Unlock The Secrets Too Viral Marketing

                                                                   Source:(Google,2017)

Viral Marketing Defined

Encourages others to pass on messages to more individuals, emphasised by (Fidgeon,2004). A strategy that use relationships by the “word of mouth” to promote products and services (Yeoman, 2014). However, (York,2016) defines viral as messages rapidly within a short period. Therefore, viral is like a virus the spreading of an idea (Ciotti, 2013). 

                                                               Viral Marketing (Infographic)

                                                             Source: (Google, 2017)

Within this blog a clear focus on viral video marketing campaign is made. Real business example of viral video failures and successes is analysed in detail. Furthermore, viewers can learn from takeaway points. Lastly, academic literature will be analysed to support ideas and judgements. 

Companies want to create a real desire towards their brands. Therefore, a viral video marketing efforts must be taken seriously. 

COMPANY FAILURES OF VIRAL VIDEO MARKETING

  1. Pizza Hut

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=14&v=V4sozzHMuGk

Source:(PizzaHutCanada,2016)

In my opinion, Pizza Hut video marketing campaign does not entice and wow the customers to making purchasing or creating new customers. The campaign commercial actually produces negative publicity because, it is inappropriate and embarrassingly not funny. Furthermore, which consumers do not want to buy pizzas to look pregnant after a pizza and puts customers off completely. As a result, this campaign is an embarrassment and a failure. 

2. McDonalds

Source: (Selvaggio, A., 2009)

McDonalds markets a new product called Arch Deluxe Burgers. The issue was this product was targeted at adults (Bhasin, 2016). The product illustrates sophistication through the use of a chef. However, customers at going to McDonalds for convenience and not sophistication (Bhasin, 2016). As a result, the campaign failed miserably.

Takeaway points to reflect on:

  • Organisations should excessively hard sell to customers. Rather, relationships should be built in short periods by taking small steps. Videos should aim to intrigue clients to share content with others (Tredgold, 2017).
  • Content should not be inappropriate to the target market. There should be a connection with the potential target market by focusing on products. Additionally, stories should be told to entice customers to share and find out more information (Tredgold, 2017).
  • Videos must not be long and boring. To improve video’s organisations should consider using “visually appealing colours, backgrounds, animations to engage viewers” (Baldwin, 2015). Limit the video’s being no more than 1 minute to keep people interested and engaged (Baldwin, 2015). Research indicated 75% of viewers stay for 1-2 minutes (Kenyon, 2015).
    Viral Video Marketing Success Stories

    1. Reebok

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXIcmHw98pA

Source: (Reebook, 2017)

The advert is appealing as individuals can relate to the scenes of pushing their bodies to their limits through life. Using music and creating a journey brings the campaign to life. Therefore, evoking our connections and emotions which are similar to the story told. Through this simple and effective advert more than 900,000 viewers have been reached. Despite a good campaign, a button could have been added at the end to enable customers to take action now!

2. Android

https://youtu.be/vnVuqfXohxc

Source:(Android, 2015)

Within 2015 this ad was the most shared (Kolowich, 2016). In my opinion this ad was the most memorable, enjoyable, likable and cute ad to watch. As being part of the audience, we all love something fresh and out of the ordinary and memorable. The creativity of using different animals being friends, music and adventures appeals to all customer’s emotions. Who doesn’t want to see an elephant and a dog playing together as friends?

Android has really captured the moment with sharing experiences of animals and making the video super shareable, by appealing to individual’s emotions.

Takeaway points for viral success:

  • Content going viral is determined by “physiological arousal” (Berger, 2012). Therefore, evoking emotions positive or negative such as; anger or anxiety is likely to go more viral suggested by (Berger and Milkman, 2012). Furthermore, content that form emotions of sadness would be less viral (Berger and Milkman, 2012).
  • Content linked to being surprising, interesting and practicality useful enables a positive impact for going viral, illustrated by Berger and Milkman, (2012).
  • Coupons enables customers to receive to save money and take action now, according to Berger and Milkman, (2012).
  • Both success campaigns use these metrics of the viral takeaway points above. In order to create a connection with the audience by emotions through, expressing humour, fun and challenges people face like in the Reebok advert.

Framework evaluating why content goes viral

Figure 1: A decision tree of the interplay between content and affect in viral marketing

Source: (Botha & Reyneke, 2013)

Researchers conclude video’s going viral is influenced by viewer’s emotional connection with video’s (Phelps et. al., 2004; Dobele et, al., 2007). However, (Botha & Reyneke, 2013) argue that content goes viral due to emotions and psychology enables videos to spread. Emotions can be the feeling such as; “joy, love, anger, fear sadness, disgust, and surprise” emphasised by, Barsade & Saavedra (2007). Whereas, (Russell’s, 1980; Watson & Tellegen’s 1985; Berger and Milkman, 2012) suggest emotions are also physiological arousal of positive affect causing high arousal and negative affect causing low arousal. Therefore, researchers should both agree on a single definition or accepting both forms enabling videos to go viral.

Furthermore, (Botha & Reyneke, 2013) states that academic researchers have not gone in a great deal of depth to investigate why videos go viral. In conclusion the figure 1 tree is really useful. However, more academic researchers should investigate, why videos go viral to improve the framework. Additionally, the framework is also a little old and could be updated. Botha & Reyneke (2013) could have used a real business example against the framework to demonstrate the effectiveness.

Conclusion

The successful campaigns are those that evoke our emotions and have a sense of urgency to take action. Furthermore, are memorable by creativity and content is appropriate to the target market.

