by Miriam Hara | Jan 19, 2014 | Advertising, Latest
The Olympic Games are quickly approaching and brands are all out there with emotive and sports related advertising . No sooner have we recovered from ringing in the new year and all the holiday season advertising, we are now being served with heart tugging emotive advertising. It goes without saying the Marketers have realized that they don’t need to be an actual Olympic sponsor to jump on the coat tails of the winter Olympic games. Brand Sponsors and non sponsors alike have realized the benefits of not only presenting brands emotively, but offering up a good dose of inspiration.
None has done the job of inspiring and bringing tears to our eyes than P&G, with its Tribute to Moms. To call this creative piece an ad, does not do justice to the concept or intent. This is not an ad: this is a tribute to the dedication and commitment of Moms all over the world. Cross culture. Cross Border. It inspires all, acknowledges all…nothing left to say, but pass the tissue please! (and let’s hope it’s a tissue from P&G!)
However, brands aren’t the only ones capitalizing on emotion and inspiration. Countries and their sports affiliates have fine-tuned the art of emotive advertising to a science.
In Canada, the Canadian Olympic Games association has launched a “We are Winter” initiative that is inspiring as it is culturally in line with Canadian thinking.
With less than a month to go for the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia to get here, the Canadian Olympic Games has launched its “We Are Winter” campaign. The Calgary Herald reported that the campaign features two 60-second and four 30-second television spots, as well as one 15-second spot.
On the olympic.ca site, the videos are engaging and beautifully executed, highlighting 17 athletes with their stories and challenges all the while, articulating their competitive sport in very human terms. At once they are emotional, inspiring and dare I say a tad patriotic. Here are a few of them.
Kaillie Humphries
Roz Groenewoud
Denny Morrison
Hope you enjoyed this Canadian inspiration. Let the Olympic Games begin!
by Belinda Lui | Jan 11, 2014 | Latest, Social Media
Business blogging, or what has now been coined as content marketing, has increasingly become a good source of networking for businesses. As I sit here, ready to write my first blog post of 2014, I am aware of how difficult it is to constantly provide valuable information that will be relevant for 3H’s target audience and potential business partners.
The 3Hhoopla Blog and content generation was our priority for the year 2013. We have achieved a visibility among peers and that was no easy task. Creating content was at the forefront of our initiatives as was leveraging that content on our Facebook Page and Twitter community…. and more specifically our LinkedIn group. This took time and effort, but well worth both.
Here are some good business blogging blockbusters that have enabled us to overcome the forever blinking cursor waiting for the start of a thought! Hope these help!
Be mindful:
Be ready to note ideas… anywhere… anytime. It used to be that you needed a pen and notepad by your bed, just in case you had a great idea. Not so today. Mobile devices and the ease of note-taking has never been easier. Be prepared and open to see anything from a conversation to a client question to an internal discussion with colleagues as material for blog content. Be prepared to also capture those thoughts somewhere…anywhere for future reference.
Develop a process:
It’s important to develop a process in which you prepare yourself to write. Writing isn’t easy for everyone… so why make it any harder? Create an environment which you will be able to get down and write with limited amount of interruption. Yes, this does sound like meditation and in fact, I do believe it is. Once you create a process and environment which you initiate a few times, your mind will be aware of the cues, making it easier for you to focus and write.
Create thought paragraphs:
When you do start writing, allow yourself to go off on tangents.I know this goes against many other recommendations: you definitely need to establish the premise of your content, however, sometimes by letting go and writing instinctively, a blog post will write itself. Create what I term to be “thought paragraphs”. Thanks to technology, it’s easy to copy and paste and juggle thought statements to develop a cohesive blog post.
Checklist your keywords:
Content creation for brands and businesses must be focused. It’s not just about writing. It’s about establishing your business, brand or product on the horizon of the internet. It’s about getting found. Establish your basic premise and focus on the keywords that speak to the basic premise of your business. List them and always go back to these words and create a list of secondary keywords that are relevant to the primary keywords. This will enable you to establish a checklist to evaluate each blog post to make sure that they build on your overall content marketing strategy.
Hopefully these tips will be handy for your business content in 2014!
by Belinda Lui | Jan 9, 2014 | Latest, Social Media
A Social Strategy is one that every business should implement — given that we’re well into the digital age, it would be a bad business choice to rule out altogether. Given that you do decide to approach the Social Strategy challenge, there are aspects to every platform that you should consider. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all formula to promoting product or services online. So before you do, take a look at these 8 statistics on social media platforms:
To create a successful Social Strategy, consider these 8 statistics on Social Media:
1. THE FASTEST GROWING DEMOGRAPHIC ON TWITTER IS THE 55–64 YEAR AGE BRACKET.
This demographic has grown 79% since 2012. This is especially important to consider since the prevailing idea that social media is “just for teenagers” is clearly no longer the case. It certainly points to the importance of having a solid social media strategy if these age brackets fit into your target demographic.
2. 189 MILLION OF FACEBOOK’S USERS ARE “MOBILE ONLY”
There are probably more users accessing Facebook from their mobile device than you thought. Consider this fact when you’re creating an ad or content and how it might be viewed in this manner. Mobile use generates 30% of Facebook’s ad revenue.
