Bud Light at it Again

Anheuser-Bush rocked last year's Super Bowl with Bud Light's "Perfect Beer for Whatever Happens" campaign launch. The campaign included the creation of "Whatever USA" in Crested Butte, Colorado. Now, Bud Light is creating a "House of Whatever" to hold parties, concerts and activities. It will also be a social media hub where preplanned and live social media posts will be sent. The campaign strategy focuses on giving the beer brand a local presence during Super Bowl weekend. To amplify that reach, social media centers will also be in St. Louis, New York and Palo Alto, California, during the game.

Before the explosion of social media, a campaign such as this would never have been launched. Social media extends the life of a campaign though social interactions within the target market. Campaigns such as these also show that "free" isn't so free when it comes to social media. Yes it is free to post content, but that content can be very expensive to produce and promote. ROI however has the ability to justify the investment. 

link

Perfection

These shorts for the Andy Awards are probably the best promos I have seen in a long time. They use humor to describe how people in advertising have the most difficult jobs according to the people who actually have the most difficult jobs. My favorite is the "Hurt Locker" video. The way advertising is describes makes me think of how I explain my upper level marketing classes to my friends with other majors such as mechanical engineering and biology.

Link

Arby's: WE HAVE THE.. pepsi?

Arby's has deal with Pepsi to include them in two of their commercials this year. Apparently Arby's forgot and decided to do something special in order to make up for their mistake. It is a play on their slogan "WE HAVE THE MEATS." The thirty second spot can be found below.

Arby's more than made up for not including Pepsi the first time. I have always been a fan of Arby's ads and am especially a fan of this one. It pokes fun at the whole situation in a way that will 1. make consumers thirsty and 2. make consumers want to go to Arby's. It is good publicity for Arby's and Pepsi because of the attention they are getting from it. If it were not for the mistake, I would not be writing about them.

Link

Social Media Not So Social For Businesses

Link

Social media giant Facebook is once again changing its algorithms. The change is making it more difficult for brands to reach affinity groups through organic postings. The goal is to raise revenue through promoted postings. Facebook claims that users are complaining they are tired of seeing posts that push them to buy a product or app. Research firm Forrester believes the change will have such a significant impact that they are advising companies to decrease their reliance on Facebook. As a relancement, they suggest companies turn to email marketing campaigns. Email campaigns were the norm to reach customers online prior to the emergence of social media. 

Facebook is enjoying a huge increase in ad revenue in the past quarter. It is up 64 percent to $2.96 billion. They also enjoy 25 times more advertisers than Twitter. Today, Adweek learned Facebook will offer deep-pocketed brands exclusive information about users.

Should Facebook be doing this?

Social media is so good for companies because it is a low cost way to reach consumers. Facebook should not be limiting who can effectively reach their customers. Once it loses it's uniqueness, Facebook will not be the place to be for advertisers. This move may set them up for failure long term.

Special Typeface for Dyslexic People

Many people have dyslexia. In fact, dyslexia is estimated to affect 10% of the world's population according to UK charity Dyslexia Action. Dutch designer Christian Boer has created a special typeface for people with dyslexia. Below is a chart showing how dyslexic people see letters, and how the new typeface makes them easier to read. With 10% of the world's population affected by dyslexia, 10% of the the population may be misreading advertisements.  Link

Introducing Snapcash

I was on Snapchat today and saw something interesting. I had a snap from Snapchat about a new service they are offering called Snapcash. I decided to look into it further. The popular app struck a deal with Square Cash allowing people to add a debit card and type a dollar amount to instantly send money to a friend.

The future plan for the service may include ecommerce payments to merchants. Someone can see a video from a company and if they like the product, they can buy it instantly. From a marketing standpoint, Snapchat could cross-reference debit card info through Snapchash accounts for ad targeting. This would increase the amount Snapchat charges companies to run advertisements.

There is a video in the link below showing an advertisement for Snapcash.

Link

It's a Hoax!

The now famous "Alex from Target" was a marketing ploy from the start. Business Insider reports the was staged to help small-content creators spread their work. What was not expected were the results. #AlexfromTarget received worldwide exposure making Alex an overnight celebrity. 

The campaign is yet another indication of the power of social media and its ability to spread a message. I can only expect similar campaigns in the future stealth marketing campaigns to generate word of mouth in social media. 

Link 

Product Backfire?

