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) Provide the headline 

b) Explain your reasoning clearly using class content

“Master SEO, Web Design and Digital Marketing in Second Year: Start Building Powerful Career Skills”

For a headline aimed at first year students in regard to second year courses, I knew that I would have to start pivoting somewhat away from a focus on high school students effectively. In my headline’s creation, I wanted to first consider how I could communicate value through mentioning the tangible skills that students would gain upon completing their second year of this program as opposed to referencing any course codes. The skills I chose to highlight were more practical skills that are in higher demand among companies looking to hire such as SEO, Web Design and Digital Marketing (this covers both email marketing and content class under the same umbrella). The reason why this is so impactful in a headline like mine for this program’s second year courses is the fact that first year students have mainly been focused on learning theory based classes such as ADV211 where little practical work is done. I recognize that in order to keep first year students interested enough in our program to desire to continue on into second year with both their time and financial investments, I need to highlight what they are motivated by which is skill acquisition and being ready for a stable career they felt incentivized by prior to even starting the program. Therefore, by stating that students will get to master certain key skills, I am emphasising the value provided from the second year of this program through mentioning how second year courses for them will place emphasis on practical learning rather than just hearing about theory.

 In addition to this, my headline will also help to reduce any uncertainty that they are facing regarding second year courses. This uncertainty might be coming from being unsure of what second year involves or hearing negative social proof from others around them in regard to the work load they will face. The headline I created is truly aiming to help create a reduction in this uncertainty by informing students that they will gain technical skills and practical experience that they can keep with them for the rest of their careers after the second year finishes. Furthermore, the headline is helping to provide these potentially nervous or uncertain students with a great level of clarity about what the second year will consist of. I did this by avoiding over promises or over exaggerated wording of the headline so that I could communicate clearly without any friction who the second year courses are for, what they will acquire in terms of skills from these courses and why it matters through the mentioning of their careers. This is also significant for ensuring that the headline is properly aligned with the user intent of these first year students as they are often going to be concerned about preparing for their careers and building up skills for their resumes. Ultimately, having courses like Web Design 1 and 2, Search Engine Optimization, Email Marketing and Developing Internet Marketing Content highlighted in the headline itself helps to directly address these concerns to reduce uncertainty to the furthest extent possible while keeping the 4 U’s in mind when it comes to being unique, ultra specific and useful in this headline. Overall, my headline for second year courses is effective for reaching the target audience of first years as it communicates value, reduces uncertainty, provides clarity and is relevant to their needs/wants.

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 

“Turning Your Creativity Into Your Career: Why Windsor Students Are Choosing The SCC Advertising Program with a 90% Employment Rate”

For this headline for the advertising program at St. Clair College, I knew that I would have to consider what key information I was not given in the question instructions. The first thing that I took into consideration was what specific program feature I would need to emphasise to make this headline the most impactful. I have determined that for our advertising program this would likely be the employment outcomes that our program has to offer. Obviously in the year of 2026, people (especially in Windsor) are concerned about whether or not their education will actually help to land them a job should they complete it. This can be further emphasised by the fact that in Windsor according to CBC the unemployment rate is currently sitting at 8.1% and is one of the highest in all of Canada. Therefore, many students who are coming from high school to college are concerned about actually having a stable career after they finish their program. It is also important to note that for a large number of students their parents are also going to be invested emotionally or potentially financially into whether or not their child ends up with a stable career after they finish their post-secondary education. Knowing this, I visited the actual website for the advertising program which clearly stated that this program had a 90% employment rate. I understand that numbers within headlines are something that are easily digestible and would help potential applicants to easily recall why the advertising program stood out to them after reading through this article. I also took into consideration that these students would be coming to Windsor for their education as this is where St. Clair College is located. Another important motivation for taking this program that I considered would be the skills that many of these students would have. While I know that I could likely outline many different hard and soft skills that they could have, I think that creativity is the skill that is best for such a broad target audience as many of the students who would even be considering advertising as a viable career option in the first place are possessing creativity to some degree. Therefore, the information which I had to consider before even trying to come up with a headline in regard to this type of an article was the actual motivations of students and what differentiates this program from others in terms of job outcomes.  