References

Android (2015). Android: Friends Furever. [online] Available at:< https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnVuqfXohxc&feature=youtu.be> [Accessed 3rd March 2017].

Baldwin, K., (2015). 5 Common Video Marketing Mistakes to Avoid. [Blog] DMN3. [online] Available at:< https://www.dmn3.com/dmn3-blog/5-common-video-marketing-mistakes-to-avoid> [Accessed 3rd March 2017].

Barsade, S.G., & Saavedra R. (2007). Why does affect matter in organizations?, Academy of Management Perspectives, vol 21, no. 1, pp 36-59.

Berger, J. & Milkman, K.L., (2012). “What makes online content viral?”, Journal of Marketing Research, vol. 49, no. 2, pp. 192-205.

Berger, J., (2012). “What makes online content viral?”, Strategic Direction, vol. 28, no. 8, pp. 90-91.

Bhasin, H., (2016). Brand Failure- McDonald’s Arch Deluxe. [online] Available at:< http://www.marketing91.com/brand-failure-mcdonalds-arch-deluxe/> [Accessed 3rd March 2017].

Botha, E. and Reyneke, M., (2013). To share or not to share: the role of content and emotion in viral marketing. Journal of Public Affairs, vol. 13, no. 2, pp.90-91.

Ciotti, G,. (2013). A Scientific Take on Viral Marketing (with 7 Classic Examples). [Blog] Help Scout. [online] Available at:<https://www.helpscout.net/blog/viral-marketing/> [Accessed 3rd March 3017].

Dobele A, Lindgreen A, Beverland M, Vanhamme J, Van Wijk R., (2007). Why pass on viral messages? Because they connect emotionally. Journal of Business Horizons, vol. 50, pp 291304.

Fidgeon, T., (2004). What is Viral Marketing and how does it work?. [online] Available at:< http://www.commercetuned.co.uk/SEO-articles/viral-marketing.php> [Accessed 3rd March 2017].

Google. (2017). Navigating Content Shock. [online]. Available at:< http://bit.ly/2lKhUr3> [Accessed 3rd March 2017].

Google. (2017). Viral Marketing Company. [online]. Available at:< http://bit.ly/2lJL9dw> [Accessed 3rd March 2017].

 Kenyon, N., (2015). Are you making these six video marketing mistakes?. [Blog] Econsultancy. [online] Available at:< https://econsultancy.com/blog/67244-are-you-making-these-six-video-marketing-mistakes/> [Accessed 3rd March 2017].

Kolowich, L., (2016). 12 VIDEO MARKETING & ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS YOU’LL ACTUALLY ENJOY WATCHING. [Blog] Hubspot. [online] Available at:< https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/lovable-video-marketing-campaigns#sm.00003tvl76rryfgjvme25p2pt1vgj> [Accessed 3rd March 2017].

Phelps PH, Lewis R, Mobilio L, Perry D, Raman N., (2004). Viral marketing or electronic word-of-mouth advertising: examining consumer responses and motivations to pass along email. Journal of Advertising Research, vol. 44, no. 4, pp333-348.

PizzaHutCanada., (2016). Pizza Hut Presents… The #PizzaBump. [online] Available at:< https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4sozzHMuGk> [Accessed 3rd March 2017].

Reebok (2017). Hands | Be More Human | Reebok. [online] Available at:<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXIcmHw98pA> [Accessed 3rd March 2017].

Russell, JA., (1980). A circumplex model of affect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. vol. 39, no. 6., pp. 1161-1178.

Selvaggio, A., (2009). McDonald’s Arch Deluxe Commercial. [online] Available at:< https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_TwtdTUQNo&feature=youtu.be> [Accessed 3rd March 2017].

Tredgold, G., (2017). 8 Ways to Avoid Common Video Marketing Mistakes. [online] Available at:< https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/287011> [Accessed 3rd March 2017].

Watson, D., & Tellegen A., (1985). Toward a consensual structure of mood. Psychological Bulletin. vol 98. no. 2., pp. 219–235.

Yeoman, M., (2014). 5 Key Viral Marketing Tactics Proven to Work. [online] Available at:< http://www.jeffbullas.com/2014/06/24/5-key-viral-marketing-tactics-proven-to-work/> [Accessed 3rd March 2017].

York, A., (2016). What Is Viral Marketing & Does It Actually Work?. [Blog] Sprout social. [online] Available at:< http://sproutsocial.com/insights/viral-marketing/> [Accessed 3rd March 2017].

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

UNLEASH YOUTUBE SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCERS FOR YOU’RE BRAND SUCCESS!

influencer-marketing

Source:(Ishani,2015)

YouTube Interesting stats?

YouTube is a website platform that enables users can share and watch videos (gcflearnfree,2017). Interestingly, YouTube within 2011 was the “2nd most popular website” (Scott, 2011).  

Source:(Youtube,2017)

                                                            Source:(KEARNY,2017)

What is an Influencer?

The fact is that “60% of brands will increase spending” on influencers (blog, 2017). Influencers can improve brands to reach their target market and increase visibility for a product or service to impact consumer purchasing decisions, (Enge,2012; White,2017 & Ishani, 2015).  Influencers are considered to be “self-made social media stars” and “overshadow celebrities” (Bacon, 2016 and litsa,2016).  Influencers have a large volume of subscribers to their channels or video content on YouTube. Furthermore, influencers focus on a particular niche with social media.  

