Why do social media metrics matter so much?

Businesses are increasingly relying on new advertising platforms in order to reach their full digital marketing potential. “Social media are becoming an ever more important part of an organisation’s media mix. Accordingly, organisations are starting to manage them like traditional offline and online media” (Peters et al, 2013). But how exactly can performance of social media posts become measurable?

Social media metrics are increasingly informing future digital marketing decisions. “Marketers are constantly looking to better understand consumers and ultimately deliver an engaging experience” (eMarketer, 2016). Which social media analytical measurements are useful? Is some of the data offered simply superficial? Here we explore what metrics are out there and how businesses can gain insight for free.

Facebook offer page admins insight into their social audiences and engagement measures. Facebook Page insights provide an overview of the most important metrics, detailed information is available regarding Page likes, reach, visits, posts, videos and people. By analysing this data, marketing managers are able to understand their audience and based on the data provided, consumers can be specifically targeted with careful manipulation of content.

Facebook is where consumers go to find brands. They are looking for customer service via Facebook whilst also wanting brands to engage with them. “The two biggest values you can offer on Facebook are: entertainment and support” (KissMetrics, 2016). With that in mind, brands should be aiming to adapt their social media content through careful consideration of their online audience. This careful consideration is realistically only made viable through analytical datasets and detailed audience insights like those offered by Facebook, as well as information provided by other key social media sites.

Twitter also offer analytical data for account managers, while their information isn’t as detailed as Facebook, the information provided is still insightful and useful to marketing managers. Twitter offer information regarding tweets (amount of posts), tweet impressions (visibility), profile visits, mentions, followers and other related tweets. This analytical data allows account managers to nurture their existing audience, whilst also allowing them to increase engagement, visibility and new consumer acquisition.

Unlike most other major social media networks, Instagram doesn’t yet offer its own analytics programme. That being said brands should still try to gain analytical insight into their Insta-audience. There are a number of free online analytical tools (Simply Measured, LocoWise & Squarelovin) that offer useful information in order for marketers to truly understand their pictorial audience.

Metrics and analytical data is available directly through other popular social media sites such as Pinterest, and YouTube, whilst other platforms such as SnapChat are supported by third party analysts. There is so much data available to businesses and brands, and as long as they utilise the correct tools and techniques, return on investment is literally a few clicks away.

Social media has become much more than a marketing buzzword. It has provided a number of uniquely insightful platforms for marketers to manipulate. The more a brand focuses on the analytical details of their audience, the more they will be able to engage directly with their audiences. Social media has become a resource that is widely desirable, brands that manage their social platforms effectively can gain a digital competitive advantage.

Online consumer-brand relationships are extremely important. Marketers should be actively searching for opportunities to build upon these relationships, they must take advantage of the social platforms that are perfectly positioned to assist in building online communities, especially positive consumer generated content.

Through the utilisation of the correct analytical data, metrics and social media management tools, these consumer-brand relationships will evolve to produce higher levels of sales. By building upon these relationships brands will be able to increase consumer retention levels as well as being able to acquire new customers.

References;

Emarketer.com. (2016). How Marketers Are Measuring Customer Engagement – eMarketer. [online] Available at: http://www.emarketer.com/Article/How-Marketers-Measuring-Customer-Engagement/1013525#sthash.gQ5GKoiQ.dpuf [Accessed 10 May 2016].

Kissmetrics. (2016). How to Master Social Customer Acquisition. [online] Available at: https://blog.kissmetrics.com/master-social-customer-acquisition/ [Accessed 10 May 2016].

Peters, K., Chen, Y., Kaplan, A.M., Ognibeni, B. and Pauwels, K., 2013. Social media metrics—A framework and guidelines for managing social media. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 27(4), pp.281-298.

Who are the Virtual Reality innovators?

Virtual Reality (VR) and other forms of immersive multimedia are currently having widespread impact on the digital stratosphere. It is estimated that the number of active VR users will reach 171 million by 2018 (Statista, 2016). “Increasingly, the web is the world – everything and everyone in the casts an information shadow, an aura of data which, when captured and processed intelligently, offers extraordinary opportunity and mind-bending implications.” (O’Reilly & Battelle, 2009).

Now is the time for marketers to invest, test and produce new forms of immersive multimedia, current market leaders Oculus, Samsung Gear and Google Cardboard are paving the way for some truly unique advertising platforms. Post smart-phones, users are now bracing themselves for the next big global technological advancement.

