According to Wikipedia.com, mobile marketing is defined as marketing on or within a mobile device. It can also be described as the use of a mobile medium as a means of marketing communication. It is no secret that smart phones are the preferred choice of most people. In fact, according to Neilsen, a respectable marketing research firm, it was expected that 1 out of of every two Americans would have a smartphone by Christmas of 2010. It is also not a mystery that so many marketers are taking advantage of mobile marketing with this boom in the purchases of smartphones. Let's take a look at some of the more popular methods:
Mobile Marketing via SMS
Many companies today are collecting phone numbers of current and potential customers to send them their advertisements. Many of these ads are at times wanted, and at other times are unwanted. Even if the ad is not wanted the receiver would have had to opt into the service in order for the messages to be sent. This method can reach a wide audience, although it is not the most successful type of mobile marketing.
In-Game Mobile Marketing
Nearly all smartphones have the ability to download apps and often these apps are games. Known as mobile advergaming or ad-funded mobile gaming, these ad-rich gaming applications have promotions of endless amounts of brands and products. Products such as Mountain Dew can now be seen on the internet game, World of Warcraft.
Location Based Services
Cell phone networks like AT&T and Verizon offer LBS's on their smartphones which can give way to custom advertising on based upon that customer's geographic location. Coupons for being the most frequent customer at particular stores are offered, as well as point systems with milestones that allow the customer to gain free merchandise. LBS are fairly new but are quickly becoming one of the more popular ways to advertise to consumers through the use of mobile marketing.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Marketing Campaigns: FAIL!
Can there be anything worse for a company than a failed and embarrassing marketing campaign? Yes...I'm sure there are other possibilities that could potentially be worse for a company but for now, let's imagine it is the worst possibility. Molson Coors Brewing Co. is a Canadian brewing company that once was known for it's outstanding, flavorful beers but is now notorious for it's failed marketing campaign.
Molson utilized Facebook to initiate a photo contest that would allow the winner the claim to an all-inclusive trip to Cancun. To win this photo contest, first, a university would have to have submitted the more photos than any other collegiate institution in Canada. Then the best photo from that university would declare the winner. According to the dean of student affairs at Queen's University in Kingston, ON, who was rather displeased with the contest, said, "in order for the photos to be eligible, to be notable, would require outrageous behaviour or profoundly dangerous levels of drinking." These type of photos required for entrance into the contest promoted irresponsible behavior and was teaching kids from the age of 19-24 that drinking and out-of-control conduct would technically get you somewhere.
College deans across Canada were extremely upset with the proposed contest by Molson, and the brewing company certainly heard about it. The contest was eventually taken off of the Facebook fan page of Molson and was at that point terminated. The campaign was ultimately a failure even though negative publicity can at times be better than no publicity. Do you believe that Molson was wrong in their photo contest, or do you not see a problem with it? Let me know what you think.
Molson utilized Facebook to initiate a photo contest that would allow the winner the claim to an all-inclusive trip to Cancun. To win this photo contest, first, a university would have to have submitted the more photos than any other collegiate institution in Canada. Then the best photo from that university would declare the winner. According to the dean of student affairs at Queen's University in Kingston, ON, who was rather displeased with the contest, said, "in order for the photos to be eligible, to be notable, would require outrageous behaviour or profoundly dangerous levels of drinking." These type of photos required for entrance into the contest promoted irresponsible behavior and was teaching kids from the age of 19-24 that drinking and out-of-control conduct would technically get you somewhere.
College deans across Canada were extremely upset with the proposed contest by Molson, and the brewing company certainly heard about it. The contest was eventually taken off of the Facebook fan page of Molson and was at that point terminated. The campaign was ultimately a failure even though negative publicity can at times be better than no publicity. Do you believe that Molson was wrong in their photo contest, or do you not see a problem with it? Let me know what you think.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Viral Marketing
What is Viral Marketing?
By definition, viral marketing, or viral advertising, "are buzzwords referring to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives (such as product sales) through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of viruses or computer viruses. It can be delivered by word of mouth or enhanced by the network effects of the Internet." Viral marketing can take on many forms such as video clips, images, text messages, among others. Despite the negative connotation the word "virus" brings with it, getting your marketing campaign to go viral is a great thing.