After having actually written the headline itself, I truly believe that it is compelling and strong enough to actually be effective. The first reasoning behind this is the fact that my headline is working to signal relevance to high school students who are looking into pursuing a post secondary education in Windsor. This was done by including the fact that this was for students in Windsor who possess creativity as this is showing students or their parents who see this headline before they even click on the article that it is relevant to them if they are looking to attend a school in Windsor that would allow them to turn a skill they already have into a viable career opportunity. Relevance really helps to increase the effectiveness of this headline and likelihood of people clicking on it as generally speaking people (especially those in highschool) will not choose to click on an article about post secondary education if they do not feel that it actually relates to them in any sort of way. A headline like mine being so relevant is also ensuring that I am matching the user intent of someone who could already be in  search of this information like as mentioned a potential student or their parents. This brings me to my next justification for why this headline works, which is the fact that it is clearly able to communicate that there is going to be valuable content in the article. I did this by stating that this program could help students to turn their creativity into a career and by informing them of the 90% employment rate that the program holds. By doing this I made sure to emphasise what I originally identified that most students care about with the rising unemployment rates which is turning their skills and things they are naturally passionate about into actual stable career paths. This also makes this headline in alignment with being useful and ultra specific which are two of the four U’s we discussed in class which can help make a headline like mine resonate better with audiences so that they actually choose to click on the article. By appealing to students specificity bias and relevance bias through all this, I am also making sure to provide clarity through stating exactly what people can expect from this article in regard to the advertising program at SCC, who it is for and why it matters and could benefit their careers in the future. Overall, knowing the motivations and what differentiates this program (which was not in the question instructions) was able to help me to develop this clear, specific, useful and ultimately effective headline for an article about the SCC advertising program.

RESOURCES:

1.CBC/Radio Canada. (2026, February 6). Windsor’s unemployment rate climbed in January, ties for 6th in Canada | CBC News. CBCnews. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/windsor-unemployment-rate-january-9.7077331#:~:text=Windsor’s%20unemployment%20rate%20to%208.1,the%20first%20month%20of%202026.&text=The%20numbers%20released%20on%20Friday%20are%20seasonally%20adjusted. 

2. Home – join the St. Clair Advertising Program. (n.d.-c). https://jointhestclairadvertisingprogram.com/

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.

From the three headlines that I created in question one, I have chosen to reference my second headline of “You Won’t Believe What’s Happening In These 33 Perfectly Timed Photos”. This is a headline that has the primary intent of triggering curiosity among potential readers of this article. Curiosity is going to be easily triggered by this headline in particular due to the fact that the words “You Won’t Believe” are used. Basically, what these words do is signal to people potentially looking to slick on this article that the content within it is going to surprise them in an unexpected manner. I think it is also important to note that despite the headline sharing that the content is surprising, it does not actually say any specific details of the content in the article as this could give away what the photos in the article actually are. Just enough information is given to entice people to want to click on the article. Alongside this, the words “What’s Happening” helps to spark curiosity by increasing the amount that potential readers will likely desire to know “What’s Happening” in the actual article’s content. The curiosity that is sparked from this headline is intended to trigger people to take the action of essentially clicking on the article itself and viewing it. But to get even more specific, the curiosity works to create this action among potential viewers by first interrupting their scrolling. This is happening with the use of the odd number (which I kept from the original headline) as this helps people to have more trust in the headlines credibility, therefore reducing any uncertainty which theft might have. From here, once someone fully reads through the headline there will be curiosity triggered due to the wording of the headline as discussed already. From here is where the actual action of clicking opn the article comes into effect as users will feel the need to fill the established curiosity gap by seeing what the unbelievable content of the perfectly timed out photos actually is. 