3 Influencer Examples From YouTube

Source:(PewDiePie,2017)

YouTuber channel is named pewdiepie. This YouTuber has “52,081,254 subscribers and has 14,264,283,557 total videos uploaded” (Socialbakers,2017).

Source: (YogaWithAndriene,2015)

YouTuber channel is called Yoga by Andriene Mishler. In 2015 this YouTuber had a total of 984,000 subscribers (Jarvey,2015).

 

Source: (BrodieSmith,2013)

YouTuber channel is known as Brodie Smith. This YouTuber has “1,636,997 YouTube subscribers and 231,378,119 video’s uploaded “(Socialbakers,2017).

For Other YouTube Influencers Visit:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/next-gen-2015-youtubes-top-836437/item/adriene-mishler-youtube-next-gen-836480

Examples of Brands using YouTube Influencers

Source: (MumsEyeView,2014)

Asda’s chief executive Dominic Burch considered focusing on a YouTube strategy. This is in order to attract customers. Asda developed a channel known as “brought to you by Asda” (Moth,2015) with a YouTube influencer known as Zoella. This influencer tends to have a YouTube channel about beauty tips with over 11 million subscribers and over 904 million views (vidstatx,2017). The video is particularly inviting, engaging creative and interesting, since customer can learning to bake cupcakes. Asda set the target for 750,000 view this was achieved in week eight (Moth, 2015). The video is simple and links are available at the end to engage with customers.

Influencers Benefits To Brands

There are various reasons for brands to consider implementing an influencer marketing strategy as there are many benefits. An influencer can help improve brands such as by:

§  Brand Awareness

§  Building relationship through trust

§  Authenticity

§  Increase sales leads or conversations

§  Ability to tap into potential large audiences 

Stressed by (Litsa,2016)

Influencers impact

Source: (Weinswig,2016)

Source:(Litsa,2016)

Therefore, influencer marketing is one of the most effective techniques to gain a return on investment and impact purchasing behaviour.

Challenges For Brands Considering Using Influencers

Source: (emarketer,2015)

However, there are challenges for brands as displayed above. Brands should be asking themselves these particular questions before implementing an influencer strategy. In order to increase brands chances for success.

Metrics to Measure Brand Campaigns

In order for brands to measure their return on investment, they must set themselves goals to measure success or failure.  Therefore, brands should evaluate a campaign based on metrics such as; “engagement, brand sentiment, virality, conversion rates or sales and time spent by customers watching the video”(Litsa,2016).

Influencer Framework

Reach

The pillar framework is very useful as brands should consider the key concepts emphasised, when deciding to use a influencer. Reach takes into consideration of the number of subscribers and visitors the influencer has. Proximity could be a brand focusing on a particular location. Where, an influencer has gain a lot of viewers within a particular location. Therefore, this could be a great strategy for success. (Bickart and Schindler,2001) emphasise that influencer provides creditability. One could argue that, however influencers are not like authors and experts in their field with years of experience. Therefore, this must impact the audience at heart!

Resonance

Resonance, really takes into account the amount of engagement and activity. Brands must consider ways to measure the effectiveness of an influencer campaign. Therefore, figures will be important to gain a strong indication of success or failure! Furthermore, what are customers saying in terms; of reviews and opinions as friends and family influence each other. Recommendations may impact purchasing behavior (Hsu et, al, 2013). However, customers can also provide negative recommendations, that could impact the brand and also be fake reviews (Perez,2016)

Relevance

Overall the framework is very useful, up-to-date and relevant. Since, brands should consider influencer brand strategy plan. This framework allows brands to think deeper about measuring campaign and deciding to use, which influencer. The only improvement, I would suggest is a real business example of a brand using the 3 pillars. Which could help improve understanding!

Useful links for brands deciding to use influencers:

  1. https://captiv8.io/
  2. https://www.tapinfluence.com/
  3. https://www.rewardstyle.com/
  4. https://klout.com/home

Conclusion

To conclude influencers, provide a lot of brands creditability, trust and authenticity. The most important factor is brands can gain a lot of customers within a short period of time. Consequently, brands need should create a business plan for influencer marketing by addressing, budgets, influencer customers, tactics and much more! However, brands should not to forget to measure their campaign’s and built a long-term lasting relationship with the audience. This has to be managed effectively such as; reviews, sales, visitors, click through rates and much more.

Overall, a brand has the potential to make a real influencer campaign count, by looking over this article and making notes!

References

Bacon, J., (2016). Self-made social influencers are a big hit with hard-to-reach men online. [Online] Available at:< https://www.marketingweek.com/2016/04/27/self-made-social-influencers-are-a-big-hit-with-hard-to-reach-men-online/> [Accessed 10th January 2017].

Bickart, B., & Schindler, R. M., (2001). Internet forums as influential sources of consumer information. Journal of interactive marketing, Vol. 15., Issue. (3), pp.192-205.

Blog., (2017). Top 6 Mistakes Marketers Make on YouTube Influencer Campaigns. [Online] Available at:<https://blog.kissmetrics.com/youtube-influencer-campaign-mistakes/> [Accessed 10th January 2017].

BrodieSmith, (2013). Greatest Game of HORSE Ever│ Brodie Smith. [Online] Available at:< https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7MLjQxGiVs> [Accessed 10th January 2017].

captiv8, (2017). Actionable Social Insights. [Online] Available at:<https://captiv8.io/> [Accessed 10th January 2017].

emarketer, (2015). Marketers Pair Up with Influencers- and It Works. [Online] Available at:< https://www.emarketer.com/Article/Marketers-Pair-Up-with-Influencersand-Works/1012709> [Accessed 10th January 2017].

