After doing a lot of research for the projects, I really got a lot of insight into how the business world has been using social media or have not been using social media. I wrote several blog articles giving suggestions about how CIBC could improve upon their use of social media. This helped to demonstrate the research that I have done and apply the knowledge that I have learned, but also from a consumer point of view, what I had discussed would be how am I sure not just myself but others out there would like to see done.
2. The MacPirate Event
I had a great time attending the MacPirate event as it was so interesting to hear about the stories from Terry and Chris about the various campaigns that they had worked on for several companies. I always enjoy hearing about how campaigns were created from the beginning to the end result. Also, participating on Twitter was such a cool and great idea for the event. If events like this were to come up again in the future, it would be something I would recommend to others as well I would like to attend again.
3. Measurability
How do you know what kind of return on investment would you get from using social media??? Since there is no real ROI with social media, the whole process from start to end of coming up with a plan for using social media is essential for it to be a success. Setting goals and objectives is definitely important, what goals do you want to achieve, how are you going to achieve them, what results would you like to aim for are just some things that anyone needs to consider when coming up with a plan. What methods and tools are you going to use to measure what you are trying to achieve? This is another essential question with measurability. The different tools like Google Analytics for example, can be so resourceful with giving insights into the traffic you are receiving.
The whole concept of social media measurement has been an interesting topic for me personally as it is something that will I definitely need to know when I am in a marketing job. It is important to know the steps of SMART:
- Specific
- Measurable
-Attainable
- Relevant
- Timely
These are the kinds of specifics that will help to think of the kinds of goals that you want to set out but you do not want to forget that overall you want to tie back the goals to the overall business objectives.
I worked with a great team to put together this project. We came together with really great ideas how we wanted to approach project #3 which was the case study. No matter how busy we were with our jobs, school and personal life, we managed to pull everything together in good timing to put together what I thought personally was a great end product. Some of us have had experience being involved with events put on by the Canadian Cancer Society including myself, so we had some great insight with valuable ideas we could do for our project.
The tough part about group work is timing and geography; we all do not live in the same city and our commitments made it hard to get together. Thanks to the wonderful world of technology, Google Docs and Twitter helped to form lines of communication for the group, which was great, because it is a different approach than what I have been accustomed too. I find emailing back and forth kind of confusing, and with Google Docs, we were able to create timelines, post drafts and sign off what each person had completed without having the need to email each other. Class time was wisely used to discuss what we needed to talk about in person that was difficult to talk about over the internet. What I definitely got out of this project is how to use technology more effectively to accomplish goals and tasks.
Everyone had a strong work ethic and wanted to put together a final result that was going to make everyone feel proud. The end goal was to put together a product that could be realistic and also was going to get everyone a good mark. I think what makes group work definitely work, is that all the group members click and have the same kind of work ethic as well as wanting to achieve the same goals.
The difficult part of this project is that since members had researched their own companies for the previous project, we had to catch up to speed to look at the research that had been done and think of what can be done to complete the case study. What would have been easier was to start project one as a group, do the necessary research about the company and their social media initiatives, project two is to come up with social media communications plan and project three was to come up with a campaign and roll out how social media would be used as part of the campaign.
This exercise really helped to open my eyes in terms of what it would be like to launch a real life event and how social media was going to be used and evaluated as part of a campaign. It was a great experience that I can take away with me when this course is over.
As of March 19, 2012 the Kony 2012 video has been seen over 100 million times. It is one of the most viral videos on YouTube. The video, created by the Invisible Children organization strives to educate people about the situation in Uganda and the use of children soldiers. Joseph Kony is the leader of the LRA, a rebel group in Uganda. Children have been kidnapped for years where boys are forced to become soldiers and girls turned into sex slaves. The crimes committed by Joseph Kony landed him at the top of the list of most wanted criminals wanted by the International Criminal Court.
Although the organization went to Washington to try to lobby support in going into Uganda, most government officials said no because there is nothing at stake for the USA nor will there be anything for the USA to gain out of it. It was just not an important foreign policy issue. To drum up support for the cause, the video was shown to many people as possible and they were shocked and what they had seen An online communities was built to help build awareness of the video and what is going on in Uganda.
Many people were coming from Uganda to the USA to help tell their story to audiences. Groups of young people help to fund putting the campaign together. With the campaign become more high-profile, many U.S. politicians helped to drum up support and President Obama ordered 100 troops to act as advisors to be sent to Uganda. Kony eventually found out that the United States had a presence in Uganda and were attempting to help capture him. Kony has changed his tactics and made finding him more difficult. International support may wind down because of the complex operation and the lack of funds available to carry out the operations. It has been feared that if there is not enough support at home in the USA to carry on the deployment of these special advisors in Uganda then the deployment would be cancelled.