Going back to who exactly the target audience of Buzzfeed is generally going to be, it is very important to actually explain why this headline aligns perfectly with the intent of their target audience. To first summarize who their target audience is, they are generally going to consist of individuals who are in search of entertainment that is visual, provides the value of humor and is generally considered lighthearted and enjoyable. Therefore, for this audience a headline that is being powered by curiosity is going to be very effective. The reason for this is in the fact that a curiosity driven headline like my own is going to align very well with people who want an article that is entertaining and funny enough to peak their interest immediately after reading through the headline. These people want headlines that stand out and catch their attention enough to trigger their curiosity and make them feel like they urgently need to see what the article content is consisting of. I also think it is important to remember that my headline would be competing with many others that also are looking to have people take action by clicking on their article. Ultimately speaking, by using these tactics to spark curiosity, my headline is much more likely to stand out among many others. Overall, this headline intent is primarily to trigger curiosity which resonates highly with the target audience for Buzzfeed who is generally looking for entertaining content. 

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

The first headline which I have created is placing a high level of emphasis onto creating clarity for potential readers to click on them. This headline is “33 Perfectly Timed Photos That Turn Everyday Moments Into Accidental Comedy”. To look deeper into this headline and why exactly I created it the way I did, we can start with how I choose to focus on ensuring that I was providing both readers and Google (for SEO purposes) with a high level of clarity. This clarity was given to potential readers by explaining to them immediately what exactly they can expect to see from this article. In this case what my headline informs them of this is the fact that the article will deliver specifically 33 photos that showcase accidentally comedic and funny moments. My headline does not mislead readers at all with clickbait as I did not use any wording that they could perceive as seeming too exaggerated, instead I perfectly described to them what the content would be so they could set their expectations should they choose to click on and read the article accordingly. I also thought that including the words “Everyday Moments” alongside “Accidental Comedy” only helped to further emphasis this element of clarity as it made the subject (humour) of this article much easier to understand quickly. In addition to all of this, I considered that when I wanted to provide the readers with clarity I would need to be considerate of what exactly they would be wondering and thinking about in the first place. To ensure I provided them clarity, I made sure I answered the questions of what the article is (it is photos of comedic everyday moments), how much content they could expect (specifically 33 different moments) and why they should even care about this content in the first place (because despite being everyday mundane moments, they are accidentally funny). By providing this clarity, I am able to ensure that the article seems credible and I also am significantly able to reduce any senses of uncertainty that potential readers might have about what exactly the content is and is about. In addition to this, the headline is also making sure to communicate the value that the article can offer to its readers in a very clearly outlined manner through using the word “Comedy” to convey that this article will provide readers with some humor should they choose to click on and read it. To look further into the SEO efforts that can come from this headline, the way in which I went about phrasing this headline is helping Google to know that my article is providing its users with value. This is very significant for SEO because as we have discussed in ADV437, search engines like Google in 2026 are looking to prioritise the user and content that is written with the user as the priority. Therefore, by providing Google with this level of clarity in regard to what this article’s content is about, I am increasing the chances of this article ranking higher in Google’s SERP for the right users as Google will understand what value it can provide to them. Overall, my first headline of “33 Perfectly Timed Photos That Turn Everyday Moments Into Accidental Comedy” is very effective when it comes to emphasising the element of a good headline which is creating clarity. 