Enge, E., (2012). Influencer Marketing – What it is, and Why YOU Need to be Doing it. [Online] Available at:< https://moz.com/blog/influencer-marketing-what-it-is-and-why-you-need-to-be-doing-it> [Accessed 10th January 2017].

Gcflearnfree, (2017). What is YouTube. [Online] Available at:< http://www.gcflearnfree.org/youtube/what-is-youtube/1/> [Accessed 10th January 2017].

HSU, C. L., Chuan-Chuan Lin, J. and Chiang, H.S., (2013). The effects of blogger recommendations on customers’ online shopping intentions. Internet research, Vol. 23. Issue (1), pp. 69-88.

Ishani, (2015). How to use Influencer Marketing in India?. [Online] Available at:< http://therodinhoods.com/post/how-to-use-influencer-marketing-in-india/> [Accessed 10th January 2017].

Jarvey, N., (2015). Next Gen 2015: YouTube’s Top 30 Influencers. [Online] Available at: < http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/next-gen-2015-youtubes-top-836437/item/adriene-mishler-youtube-next-gen-836480> [Accessed 10th January 2017].

KEARNEY, G., (2017). How the Top 100 Brands Use YouTube for Marketing. [Online] Available at:< http://concept5.com/how-the-top-100-brands-use-youtube-for-marketing/> [Accessed 10th January 2017].

Klout (2017). Be known for what you love. [Online] Available at: <https://klout.com/home> [Accessed 10th January 2017].

Litsa, T., (2016). How can a brand benefit from influencer marketing?. [Online] Available at:< https://www.clickz.com/how-can-a-brand-benefit-from-influencer-marketing/97450/> [Accessed 10th January 2017].

Moth, D., (2015). 11 examples of marketing campaigns starring YouTubers. [Online] Available at:< https://econsultancy.com/blog/66155-11-examples-of-marketing-campaigns-starring-youtubers/> [Accessed 10th January 2017].

Mums Eye View (2014). #ad | HOW TO: Baking Cupcakes with Zoella!. [Online] Available at:< https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yv_c8ayf8s> [Accessed 10th January 2017].

Perez, S., (2016). Amazon sues more sellers for buying fake reviews. [Online] Available at:< https://techcrunch.com/2016/10/27/amazon-sues-more-sellers-for-buying-fake-reviews/> [Accessed 10th January 2017].

PewDiePie, (2017). Forced Positivity on YouTube. [Online] Available at:< https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyGI1uHyyws&feature=youtu.be> [Accessed 10th January 2017].

Rewardstyle (2017). reward Style. [Online] Available at:<https://www.rewardstyle.com/> [Accessed 10th January 2017].

Scott, J., (2011). YouTube 2nd Most Popular Website With 790 Million Unique Visitors. [Online] Available at:< http://tubularinsights.com/youtube-790-million-uniques/#ixzz4VM8AATCu> [Accessed 10th January 2017].

Socialbakers (2017). All YouTube Channels. [Online] Available at:< https://www.socialbakers.com/statistics/youtube/channels/> [Accessed 10th January 2017].

Socialbakers (2017). Brodie Smith YouTube Channel statistics. [Online] Available at:< https://www.socialbakers.com/statistics/youtube/channels/detail/UCixstNkzkK0aUzo6N9OVl6Q-brodie-smith> [Accessed 10th January 2017].

Solis, B., & Webber, A., (2012). A “how-to” guide for businesses to spark desirable effects and outcomes through social media influence. [online] Available at:<http://cdn2.hubspot.net/hub/36379/file-13837379-pdf/docs/theriseofdigitalinfluence.p> [Accessed 10 Jan. 2017].

TapInfluence (2017). Influencer Generated Content Starts Here. [Online] Available at:< https://www.tapinfluence.com/> [Accessed 10th January 2017].

Vidstatx (2017). Zoella YouTube Channel Stats. [Online] Available at:< http://vidstatsx.com/zoella280390/youtube-channel> [Accessed 10th January 2017].

Weinswig, D., (2016). Influencers Are The New Brands. [Online] Available at:< http://www.forbes.com/sites/deborahweinswig/2016/10/05/influencers-are-the-new-brands/#7aaa0d607fc5> [Accessed 10th January 2017].

White, I., (2017). What Makes Audiences Trust Your Influence Marketing. [Online] Available at:< http://www.convinceandconvert.com/digital-marketing/trust-influence-marketing/> [Accessed 10th January 2017].

YogaWithAndriene (2015). Day 1- Ease Into It- 30 Days of Yoga. [Online] Available at:< https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBu-pQG6sTY&feature=youtu.be> [Accessed 10th January 2017].

YouTube., (2017). YouTube.[Online] Available at:<https://www.youtube.com/>[Accessed 10th January 2017]. 

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Mobile App Gamification-Becoming Ready For Tomorrow’s Business World!

sfheroes                                                            Source: (Google,2016)

Smartphone Figures

Incredibly figures estimated represents, mobile smart phones users are increasing from 1.5 billion in 2014 to 2.5 billion users within 2019 across the globe (Statista, 2016 & Kissonergis,2015). An estimated 5 million mobile apps were available for downloaded within June 2016 (Statista,2016).

Gamification & Business

Gamification integrates gaming design allowing users a sense of “motivation, engagement, achievement and status” (badgeville, 2016, Edwards. et al, 2016, Strohmeyer, 2013). “Gamification global market will grow to $11.1 billion by 2020” (Technologyadvice,2016). However, Gartner emphasises in “2014 that 80% of all gamified apps will fail analysts predict” (Lunden, 2012).