Well what goes into making a marketing campaign, or just a simple video go viral? An article titles, "7 Priceless Tips On How To Go Viral" gives some solid tips on how to go viral. Below is a list of the seven points the author makes, but to get a summary of each point head on over to Socialtimes.com.
1. Create viral, shareable media
2. Understand that most things are not viral
3. Target the "Bored at Work Network"
4. Target the freaks and maniacs
5. The mullet strategy - business upfront, party in the back
6. Big seed marketing - because your content won't share itself
7. Learn marketing from the Mormons
One of my favorite viral examples are the Old Spice commercials. These commercials are incredibly simple yet complex in their own way. They involve a single man who says some of the most ridiculous statements anyone has ever heard all while telling his listeners how handsome and irresistible he is. He consistently reminds the "ladies" that their man could smell just as he does, but of course will never be able to compare to his awesomeness. This video went viral because of its nonsensical humor and dumb wittiness.
By definition, viral marketing, or viral advertising, "are buzzwords referring to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives (such as product sales) through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of viruses or computer viruses. It can be delivered by word of mouth or enhanced by the network effects of the Internet." Viral marketing can take on many forms such as video clips, images, text messages, among others. Despite the negative connotation the word "virus" brings with it, getting your marketing campaign to go viral is a great thing.
Well what goes into making a marketing campaign, or just a simple video go viral? An article titles, "7 Priceless Tips On How To Go Viral" gives some solid tips on how to go viral. Below is a list of the seven points the author makes, but to get a summary of each point head on over to Socialtimes.com.
1. Create viral, shareable media
2. Understand that most things are not viral
3. Target the "Bored at Work Network"
4. Target the freaks and maniacs
5. The mullet strategy - business upfront, party in the back
6. Big seed marketing - because your content won't share itself
7. Learn marketing from the Mormons
One of my favorite viral examples are the Old Spice commercials. These commercials are incredibly simple yet complex in their own way. They involve a single man who says some of the most ridiculous statements anyone has ever heard all while telling his listeners how handsome and irresistible he is. He consistently reminds the "ladies" that their man could smell just as he does, but of course will never be able to compare to his awesomeness. This video went viral because of its nonsensical humor and dumb wittiness.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Location Based Services
As you walk towards your favorite coffee shop for an evening of studying, you take your smart-phone out of your pocket to catch a glance at the time. Upon entering, you search for your study group also while grabbing for your wallet/purse to buy a warm cup of your favorite hot drink. You spot your friends just as soon as the white chocolate mocha you ordered is ready. You head over to the usual table that you have studied at so many times before. You take your phone out one more time before turning it on silent to "check-in" to the small coffee shop on the corner. You just used a location based service through the Facebook application. Why did you do this? It could be to let your significant other know that you got to your destination safely, or, to let your social network know who you are at the coffee shop with. Maybe you are using a location based service because the coffee shop rewards, every month, the most frequent visitor who publicly displays their presence at the local hangout. Whatever the reason, the bottom line to marketers is that you just used location based services.
Wikipedia has this definition for location based services: "an information or entertainment service, accessible with mobile devices through the mobile network that utilize the ability to make use of the geographical position of the mobile device." Location based services include Foursquare, Gowalla, Yelp, Brightkite, Twitter, and most recently Facebook. In May of 2010, after 15 months of growth, Foursquare had over 1.2 million users who had "checked-in" over 40 million times. That is a lot of traffic! But now the numbers have grown significantly especially when you consider the millions of users between social media channels such as Twitter and Facebook.
It is obvious that location based services are a marketers dream because it allows them to "keep tabs" on their target market, among other reasons, but what are the benefits for the everyday consumer. The benefits below are from another blogger's post about this same discussion topic.
Wikipedia has this definition for location based services: "an information or entertainment service, accessible with mobile devices through the mobile network that utilize the ability to make use of the geographical position of the mobile device." Location based services include Foursquare, Gowalla, Yelp, Brightkite, Twitter, and most recently Facebook. In May of 2010, after 15 months of growth, Foursquare had over 1.2 million users who had "checked-in" over 40 million times. That is a lot of traffic! But now the numbers have grown significantly especially when you consider the millions of users between social media channels such as Twitter and Facebook.