To drum up further support for the campaign Invisible Children, Joseph Kony’s name was going to be turned into a “celebrity” so that people are aware of who Joseph Kony is. This was going to be done by targeting 20 culture makers and 12 policy makers to use their power to help spread the awareness of the campaign to a mass audience. April 20, 2012 “Cover the Night” – people will post hundreds of thousands of posters worldwide demanding justice be done and capture Kony.
The technology that is bringing people together can be used to respond to the problems going on in the world. This is social media for the use of good. At the end of the video people are asked to make a donation to TRI, order the action kit, sign the petition by to also share the video with other people.
Now that Kony 2012 is probably the most famous viral video ever, what lessons can we learn from this?
1.How to handle criticism/bad PR
The video does not really explain too much about Kony himself
Many people have been criticizing the organization for how much it cost to make the video, how most of the donations went towards the video and not helping the actual cause
Negative publicity is surrounding Jason Russell – was arrested for lewd behaviour – bringing in bad press
Ugandan government had to do its own PR damage control by releasing a video saying that they know Kony is not in the country and that they are doing what they can to find him.
2. Marketers can learn how influential communities are.
Word of the video spread around communities as they discussed about the video and shared it with others and it just constantly spread with all the sharing
Marketers need to know where to find these communities!
Marketers need to find and persuade the influential people in social media and gain their support so they can help market your product/service
By incorporating the use of social media heavily, awareness for this campaign spread like a wildfire. Charities can learn a lesson from the Kony 2012 campaign and take notes to what and what not to do. Although there was an extremely high budget for this video, charities can work within their budget and use social media tools because it’s not very costly and a wider audience can be reached and in a time effective manner as well.
Why was this video successful?
1. The message was plain and simple.
Joseph Kony must be stopped and captured to help stop what he has been doing in Uganda and surrounding countries for decades, killing people and kidnapping children to be soldiers and sex slaves.
2. The most viewed by group according to the YouTube stats are:
Female 13-17
Male 18-24
Male 45-54
The video was viewed the most on mobile devices with 30,274,335 views, the video was viewed on Facebook 11,137,976 times and it was referred on Facebook 8,751,040 times. The video was referred 1,311,871 times via Twitter.
Speaking to the youth was how this campaign became a success. As highlighted in the video many youth groups and high school, college and university students quickly became involved in the cause. Young people are the most influential group amongst all age groups because they have the power and influence to make or break ad campaigns. They have the money and ability to decide if what is being sold to them worth their time and money.
3. Visuals!
The video was just over 30 minutes long, but with the visuals and narration helped to make this documentary interesting and interested in watching it from start to finish. It is preferred to keep videos under 10 minutes and to the point otherwise you will lose your viewer if you don’t make it an attractive video to watch.
On February 15, 2012 I had the opportunity of attending the McMaster Class in Advertising presentation at the Ron Joyce Centre in Burlington, ON. At this event, it was announced that the Pirate Group was donating advertising material dating back to the 1980s to McMaster University. For a full recap of the announcement here are a few links:
This was a wonderful announcement for McMaster University as this will be such a great resource for students to get a better understanding about advertising and marketing. Students can review notes as to how many ad campaigns were developed and implemented. This helps students to get a better understanding in helping to see the behind the scenes look at famous campaigns. This experience is very resourceful in getting a better look and experience at learning how to develop and implement ad campaigns.
The unique experience of the McMaster Class in Advertising presentation was that there was an interactive element by using Twitter. People in the audience were posting comments and questions on Twitter in regards to what was going on during the presentation as well questions that were posted, a few were answered by Terry, Chris and Tom. Not only were people in the audience making comments on Twitter but people who were not there were also posting comments as well. The hashtag #MacPirate was used for tweets related to the event.
The idea of adding an interactive element of using Twitter as part of the presentation was a great way to interact with the guest speakers. They got to see the comments that were being posted up and got to see what kinds of questions people were asking. A moderator was up on stage with the guests to help lead a discussion towards the end of the presentation.
The role that I felt that I had on Twitter during the event was being a reporter. I tried to be informative to the twitter audience who was following online. I provided links to videos of ads that were used in the presentation so that people were aware of what we were seeing at the presentation. I did throw in a few facts:
From what I was seeing on Twitter, people were taking a real keen interest in the presenters and if people were unaware previously of Terry O’Reilly’s work and developed a sudden interest then I informed people where they can find more of his work on the internet.
I felt that it was important to be more of a reporter because it gave me the opportunity to help people be aware of what was going on who were not there. Not just based on personal experience, but in general I see a lot of times on Twitter where people are at events and describe what is going on, by tweeting about experiences of what is going on and taking pictures or videos and posting it.
Overall, I enjoyed the experience and I feel that going forward McMaster should continue using Twitter as a tool to engage the audience both that were attending in person and for people who were unable to attend but still wanted to follow along online.