Blog Contents 

This blog identifies various mobile business apps for review. In order to suggest how gamification could improve the user experiences! Lastly, academic literature will be used to provide a deeper depth of knowledge.

Company Mobile Apps Reviews

Domino’s Pizza App

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AJCnIM-yDg&feature=youtu.be

                                                Source: (Domino’s Pizza UK,2011)

Domino’s Pizza has created a very useful and professional mobile app and is free to download. The brand colours throughout provides displays professionalism. The app functions include; nearest store, menu, orders, meal deals, contact us, legal information and connect to Xbox One.  Therefore, providing relevant information that is accurate and concise. Gamification provides benefits such as: – “enhancing brand awareness and loyalty, innovation, and online user engagement” (Kankanhalli et. al, 2012). Dominos could gamify their mobile app by having badges collected for the pizza’s purchased by customer to gain discounts and rewards. Therefore, offering customer recognition and financial rewards creates customer added value.

Cineworld App

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Q9pfFiNleU

                                   Source: (NIAPS, 2016)

Also free to download for cinema customers. Overall, the app is useful and professional. This is because brand colours are used well reflecting on quality and information is accurate.

App functions include: – 

  • Viewing the nearest cinema by direction and maps
  • Book tickets directly through app
  •   View show times for films
  • See upcoming films and current film trailers
  • Other Cinema services

Organisations seem to increase their efforts towards gamification enabling customers and employees to engage better, by developing memorable experiences and events (Blair, 2014 & Keller, 2003). Cineworld should have gamified rewards for kids to receive money off by a spinner having different discounts as shown below.

 

spinner                                                           Source:(McCollom,2016)

Furthermore, personalised targeted email rewards for Christmas, Black Friday, Cyber week, Easter and Birthdays. That are tailored to the type of films the customer watch to increase brand loyalty and consumer engagement.

Lessons: Pitfalls of bad gamification

  • Game rules are poorly designed (Graham,2013)
  • Reward such as badges and accomplishments are not motivating. There needs to be financial incentives as well as recognition (Graham,2013)
  • Game focus group testing and making changes from feedback (Graham,2013)

Successful Company Mobile App Gamification Reviews

Nike+ Running App

Source:(HappyEverline,2016)

Extraordinarily, 18 million global members use Nike+ running (Comstock,2013). Gamification is well used throughout the app. Live track mapping by using real live data. Therefore, making the experience memorable by seeing their direct real live data. Music incorporated adds motivation and makes the running experience more enjoyable. The best feature is connecting to social networks to share information because others can compete against each other; enabling competition, fun and social awareness.

Starbucks Reward App

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4ScwYcBA7E

Source: (Starbucks Coffee, 2016)

Incredibly the number of active monthly mobile users account for 12 million across U.S and Canada (Johnson, 2014). However, these figures should have been overall global figures to provide a realistic impact from the Starbuck rewards app. Customers gain convenience, time saved by ordering directly from the app. Starbucks rewards app increases customer brand loyalty and engagement by offering rewards such as, free refills and free drinks. This makes the experience enjoyable and provides real financial rewards by savings made. I particularly like the free reward for a customer birthday. Making the whole experience personalised and making the customer feel special.   

Mobile Gamification Frameworks Compared

current-approachgamification-experiences

Figure 1:  Current Approach      Figure 2: Social Engagement

    Source: (Hofacker, et. al,2016)                Source: (Dale, 2014)

Figure 1- Illustrates the many different components necessary for an organisation to meet the many marketing outcomes, outlined above through gamification leading to marketing outcomes (Hofacker et al,2016). The framework is quite useful as, one can break down components in order to create a mobile gamified app business plan. However, the framework should address consumer’s goals aligned to business objectives, which it fails to do so. Furthermore, the gamification elements could be improved by having real business case examples to show the framework can be used.

Figure 2- Reflects on ways gamification can socially engage individuals (Dale,2014). This is simple and easy to understand by images. Reflecting on different user experiences. However, one could suggest both frameworks could be improved. Organisations should consider both frameworks as they both play a significant importance to the user’s end experience. 

Conclusion

To conclude gamification is a brilliant and powerful tool that enables organisations, too “enhances loyalty, customer engagement and motivation” (Ivo & Jan, 2013, Gabe & Christopher,2011). Gamification mobile apps provide a memorable and fun experience. Overall, gamification mobile app strategy enables organisations to “innovate ways to customer engagement and boost sales” (Rodrigues, et, al., 2016). However, organisations should also consider the pitfalls of gamification to avoid.

References

Badgeville. (2016) Gamification. [Online] Available at:<https://badgeville.com/wiki/Gamification> [Accessed 23rd December 2016].

Blair, B. (2014), “Befriend the trend: gaming goes to work”, Finweek, January 30, pp. 7.

Comstock, J. (2013) 7 fitness apps with 16 million or more downloads. [Online] Available at:< http://www.mobihealthnews.com/24958/7-fitness-apps-with-16-million-or-more-downloads/page/0/3> [Accessed 27th December 2016].

Dale, S., (2014) “Gamification: Making work fun, or making fun of work?”, Journal Business Information Review, Vol. 31, Issue. 2, pp.82-90.

Domino’s Pizza UK. (2011) Domino’s iPhone and Android pizza ordering app. [Online] Available at:< https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AJCnIM-yDg&feature=youtu.be> [Accessed 29th December 2016].