Following the birth of the internet of things (IoT), web 2.0/3.0 users are willing to adapt their lifestyles according to how new technologies are developed and then implemented. “IoT is opening tremendous opportunities for a large number of novel applications that promise to improve the quality of our lives” (Xia et al, 2012). It is increasingly important for digital content to be groundbreaking, anyone who is seen to be pushing the limits of technology will arguably be regarded by web users as innovators.

The Guardian newspaper alongside the immersive digital agency The Mill recently produced a novel project ‘6×9 – a virtual reality experience of solitary confinement‘ arguably the first politically motivated, journalistic VR experience to be presented online. The Guardian’s first VR experience places users in an US solitary confinement prison cell, telling the story of the psychological damage that can develop due to the complete isolation of prisoners (The Guardian, 2016). It is projects like this, pushing the boundaries of immersive experiences, that enable other market leaders to further explore the outstanding opportunities presented by VR.

The military have recently adopted various VR technologies, all three services (army, navy and air force) are utilising VR to peform a number of training initiatives, such as flight simulation, battlefield simulation and virtual boot camp (VRS, 2016). As well as utilising VR during training, the British Army alongside digital agency Visualise, recently created the world’s first VR recruitment experience, they were challenged to exhibit the thrill and exhilaration of serving in the armed forces from a first person POV perspective, the aim was to increase Army applications (Visualise, 2015). The results certainly prove this innovative recruitment method was somewhat fruitful, Army Reserve application were up by 65% in February 2016 and 41% in March 2016, in comparison to the same months last year.

Companies who already utilise the internet to distribute their content are busy behind the scenes, creating fresh content to populate new VR platforms (Creative Review, 2016). As the global use of VR technologies increases, the cost will automatically be driven down, users and brands alike will be able to utilise these new technologies to further enhance their digital experiences. The future of VR looks extremely bright and now it has been identified as the next big thing, who knows what may become of it, but what comes next?

References;

Creative Review. (2016). What VR means for modern brands – Creative Review. [online] Available at: http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2016/may/what-vr-means-for-modern-brands/ [Accessed 9 May 2016].

O’Reilly, T. and Battelle, J., 2009. Web squared: Web 2.0 five years on. ” O’Reilly Media, Inc.”.

Statista. (2016). Topic: Virtual Reality (VR). [online] www.statista.com. Available at: http://www.statista.com/topics/2532/virtual-reality-vr/ [Accessed 9 May 2016].

The Guardian. (2016). Welcome to your virtual cell: could you survive solitary confinement?. [online] the Guardian. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/27/6×9-could-you-survive-solitary-confinement-vr [Accessed 9 May 2016].

Visualise. (2015). British Army VR Recruitment Experience – Visualise. [online] Available at: http://visualise.com/case-study/british-army-vr-recruitment-experience [Accessed 9 May 2016].

VRS. (2015). Virtual Reality in the Military – Virtual Reality. [online] Available at: http://www.vrs.org.uk/virtual-reality-military/ [Accessed 9 May 2016].

Xia, F., Yang, L.T., Wang, L. and Vinel, A., 2012. Internet of things.International Journal of Communication Systems25(9), p.1101.

 

Turning up the heat on live streaming and brand partnerships, what’s next?

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In 2010 Boiler Room fostered and embraced a new way of experiencing music and events online, live video streaming. Not only did they create a unique video platform for musicians, they gave birth to a global online audience that they describe as “the world’s leading community of underground music fans”.  They have recorded sessions in numerous nightclubs, warehouses and hotel rooms across the globe and they have generated tens of millions of views online. 

“Boiler Room, a site that takes DJs from the bleeding edge of the UK underground and puts them on at an invite-only secret location” (Wolfson, 2011)

Recently, Boiler Room has increasingly become commercially focused, presenting partnerships with brands such as car makers Audi and Fiat as well as companies like Ray Ban and GoPro by curating live streamed shows with heavily branded content throughout. These partnerships with Boiler Room offer a unique opportunity to brands – a foot in the door with a young, global and technically savvy audience who, would more often than not, utilise ad-blocking applications on video sites such as YouTube, UStream and DailyMotion. 65% of global internet users who utilise ad-blockers are aged 16-34 (Statista, 2016), Boiler Room’s demographic perfectly matches this age group. 