I just read an interesting article from Time about the ties between pop music and tv advertisements. Remember back in the day when many musicians said that they would never sell out by either being in a commercial or having their music used in a commercial??? Well it seems that these days many musicians are lending their music to various companies, featured in their ad or have become a company spokesperson.
The most famous examples are Apple and L’Oreal. The current L’Oreal campaign for their various products feature Jennifer Lopez, Gwen Stefani, and Beyonce. Both Gwen and Beyonce’s music has been featured in a few of the ads that they have starred in.
Beyonce L’Oreal Feria Ad
Apple helped to boost the names of the likes of Feist and Cansei De Ser Sexy (CSS) by having their music featured in Apple iPod ads.
Feist Apple iPod Nano Ad
I think the video and the ad went hand in hand. The video had dancers in various coloured outfits and the iPod Nanos kept changing colours to show that they were available in different colours. Would anybody otherwise become aware of this song if it was not for this commercial??
I think that having music featured in ads is a way for musicians to get their music out their to audiences who may not necessarily be familiar with their music. People develop a curiosity when they hear a catchy song from a commercial and will ask friends if they have heard it of before or look it up on the internet. This is good marketing because: 1) You have someone talking about the commercial to other people and 2) the artist whose music was featured in the ad probably just got a new fan who will end up buying their album(s) or song(s). These days albums sales have dropped significantly since music downloading services became available and now musicians have to market themselves harder than ever before. TV appearances and tours are more frequent now but some musicians also have so much star power that they can cash in on their name to boost their appeal even more.
It is far better to use a song instead of having an ad agency come up with a jingle that is similar to a famous song like it used to be done in the 1980s and 1990s. Too many lawsuits were coming up because a jingle was ripped off from a song and the musician wanted fees paid for using their song without permission. Although now musicians are fighting with each other because one person copied a similar style lyric or music beats from another song.
Musicians are not only being featured in tv advertisements but they are frequently appearing more on magazine covers were reserved for actors and models. Vogue Magazine has featured more musicians recently than models. Although, featuring celebs on magazines can complement each other. Readers want to see people who are popular therefore magazine editors will feature certain people on their covers to help boost sales but on the flip side, being featured on a magazine helps to boost a celebrity with what they are promoting. Adele has been the biggest music sensation of 2011 and fresh off of her 6 Grammys win the March 2012 Vogue issue was just released in the past week. With her success, Vogue may expect to have a sales boost with this issue. Although I am sure by now every single person on the planet owns 21, but they should definitely check out her first album 19, because it is just as good as 21!! Lana Del Rey’s case fits the bill more with the complementary effect. Lana just released her debut album in January and has been the talk of the music industry for the past few months. This cover alone has had some controversy because some people feel that she is not front cover material yet because she is so new to the music industry, although this was said about her appearance on Saturday Night Live, she was not ready for SNL because she was not a veteran on the live circuit yet. Controversy helps to sell magazines and it helps to push album sales, so Lana just ends up being the big winner anyways. People are going to talk about her, not everyone is going to know who she is and will end up discovering who she is.
The February 2012 cover of Vogue had Taylor Swift and now the March 2012 cover features Adele. The UK edition of Vogue saw Florence and the Machine on the February 2012 cover and Lana Del Rey now glances the cover of the March 2012 edition.
Taylor Swift – US Vogue February 2012
Lana Del Rey – UK Vogue March 2012
To conclude, has the changing technology of how consumers buy their music impacted the way musicians need to market themselves? In my opinion, yes they have as in the case of some of the examples I have provided in this blog. Has it been for the greater good? Sales numbers tell us how much of an impact where the music was featured has made on the public.
Last Friday evening, Ford hosted a party at the Liberty Grand to launch its new 2013 cars. Here is the catch, many guests at the party were bloggers and part of the Toronto Twitterati, the ones who generate hundreds or thousands of followers. If anybody noticed their Twitter topic trends list #FordBlue was there as people at the party were generating hundreds of tweets. Clever PR move by Ford to have a party with the social media elite! Many bloggers wrote about the event after the event and posted pictures from the event as well, the cars shown were all Blue, the colour scheme at the party was blue and the party favours such as candy were wrapped in blue foil, pretty funky considering the Ford logo is blue. Many guests generated positive reviews about the party and talked about how enthusiastic the people who actually work for Ford were about discussing the new lineup of cars.
This is not the first initiative between Ford and the social media community, at the Detroit Auto Show, Ford invited several bloggers to the event. By doing this, Ford was able to create more buzz on social media channels. Most car companies like to court the press at these types of events as articles from car shows will be published around the world.