Edwards EA, Lumsden J, Rivas C, Steed L, Edwards L, Thiyagarajan A, Sohanpal R, Caton H and Walton R (2016). ‘Gamification’ for Health Behaviour Change in Smartphone Apps”.

Gabe Zichermann & Christopher Cunningham, (2011) Gamification by Design: Implementing Game Mechanics in Web and Mobile Apps, O’Reilly Media, Sebastopol, CA

Graham, C. (2013) 5 Reasons Gamification Projects Fail. [Online] Available at:< http://technologyadvice.com/blog/information-technology/5-reasons-gamification-projects-fail/> [Accessed 27th December 2016].

Happy Everline. (2016) The New Nike Running App. [Online] Available at:< https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HF-bV1Lar1k> [Accessed 29th December 2016].

Hofacker, C.F., de Ruyter, K., Lurie, N.H., Manchanda, P. & Donaldson, J., (2016) “Gamification and Mobile Marketing Effectiveness”, Journal of Interactive Marketing, Vol. 34, pp. 25-36.

Ivo Blohm, Jan Marco Leimeister., (2013) Gamification, Journal of Business and Information Systems Engineering, Vol. 5, Issue (4), pp. 275–278.

Johnson, L. (2014) Starbucks Look to Share Its App Payment System With Other Retailers. [Online] Available at:<http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/starbucks-looks-share-its-app-payment-system-other-retailers-159100> [Accessed 27th December 2016].

Kankanhalli A, Taher M, Cavusoglu H, Kim S H, (2012). GAMIFICATION: A NEW PARADIGM FOR ONLINE USER ENGAGEMENT. Thirty Third International Conference on Information Systems. Orlando. pp.1-10.

Keller, K.L. (2003a), “Brand synthesis: the multidimensionality of brand knowledge”, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 29, Issue. 4, pp. 595-600.

Kissonergis, P. (2015). Smartphone Ownership, Usage And Penetration By Country. [Online] Available at:<http://thehub.smsglobal.com/smartphone-ownership-usage-and-penetration> [Accessed 23rd December 2016].

Lunden, I. (2012) Badges Beware: 80% Of Gamification Apps Will End Up Being Loser, Say Gartner. [Online] Available at: <https://techcrunch.com/2012/11/27/badges-beware-80-of-gamification-apps-will-end-up-being-losers-says-gartner/> [Accessed 25th December 2016].

McCollom, L., (2016) How Mobile Apps Use Fundamentals of Gamification to Engage Mobile App Users. [Online] Available at:<https://www.urbanairship.com/blog/do-you-feel-lucky> [Accessed 29th December 2016].

NIAPs (2016) Cineworld iPhone & iPad Review. [Online] Available at:< https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Q9pfFiNleU> [Accessed 29th December 2016].

Rodrigues, L.F., Costa, C.J. & Oliveira, A. 2016, “Gamification: A framework for designing software in e-banking”, Journal Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 62, pp. 620-634.

Starbucks Coffee. (2016) Starbucks Rewards, Made Even Better With the App. [Online] Available at:< https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4ScwYcBA7E> [Accessed 29th December 2016].

Statista. (2016). Number of apps available in leading app stores. [Online] Available at:<https://www.statista.com/statistics/276623/number-of-apps-available-in-leading-app-stores> [Accessed 23rd December 2016].

Statista. (2016). Number of smartphone users worldwide from 2014 to 2020 (in billions). [Online] Available at:<https://www.statista.com/statistics/330695/number-of-smartphone-users-worldwide> [Accessed 23rd December 2016].

Strohmeyer, R. (2013) Gamification: using play to motivate employees and engage customers. [Online] Available at:<http://www.pcworld.com/article/2047564/gamification-using-play-to-motivate-employees-and-engage-customers.html> [Accessed 23rd December 2016].

Technology advice. (2016) Compare 106 Gamification Platforms. [Online] Available at:<http://technologyadvice.com/gamification/> [Accessed 25th December 2016].

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Different search results for searching different languages

Digital Marketing Workshop 3

english german spanish arabic

Digital marketing workshop lecture 3 was asked to search different languages for the same keywords used. In order to find out what results Google provided? I found the articles were all different! I was searching for the terms: how does Brexit affects the economy? This was search in different languages  such as English, Spanish, Arabic and German. The articles are all different! Also Google searches did not show paid adverts in the different languages apart from English.  Here are the screenshots of the results shown above.

 

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Building An Effective Email Marketing Campaign

emailfacts

Source: (Alam,2016)

Email Marketing

Email marketing is believed to have outperformed social media by 60% reflected by internet marketers (Zhel,2016). However, one could argue the credibility and reputation of the author. Furthermore, is there other evidence online that supports this claim. E-mail marketing is considered an important medium used by organisation in order  to build and maintain closer relationships with customers emphasised by (McCloskey,
2006, Chaffey et al, 2003). Evidence, suggests that email marketing is about building better relationships stressed by (Baggott & Sales ,2007) . Email can be seen as a powerful tool (Wedge,2013).

Useful links below to why use email marketing:

It would be vital in this exercise to analyse critically an email marketing campaign and suggests improvements. Readers can look forward to images, academic references and comparisons made with useful links. Lets start by discussing Krispy Kreme.

Krispy Kreme Logo                                                            Source: (Krispy Kreme, 2016)

This organisation was founded by Vernon Rudolph (KrispyKreme,2016). First opened on the 13th July in Old Salem in Weston-Salam in the United States in North Carolina. An multinational business operating in a variety of different countries. Example of some countries include: United States of America, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Mexico. This organisation is a franchise that specialises in creating a variety of fresh doughnuts and coffee. Target Audience is primarily a young adults aged 20-30 years old.