Another unique Boiler Room factor is their ability and persistence in providing a platform for female musicians, such as artists like Nina Kravis, Maya Jane Coles and Ellen Allien. By being inclusive of all genders, Boiler Room are breaking down normal advertising constraints, because ultimately it can be argued that underground music is universal, regardless of gender.

Boiler Room has, most likely unintentionally, gained some negative attention from bloggers, a blog called ‘Boiler Room knows what you did last night‘ produces comedic GIFs of people’s outrageous dance moves caught on camera during a live session, above is a GIF captioned ‘Phoney’. Boiler Room has become synonymous with “underground grooves, hot dance tunes, strangely dressed hipsters with the worst dance moves” (Magnetic Magazine, 2014). Although this is seemingly troll-like, in my opinion, blogs like this will only bolsters people’s engagement with Boiler Room.

As long as brand partnerships don’t obtrusively cross the boundary between branded events and advertising, I deem this kind of online marketing to be usefully engaging with a young audience. Having said that, Boiler Room have now been doing this for over half a decade, where is online branded content going next? And who should digital marketers be keeping a close eye on?

Well, in 2006 record label Universal Music launched a multi-media production company called Globe Productions solely aimed at generating broadcast quality digital videos and tv programmes alongside offering unique brand partnerships and product placement opportunities for brands. Globe Productions are currently at the forefront of online branded content, with partnerships with various multinational brands, enabling them to not only generate revenue, they are able to promote the musicians that are signed to their label.

This innovative style of online consumer engagement is only going to become more sophisticated, especially with the introduction of high-tech augmented and virtual reality headsets to the global market. Augmented reality allows the consumer to engage with a brand in an entirely new way, consumers will be able virtually try on products (Yaoyuneyong et al, 2015). Marketers are being urged to dive in and utilise this technology and create business applications, as quoted by The Guardian (2015), GE‘s Linda Boff said to marketers “you have to start experimenting”. The future of advertising lies in augmented and online virtual reality, a new marketing platform currently not being exploited to its full potential.

I’ll leave you with a video round up of the best moments from Boiler Room’s live streams…

 

References;

Magneticmag.com. (2014). [online] Available at: http://www.magneticmag.com/2014/06/magnetics-5-reasons-boiler-room-best/ [Accessed 25 Apr. 2016].

Statista. (2016). Global ad blocking by age 2015 | Statistic. [online] Statista. Available at: http://www.statista.com/statistics/456031/global-ad-blocking-internet-users-age/ [Accessed 25 Apr. 2016].

The Guardian. (2015). What does virtual reality mean for advertising in 2016?. [online] Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/2015/dec/03/virtual-reality-in-advertising-2016 [Accessed 25 Apr. 2016].

Wolfson, S. (2011). Fear of missing out? Ustream and Boiler Room bring clubbing to your sofa. [online] the Guardian. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/mar/19/boiler-room-ustream-james-blake [Accessed 25 Apr. 2016].

Yaoyuneyong, G., Foster, J., Johnson, E. and Johnson, D., 2015. Augmented Reality Marketing: Consumer preferences and attitudes towards hypermedia print ads. Journal of Interactive Advertising, (just-accepted), pp.00-00.

Is technology slowly invading our privacy at festivals?

Festivals and events are often perceived to be places where one can escape from the ‘drabness’ of the real world, almost a way of entering a dream-like fantasy. Festival consumers commonly identify themselves as ‘cultural creatives’ who appreciate their personal authenticity (Gration et al, 2011).

Now one might ask how technology and innovation could be incorporated into such a naturally harmonious dreamscape. Well over the past five or so years, UK festivals have slowly but surely been introducing various types of digital advancements, notably Radio-frequency identification (RDIF) wristband technology. RDIF Technology can create truly meaningful experiences through interactive engagement with festival consumers (Blondefish.com, 2016).

Understanding festival-goers experience is essential to predicting future consumer behaviours (Manthiou, 2014). RDIF technology can be used in a manor of ways to enhance festival organisers understanding of their audiences. The key feature is the ability to capture big data, allowing analysts to gain insight into audience’s footfall and spending behaviours, this information has been referred to as ‘smart data’ (Festival Insights, 2015).