It is obvious that location based services are a marketers dream because it allows them to "keep tabs" on their target market, among other reasons, but what are the benefits for the everyday consumer. The benefits below are from another blogger's post about this same discussion topic.
- Real estate marketing – alerts homebuyers about properties in the immediate vicinity that meet their specifications.
- Discounts and coupons – sends alerts for retail discounts within a geographic radius of an opted-in consumer’s location.
- Keeping track of children and teens – parents can be alerted when kids leave or arrive at specified location, such as school or home.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Sports and Social Media
It is no secret that men, women and children all enjoy sports and sporting activities. Whether they are watching, participating, or following, people constantly consume sports in their everyday lives. In the past decade, sports have moved into social media channels and have done so at an astounding rate. Therefore, it should be no surprise how social media has positively affected the sporting world and the way people view it.
Below is a number of ways in which social media has reinvented sports:
Accessibility
With the use of multiple social media channels, most notably Twitter, sports fans are able to access and participate in the lives of their favorite sports stars. In a matter of seconds a New York Knicks fan can be a follower of the new addition to their team, Carmelo Anthony. That fan can gain insight into how Anthony felt about the trade between the Nuggets and Knicks and how excited he is to be playing in MSG (Madison Square Gardens). The possibilities are endless when it comes to following sports stars online, and there are even players who have their own blogs where a fan can visit to see what is occurring on an everyday basis. (See Rajon Rondo's blog: http://www.yardbarker.com/author/column/14282)
Live 24/7
If you are following the right people, you can listen or look in on live sporting actions. Bloggers that have Twitter accounts will frequently have up-to-the-minute updates on the progress of games. I, personally, am a follower of KentuckySportsRadio.com, a website for the University of Kentucky sports fan. A live chat window is available for every basketball game and it allows the participants to actively communicate with each other about the game. All of this occurs while one, if not more, of the moderators, who is usually present at the game, makes consistent live updates about all that is occurring during the course of the game.
Promotion
Social media channels are also being utilized by athletes to support brands and products. Fans are seeing what their favorite sports players drink before a game, what type of brands they use while playing the sport, and where they go for the best sports training, among many others. For instance, Rajon Rondo tweeted the other day to his followers to display the shoes he wore during the NBA All-Star game. The Nike Max Air BB 360 Low shoes will most certainly be a hot ticket item in the shoes over the next few days.
Below is a number of ways in which social media has reinvented sports:
Accessibility
With the use of multiple social media channels, most notably Twitter, sports fans are able to access and participate in the lives of their favorite sports stars. In a matter of seconds a New York Knicks fan can be a follower of the new addition to their team, Carmelo Anthony. That fan can gain insight into how Anthony felt about the trade between the Nuggets and Knicks and how excited he is to be playing in MSG (Madison Square Gardens). The possibilities are endless when it comes to following sports stars online, and there are even players who have their own blogs where a fan can visit to see what is occurring on an everyday basis. (See Rajon Rondo's blog: http://www.yardbarker.com/author/column/14282)
Live 24/7
If you are following the right people, you can listen or look in on live sporting actions. Bloggers that have Twitter accounts will frequently have up-to-the-minute updates on the progress of games. I, personally, am a follower of KentuckySportsRadio.com, a website for the University of Kentucky sports fan. A live chat window is available for every basketball game and it allows the participants to actively communicate with each other about the game. All of this occurs while one, if not more, of the moderators, who is usually present at the game, makes consistent live updates about all that is occurring during the course of the game.