For my second headline, I wanted to shift my focus to the element of triggering the curiosity of potential readers to encourage them to click on the article. The headline I created to fulfill this goal was “You Won’t Believe What’s Happening In These 33 Perfectly Timed Photos”. The justification for the creation of this headline in particular the fact that it intentionally creates a curiosity gap among potential readers that the article’s content can ultimately fulfill. It is telling people very clearly that there were 33 timed photos featured within the article however it does not tell them what exactly happened within each photo but rather it creates a strong sense of suspense and urgency to find out. Urgency, which is one of the 4 U’s, that takes place here is coming from the loss aversion which potential readers will likely experience upon reading this headline as they will wonder what they could potentially be missing out on. This is very beneficial as this helps to lead potential readers to actually open up and view the article to read what exactly it is saying as my headline frames the content featured in the article as being somewhat unbelievable, which suggests to readers that they should be curious about what happened in each of the 33 photos that were timed out so well. These potential readers will likely be left to wonder about what each of the photos are showing and if they are funny, embarrassing, silly or even chaotic. Seeing as how this curiosity gap was even created in the first place, readers will feel the need to take action and click on the article to read through it to fill this gap and release the suspense they feel. Therefore, this all takes into account what we discussed in regard to psychology in advertising as users loss aversion and curiosity gaps are considered. Overall, by having created such a curiosity gap for potential readers, this is an effective headline with its strong focus on suspense and urgency as effective ways of driving viewers to click on the article.

For the third version of this headline that I was able to come up with, I decided that I would try to emphasise matching the actual intent of the user who is searching through Buzzfeed to find an article. The headline I created to do this is “33 Hilariously Timed Photos That Will Instantly Improve Your Mood”. For my reasoning behind creating this headline, I can justify it by referring back to the element of aligning the headline with the user intent on Buzzfeed generally speaking. So, I knew that when creating this headline I really needed to make sure that I understood what the tone and voice that Buzzfeed usually uses are. I understand that the voice is pretty consistently lighthearted and upbeat while the tone shifts depending on the content as in some articles it is more funny and others more relatable. In this headline, I made sure that humour was clearly shown to be an aspect of Buzzfeed’s tone for this specific article. I did this by including the word “Hilariously” to signal that the content is intended to be perceived as funny. More often than not, when someone is going onto Buzzfeed’s website in search of some content they are looking for something that can provide them with entertainment and content to help improve their overall mood. Going back to my headline, I emphasised this specifically through the intentional wording I used to claim that this article “Instantly Improve Your Mood” makes it useful (one of the 4 U’s we discussed in class) to the typical Buzzfeed reader. This aspect of the headline is clearly signalling that the article is aligned with the Typical Buzzfeed user’s intent as it is telling potential readers (and Google for SEO) that this is an article which provides a quick emotional response for readers. My headline here is not trying to be overly serious or complex as I recognize that the average Buzzfeed user is not in search of an article with this intention. Therefore, this headline is one which is clearly matching the intent of users on Buzzfeed overall through aiming to clearly communicate the emotional benefits that reading the article will provide. The headline also is highly in alignment with the typical tone and voice that Buzzfeed uses throughout all of their content as a whole.

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

Article Link: https://www.buzzfeed.com/angelicaamartinez/actor-awards-celebrity-reactions-2026

Article Screenshot:

For the headline I clicked on for this aspect of this assignment, I chose to use another headline from Buzzfeed of “17 Of The Most Unforgettable Celeb Reactions At The 2026 Actor Awards That You Probably Missed”. The main reason why I clicked on this headline in the first place was because I felt like it was providing me with curiosity and a sense of urgency. The reason for this sense of curiosity and urgency is the fact that the content is creating a gap in my mind that makes me start to question what i missed in regard to celebrity culture and I begin wondering if I am no longer “in the know” of what’s happening with the most popular and prevalent celebrities right now. It’s also important to note here that this is not click bait as its not misleading me in order to “bait” me into clicking but rather its informing me of the fact that I might have missed some things that are prominent in pop culture right now and they can fill me in on it through this article, therefore fulfilling my curiosity gap. This article also stood out among the rest due to its use of specificity through the odd number of “17” being used. This use of the number 17 is highlighting very clearly that when I click on this article the structure of it is going to be 17 different reactions from an award show shown to me which sets my expectations for this content right away. This also led me to click on the article because my uncertainty was reduced as like I said I immediately knew what to expect and that I would be given the amount of content stated. 