Although RDIF technology can be identified as being extremely useful in collecting consumer data, what benefits can be reaped by the consumers themselves? The use of RDIF technology has enabled faster, cashless payments and can often improve festival amenities such as the entrance queues, overall improving the festival experience. Despite the fact of these improvements, I’d say the introduction of technology isn’t equally beneficial to the consumers as it is to the festival organisers.

RDIF wristbands are universally recognised as event security devices and now they’re being utilised to support marketing projects, brand activations and social media engagement (TechWeekEurope, 2015). I’d argue that this is an invasion of privacy, technology detracts from and can somewhat destroy the escapism experience of festivals. Festival planners should capitalise on fun-themed festive atmospheres, offering consumers a chance to change the speed of life (Manthiou, 2014), they certainly shouldn’t be squeezing profits through electronically tagging their attendees.

I understand the notion of beneficial data, especially the real-time and post events analytics – whether it be precise visitor numbers or visitor-flow records. I’m just not sure that festival-goers would necessarily agree with their data being recorded and then used to benefit the big sponsors.

Is the use of this data an invasion on people’s privacy? Steve Daly, Head of RDIF at wristband specialist ID&C, has responded to data mining concerns by outlining the normality of consumer traceability whether it be by using a debit or credit card or use of a bank account or passport (TechWeekEurope, 2015), thus normalising the notion of data mining in todays society. He says that the technology is specifically designed to be non-invasive and that festival organisers are insisting on this also.

Although I believe some of the uses of RDIF are an invasion of attendees’ privacy, I do agree with the use of RDIF technology within the health and safety aspects of event management. The use of data can be learned from and reacted to immediately whilst the event is live. For instance, if a ‘tap-in’ device shows an unexpected surge to a particular stage or attraction, extra crowd management personnel can be deployed to that area to eliminate any serious overcrowding issues. I also think it’s key to have background information on festival attendees in the case of a medical emergency, if a first aid response team have access to information such as name, age and medical history, this information could be used to save lives.

I’m all for technological innovations, as long as they’re used to benefit the consumers. I’m interested in what further advancements are made with RDIF technology as and when they become a normalised extension of UK festivals.

References:

Blondefish.com. (2016). Blondefish | RFID and Technology for Events. [online] Available at: http://www.blondefish.com/ [Accessed 12 Apr. 2016].

Festival Insights. (2015). The Cashless Festival: Why 2015 will be the Tipping Point for the UK. [online] Available at: http://www.festivalinsights.com/2015/02/cashless-festival-2015-tipping-point-uk/ [Accessed 11 Apr. 2016].

Gration, D., Raciti, M. and Arcodia, C., 2011. The role of consumer self-concept in marketing festivals. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing28(6), pp.644-655.

Manthiou, A., Lee, S., Tang, L. and Chiang, L., 2014. The experience economy approach to festival marketing: Vivid memory and attendee loyalty.Journal of Services Marketing28(1), pp.22-35.

TechWeekEurope UK. (2015). Why Festivals Not Using RFID Technology Really Should | TechWeekEurope UK. [online] Available at: http://www.techweekeurope.co.uk/networks/m2m/festivals-rfid-technology-182881#o1JKPqWPyxRfKVV1.99 [Accessed 11 Apr. 2016].

 

 

 

 

How can events companies utilise Instagram to emulate their brand’s ethos?

Events companies are frequently seen as innovators in the world of social media and digital marketing. Brands often utilise Facebook event pages, digital ticketing and cross-platform promotional tools to enhance their event marketing. In this post I will explore the various ways different events companies utilise the image-based social media platform ‘Instagram’ to emulate the themes, ethos and ideologies of their events.

“One way of reducing the risk the consumer may associate with the purchase… would be through the use of visually-dominated advertising.” (Hirschman, 1986)

There are plenty of guidelines and tips offered to digital marketers looking to utilise Instagram. Customer digital interaction specialists SEEN Digital Media advise brands to use a multitude of techniques to engage and interact with their audiences using Instagram. SEEN offer key digital marketing initiative ideas such as utilising the correct hashtags, following top trends, highlighting user generated content and running engaging contests. Each of these enable brands to enhance their social media presence and effectiveness using Instagram.

Nightclubs and event promotion companies already utilise Instagram to visualise their events, often posting event specific artwork, professional photographs and user generated content. The posts shared by the promotion teams through Instagram build a pictorial representation of a brand, providing a key visual engagement tool to their social media marketing campaigns.