Promotion
Social media channels are also being utilized by athletes to support brands and products. Fans are seeing what their favorite sports players drink before a game, what type of brands they use while playing the sport, and where they go for the best sports training, among many others. For instance, Rajon Rondo tweeted the other day to his followers to display the shoes he wore during the NBA All-Star game. The Nike Max Air BB 360 Low shoes will most certainly be a hot ticket item in the shoes over the next few days.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Social Media Trends
http://www.socialmediaexplorer.com/social-media-marketing/five-social-media-trends-for-2011/
The above link is an article listing 5 trends for social media in 2011 to be on the lookout for. The five mentioned are: consumer content curation, niche location, gamification and social gaming, QR codes, and social commerce. This post will briefly take a look into a few of these future trends.
Consumer Content Curation
This trend speaks about the ability of marketers to get in the viewing stream of the people they are targeting. The problem marketers face today is consumers do not want to be bombarded with advertisements, and therefore, the marketers must find a way to get their message to the consumer without it being looked over. It is not enough for brands to create content as they once did, but now, they must integrate that content into the viewing stream of the consumer. For example, "what’s happening in Facebook is that consumers are turning off brands posting to their walls, using Friends lists to pay close attention only to their “real” friends, and commenting on or sharing only when something is really juicy." This curation by consumers will be one of the many roadblocks for marketers in the coming years.
Gamification and Social Gaming
In the past year, Facebook users were exposed to Farmville, an interactive farming game. The author of the article I have been referring to in this post believes this is only the beginning of social gaming. He foresees brand integration into existing gaming platforms like that of internet gaming, gaming consoles and other various platforms. Also, the potential for brands creating their own gaming constructions to provide consumers with coupons and other things of the sort. The author makes a bold prediction when he mentions that social gaming will its debut in the 2011 Super Bowl!
Social Commerce
This is the idea of displaying to your social media friends that you purchased a product through a commerce website. The method behind this is a web based word of mouth marketing. The idea is that people will be exposed to the products their friends purchased and will then purchase the item themselves. Social commerce is already present in Groupon and Facebook Commerce, and has been for a while with Blippy and Swipely. The author predicts this type of commerce will explode in the coming year if brands are willing to dive in head first.
The above link is an article listing 5 trends for social media in 2011 to be on the lookout for. The five mentioned are: consumer content curation, niche location, gamification and social gaming, QR codes, and social commerce. This post will briefly take a look into a few of these future trends.
Consumer Content Curation
This trend speaks about the ability of marketers to get in the viewing stream of the people they are targeting. The problem marketers face today is consumers do not want to be bombarded with advertisements, and therefore, the marketers must find a way to get their message to the consumer without it being looked over. It is not enough for brands to create content as they once did, but now, they must integrate that content into the viewing stream of the consumer. For example, "what’s happening in Facebook is that consumers are turning off brands posting to their walls, using Friends lists to pay close attention only to their “real” friends, and commenting on or sharing only when something is really juicy." This curation by consumers will be one of the many roadblocks for marketers in the coming years.
Gamification and Social Gaming
In the past year, Facebook users were exposed to Farmville, an interactive farming game. The author of the article I have been referring to in this post believes this is only the beginning of social gaming. He foresees brand integration into existing gaming platforms like that of internet gaming, gaming consoles and other various platforms. Also, the potential for brands creating their own gaming constructions to provide consumers with coupons and other things of the sort. The author makes a bold prediction when he mentions that social gaming will its debut in the 2011 Super Bowl!
Social Commerce
This is the idea of displaying to your social media friends that you purchased a product through a commerce website. The method behind this is a web based word of mouth marketing. The idea is that people will be exposed to the products their friends purchased and will then purchase the item themselves. Social commerce is already present in Groupon and Facebook Commerce, and has been for a while with Blippy and Swipely. The author predicts this type of commerce will explode in the coming year if brands are willing to dive in head first.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Successful Social Media Campaigns
A good place to begin with this post is to answer a question: What goes into a successful social media campaign? Well the answer can be found in an online article by Trevor Jonas.
http://socialmediatoday.com/trevorjonas/268668/5-fundamentals-successful-social-media-campaigns
In this article, titled "5 Fundamentals for Successful Social Media Campaigns", Jonas offers the fundamentals that put the social media marketer on the right path to correctly advertising their brand or product.
