What is that next big thing? Many of today’s trendsetters can be found in high schools. So Jeremy Hobson reporter for the radio program Marketplace visited a New Jersey high school where he interviewed students and a tech teacher. You can listen to the radio story at “The next generation unfriends Facebook” (May 3, 2013). It is 12 minutes long, but worth it. Scroll down for the Audio Extra — a four minute interview with the tech teacher.
While we should be cautious in how we interpret the results of a small convenience sample, there are some quick takeaways that merit attention:
Facebook is fading in popularity
Snapchat, Twitter, and Instagram are hot
These kids care about privacy issues — I had not heard that before
What are your favorite apps? websites? social media tools? Are you spending less time on Facebook?
When Cape Town Tourism sought a creative way to increase visits to the South African jewel (see photo to the right), it decided to highlight its “unexpected side.” Cape Town Tourism understands that many of the city’s charms are those “never heard of places” that don’t even make it into the travel guidebooks. They designed a creative Facebook campaign that offered people a “virtual” trip to Cape Town; a trip they could “share” with their friends. Results data from this case study indicate the campaign worked.
What do you think of this campaign? What other products might be sold in this way?
Dove has been running its Campaign for Real Beauty since 2004. A major global study it found that only 2% of women around the world describe themselves as “beautiful.” With women as its prime target market, Dove decided to address the issue head on. The campaign’s Evolution and Onslaught videos went viral as they pointed out the challenges for girls and young women growing up in a world that may be overly focused on an unrealistic standard of “beauty.”
The latest video, “Dove Real Beauty Sketches” (shown below), has just been released. Read more about the campaig here and for a contrarian view click here). What do you think? Is our sense of beauty warped? Has the way advertisers portray beauty had a negative impact on societies around the world? Is Dove helping the situation by calling attention to the issue?
One of the most viral videos of all time was the original Evian babies video (the international version had more than 63 million views).
Well, Evian is trying to do it again — you can check it out below. This is pretty hot off the press — as I post this there are only 301 views. How viral will this video go? How many views do you predict?
In India, the God of Death (Yamaraj) is quite feared — hey, he comes for your soul. What better way to get the attention of potential drunk drivers.
This ad provides an example of marketing for a social cause. Reducing drunk driving has a significant benefit for society. A similar campaign was run in Brazil – see “The Drunk Valet.”
Facebook is now combining data from outside the social network with the data it already has to better target advertising. For example, Facebook knows its users “likes” and their friends — and has access to their attitudes and behaviors from their posts (though it is not clear if they have figured out how to effectively mine “posts” or pictures — I know they are working on developing this capability). Facebook has signed agreements with outside data vendors, so it can create individual customer profiles that include – where some shops, public data like car registration, retail purchases (from loyalty cards), and browsing history.
The approach appears to be winning over advertisers. In this Wall Street Journal article, “Buy Signal: Facebook Widens Data Targeting” (April 9, 2013, non-subscribers may need to click here) you can read how General Motors, Hyundai, Pepsi, and Neiman Marcus have increased their spending on Facebook advertising because of the more precise targeting. Continued spend will certainly depend on the results.
The article also raises concerns of privacy advocates. For a more informed discussion of these types of privacy issues, click “Privacy” from the tags on the right side of this post — and view some of our previous posts on this topic.
We are curious what you think of this? On the one hand, Facebook might learn more about you and serve up more relevant advertising and content. On the other hand, there is something that might be a bit creepy about Facebook knowing us so well. Does this change your feelings about Facebook? Will you post differently?
In marketing communications, we have a tool called the AIDA model, which refers to four Promotion (marketing communication) “jobs”: 1) getting attention, 2) holding interest, 3) arousing desire, and 4) obtaining action. If we think about this in the sales of automobiles (or SUVs in this case), the marketing manager needs to find ways to get attention and hold interest for the brand. Usually a dealer’s sales force helps arouse desire (test drive?) and obtain action (close the sale).
This clever promotion from Land Rover provides an example of the AI part of this model. Like many SUVs, Land Rover likes to promote the idea that their vehicle helps the driver escape from the ordinary. To encourage the next generation of Land Rover owners, the company developed the LR 4 “Escape” key. The short video below demonstrates the promotion — and some impressive early results.
Creativity and idea generation are some of our favorite topics at Learn the 4 Ps. Whether you need to come up with a new product idea, an advertisement, or an idea for that English essay, creatively generating a range of options is needed to identify breakthrough opportunities.
The last couple of decades have seen a burgeoning of scientific research has been going on with respect to understanding creativity and idea generation. A Wall Street Journal multimedia package ”Tactics to Spark Creativity” (April 2, 2013 non-subscribers might need to click here) describes a few of the latest findings.
I have embedded the WSJ video below, where you can see how some companies foster creativity in the workplace. You might also check out one of the e*Trade babies commercials or the EnviroMixer app which are mentioned in the story.
Across the globe, each year diarrhea and pneumonia claim the lives of 2 million kids before they reach age five. Research shows that regular hand washing with soap significantly cuts the the risk of diarrhea, respiratory infections, and eye infections.
Lifebuoy soap adopted the Indian village Thesgora, with a plan to demonstrate how changing hygiene habits helps reduce these deadly childhood diseases. The video gives some background. You can also check out Lifebuoy’s Facebook page to keep monitor the campaign.
Ultimately Lifebuoy hopes that by calling attention to this issue and working closely with NGOs and governments, it can change the handwashing behavior of one billion people. Good for children’s health, good for the sale of soap, and good for Lifebuoy.
I like this social marketing campaign for several reasons. First, it deals with an important social issue. Second, it fits with the brand. Third, Lifebuoy is leveraging the power of social media through Facebook — where the softsell campaign is a natural “Like” and “Share” so customers hear about it from their friends instead of directly from the brand.
What do you think? How does it make you feel about Lifebuoy soap? Is this campaign a good idea? Why or why not?
What do you think? Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Google+ LinkedIn, or Pinterest?
A recent survey by the Wall Street Journal, offers some insight into what small businesses are finding works best among social media tools. The results suggest good news for LinkedIn — but less promising results for Pinterest, Google+, and Twitter. The survey examined which social media tools firms are using — and which hold the most potential. I wish the survey broke out different markets or types of customers (B2B vs. B2C for example) as it would be nice to know if that mattered (I suspect it does). You may be using LinkedIn as part of your job-hunting process, but it also represents a marketing opportunity. You can learn a lot about social media tools of the future in ”Small Firms Say LinkedIn Works, Twitter Doesn’t” (January 31, 2013 – non-subscribers may need to link here).
How could a small firm use each of these social media tools to support marketing strategy efforts? Think about the situation for a restaurant in your town? Then think about it for a small business that sells computers and computer support services to small businesses? Off er your thoughts in the comment section below.
What is that next big thing? Many of today’s trendsetters can be found in high schools. So Jeremy Hobson reporter for the radio program Marketplace visited a New Jersey high school where he interviewed students and a tech teacher. You can listen to the radio story at “The next generation unfriends Facebook” (May 3, 2013). It is 12 minutes long, but worth it. Scroll down for the Audio Extra — a four minute interview with the tech teacher.
