by Felicitas Ritter | Feb 14, 2014 | Advertising, Latest
Over the last several years, we seem to be focusing more and more on reality for our entertainment. From Survivor to The Real Housewives to Big Brother… apparently voyeurism sells very well. The same trend has also been cropping up over the years in advertising.
The Dove campaign for real beauty was highly successful and original when it first launched in 2004. Since then, we’ve seen many more advertisers following suit using people who appear to be appreciating products in real-life (even if in actuality they may be paid actors). Febreze has filmed people smell testing their products in a variety of disgusting situations since 2011. And in 2013, a Pepsi commercial that received a great deal of attention was one created from a test driving prank at a dealership with Jeff Gordon.
Perhaps this new fascination with reality is in part because we are so interconnected
…through the media, Internet, cell phones – whenever anything of significance happens, we hear about it almost instantaneously. And with the rise of social media, people photographing and posting “selfies” with their favourite things is now very commonplace and popular. It’s also putting a shelf-life on our celebrities who may or may not be able to maintain the images they would like too – which may make using “real” people as spokespersons a safer bet in the long-run.
When one of our athletes wins a medal at the Olympics, there’s an app to give us the download. When Justin Bieber is behaving badly, the Internet erupts with the play-by-play. And whenever Toronto Mayor Rob Ford is set to make his next ethical or political blunder, you can be sure we will all have front-row seats to that action. Once an unfortunate incident has reached Twitter or YouTube proportions, “handling” public perception afterward becomes quite difficult – even with a crisis preparedness plan.
Consumers these days are also far more savvy than once upon a time and not as willing to accept things at face value – they want the dirt and are willing to dig for it. Whether that means getting the latest star gossip, uncovering a government scandal, or wanting to know whether everyday products are organic or eco friendly, truth in life and advertising is what everyone is looking for. What this means for marketers is that branding claims – and spokespeople – better hold up to scrutiny, or the likelihood of uncomfortable revelations is good.
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?
by Belinda Lui | Jan 2, 2014 | Business Success, Latest
It’s common at the end of each year to reflect upon what happened, what worked, and what we can learn from. In our personal lives, we make resolutions to improve certain areas that aren’t up to par – so why should it be any different for your business? It isn’t good enough to simply resolve to be better if you can’t measure and quantify this success. Learnings are a crucial aspect to improving but only knowing that something went wrong isn’t quite the same as knowing how it went wrong.
Measure this year’s success with the following tools:
1. Website:
A great measuring tool for your web ranking is Alexa Sparky: it provides a global and national ranking for your website in comparison to other sites on the internet. Knowing where you stand against your competitors is a great way to measure site appeal. Google Analytics is another great way to measure website successes: this tool breaks down the traffic for each page and subpage of your website.
2. Social Media:
Buffer, Instafollow, and Sprout Social are all great ways to measure followers, demographics, and behaviour on your social media accounts. Sprouts Social even allows for you to generate white label reports on your statistics.
3. Blog:
Wordpress Jetpack Site Stats is a great plug-in to add to your blog so that you can measure the likeability of each post and compare the success of them to other posts you’ve written.
4. Internal:
Create a spreadsheet that clearly lists quantifiable goals such as, “50 new clients/month” or “website refresh by February 1, 2014”. It’s great to set goals but if you have no way to measure the successes, then it is impossible to put things into perspective.
There are a plethora of tools available to measure the goals you’ve set out to achieve this year.
What are some of the tools that you use to measure success? We’d love to hear your thoughts!