Once you have read this article, it will be easy to disseminate the successful from the not so successful social media campaigns. A recent campaign that caught my eye was that of GAP. When GAP joined with Groupon, a popular group-buying site, they accumulated over 11 million dollars in just one day while also spreading the "GAP love" to hundreds of thousands of consumers. This campaign involved coupons sold through Groupon that allowed consumers to buy 50 dollars worth of apparel for only 25 dollars. This campaign generated positive word of mouth towards GAP and also gained new customers through the process. Two points from the Jonas article that are present here with GAP's efforts are, 1) they started with and focused on a relationship, and 2) they integrated the campaign from the start.
By basically giving away free money with the issuance of the coupons, GAP started renewed a relationship with it's current customers, and began a new relationship with many others. This relationship did cost the company a good deal of money, but it cannot compare to the future sales they will see from their efforts with this campaign.
GAP wisely chose to partner with a company that had a comparative advantage in reaching a larger amount of consumers. Through the advertisement of Groupon, the campaign was a success. The results could have been the complete opposite if GAP had chosen to take on the advertisement of the campaign by itself through the use of emails of current customers on record, or ads on various websites.
Clearly, GAP executed a fantastic social media campaign that gained current customer satisfaction as well a generated a new customer base.
http://socialmediatoday.com/trevorjonas/268668/5-fundamentals-successful-social-media-campaigns
In this article, titled "5 Fundamentals for Successful Social Media Campaigns", Jonas offers the fundamentals that put the social media marketer on the right path to correctly advertising their brand or product.
Once you have read this article, it will be easy to disseminate the successful from the not so successful social media campaigns. A recent campaign that caught my eye was that of GAP. When GAP joined with Groupon, a popular group-buying site, they accumulated over 11 million dollars in just one day while also spreading the "GAP love" to hundreds of thousands of consumers. This campaign involved coupons sold through Groupon that allowed consumers to buy 50 dollars worth of apparel for only 25 dollars. This campaign generated positive word of mouth towards GAP and also gained new customers through the process. Two points from the Jonas article that are present here with GAP's efforts are, 1) they started with and focused on a relationship, and 2) they integrated the campaign from the start.
By basically giving away free money with the issuance of the coupons, GAP started renewed a relationship with it's current customers, and began a new relationship with many others. This relationship did cost the company a good deal of money, but it cannot compare to the future sales they will see from their efforts with this campaign.
GAP wisely chose to partner with a company that had a comparative advantage in reaching a larger amount of consumers. Through the advertisement of Groupon, the campaign was a success. The results could have been the complete opposite if GAP had chosen to take on the advertisement of the campaign by itself through the use of emails of current customers on record, or ads on various websites.
Clearly, GAP executed a fantastic social media campaign that gained current customer satisfaction as well a generated a new customer base.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Social Media in Your Professional Life
There are certainly pros and cons with social media and how it affects the professional lives of individuals, but I would venture to say that social media can help you more than it can hurt you. Many avenues are available to advertise yourself on the internet such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Blogger, Diggs and several others. Mashable.com has an article, "7 Secrets to Getting Your Next Job Using Social Media", that offers some tips on landing your next career. A few of the tips that caught my interest were being proactive on Twitter, capitalizing on Twitter, and making a video resume for YouTube. According to the article, video resumes are the least used by current job searchers, but can be the most effective. This type of personal advertisement is considered to be the differentiator in many recruiting processes and can be useful in defining the value you could bring to certain companies.
As I said before, the pros of social media generally outweigh the cons. These cons primarily come from the lack of common sense of those associated with the social media process. For example, I have had several friends, who were on the job hunt, be turned down due to their use of social media. Most notably were their mistakes using Facebook. They had uploaded pictures that led recruiters to believe they were immature and not ready for the "real world." Many Facebook users do not understand that 1 out of every 10 recruiters will use this social media path to research job applicants and if they find any content on that applicants page then they will quickly exclude them from the job search procedure.
Overall, social media is a major opportunity to promote oneself to the job industry of their choice. If used correctly, these avenues can lead to fantastic jobs and lifelong careers. It should be noted that sited such as Simplyhired.com and Indeed.com are viable options in finding jobs online, but if you want to truly market yourself and spread the word about your talents then you should definitely consider using the social media sites mentioned earlier in this post.