For more information click the links below:

Company background(KrispyKreme,2016)

Additional information about the Krispy Kreme business plan(Stirling,2012).

Source: Krispy Kreme’s Glazed Donuts | Fast Food Mania-(DestinationAmerica, 2012)

               Email Marketing Campaign-Krispy Kreme             

click on the images below to see them bigger!

krispy-kreme-1

krispy-kreme-2

Krispy Kreme email campaign critically analysed

Personalisation

Krispy Kreme used personalisation well by using customers name gives the email a personal touch. Personalised email provides companies with the opportunity to maximise returns generated by 6% higher compared to non-personalised (Gesenhues,2014; Wegert,2014). However, figures could change over the years. Figures need to be up-to-date figures to provide a true representation. “Personalised subject lines are 26% increase in being opened and 760% increase within email revenue” (Campaignmonitor,2016). Consequently customers need to be weary about cyber security from; identity theft, credit fraud and personal greetings identified by (Fox school news and releases, 2012).An improvement suggested is organisations should conduct research into minimising customer reduce risks online and counter threats.

Using Social Media

Krispy Kreme uses of social media very well within the email campaign to connect new customers. An interesting point raised is that organisations can gain two top benefits from using social media these are; increasing exposure and increasing traffic (Stelzner,2014). Social media offers a unique opportunity for organisations to make use of the sheer volume of users available on social media platforms, by engaging to forge new customer connections.

Click on the image to enlarge:

users-of-social-media-2                                                               Source: (Statista,2016)

Organisations spend alot of revenue to gain new customers on social media sites such as Facebook. Future marketing budgets could be wasted. This is because 67.65 millions users on Facebook are suggested of being fake last month (Protalinski,2014).  Organisations should think carefully about these different building blocks framework shown below and how social media efforts are meeting customers needs and expectations!

honey-combSource: (Kietzmann, et al,2011)

The framework could be improved by showing how organisations can track their performance and dealing with cyber threats. Krispy Kreme could improve the social media links being embedded within the email campaign by always using latest and popular sources of social media and positioned at the top.

Professional and appealing

Great use of professional images and appealing to the target market. Informal friendly language appeals to the target market. Krispy Kreme does well in incorporating company logo’s colours used throughout the email giving a consistent look of professionalism. Another positive is the subject line is bold and to the point. It is vital that email is simple and quick to scan, emphasised by (Chatoff,2016). One improvement, can be suggesting having the brand logo positioned to the “top-left enabling the recipient to be more engaged” (Ellis-Chadwick & Doherty, 2012).

brand-logo-positioning                                             Source: (Ellis-Chadwick & Doherty, 2012)

Call to action (CTA)

Krispy Kreme could have made this bold, clear to stand out. The call to action message is still appealing in terms of the use of informal language and friendly tone! One improvement is results can be tracked to monitor performance. Papa Johns CTA stands out by a bold green button and bold writing.

papa-johns

                  Papa Johns Email

Landing Page

krispy-kreme-treats-2Source: (KrispyKreme, 2016)

 

This is desirable and attractive. Information flows well and everything is relevant to email. Furthermore, easy to scan with simple designs and few elements to engage customers, which matches Gutenberg Diagram shown below. “Customers can gaze at all four quadrants so relevant content is less likely to be missed”. Krispy Kreme could see other affective landing pages and learn from them to improve.

modelSource: (Hernandez & Resnick, 2013)

Click here: Landing Pages examples (Mineo,2016)

Conclusion

An effective email campaign requires a variety of features to meet the target market. Overall, Krispy Kreme can make many improvements to their email marketing efforts. Call to action button could stands out more. Having the company logo on the top left corner to engage customers. Being up-to-date in terms of the latest trends in social media to meet customers needs and expectations. Having social media embedded at the top right corner to utilise the power of social media. Tracking information is a significant importance to evaluate the performance of the email marketing campaign.

References:

Alam, G (2016) 5 Reasons You Must Buy or Rent an Email List [Online] Available at:<http://www.ninjaemails.com/5-reasons-you-must-buy-or-rent-an-email-list/>[Accessed 28th October 2016]

Baggott, C & Sales,  A (2007) EMAIL MARKETING  by the NUM8ERS, How to Use the World’s Greatest Marketing Tool to Take Any Organization to the Next Level. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Businessmarketingplan, (2016) Advantages and Disadvantages of Email Marketing[Online] Available at:<http://www.businessmarketingplan.net/email-marketing/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-email-marketing.html>[Accessed 26th October 2016]

Campaignmonitor, (2016) The new rules of email marketing [Online] Available at:<https://www.campaignmonitor.com/resources/guides/email-marketing-new-rules/#seven> [Accessed 29th October 2016]

Chaffey D, Mayer R, Johnston K, Ellis-Chadwick, FE (2003) ”Business-to-Business Internet Marketing”, in Internet Marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practice, Chaffey, D. (ed), Pearson Education – China Machine Press, Harlow, Essex.

Chatoff, L., (2016) Email news and strategy [Online] Available at:<https://www.streamsend.com/articles-keeping-it-simple/>[Accessed 31st October 2016]

DestinationAmerica (2012) Krispy Kreme’s Glazed Donuts Fast Food Mania [Video Online] Available at:<https://youtu.be/0UV8E7vWxhU>[Accessed 28th October 2016]

Ellis-Chadwick, Fiona and Doherty, Neil F. (2012). Web advertising: the role of email marketing. Journal of Business Research,Vol 65,(Issue:6), pp. 843–848.