We have seen product placement in all types of programming and the NFL is no different. Microsoft is reportedly paying the NFL about $400 million over the next five years as part of a wide-ranging partnership. The partnership promotes their Surface tablet and brings NFL content to the Xbox One.

The problem Microsoft faces is that announcers are calling the Surface tablets iPads on national television. The miss-identification has lead Microsoft to coach various announcers on how to refer to the tablets.

As someone who watches football, I have been taking note of the partnership between Microsoft and the NFL during games. I have noticed that as the weeks go by, the Tablets have been receiving less and less air time. Announcers and camera operators are not focusing on them at all.

The intended communications goals are likely not being reached. The only buzz around the partnership I have been hearing is laughter over announcers not being able to tell the difference between an iPad and Surface tablet.


Source link

New Instagram Data Has Marketers Grinning

The power of social media is becoming more and more valuable to companies of all sizes. Instagram has the power of visuals fueling its climb up the social media platform rankings. Major companies are catching on as engagement levels climb at a rapid rate. 

"Simply Measured" studied the Interbrand Top 100 list on Instagram during the third quarter and compared the data to its 2012 and 2013 benchmarks for the same period. 

They shared their findings with AdWeek, 

1. Big players have gotten on board. During 2012 Q3, 54 of the Interbrand top 100 brands had Instagram accounts. By the third quarter this year, that number rose to 86.
2. And they are active. Seventy-three percent of those 86 brands post at least one photo or video per week. Those posting at least once daily tripled year over year in Q3 with the total number jumping to 20.
3. Audiences are blowing up. The number of top 100 brands with more than 10,000 followers grew by 34 year over year in Q3 and now total 62 companies. And the number of brands with greater than 100,000 followers grew from 15 to 34.
4. The Swoosh leads. Fifteen of the brands have more than 1 million followers, with Nike leading the way at 7.3 million.
5. Engagement has generally jumped. The average engagement rate—which tallies comments and likes together—per post rose 415 percent in Q3 2014 compared to the same period 2012. The top brands averaged 18,822 likes and comments. During Q3 2012, they averaged 3,648 engagements.
6. Good posts have a long tail. The brands on the Interbrand list accrued an average of 216 comments, with 50 percent of them coming in the first six hours. While 75 percent of consumer comments were posted during the initial 48 hours, 10 percent of comments came after 13 days.
7. But great posts often kick in a little later. The highest-performing images and videos peak late, with more than 50 percent of their comments arriving after 13 hours of being live.
8. Brief copy is popular. The average caption is 138 characters long, but Simply Measured found no significant correlation between text length and engagement rate.
9. Using @mentions helps big time. On average, posts that entail another user's handle or @mention in the caption get 56 percent more engagement. But only 36 percent of brand posts involve at least one @mention.
10. #brandposts don't go overboard. Eighty-eight percent of posts studied included at least a single hashtag. Yet hashtags are usually few: 91 percent of posts have seven or less.
11. Though, hashtags provide a boost. Posts with at least a single hashtag average 12.6 percent more engagement.
12. Location, location, location. While just 5 percent of Instagram posts tag a location, the ones that do use this feature get 79 percent more engagement.
13. Huge media brands are few, but killing it. Only four media firms from the Interbrand list are active on Instagram, but they average 62 percent more posts per month when compared with other niches in the study. They average 23,906 engagements per post, which adds up to 5,084 more likes and comments per post compared to other sectors.
14. Carmakers are not shy on Instagram. The automotive industry has 13 Interbrand top 100 names on Instagram, beating all other categories.

Source: AdWeek 

Logo Power

Show almost anyone anywhere in the world the Nike Swoosh or McDonald's Golden Arches and they will know what it is. Logos are powerful tools. Good logos need no description or company name to gain attention.

The infographic below shows you how your brain breaks down a logo and how the process can affect your actions.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/238484

And The Beat Goes On...

On October 9, 2014 the NFL fined San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick $10,000 for wearing Beats headphones during a press conference. The fine was administered due to the promotion of a product not sponsored by the NFL. According to Comcast SportsNet Bay Area, players only allowed to wear headsets made by NFL sponsor Bose during interviews. The rule lasts 90 minutes following the end of a game.

What does this mean for a marketer?

Image.

The market for headphones over $100 was worth more than $1 billion last year, according to research firm NPD Group. Beats holds 61 percent market share, while Bose holds 22 percent market share. I know I would not have guessed that. Bose has been around decades longer and has a sophisticated image. Beats is more edgy and appeals to a younger demographic. This sort of rebellion and personality expressed by Kaepernick plays well into the image of Beats. It is also a source of free publicity as people write about it (you're welcome). 

