Social media fails from brands

To complete with my last blog post i thought that i would finish with something a bit funny and entertaining, but still relevant. I have compiled my 5 favourite digital marketing fails. The fails provide us with an example of what to avoid when endeavouring to grow your business as well as how not to communicate with your potential customers. They also demonstrate the ways that social media in particular can be detrimental to a brand and work against what a marketing team is working towards as it provide a platform to share negative information about the brand.

1. Avril Lavigne’s Meet and greet photos

Super excited fans were told to keep their distance at a meet and greet for the Canadian Celebrity. When the images hit social media she faced a lot of backlash about being extremely hands of and unfriendly. This quickly spread and negatively effected how many other looked at her.

2. Victoria Secret, the perfect body 

Victoria secret launched its campaign promoting what they saw as the perfect body. The image which showed model thin women all in victory secret lingerie received much public scrutiny for giving an unfair depiction of what the perfect body was. It was slammed for spreading the wrong image particularly to young impressionable women of what their body image should be.

3.  Shinderera, Lily James

On a promotional visit to Japan for the 2015 Movie Cinderella, Lily James who plays condoler took to social media to thank those who were present posting “Shinderera premiere in Tokyo.  The final stop on tour and it was a beautiful cold night, thank you” on her instagram account. She received some negative attention but it was discovered that she was not poking fun at the Japanese accent but rather had written the romanised version of ‘Cinderella’ in Japanese.

4. MYNYPD

The New York police department created a Hashtag that was to serve as a way to get the community involved by encouraging internet users to post personal pictures of themselves with the NYPD officers. It began well with most people posting images of themselves smiling and happy with officers, but the hashtag eventually evolved into spreading images of police brutality to New Yorkers. Not quite whether had in mind…

5. Pizza Hut, Fat Pink lady

Pizza Hut received a lot of bad feed back when an image of a receipt which showed that an employee had written ‘pink fat lady’ on a recipe to describe a customer. Pizza hut Singapore where the incident took place was forced to apologise for the for what had been written on the receipt, if it had not been for social media this receipt would not have received such widespread attention.

So theres some things to be have a look at and keep in mind when using social media. It can be a powerful tool of creation and destruction. When there is such a large audience that can be reached, the message must always be managed. Social media makes brands accountable for their actions and gives individuals the opportunity to share their experiences.

How to use a hashtag and some things to avoid

The hashtag has been named as the ‘children’s word of the year’- Oxford University press

A lot of social media campaigns now feature a relevant hashtag that enables internet users to be directed to their posts that include this hashtag if they search that brand or the same words used in the hashtag, allowing them to join the conversation. To a average person, the hashtag is just a series of words that have been chosen because they are relevant to the the product being marketed, But its not the case. Marketers make a lot of decisions about their communications messages for a specify purpose and to ensure the best effect. There are some common should do and common should avoids when choosing what is the best hashtag for your campaign. Trawling though  few informative pegs have combined the top 2 things I believe are important when selecting your hashtag and some common errors that ca be observed from failed hashtags.

2 things to DO!

1. Make your hashtag specific to your brand, and no one else’s
   There are so many hashtags now online that if the one chosen for your marketing campaign is too generic, it will not differentiate itself from any other images or concepts that internet users view online. The purpose of a hashtag is being able to direct the attention of the potential consumer from the media you provide them with back to your brand. If consumers cannot identify what brand that is then your marketing will have little to no effect.
2. Make your hashtag transferable between campaigns
   Hashtags can generate great followings if well done and can provide consumers a great chance to contribute to the brand by using them. Therefore, it is important to decide on a hashtag that can be continually associated with the brand in the future. #givesyouwings, the promotional hashtag for Red Bull has remained the same since the brand began to spread it message online using the tag. Keeping it consistent avoids consumers having to keep up with the changes and accumulates a following that can be maintained.