Fox School News and Releases (2012) Dear[insert company name],personalized emails don’t impress customers [Online] Available at:<http://www.fox.temple.edu/posts/2012/06/dear-insert-company-name-personalized-emails-dont-impress-customers/>[Accessed 1st November 2016]

Gesenhues, A (2014) Study: Personalized Emails Deliver 6X Higher Transaction Rates, But 70% Of Brands Fail to Use Them [Online] Available at:<http://marketingland.com/study-70-brands-personalizing-emails-missing-higher-transaction-rates-revenue-73241>[Accessed 28th October 2016]

Hernandez, A., & Resnick, M. L. (2013, September). Placement of Call to Action Buttons for Higher Website Conversion and Acquisition An Eye Tracking Study. In Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting (Vol. 57, No. 1, pp. 1042-1046). SAGE Publications.

Kietzmann,J,H., Mermkens, K., McCarthy, I, P., Silvestre, B, S.,(2011) Social media? Get serious! Understanding the functional building blocks of social media (Business Horizons), Vol 54, Issue 3, pp. 241-251.

Kolowich, L (2016) 15 of the Best Email Marketing Campaign Examples You’ve Ever Seen [Online] Available at:<http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/email-marketing-examples-list#sm.0000wxcmeanuyekru421g5ol2yv4r>[Accessed 28th October 2016]

Krispykreme, (2016) doughnuts and coffee since 1937 [Online] Available at:<https://www.krispykreme.com/about/Our-Story>[Accessed 26th October 2016]

Krispykreme, (2016) SHARING THE JOY around the World [Online] Available at:<https://www.krispykreme.com/around-the-world>[Accessed 27th October 2016]

Krispykreme, (2016) Friends of Krispy Kreme [Online] Available at:<http://www.krispykreme.co.uk/Friends-Of-Krispy-Kreme?Road=Redeem&keyid=8a3265a2-b01e-4352-a49b-6973c609b717&keycid=5aa977f8-b768-4bd7-81d2-5486b9629134>[Accessed 31st October 2016]

McCloskey, W. (2006) E-mail Data Source, Retail White Paper, New York.

Mineo, G, (2016) 16 of the Best Landing Page Design Examples You Need to See [Online] Available at:<http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/landing-page-examples-list#sm.0000wxcmeanuyekru421g5ol2yv4r>[Accessed 3rd October 2016]

Protalinski, E (2014) Facebook estimates that between 5.5% and 11.2% of accounts are fake [Online] Available at:<http://thenextweb.com/facebook/2014/02/03/facebook-estimates-5-5-11-2-accounts-fake/>[Accessed 1st October 2016]

Smartinsights,(2016) Email marketing [Online] Available at:<http://www.smartinsights.com/email-marketing/>[Accessed 26th October 2016]

Statista, (2016) Most famous social network sites worldwide as of September 2016, ranked by number of active users (in millions) [Online] Available at:<https://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/>[Accessed 1st November 2016]

Stelzner MA .,(2014) How Marketers Are Using Social Media to Grow Their Businesses. SocialMedia, Marketing Industry Report.

Stirling, S (2012) Krispy Kreme Business Plan [Online] Available at:<https://prezi.com/x4iblkgvqpxy/krispy-kreme-business-plan/>[Accessed 27th October 2016]

Wedge, (2013) Why Email Marketing is More Powerful Than Social Media [Online] Available at:<http://www.takeflyte.com/resources/newsletters/email-marketing.php>[Accessed 29th October 2016]

Zhel, M (2016) Email Marketing vs Social Media Performance in 2016 [Online] Available at: <https://www.mailmunch.co/blog/email-marketing-vs-social-media/>[Accessed 28th October 2016]

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | Leave a comment

IKEA case study

                                                                                                                                                                 Ikea at a glace

Ikea is a well known as a multinational organisation. This business sells is known for being the largest furniture retailer.Overall this organsiation employees over 160,000 employees around the globe. This business has a presence of 365 stores available in 45 countries. The case study Ikea at a glance focuses on like minded people that discuss people and technology creating a agency within Ikea known as thew socialisers. They discuss that social media represents an opportunity for IKEA to forge relationships within its customers.  IKEA socialisers groups suggests that the organistion can benefit, from real time insights, sharing information with teams. In order for information to be acted upon. IKEA obstacle was to establish a broader cultural shift around the involvement of sharing and governance. IKEA overall has been very involved with a wide variety of platforms for thier social media presence. This includes Twittter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Youtube, Pinterest, blogs, websites, online forums and news sites. The case study recognised that the US market was making more complaints by the use of Facebook. Whereas the UK was more attached to using Forums.

Ikea using social media

Marketing used by IKEA

Takeways from chosen article:

  • By using Social media adds Ikea is able to add customer value and grabs consumers attention.
  • IKEA has a vital opportunity to interact with real time data to react to consumers needs.
  • Organisations can enchance thier presence by the use of Social Media
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | Leave a comment

Asher Digital Marketing

Hi I am in a awesome class about digital marketing.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | 1 Comment

Hello world!

Welcome to your brand new blog at University of Brighton Blog Network.

To get started, simply log in, edit or delete this post and check out all the other options available to you.

For assistance, visit our comprehensive support site and check out our Edublogs User Guide guide.

You can also subscribe to our brilliant free publication, The Edublogger, which is jammed with helpful tips, ideas and more.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | 1 Comment