A photo posted by WHP (@whp_mcr) on

The Warehouse Project in Manchester utilise their Instagram to share professional photographs from their events and to promote event artworks. Personally, I think their Instagram lacks innovation. It represents what they do as an events brand, it’s very industrial and aesthetically pleasing but it could be more engaging. Although they’ve emulated their industrial ethos through the images posted, they don’t utilise user generated content as effectively as they could. 

A great example of a company utilising their Instagram page to emulate their ethos is event ticketing company Eventbrite. They share various images from the events hosted on their website, they also provide a behind-the-scenes look into their operations alongside sharing playful images such as a dog in a hat to celebrate #NationalHatDay! – Eventbrite have offered some useful tips to utilise Instagram to promote events, they can be found here

A photo posted by @eventbrite on

Playful images clearly are effective promotional tools for events, Instagram can be used to share a multitude of content such as photos, memes, gifs and videos. Competitions are also widely used by events companies to promote specific events. Here’s an example of an effective contest offered by Hospital Records winners of the Drum&Bass Arena award for the “Best Club Night” (for the fourth year running!).

FREE STUFF!!! Get involved over at the Hospital Shop while stocks last

A photo posted by Hospital Records (@hospitalrecords) on

Event planners Todd Events are internationally renowned for their party planning, production and creative skills. They utilise their Instagram to emulate their ethos of world class decor and design, sharing images of elaborate event installations and beautifully orchestrated designs. They boast 22.1k followers on Instagram and the interaction with their images is huge. Their event planning skills are utilised by celebrities who further promote their services through their individual Instagram accounts. Their social reach is vast and extremely effective. 

A photo posted by @toddevents on

Instagram can be used to promote events in all manor of ways, some much more effectively than others. Generally the visual engagement with a brand is based on the aesthetic value of the images shared. The overall quality of event production can be beautifully emulated through Instagram but be warned; laziness shows, just sharing poster artwork images and a few event images won’t suffice. Brand experience is key, “Brand experience has a positive impact on brand personality and brand personality in turn affects brand reputation” (Vila-López & Rodríguez-Molina, 2013).

The most effective use of Instagram by events brands is through the utilisation of various initiatives and the strict following of guidelines that have been set out by the likes of SEEN and Eventbrite. A strategic approach to Instagram allows brands to truly emulate their ethos using visual marketing techniques. It is imperative for brands to stand out from the crowd, as Thornton Wilder famously said, “In advertising, not to be different is virtual suicide.”

References 

Hirschman, E.C., 1986. The effect of verbal and pictorial advertising stimuli on aesthetic, utilitarian and familiarity perceptions. Journal of Advertising,15(2), pp.27-34.

Vila-López, N. and Rodríguez-Molina, M., 2013. Event-brand transfer in an entertainment service: experiential marketing. Industrial Management & Data Systems, 113(5), pp.712-731.

http://blog.seenmoment.com/instagram-marketing-tips-from-the-best-brands

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/t/thorntonwi162984.html#LqAkXlmilosX5MC5.99

http://www.eventbrite.com/blog/ds00-promote-your-event-with-instagram/

Spotify Case Study – How can digital brands engage with consumers in their field?

A vast amount of time and effort is spent by brands attempting to merge digital and physical marketing techniques. The ways that Spotify has managed to take a step out of it’s digital platform to engage directly with music fans at a festival are explored here. Outlined in this blog are the objectives and tools utilised by Spotify to better-engage with its audience, and the outstanding results they gained on completion of the campaign.

“Branding has become commonplace at festivals, whether in the form of exclusive “naming rights” such as the O2 Wireless Festival, or through the use of numerous co-sponsors and brand partners, suggesting that attitudes to commercialism and sponsorship are changing” (Anderton, 2011).

Spotify began to build a bridge between online customers and music fans attending festivals a few years ago. They have been working for a number of years to organically fuze musically interested festival-attendees with their digital music streaming platform.

Spotify have produced various reports and case studies regarding their work with international festivals. Notably, in 2014, Will Page, Head of Economics at Spotify produced a case study called ‘Adventures in the Lowlands‘ this study explored ‘Festivals, Streaming and Social Media’ offering best practice tips for areas such as integrating data, social media, measuring uplift and surveys.