2 Things to AVOID!

1. Avoid #makingyourhastagtoolongsonoonecnnbebotheredusingit
   Hashtags need to be functional, customers have to be able to place it in their own posts and join the conversation that the marketers of that brand are trying to generate. A long drawn out hashtag does not have the short sharp impact of a well chosen hashtag. It is far less memorable as there are too many words to process.
2. Avoid #hashtagging #too #much
   It is a common error for people promoting brands to use too many hashtags in their posts. As stated in the Do’s of hash tagging, they need to be specific. Having too many hashtags of each element related to your core concept takes away from what it is that your trying to convey. You loose the strength of promoting a message to be understood and contributed to.It also often looks to desperate for followers and can attract the wrong type of followers who are just after followers themselves.

The 7th annual shorty awards!

The shorty awards took place on the 20th of April 2015 in New York, their 7th annual awards ceremony. The Shorty awards purpose is to recognise the best creators of content on the most popular social media platforms. The awards are specific to recognising artists, athletes, comedians, parents and many other individuals in their fields that are making a big impact on the social media sites.

Here are some of the winners from the awards and a quick look at what they are contributing online.

Maria Popova is the creator behind social media blog “Brain picking” which brings together some of the best content on the net into one time consuming media outlet. She reads obsessively and then shares the content on her site that she finds the most interesting in an array of fields. and to date has 564K followers on her twitter page linked to her blog.

Conan O’Brien was a well known face on the tonight show but after being replaced due to low ratings he was not allowed to appear on TV for 9 months. Within the 9 months his team of advisors launched a comprehensive media campaign that focused on keeping his face current and relevant to avoid people forget about him. What followed was a cumulative following of 1.7 million twitter followers by the time he returned to the screen.

Better know for his screen name PewDiePie, Felix has created hundreds of videos on his youtube channel “let’s play”. The channel features Felix playing games whilst filming himself and providing commentary as well as reviews of games and gaming consoles. The Swedish blogger has a a 37 million strong following on his channels with many of his videos reaching viral status.

Marala Scott was an abuse victim from that age of five years old, which she suffered at the hands of her father. Marala has now turned her life around and uses her sad experiences to provide hope and strength to other victims. She is motivational speaker and author who caught Oprah’s attention and now features as one of her “ambassadors of hope” to support abuse victims. She has a twitter following of 143 thousand.

All the winners have been commended for effectively spreading their message on social media. They have been able to use social media to their full advantage, growing their name and spreading their message.

Who are your favourite social media personalities? comment below.

Mobile devices taking over dominating usage of social media

In a recent study of trends for 2015 conducted by Kleiner Perkins Caulfeild Buyers I found a really interesting trend regarding the time individuals in the USA spend of various forms of digital media from 2008 and 2015. The image is as seen below.

In the diagram we can observe that from 2008 there is a clear trend of increase in time spent on digital media, increasing from 2.7 hours per day on average to 5.6 hours per day on average. There are however also some more specific trends within this graph that i found particular interest in particular the increase in using mobile devices to access digital media. Whilst the use of digital media has remained relatively the same ranging from 2.2 to 2.6 hours per day from 2008 to 2015, mobile usage has increased by more than 9 times its usage in 2008. Mobile usage for digital media now represents 51% of total daily usage, more than half the average total usage.

This stat has been increasing due to a range of lifestyle changes. Individuals are accessing digital media when they are in transit or at work on their mobile phones as it enables them to multi task and is more convenient. With touch screens prevalent on most if not all mobile devices brewing had now become more intuitive and easier than using a laptop.

This is an important trend for marketers to keep in mind with their IMC strategies and choosing what mediums they present their marketing promotions to potential consumers. As most individuals are on mobile devices to browse on the internet, brands must ensure that their information is accessible on these devices. Creating applications to provide consumers access and ensuring they have a mobile site that formats to the screens of mobile devices are two ways that marketers can ensure that they are not missing excluding the largest portion of digital media users. Failing to provide access to such a large amount of users can be greatly detrimental to the achieving the brands marketing strategies.

Marketers cannot simply focus on the content that they provide, if they are not also considering the channels of distribution for their marketing media then the content can easily be unseen and be ineffective. This trend demonstrated in the graph also emphasises the importance of research in the marketing field.

Leave your comments below!

Shopping with all the information and no price

Social media is growing as a large trend in shopping, playing an important role in bridging the gap between in store and online shopping. I have however noticed a trend in relation to viewing products online through social media pages of brands. Brands that do not provide a service where products can be purchased directly from online are not placing the pricing information onto their social media images of the products. This is particularly true for high end shopping brands such as Prada and a Melbourne based luxury fashion retailer Le Louvre.