Ford has been a pioneer as a business using various social media channels. Ford was one of the first companies to embrace the use of Google+. Ford has a page dedicated to social media: Ford Social. It is a very interactive website where people can submit ideas to Ford about new ideas and enhancing current services. People can submit stories about what it is like to own a Ford car and share memorable events that they have had with their Ford car.
The company that I think will follow Ford’s footsteps is Volkswagen. VW Canada has quite the presence on Twitter and it is very interactive with its followers. VW usually hosts events across the country where you can test drive several of their models. VW is all about the user experience and holds several types of events where people can participate in.
Photo taken from facebook.com/vwcanada
Volkswagen is king when it comes up with drumming up good publicity. At the 2011 Super Bowl, the VW Passat Star Wars commercial was one of the most talked about commercials. In 2012, VW did a follow-up Star Wars commercial with the new Beetle that did generate a lot of hype and talk on social media channels.
2011 Super Bowl Ad “The Force”
2012 Super Bowl Ad “The Dog Strikes Back”
The 2012 Canadian Auto Show in Toronto starts this coming Friday, the 17th. It should be interesting to see how the event is tracked on social media channels and if many of the auto companies are going to use social media to help promote their company at the show this year.
With Beyonce and Jay-Z posting pictures of their new born baby girl on a Tumblr blog named after the baby, it is interesting to see how celebrities are reaching out with the use of social media. Beyonce and Jay-Z could have gone down the traditional celebrity route of selling the pictures for thousands or millions of dollars and have them published in People, Hello or OK! Magazine, but instead they published a few pictures on a blog and it was pretty much free! Could this possibly be a new trend that they have started? Will other celebrities follow suit and maybe use a blog to post wedding pictures or baby pictures and have it accessible for everyone to see?
Another observation I have noticed when reading the news is that now many media outlets are looking at celebrities official Twitter accounts for any statements. With the passing of Whitney Houston on February 11, the likes of Rihanna, Katy Perry, Mariah Carey, Tony Bennett were just a few of many celebs who made a statement on Twitter paying their respect to the singer.
Publicists were usually the go to people for reactions from their celebrity clients but now Twitter is the place to find comments. Social media is allowing the public and the media to have greater access to celebrities than ever before. Celebs themselves post pictures on Twitter and many times it makes for gossip material and other times it can make it into mainstream news sources. Could it be possibly that celebrities are turning to social media so that they ease the media from constantly barging in on their private lives? For some celebrities, they use Twitter to keep their names in the gossip columns so that they are constantly talked about it. Who needs the paparazzi when all you need is a cell phone camera and a mirror or someone to take a picture of themselves doing what they are doing.
Mashable released a story of how the news of the death of Whitney Houston broke on Twitter before news agencies began reporting it. The problem sometimes when breaking news stories appear on Twitter is legitimacy. For the past few weeks many celebrities were the target of death notices, with Cher, Drake, Taylor Swift and George Lopez. RIP would appear on the trending topics with a celebrity name beside it. Not too long ago, rumour had swirled via Twitter about the assassination of Kim Jong Un which sparked a media frenzy.
Social media is changing the way how we get news and how sources for news is found. With the examples I just discussed, these events are just a learning curve for what we can become accustomed to in the months and years to come.
2012 marks the year that Super Bowl 46 would be the first “Social Media” Super Bowl. Many companies were analyzing how many comments were being generated through Twitter and Facebook. Over 11.2 million comments were generated during the course of the game according to Bluefin Labs. The NFL even wanted in on the social media hype by having a player who was not going to play in the game from either team tweet from the sidelines. This year’s Super Bowl ads generated a lot of talk and the ad with one of the most comments was the H+M commercial with David Beckham. Not surprisingly comments were mostly generated by women. The favourite commercial discussed by men was the Chrysler “It’s Halftime in America” that was only shown during the halftime break at the game.
Here is the link that ranks the most talked about commercials on social media and how many people talked about the: ABC News
USA Today did an online survey using Facebook where people ranked their favourite ads, and the Doritos ad came out on top.
Although social media may not solve all of CIBC’s problems in terms of getting new clients, it will help to boost their profile. As previously reported, the use of social media is in its entry stage with the banks, and as they become more comfortable and develop a better understanding as to how it can fit into their overall business strategy, the use of social media will grow further and further.
With CIBC, perhaps they should have a look at their marketing budget and budget a little more towards social media marketing and emphasize less on the use of traditional marketing such as newspaper adverts, and radio and television advertising. Sponsorships of community and charitable events helps to boost their profile in communities as well as doing their work for social responsibility.
In 2012, it will be interesting to see how banks in Canada will expand their use of social media and see if CIBC even opens up to the possibility of using it to a greater extent. Social media can help boost CIBC’s image and shed the image of stiffness. CIBC needs good publicity despite the setbacks it has faced over the years such as earning fines as being associated with the Enron scandal several years ago.