At Bilbao BBK Live, one of the biggest music festivals in Spain, Spotify teamed up with two event digital technology specialists, Glownet and Yumiwi to produce an interactive campaign like no other. Glownet, who are currently revolutionising the events industry with their high-tech RFID (radio-frequency identification) systems, principally focussed on international music festivals. Yumiwi are a digital engagement company who hone in on utilising data analytics within event/festival marketing activation.

All three of these organisations involved are experts in their fields, pardon the pun, they know music fans, festival-goers and most importantly collectively they know how brands can meet their consumers’ expectations.

Spotify Experience BBK Live 2014 from YUMIWI on Vimeo.

The campaign objectives were extremely demanding (Glownet.com, 2014): Register 3,000 new users, create upwards of 1million impressions, 6,000 likes/comments and at-least 1,000 playlists and photo shares. Although the bar was set high, this didn’t prevent the innovative campaign from over-performing; astonishingly the results actually tripled their original targets.

“47 brand impressions per second”

Overall the BBK Festival campaign was a huge success for Spotify, Glownet and Yumiwi. They managed to gain over 6,700 new customers , 18,000 likes/comments, 4.3 million digital impressions,  3,100 Spotify playlists and 2,300 photos shared via social media. This hyperbole of digital activity ended up creating over 47 brand impressions per second.

The experimental marketing concepts that were jointly delievered by Glownet, Yumiwi and Spotify were made up of various deliverables;

  • Selfie-Stand totems that were remotely positioned across the festival site.  Customers were able to take selfies and then apply instagram-style filters. Each image had an overlay of Spotify’s logo. By tapping their RFID wristbands on the totem scanners, festival-goers were able to simply upload images to their Facebook profiles.
  • Playlist Check-In totems that were emplaced at the festival’s main stages, allowing newly registered customers an opportunity to check-in whilst their favourite acts were playing on stage. Customers could then share the playlist they’d just created via social media, simply by tapping their RFID wristbands on the playlist stations.
  • Post-festival, customers received individual customised playlists based on the artists and stages they watched at the event, personalising the experience to each customer.
  • Spotify premium accounts, samsung speakers and cameras were all offered as incentives to encourage customers to engage in the campaign. Festival-goers were able to win prizes dependant on the performance and engagement levels achieved by their Facebook posts.

Music festivals are known to be advanced in their digital marketing techniques, according to Mark Walker, Head of Content at Eventbrite.com, “music festivals are leading the way when it comes to paid promotion compared to the rest of the events industry” – see the full article here

Although this campaign seems to have been effective in gaining customer interaction with Spotify,  I think it would be hard for other smaller brands to engage with audiences as readily and easily. Spotify are one of the most well renowned music streaming brands to date, therefore engagement levels are expectedly higher than those of lesser known, smaller digital brands attempting to interact with their consumers in the flesh.

References

Anderton, C., 2011. Music festival sponsorship: between commerce and carnival. Arts Marketing: An International Journal, 1(2), pp.145-158.

http://glownet.com/tag/spotify/

http://glownet.com/announcing-glownet-and-yumiwi-partnership/

 

Personalised emails, do companies know the real you?

“Personal relevance is thought to be only one determinant of the route to persuasion” (Petty et al 1983)

SPAM! Pretty much all online consumers nowadays have some form of email address and most people have received spam emails in some form or another. Companies often email consumers directly using personalisation techniques such as addressing them by their first names or displaying products relevant to the individual using the companies knowledge of their consumers online activities. 

“a whopping 97.4 billion spam emails and 973 million malware emails were sent out each day.” (Softpedia. 2013).

Firstly I’d would like to point out that normally I wouldn’t delve into the promotions section of my Gmail inbox to read such an email, I’ve used this as an example to prove a point. 

The subject line in the e-mail is the first point of contact and acts as a trigger to encourage the message recipient to open the e-mail (Ellis-Chadwick and Doherty 2012). Yesterday just after midday I received an email from Ebay and they addressed me rather directly, personalising the subject heading on the email with my first name.

“Osho, My Big Weekend is here!”