As I said before, the pros of social media generally outweigh the cons. These cons primarily come from the lack of common sense of those associated with the social media process. For example, I have had several friends, who were on the job hunt, be turned down due to their use of social media. Most notably were their mistakes using Facebook. They had uploaded pictures that led recruiters to believe they were immature and not ready for the "real world." Many Facebook users do not understand that 1 out of every 10 recruiters will use this social media path to research job applicants and if they find any content on that applicants page then they will quickly exclude them from the job search procedure.
Overall, social media is a major opportunity to promote oneself to the job industry of their choice. If used correctly, these avenues can lead to fantastic jobs and lifelong careers. It should be noted that sited such as Simplyhired.com and Indeed.com are viable options in finding jobs online, but if you want to truly market yourself and spread the word about your talents then you should definitely consider using the social media sites mentioned earlier in this post.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Social Media Marketing: Fad or Here to Stay?
Social media marketing is the new way that companies are getting their word out to the consumer. With the turn of the century, most industries have focused on using technology to expand business and create new opportunities. This type of marketing has been debated over the last decade as to whether it is the new fab or fad, but the argument seems to be one-sided. Searchenginewatch.com has an article providing some interesting facts displaying why social media marketing is here to stay and how it has become so effective so quickly.
1. One out of eight couples in 2008 met via a form of social media.
2. There are more than 200 million blogs
3. 80% of companies used LinkedIn as their primary tool to find employees
4. In terms of reaching 50 million users the fastest, it took Radio 38 years, TV 13 years, Internet 4 years, Ipod 3 years, and Facebook took less than nine months to reach 100 million users; Iphone applications reached 1 billion in nine months
5. By 2010 Generation Y outnumbered the Baby Boomers - 96% of Gen. Y has joined a social network
searchenginewatch.com/3634651
These examples are just the tip of the iceberg in revealing how social media is taking over the world. I believe it is clear that social media marketing is the best way to reach the most consumers at any one time. Take this statistic from seo-advantage.com: "Over 80 million people in the United States, or 41% of the Internet user population, log onto a social networking site at least once a month. And it is estimated that by 2013, that proportion will rise to 52% of Internet users." That is an astounding amount of traffic to social networking sites! However, there was a time when marketers believed that the best way to reach customers was radio, and a time when they thought that TV was the new way to attract the widest range of consumers. Those marketing channels are belittled now with the emergence of social media sites such as Facebook, MySpace, LinedIn, Wikipedia, Twitter, and the hottest social media property of 2006, according to Paul Gillin, Youtube. These social media platforms are king in marketing and until a new method of reaching millions of consumers is developed, social media marketing will continue to be the "go to" marketing option.
1. One out of eight couples in 2008 met via a form of social media.
2. There are more than 200 million blogs
3. 80% of companies used LinkedIn as their primary tool to find employees
4. In terms of reaching 50 million users the fastest, it took Radio 38 years, TV 13 years, Internet 4 years, Ipod 3 years, and Facebook took less than nine months to reach 100 million users; Iphone applications reached 1 billion in nine months
5. By 2010 Generation Y outnumbered the Baby Boomers - 96% of Gen. Y has joined a social network
searchenginewatch.com/3634651
These examples are just the tip of the iceberg in revealing how social media is taking over the world. I believe it is clear that social media marketing is the best way to reach the most consumers at any one time. Take this statistic from seo-advantage.com: "Over 80 million people in the United States, or 41% of the Internet user population, log onto a social networking site at least once a month. And it is estimated that by 2013, that proportion will rise to 52% of Internet users." That is an astounding amount of traffic to social networking sites! However, there was a time when marketers believed that the best way to reach customers was radio, and a time when they thought that TV was the new way to attract the widest range of consumers. Those marketing channels are belittled now with the emergence of social media sites such as Facebook, MySpace, LinedIn, Wikipedia, Twitter, and the hottest social media property of 2006, according to Paul Gillin, Youtube. These social media platforms are king in marketing and until a new method of reaching millions of consumers is developed, social media marketing will continue to be the "go to" marketing option.
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