3. YOUTUBE REACHES MORE U.S. ADULTS AGED 18–34 THAN ANY CABLE NETWORK
Did you think TV was the best way to reach the masses? Well if you’re after the 18–34 year old demographic in the U.S., you’ll have more luck reaching them through YouTube. Of course, one video won’t necessarily reach more viewers than a cable network could, but utilizing a platform with such a wide user base makes a lot of sense.
4. EVERY SECOND TWO NEW MEMBERS JOIN LINKEDIN
LinkedIn, the social network for professionals, continues to grow every second. From groups to blogs to job listings, this platform is a rich source of information and conversation for professionals who want to connect to others in their industry.
5. LINKEDIN HAS A LOWER PERCENTAGE OF ACTIVE USERS THAN PINTEREST, GOOGLE+, TWITTER AND FACEBOOK
Although LinkedIn has a fast growing network of new users, they are also less active than their social media counterparts. Consider hosting contests and surveys on sites like Facebook and Twitter and your news-related content for LinkedIn.
6. 93% OF MARKETERS USE SOCIAL MEDIA FOR BUSINESS
There is reportedly only 7% of Marketers that aren’t using Social Media for their business. If you’re a part of that statistic, it might be time to hop on the Social Strategy bandwagon!
7. 25% OF SMARTPHONE OWNERS AGES 18–44 SAY THEY CAN’T RECALL THE LAST TIME THEIR SMARTPHONE WASN’T NEXT TO THEM
This means that at least 25% of smartphone owners are pretty much always connected. You can reach them through various platforms at any time of the day.
8. EVEN THOUGH 62% OF MARKETERS BLOG OR PLAN TO BLOG IN 2014, ONLY 9% OF US MARKETING COMPANIES EMPLOY A FULL-TIME BLOGGER
Blogging is clearly a big focus for marketers who want to take advantage of social media and content marketing. This is great, because blogging for your business has lots of advantages: you can control your company blog, you can set the tone and use it to market your product, share company news or provide interesting information for your customers. With only 9% of marketing companies hiring bloggers full-time, however, the pressure to produce high-quality content consistently will be a lot higher.
(Information from: Fast Company)
by Belinda Lui | Jan 6, 2014 | Latest, Social Media
In a generation of file-sharing, we may find that the lines that separate innocent enjoyment and online piracy to be a bit blurred. First, it was Napster that took a major hit in 2001 when record labels went after the file-sharing giant for copyright infringement that eventually resulted in its bankruptcy. Now Megaupload, a company that started in 2005, was charged for allegedly operating as a business dedicated to copyright infringement in January of 2012. Like YouTube, Megaupload was a website where users could upload videos and share them with friends. Unfortunately, the videos that were uploaded weren’t always legally owned by the users. Megaupload faced many criticisms about online piracy that eventually led to Kim Dotcom, Megaupload’s owner, being arrested.
You can watch Vice‘s mini-documentary on the Megaupload case here:
This controversial case surrounds the argument of whether it is ultimately the service provider or the end-user’s fault. Kim Dotcom argues that it is not the company’s responsibility to monitor and track the activity of its users in its entirety.In his defense, YouTube offers the same service and gets much less slack for the same type of activity. Albeit, YouTube does a mediocre job at monitoring the activity on its site, there is still plenty of copyright infringement happening without any real consequence, it seems.
The topic of online file-sharing has been a tricky one for years. If I’m sharing a song or video with a friend with the sole intention of expression, should it still be considered a crime? It seems clear that when files are shared for the purpose of making money, it is a crime. What if it’s not? At what point does it become illegal? Who is to blame? As a form of Social Media, what should businesses be aware of to avoid criticism in copyright infringement?
In the case of Kim Dotcom and Megaupload, what are your thoughts on how the trial should pan out?
by Belinda Lui | Jan 3, 2014 | Latest, Social Media
I remember when Pinterest was first getting popular and served as one of the biggest distractions when I was trying to study for exams. I liked the humorous posts and fashion boards. A few years later, my friends started getting married and Pinterest was an excellent way to brainstorm ideas for bridal showers and cute DIY projects. As the end user, I can definitely see how Pinterest marketing would be a good outlet to implement a campaign to leverage a product or service. As a business, you might want to know…
5 statistics on Pinterest Marketing to consider for your marketing strategy:
1) Conversion rates for Pinterest traffic are 50% higher than other social media sites:
In other words Pinterest drives more traffic. The click-through from Pinterest to your website and then ultimately purchasing your product or service, is ultimately what you want.
2) Pinterest buyers spend more money, more often, on more items than any of the other top 5 social media sites.
Which makes sense — you can appeal to the consumer visually, with a convenient link to your website.
3) 47% of U.S. online consumers have made a purchase based on recommendations from Pinterest.
What this means is that your content has the potential to make a major influence if it is repinned often. This is especially true because Pinterest networks are made up of friends — and people trust their friends.
4) Pinterest generates 4x more revenue (per click) than Twitter and 27% more per click than Facebook.
Pinterest has been referred to as a “top of the funnel channel” — this is because it sends more new and potential customers to your site than Twitter and Facebook. Being a strong lead generator, Pinterest has earned its name in the marketing arena for online sellers.
5) 80% of total pinterest pins are repins.
Which means, original content makes up 1/4 the amount of total content on Pinterest. Designing content that is relevant and shareable will increase the likelihood of it being repinned.
(Statistics from: Social Media Today)
What are some examples of excellent Pinterest marketing?