In addition to all of this, another reason for me having clicked on this article was the relevance it had in regard to matching my user intent having gone on Buzzfeed in search of an article. Generally speaking, if I go onto Buzzfeed in search of an article I am looking for ones that are mainly going to take on an entertainment or humour related focus as opposed to an overly serious one. When it comes to this article, the headline is clearly telling me before I click that the article content is going to be in regard to “Celeb Reactions At The 2026 Actor Awards” which aligns very clearly with the entertainment content that users like myself would generally have the intention of founding should they choose to go onto Buzzfeed for article. I also thought that this headline was one that was communicating that this article was one that would provide me with some sort of value when it comes to seeing and knowing what’s going on in pop culture moments my peers, friends and family might be referencing. The headline did this by stating that these moments were “Unforgettable” and therefore ones that I should want to know about. This is because this word in particular is implying to me that the reactions that each of these celebrities has were not just small or easy to ignore but rather they were bigger reactions that could have an impact on me emotionally. So, this headline told me that this moment was one that was significant enough to be worth knowing about, therefore proving value to some degree. Alongside this, the headline also considered the loss aversion I would face causing me to click on it. This is because the headline through its deliberate and intentional wording is trying to insinuate that should I not read through this article I would be missing out on knowing what all took place at this award show in regard to the celebrities who attended. Overall, this headline was definitely one which led me to click on it because it accurately promised me that the article would ultimately be relevant to my user intent, would fulfil my curiosity gap it created and provide me a level of value through the knowledge about celebrity culture it highlights.

RESOURCES:

1.Martinez, A. (2026, March 2). 17 of the most unforgettable celeb reactions at the 2026 actor awards that you probably missed. BuzzFeed. https://www.buzzfeed.com/angelicaamartinez/actor-awards-celebrity-reactions-2026

2. Accuracy & Representation (4 marks) 

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

Now that I have effectively analyzed this article’s headlines and why I felt that it was so effective, I have also looked through the article’s content in full. After having done this, I can confirm that yes, the article;’s headline was in fact an accurate representation of the content being provided. After having read the headline, I believed that the headline was aiming to promise me (the reader) that this would be a very lighthearted and funny article that was in a list format with images showcasing the “dumb pictures”. When I clicked on the article and went through it I immediately was ankle to take notice of the fact that the content was delivering exactly these promises through showcasing a total of 33 different funny images that seemed accidental yet also very well timed out all at the same time. Therefore, I found that the actual content and structure of this article was very much an accurate reflection of what the headline was promising to me. 

I think that this accurate representation of this article through the headline was so important because misleading headlines can have a very negative overall impact on a website/company like Buzzfeed in regard to their credibility among users. When users do not perceive a source as being credible for providing the information/content in which they claim they will provide, that source/company/website will generally see a large decrease in the amount of people actually consuming the content which they produce. What indicates a misleading headline to me is usually going to be it overpromising content that it does not deliver, sparking my curiosity through a curiosity gap but not fulfilling it and just way over exaggerating whatever it is that the content itself is talking about. On the other hand, an effective headline like this one from Buzzfeed is able to accurately signal to readers that this content is funny, lighthearted and easy to read due to its simple list format and bold headings. This headline also reduces any  uncertainty that readers such as myself might have had in regard to whether or not this content is actually worth our time which makes it effective as opposed to misleading and above all this headline truly delivered exactly what it said it would in terms of content. For example, number 17 appeared to be a picture of a fish on a train with the caption “A truly embarrassing moment”, this caption and image is simple, funny and easily readable which displays how this article’s content very clearly fulfils the headline’s promises. Overall, this headline was representative of the article’s actual content in a very effective manner that was not misleading at all.