In my previous post I spoke about how there were some elements of social marketing that made growth of luxury goods brands online difficult. Although a potential contributing factor, I think that key to understanding the concept is considering the abilities of the business. If a business is not able or choosing not to sell its products online and operate with a selling style that is more suitable to having customers within the store, then this concept will be suitable to them. With all the information about the product size as design features, materials, size and label its is clear to decide whether we like a product or not, but without the price, most price conscious shoppers cannot decide whether they can purchase it or not. Attracting consumers to a product by presenting the imagery in a well created and designed layout with specifications generates desire for the product. If consumers head into the store rather than continue to peruse through the website, then retailers have a better chance at making a sale by providing staff to assist with the purchasing decision. Consumers are almost pushed into the stores to find out the price of an item by the retailer by using selective information.

However, this may not be a direct example of marketing selling techniques. Consumers who purchase luxury goods are often seeking more than just the item they are purchasing. High cost items particularly in retail of fashion items come with the expectation of service standards and the experience of purchasing the product, not just attaining it. By encouraging consumers to purchase their good in store rather than online it sustains the brand image of a luxury brand and gives the customers the intrinsic value that comes with purchasing exclusive items.

In a survey conducted on 1000 respondents in Australia and New Zealand, 43% of respondents preferred the service they received in store to shopping online. – (Connellan, P.  2014)

Social media is not currently used as a common method to transact sales, but has become a prominent element of the information search of consumers.  limiting the information provided to consumers online can affect the way a transaction occurs and the way that the customer perceives the transaction. Purchasing luxury goods is not an event that is commonly associated with being efficient and saving time, it is a rewarding and personal experience. I believe that retailers that continue to encourage customers to come in store rather than purchase online are making a positive decision for the image of their brand.

What’s your opinion? do you think limiting the information to consumers particularly in the luxury goods industry is a selling technique or is it with the intention of ensuring that the purchaser of the luxury good is receiving the full experience and adding value. Leave your comments below.

Celebrity digital marketing, what we are really observing

Hang on blue, momma is marketing herself on Facebook.

Online social media has given us much exposure to the lifestyles of famous celebrities, elite athletes and other persons of interest and show us a behind the scenes and everyday information about them. But is what we are observing how they really are behind doors? My belief is that the information and media these celebrities provide to us (if it is them at all) is all to construct an image of how they want to be perceived in their daily life rather than reality.

Similarly to reality TV, where most scenes from our favourite shows such as ‘real house wives of everywhere’ and ‘Dance moms’ feature constructed scenarios, media from social pages of celebrities provide us with a constructed hyper reality and not a real depiction. For most celebrities, their Facebook and twitter pages allow them to look engaged and interactive with their fans whilst not really engaging with them at all. For most celebrities, their social media pages act as an element of their integrated marketing communications for their target market of fans. To attract continued attention from their followers and find new followers online by posting interesting media and information.

Social media has enabled actors, singers, athletes to group their followers all together and feed them a specific message about themselves which is inline with how their followers perceive them to be. Here is a look at the most followed actors on twitter and Facebook in 2014 from Deadline hollywood’s webpage.

From these images we can observe that there is no real correlation between what type of celebrity is receiving the largest following, just that they are all famous. But one piece of information is very interesting, Vin Diesel was the highest followed celebrity actor for 2014 April. He had one of the largest levels of growth increasing his following by 46% within 6 months (Busch, A. 2014). But what caused this sudden jump in popularity? The answer is, his tribute to is late friend Paul Walker who tragically passed away. From viewing his emotional outpour on Facebook fans felt as though they were truly seeing the real Vin Diesel and social media users who were not previously followers felt that they had really connected to him.

So what does this mean for other celebrities who’s online media following is not growing at such a rate as that of Vin Diesel’s?
BE REAL

The wider public want to see the reality faced by these celebrities, not just positive media and promotional information about their latest tour or movie. Consumer’s want to be able to really engage with their idols. Although Twitter has given a better capability for celebrities to do so, much of the usage still feels like one way media and makes the celebrities seem untouchable. Consumers want to know that when they see a post from a social media page of a celeb that it’s really that celeb posting it, otherwise it carries little value. These actors, singers, sports people and other people of interest need to take the time to do their own marketing and not through their social media team as consumers can see the difference.

