practices are nothing more than the following ways.
1. Promoting integrated programmes
There are no worthless goods, only businessmen who can't sell them! Every commodity has its intrinsic value, and if the sales of commodities are realized, the benefits of commodities must be effectively passed on to the target audience. As a special commodity, TV programs must also abide by this objective law. Because the broadcast time of different programs is different, the specific broadcast order is also patchwork. In order to attract the audience and maintain the continuity of viewing, it is necessary to integrate the publicity of the program. Like Phoenix Satellite TV, it does a good job in this respect: usually, in the middle of a program, Phoenix Satellite TV will insert trailers of many follow-up programs and pre-broadcast them in the most eye-catching places, which will stimulate the audience's desire to watch and make them have a strong sense of stopping, thus maintaining the continuity of watching a channel and driving the overall rise of media ratings. More importantly, the program trailer of Phoenix Satellite TV is integrated with advertisements, which means that the program is promoted and the sales of advertisements are promoted. It can be described as killing two birds with one stone, which is quite commendable!
2. Unified attack of activities
As we all know, there are many columns in the media. In order to improve the ratings and influence of the columns, these columns usually continue to do some promotional activities. However, what we often see is that because these columns have different producers, everyone is fighting on their own and not building boundaries with each other. Can these columns really be independent of each other and do their own things? The answer is no! Because everyone broadcasts on the same channel, to some extent, it is a relationship of glory and loss. If done well, the previous program can stimulate the audience's viewing continuity and promote the viewing rate of the following programs. And if you don't do it well, it may involve the later programs. According to the author's opinion, in fact, these programs can be completely integrated, relying on each other and developing together in the promotion of activities. For example, Anhui TV Station has effectively integrated its own columns through video channels and realized the promotion of activities. "The First Time" is a strong livelihood news column of Anhui Shi Jing TV Station. Because of its numerous activities and wide influence, it has a wide popularity and appeal in the eyes of the audience. The Diamond Theater is the TV theater after the first time. In order to enhance the popularity of the theater, the channel set the idea of bundling columns with the theater at the beginning of the event, so that any audience who pays attention to the diamond theater has the opportunity to become the first participant. In this way, not only can the first-time viewers continue to watch the Diamond Cinema, but also through the promotion in the Diamond Cinema, more viewers can pay attention to the channel from the front, thus driving the first-time viewing, thus producing a win-win effect.
3. Consistency of program style
Compared with the previous comprehensive channels, the current TV media pay more attention to differentiation, that is, to provide TV products that this part of the audience likes and obtain the largest viewing share of the target group.
The reason for this change is that different types of viewers have different viewing preferences. For example, children like cartoons, housewives like TV dramas, and students like movies ... It is necessary to unify the style of the media in order to attract the most attention. For example, Guangxi Satellite TV launched the positioning of female satellite TV, which is to position the media style from the target audience; Anhui tv launched the TV drama hypermarket, which is to locate the media style from the product type; Jiangsu Satellite TV launched "Emotional World", which is to locate the media style from the psychological attribute. Different ways, but the internal intention is the same.
Vertically, in a media, we can achieve a certain degree of viewing "birdcage effect" through some measures, but this effect is limited because it is limited to the integration and promotion of a media itself. From a horizontal point of view, through cooperation with newspapers, radio, internet and other surrounding media, through mutual leverage between different media, the widest audience attention can be obtained. This will not only make the audience of this channel stay, but also attract the "birds" outside to fly into the "cage", thus having a wider impact.
One of the important factors for the success of Hunan Satellite TV's super girl is the help of newspapers, internet and other media. During the super girl period, there were many popular BBs in China, such as Sina, Tianya and Sohu. , also crazy to follow suit, really sensational. The direct impact of this hype is that in response to TV media, viewers can not only learn about Super Girl from TV in a three-dimensional way, but also learn about Super Girl from the Internet, newspapers and other channels. It can be said that what the audience sees and hears is all kinds of news about super girl. The whole super girl voice is equivalent to forming a huge "birdcage", which "encircles" the audience all over the country.
This way of mutual leverage between the media has created a win-win result. For the audience, he (she) can find background information and even details that can't be obtained on TV from the Internet, and can also express his/her views on a player, or support or oppose him/her, reflecting his/her sense of honor and value as an audience participant. For Hunan Satellite TV, other media are needed to follow up the activities, so that super girl can become an event of widespread concern in society, form a social hot spot, drive the attention of viewers and attract advertisers. It is no accident that online media is willing to follow up, because with the increasing popularity of Super Girl, it is not just a simple activity launched by Hunan Satellite TV itself, but a social topic, which has attracted many people's attention and wants to know more. In this case, online follow-up can satisfy the audience's seeking psychology and improve the click-through rate. So there is a win-win relationship between the two.
In the final analysis, to achieve the "birdcage effect" of audience viewing, no matter vertical integration or horizontal promotion, these methods are not omnipotent, because in today's increasingly fierce media competition. At the same time, there are often many programs competing for the limited attention of the audience. If the quality of the program itself is not high, even if it can attract some viewers, it can't stay. They can only say that they passed by in a hurry and took a quick look.
Therefore, fundamentally speaking, to achieve the "birdcage effect" of audience viewing, we must improve the quality of the media itself, strengthen the visibility of programs, and enhance the core competitiveness of media competition. This is fundamental.