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-10-10/getting-banned-by-the-nfl-is-great-for-beats?campaign_id=yhoo 

The Power of Emotion

The average chocolate bar is a simple, inexpensive snack food. What makes a good chocolate bar? The ingredients? The packaging? In the short clip below from AMC's Mad Men, Don Draper shows the power of emotion associated with a product as simple as a chocolate bar.

Both stories shared by Don are proof that a Hershey's bar is more than just an average chocolate bar. It is a symbol of his childhood representing brief moments of happiness. What is happiness? In season 6 Don describes it as "a moment before you need more happiness." People have strong emotional ties to products that drive high and low involvement purchases. Marketers use this to their advantage. They assist in creating and reminding consumers of relationships with different products. 

Blogging: What's the big deal?

Blog- Web-based journals containing opinions about anything and everything. They provide real-time content searchable by anyone that drives conversations on a micro and/or macro level.

The Four Uses of Blogs for Marketing and PR

1.      To easily monitor what publics are saying about you, the market you sell into, your organization, and its products.

2.      To participate in conversations by commenting on other blogs.

3.      To work with bloggers who write about your industry, company, or products.

4.      To begin to shape conversations by creating and writing your own blog.

What to blog about

1.      Start with a narrow subject and leave room to expand. Be authentic. Interesting and valuable content helps build your blog’s readership.

2.      Relate current events to what is happening with your business.

Blogging basics

1.      Carefully consider blog names.

2.      About page: Photo, bio, affiliations, info about blog.

3.      Encourage people to contact you.

4.      Do not post excessively on your company, products or services.  

5.      People interested in learning more about your company will go the company website.  

      Top blog platforms

1.      Blogger.com

a.       Owned by Google (can use google account).

b.      No cost to start.

c.       Limited control over blog.

2.      Wordpress.org

a.       Total control over blog.

b.      Hire a designer to help design and develop your site, and get it installed on the server.

c.       Must purchase server space and your domain name. $6-$12 per month.

3.      Wordpress.com

a.       Free for 3GB or storage.

b.      Must purchase server space and your domain name. $6-$12 per month.

c.       Limited theme support.

Which to choose

Professional bloggers, most businesses bloggers and bloggers wanting superior customization use Wordpress.org.

Bloggers wanting to start small that are willing to pay for more options in the future start on wordpress.com and can upgrade to wordpress.org. 

Casual/beginning bloggers on a budget use Blogger. If superior customization is not required, Blogger is sufficient. Blogger blogs can be converted to WordPress blogs if necessary. 

Achieving Brand Media Strategy Communication Goals

More often than not, brand media strategies are judged on the campaigns themselves rather than on what they are intended to accomplish. Sure, creative campaigns catch the eyes of industry professionals and may receive the attention of the general public, but doing so is not necessarily its fundamental role.

For car maker Volvo, the goal was to sell cars... and they did. Just 47 hours after taking orders for the 2015 Volvo XC90 crossover, all 1,927 First Edition models were put on reserve. Volvo says most of them were reserved within an hour of the online ordering site going live. At its peak, seven cars per minute were sold.

This was the first time the brand held an online only sale making www.volvocars.com the only place someone could get their hands on the new car. Volvo is taking this victory as a learning tool as it looks to use similar techniques in future campaigns.

Link to article

Who am I?

My name is Alex Constantine and I am a senior studying marketing communications and advertising at the AACSB accredited Western New England University in Springfield, MA. I display exceptional leadership and problem solving skills gained through various experiences including the Sophomore Experience Abroad program. I completed this program in the fall of 2012 at Richmond the American International University in London. Studying abroad also taught me how to adapt to new situations and work with others in a foreign environment.

After returning from London, I joined the Western New England University Entrepreneurship Club and became a marketing officer. In the spring of 2014 I was voted co-president. As co-president I help coordinate events both on and off campus connecting students with local entrepreneurs and alumni. Furthermore, I have boosted the club’s online presence using social media to help recruit new members and promote events.

Starting in October of 2013 and ending in April of 2014, I interned at Market Mentors, LLC; a full service marketing agency in West Springfield, MA. At Market Mentors I wrote press releases, assisted in creating promotional campaigns, and performed high level research.

Looking forward, one of my goals is to have a role in creating a 30-second Super Bowl commercial within the next five years.