Leave your comment below, does viewing content from social media pages of celebrities that you know id not them turn you off?

Is social media for luxury brands?

Social media has enabled a new medium of exposure to consumers that Brands and companies have relished and used to grow their businesses. A significant attribute of social media that has enabled increased exposure of the brands is that we can now reach more consumers through their internet usage. There are no longer geographical barriers that mean consumers only find out about a product or service if the are in the right location to view the brands marketing promotions. We are now able to bring the marketing to the consumers where the younger consumers in particular are most active.

But what if your whole brand image is created on that basis of exclusivity, is there a place for it in a medium which aims to engage with as many people as possible? This is an issue that has faced luxury brands such as Gucci, Prada, Burberry and the luxury good retailers. The key differences have been listed below in am image obtained from the FC Tech Group website.

As demonstrated, there is a clear misalignment in attitudes regarding inclusivity and exclusivity, barriers to entry and who they are involved with.  However there are some brands which are still demonstrating that they are able to find benefits in the use of social media. Although the two may not seem to show signs that they can operate together for the interest of the brand i found some interesting information from markeiting strategist Hassib Naserri who states:

Luxury brands need aspirational customers in order to maintain the status of the brand
– Hassib  Naserri

What this means is that although a luxury brand may endeavour to exclude consumers who are unable to purchase their products, their value is not appreciated if these very consumers are not admiring and aspiring the products and services they provide. The exclusion of these admirers is what gives value to the brand.

Social media enables the luxury brands to show the products they provide to the wider market to benefit its business growth in two ways.

1. By providing product information that leads to sales
2. By information the wider community of what their brand offers and increasing the perceived value of consumers admiring what they may be unable to purchase.

Regardless of the hesitance to join the social media revolution there are examples of luxury brands that have thrived online.

Although only generating 5% of their sales from online, Gucci has demonstrated that combining the old marketing techniques with the new capabilities of digital technology can greatly advance a brand. They discovered that regardless of the minimal 5% of real sales online, 50% of their sales began online from consumers researching the product they wanted. Gucci has been able to establish their brand online without damaging it image as a luxury brand through competent integration of their in store and online services that uphold the personification of their brand.

Other Luxury brands, should be less hesitant to develop their digital presence. With well planned marketing strategies that keep the image of the brand at its core, they will also be able to enjoy the potential growth they can achieve online.

Leave your comments below, do you agree that all luxury brands should endeavour to conquer social and digital media?

Brands deleting comments, also delete our trust

With social media providing such an open platform for internet users, it is not surprising that users turn to Facebook, Instagram, twitter and other social media platforms to vent their frustrations about issues they have with brands. These negative comments can often taint a well-known brands image and is not a situation that any trusted brand wants to find itself in. No brand or company appreciates their image being dragged into the mud in such a public arena like the internet and most wish they could just make the comments disappear.

However, what happens when that’s exactly what they do?

On a recent trip to Perth I discovered that parents travelling with infants do not have preferential seating to seats with bassinets if there is a QANTAS member that has requested the seats first.

To notify QANTAS of their grievance with the companies seating policy, the father of the child went to Facebook to share his distaste over the situation directly onto the QANTAS Facebook page. His key points were, why have the facilities if you cannot provide them to those who need them. Upon checking for the post, it was no longer on the page.

So what does deleting the post say about the brand? ALOT

Brands that delete comments from customers are perceived as fearful, uncooperative, and nontransparent.
Failing to see the value from understanding the complaints of customers and not acting on them is clearly to the detriment of the brand. It leads consumers to feel that in this instance QANTAS is not a brand of integrity but instead one that cannot be trusted or is attempting to hide.

If QANTAS had of attended to the post and approached it in a personal and empathetic nature, the effect to their image would have been positive regardless of the negative post. Brands that take the time to understand the issues of their consumers and work with them are using social media as a feedback tool to develop their business for the better.

Consumers value transparency and social media has enabled the highlighting of brands which are both becoming increasingly transparent and those continually attempting to control a media platform that has enabled greater than ever freedom of speech.