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

a) Provide the exact headline

 b) Explain why it resonated with you

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

Article Link: https://www.buzzfeed.com/daves4/funny-pictures-taken-a-the-perfect-time-march-2-2026

Article Screenshot:

For this question, I have sourced my headline from a website that we are consistently referring back to in class for examples of “good headlines”, Buzzfeed. The specific headline which I have chosen to discuss is “33 Unbelievably Dumb Pictures Captured At JUST The Right Moment That Gets Funnier And Funnier No Matter How Many Times I’ve Seen Them”. There are several reasons as to why this headline was effective and resonated with me, the first being one which we have discussed in class a couple times which is the fact that an odd number of “33” is used. This is significant as such a number use is intentional and meant to grab the attention of potential readers and make the content itself within the article seem much more credible and trustworthy while also leveraging the known psychology behind specificity bias. The reason for this is that this number is very specific, it’s not just a word like a “bunch” or an even number like 10, no it feels as though there is a reduction in uncertainty because readers can know exactly how much content they are being given and that there was not just irrelevant content of lesser value to them added to make the number an even one like 10 for example. In addition to this, the odd number of 33 is also just going to stand out among the text, purely because it is more unexpected and visually distinct in comparison to numbers that feel more manufactured to people. To illustrate this further, the Go Braithwaite marketing agency cites that “headlines with odd numbers garnered 20% more clicks than those with even digits”. This is important to know as it proves the point of how 33 is an oddly specific number that makes this headline more effective and also helped it to resonate further with someone such as myself who noticed this article stand out in particular due to the inclusion of this number. 

Another clear reason as to why this was a headline that I felt was so effective and resonated with personally was the fact that it was able to clearly match my user intent on Buzzfeed’s website. Generally speaking, when people are choosing to visit Buzzfeed for some content, they are in search of articles that seem to be more lighthearted and entertaining as opposed to seeming more deep, academic and serious. Therefore, this headline in particular is helping to effectively be able to signal that this article is one that uses humor and will provide some instant gratification to the readers who are likely in search of this through appealing to people’s relevance bias. This was done by using words such as “Dumb” or “Funnier” in the headline itself. This headline also heavily aligns with use intent generally speaking as it matches very well with Buzzfeed’s typical tone and voice as it relates to funny yet relatable content that features headlines that are intended to make the content seem “viral” or very popular. Overall, when a headline like this is so well aligned with user intent, it provides the benefit of reducing the uncertainty that readers might have and it also signals to readers that the article content is relevant to them. So, essentially by being able to match this headline to the typical user intent, Buzzfeed has successfully been able to create headlines that reflect what users generally expect from a Buzzfeed article which increases the likelihood of them choosing to actually read the article.

Alongside all of this, the headline is also incredibly effective and resonated with me because of hope it instantly was able to trigger my curiosity. The way in which Buzzfeed was so easily able to do this was through their usage of this sentence “Unbelievably Dumb Pictures Captured At JUST The Right Moment”. This wording in particular is able to effectively capture my curiosity as it makes people like myself seeing the headline for the first time think about all the questions that we could potentially have in regard to what the content in the article actually is. For example, some questions that I personally had were “what moment?”, “wait what happened?” and “what was just the right moment?”. I wanted to know what the “dumb pictures” the headline mentioned were and I also wanted to understand what the perfect timing of these photos was and how it made them so funny. Therefore this headline was trying to provide me with a curiosity gap that reading the article’s content could fulfil which is one of the many reasons why this headline was so effective and resonated with me as a potential reader. 

RESOURCES:

1.Stopera, D. (2026, March 2). 33 unbelievably dumb pictures captured at just the right moment that get funnier and funnier no matter how many times I’ve seen them. BuzzFeed. https://www.buzzfeed.com/daves4/funny-pictures-taken-a-the-perfect-time-march-2-2026

2.Airwin@Gobraithwaite.com. (2022, March 21). The odd thing about odd numbers. Braithwaite Communications. https://gobraithwaite.com/thinking/the-odd-thing-about-odd-numbers/