Screen Shot 2015-10-30 at 12.15.22

I’m used to companies emailing me claiming that I can get “over 50% off” online or that I “don’t want to miss these deals” but this was a blatant attempt at attracting my attention, It made me quite aware that they think they might know who I am. Upon opening the email I read the heading at the top “YOUR PICK OF THE DEALS” – Wow, Ebay might actually know what deals I’m looking for this week. Sadly after scrolling down I realised they got me all wrong as I’m pretty sure I don’t need a new underpants or a kids 69 piece kitchen toy cooker.

advert

The majority of Ebay’s email comprised of images of products with slogans such as “DEALS ARE ALWAYS ON THE TREND” or “WHEN I GET A LOT FROM SPENDING A LITTLE #MyLittleBigVictory”. 

Do Ebay expect me to tweet about their email? Am I meant to engage in “MY BIG WEEKEND”, What the hell is “MY BIG WEEKEND” and why do I need to know about it? None of this is explained in the email and the majority of the products are not what I generally search for on Ebay(I use Ebay quite a lot to buy vintage clothing). I would have preferred less use of my name and more products that are relevant to what I usually buy. 

Research shows that “Consumers may also bristle in response to solicited messages that convey highly distinctive knowledge of their personal characteristics.” (White et al 2007). Often consumers feel uncomfortable when companies address them personally. This can have a knock on effect with interactions with marketing emails and company websites. 

Companies can use online tracking and analytic tools to assess what products consumers are interested in buying, using a simple tool such as Google Analytics you can assess what online activities your consumers get up to. Companies can also use analytics to assess how many people respond to their email marketing campaigns, they can assess the percentage of people who open their emails, who clicks on links via the emails and who purchased products as a direct result of a companies email marketing campaign.

Email Marketers should be wary of using personalisation as a key driver in interaction with consumers, some may be put off by over-personalisation. Although this doesn’t seem to put off some of the most well known E-Marketers such as Ebay or Amazon – Maybe It’s about time they thought about new personalisation techniques, what’s next? Personalised social media adverts? Oh wait that’s already happened, George Orwell eat your heart out.

References

Richard Petty, J T. Cacioppo and David Schumann. 1983. Central and peripheral routes to advertising effectiveness: the moderate role of involvement. Journal of Consumer Research, 1983, vol. 10, pages 135-146 

Fiona Ellis-Chadwick and Neil F. Doherty. 2012. Web advertising: The role of e-mail marketing. Journal of Business Research, 2012, vol 65, issue 6, pages 843-848

Tiffany White, Debra Zahay, Helge Thorbjørnsen and Sharon Shavitt. 2007. Getting too personal: Reactance to highly personalized email solicitations. Marketing Letters, 2008, vol. 19, issue 1, pages 39-50

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Q1-2013-Report-973-Million-Malware-Emails-Sent-Out-Each-Day-350611.shtml

How can marketers use current political issues to their advantage (Case Study Analysis)

Game of Thrones is distributed to over 170 countries worldwide and is currently the most popular and talked about TV show globally. Here I will be using a case study to explore the social media marketing technique used by some of the leading digital and advertising agencies within New Zealand. Their aim was to promote ‘Game of Thrones – Series 4’ to a new audience, those who had dismissed the series stating it ‘wasn’t for them’. With the fast approaching launch of GOT series 4, SKY saw an oppertunity to capitalise/monopolise on a new audience and they approached DDB with the brief:

‘to create a tactical campaign on a relitively small budget that would convice New Zealanders to SKY and/or SOHO’

DDB worked alongside Brandwatch to anayalise social media to identify key themes within the show – They found that King Joffrey was the topic of focus for a lot of the online conversations, his character drove the most passionate commentary – King Jeffrey is a hated across the world. What better way to engage a new audience than to empower the people? They decided to quite literally bring down the King with the power of social media.

DDB decided to relate King Jeffrey to other worldwide leaders(mainly dictators) who had been famously toppled around the world (think Saddam Hussein). – they commissoned a 7 meter high statue of King Jeffrey with a huge noose around his neck and placed it atop of a plinth in the world famous Aotea Square. They then encouraged fans to use the hash tag #bringdowntheking to turn the winch on the top – DDB live-streamed the whole affair online and eventually after a few days the statue of King Jeffrey was toppled live to the world.

The use of powerful and political current issues within the social media marketing domain is proven here to be highly engaging for audiences – this somewhat relates to the phenomena of sharing political messages through social media. If you look to the arab spring – you can see the way they promoted their message through the use of social media was highly effective and gained global attention. This idea can be approached by marketers through the use of current issues but i would issue caution for them to not over step the mark.