Why they will #TurnitBlue for #TIDALforALL

If you follow any prominent music celebs on their Twitter or Facebook you may have seen a specific shade of blue appear on your news feed today as the profile picture and cover photos of Usher, Rihanna, Nikki Minaj, Madonna, Beyonce and more.

These artists have changed their profile pictures all as part of a marketing campaign for a #TIDAL. A new music streaming service which is being redeveloped by Jay Z who also changed his profile and cover photo to the aquamarine blue in support.

Mr. Carter gains support through the industry and lets all the fans know about it

These profile pictures are endeavouring to gain exposure and attention for the high quality streaming service TIDAL before Jay Z will announce his plans for the streaming program in a press conference during this week.

The streaming program already boasts that it will be “the first service that combines the best high fidelity sound quality, high-definition music videos and expertly curated editorials”.

A monthly subscription means that artists will be fairly compensated from consumers using #TIDAL. Spotify has come under criticism for not fairly compensating artists in the past with some artists such as Taylor Swift removing their music from the application. As artists will be fairly compensated it appears that Tidal will feature a more comprehensive selection of music as artists will not feel as though they are being short-changed. Tidal is also going to be major competition for Spotify and most other music streaming providers as it also boasts three times the quality.

I found this to be a really interesting piece of marketing. We have seen celebrity endorsements used again and again and there is ample evidence of its effectiveness both in traditional and digital marketing. Similar to last years ALS ice bucket challenge, social media enables celebrities to place their support behind a cause to a crowd of their followers who have an interest in what they have to say, this leads to a greater impact.

In using a colour and not direct advertisements this smart marketing campaign has caught Peoples curiosity. Social media followers see the colour on the pages of the music artists and seek out information to find out what these artists are joining forces in support of. If consumers are researching in response to something interesting they have seen they are not as likely to feel as though they have been tricked by a marketing ploy, as they appear to be the ones in control. The element of mystery creates conversation which drives the campaign to becoming viral.

The #TIDALforALL campaign relies heavily on the involvement of the consumer. If consumers didn’t seek out what the blue images meant, the images alone would not explain what their purpose was. I wonder if this is a risky form of digital marketing in some industries that do not have such passionate and involved followers as the music industry. Jay Z has chosen to use the highest profile artists to promote his new venture into high quality music streaming. It appears to me that the success of this sort of campaign is only achievable where the personalities used command a high level of influence.

What’s your opinion? do you think that this style of campaign can be effectively applied into other industries? Comment Below

#Netflix cutting the cable on TVC`

Netflix has finally arrived on our shores. To most, this probably means that study and everything else you were meant to do on a given night, has just became about 100 times more difficult, as the excuse “well, there’s nothing on”, no longer exists. With 11 000 TV shows and movies, there will always be something to watch.
But it’s now another obstacle for marketers, Netflix lets viewers zip and zap and watch a fraction of the amount of TVCs, that were once unavoidable, this has brought opportunities and challenges in it’s arrival.

If we don’t want to watch TVC’s anymore we don’t have to and this can limit the exposure of TVCs and therefore their effectiveness in gaining attention to inform customers. This means that digital marketing needs to be creative, meaningful and engaging so that consumers seek out the marketing media of a brand and avoid pressing skip on Youtube ads.

On demand content of movies and TV shows enables marketers to tailor the advertising experience of consumers as they can now profile and monitor what shows are being viewed. With certain demographics being drawn to watch particular shows, marketers can now more effectively reach their target market and save budget, no longer having to spend more and share media through channels which can sometimes be incompatible with the target market. Being able to look at the demographic of a movie and tailoring the advertisements to this demographic is highly beneficial as reaching target audiences becomes more difficult both now and in the future.

Do marketers now need to be more like our friends, than our foes that spam our webpages with junk? I think so.
Netflix and other digital streaming programs are now more like a mutually beneficial relationship, marketers show us what we want and we respond, just like they want us to.

As much as Netflix is cutting the airtime of TVCs, I believe its allowing them to be more efficient and effective. Netflix is bringing TVCs into a more consumer focused era of marketing.

Do you agree that Netflix is bringing TVCs into the future and keeping them relevant? let me know what you think below