RIP Nokia

It happened. It appears that Nokia has finally extinguished itself with plans to be rebranded by new owners as the Microsoft Lumia.

While the brand Nokia will no longer exist the company will continue under new owners Microsoft. However, is this enough to bring back the struggling brand that was dominated and defeated by the onset of smartphones?

What do you think, could Nokia have been brought back via a digital marketing campaign? Think of the amount of times you’ve seen blogs or YouTube videos or meme’s dedicated to Nokia and their indestructible phones.

Could they have leveraged this? Or is it better to be rebranded under Microsoft?

Gone but not forgotten.

– Todd

What can a digital marketer do with zero dollars?

You’re (probably) a marketing student, what do you think you could do with a $0 marketing budget?

I sat down for a brainstorm of what I would be able to do as a digital marketer with no budget and came up with a small list of things I believe could be accomplished.

1. Have an idea

Use your creativity and your skills as a marketer to create an idea that will make an impact. Anyone can sit down with a pen and paper to map out an idea. You might be thinking of a new innovation, a way to connect, a way to make a statement. All of the advertisements and competitions and posts used by digital marketers come from somewhere, the mind.

2. Make use of social media

If you’re currently operating on $0 you can hold off on establishing your $30,000 website and just utilise social media. Facebook, Instagram, Pintrest, all of these platforms can help you launch your product or your message. If you have the right idea, and if you have the right message, you can put it out onto the web free of charge.

3. Undertake research

You don’t need a hefty research grant to go out and gain some information. The online world is a never ending source of valuable information. A simple google search can turn up academically backed opinions, verified statistics, proposed theories, and a multitudes of other valuable material . Secondary data always comes before primary data, go and see what you can find.

4. Engage with an audience

If you can’t find a way to engage online with an audience, you’re not a very good digital marketer. Use your ideas, use your social media platforms, use your research and engage! Ask questions, provoke thought, be responsive and capture your audiences interest and attention. You should know how, we’ve been doing it all semester.

You might think that digital marketing activities require money and budgets, sometimes all you need is your own head. Use it.

What else do you think can be accomplished?

– Todd

How does GoPro use social media?

Recently I made a video about how GoPro uses social media to promote its brand and interact with its users. Check out the video below.

In my opinion, one of GoPro’s best ideas is the GoPro app, allowing you to sync, share, and post photos to your social media and to the online community.

 

The app is an ingenious way to both maximise the use and efficiency of the GoPro, while also connecting with the consumer.

Can you think of any other brands that use an app this successfully? Comment below and let me know.

– Todd

Social media, helping (or making) you say sorry.

It seems that celebrities and companies do a lot of stupid things, and the internet is always there nowadays to point it out to us. How else would the world have heard about (and been outraged by) this?

But, thankfully, they can always resort to the online world and social media to address the issue directly and say sorry. Over the past few days i’ve seen two big apologies for marketing gone wrong that were posted and discussed online.

Woolworths was forced to apologise for a line of apparel that was described as “divisive” and “racist.” Read here.

And Bono took to Facebook to apologise for forcing U2’s new album upon all iTunes users. Read here. 

While we all probably would have heard about the U2 debacle (and been personally victimised by Bono in the process), I would never have known that Woolworths had released racist singlets without the spread of the scandal throughout social media and the online world.

You may think these actions by celebrities or organisations would come to your attention organically, however social media sometimes demands that we have an opinion on something that we may have missed in the first place. I myself don’t watch Family Feud, however I read an article via Facebook that wanted to know what I thought about the show.

Do you think it was sexist, or innocent enough?  Let us know on our Facebook page

So what do you think, does social media make it easier to say sorry in the digital world? Or is social media the reason for saying sorry?

– Todd

What’s the biggest advantage of advertising on Instagram?

The best thing about advertising on Instagram?

Its totally mobile!

Most social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Pintrest) are spread between laptop, desktop, and mobile usage, whereas Instagram is virtually only used via mobile device. Users are able to view certain Instagram profiles on their desktop computer, however proper use of Instagram (sharing photos and viewing them in the feed) is done only on the mobile app.

By advertising on a mobile device, you can market a product right into the user’s pocket. Literally.

Instagram currently has about 200 million active users monthly, increasing by 25% from December 2013 to May 2014, this trend is only expected to continue. Check out the article here.

Remember back to our seminar in week 5 where we discussed the importance and growing need of mobile marketing. We learned that, in 2013, there are almost as many mobile prescriptions as there are people in the world. By utilising an increasingly popular mobile app and integrating advertising, companies are setting themselves up for success.

“If you don’t have a mobile strategy, you don’t have a future strategy” – Eric Schmidt (2012)

Not only is Instagram mobile, it is also used 24/7. There is no specific day to post on Instagram and all days are optimal for posting, read some more stats here.

Can you think of another mobile app that businesses could advertise through to reach mobile users? Do you think there is an even bigger advantage for advertising on Instagram than being mobile?

– Todd

In-store reward cards go digital

Reward cards are frequently used by large scale organisations as a customer loyalty tactic. Many smaller businesses have struggled to incorporate this into their own strategies as it can require large scale implementation and maintenance, depending on the type of usage and reward.

However, Australian tech company Rewardle has created a way to bring this technique to local business owners.

Rewardle is like a digital upgrade to the traditional buy 9 get 1 free paper punch card

By taking a classic marketing technique and making it digital, mobile, and accessible, Rewardle seems to have found a great little niche and, while currently quite small, has the potential to become a common and successful part of the local shopping experience.

While I have seen the use of digital reward cards before, I think that Rewardle has marketed the idea in a way that will appeal. The strategy seems pretty simple and should be beneficial to both the customer and the retailer.

But what do you think? Is it a good idea? It does involve the use of QR codes…

– Todd

Can we “create” a viral marketing campaign?

I hear it all the time “in order to reach consumers we created a viral marketing campaign””to introduce their new product they created a viral marketing campaign” “lets make a viral marketing campaign”.

Are these people creating a viral marketing campaign? No

It may be their idea, they might have created the campaign, they hope that it’ll go viral. But in the end, its the public that decides what is viral and what is not. If they created the same campaign and it flopped, would you still call it a viral marketing campaign? No, you wouldn’t.

If the “dumb ways to die” campaign had received no views, no downloads, and no media attention, you wouldn’t classify it as viral. A company might create a hilarious video or competition that they are sure is going to spread through the web like wildfire, but if no one cares and no one shares, you can’t call that a viral campaign.

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Can you create a viral marketing campaign?

nup

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Your campaign is not viral, its the response that is viral – Todd

How quick do we have to be?

It was interesting to hear in our lecture last week that no one should again mention the ALS ice bucket challenge as a topic, as if this global trend which had become popular the week prior was already dead, done, and no longer worth talking about.

And that is completely right! If I see one more article or video posted about it on Facebook I’m likely to drown my phone and laptop in a bucket of ice.

But it got me thinking; how quick does digital media have to be today? How long before the moment has passed? If your organisation engages in social media and digital advertising, and I recommend that it does, how can you make the most of it without it getting old?

Social media and viral marketing is valuable in that it creates conversation and engagement between the brand and the consumer. It is this engagement that is essential to a viral marketing campaign, without it the campaign will die. In my opinion, marketers need to take advantage of the speed and versatility of the digital world and move on when the time has come. Stay ahead of the game or at least play along with it.

What do you think, is the digital world moving faster and faster? Is it possible to create a viral campaign? Or is it up to the public to decide what will go viral and for how long?

Hmm, that might be a topic for next week

– Todd

 

Is advertising altering our memories?

Remember that day back in the summer where you sat out on the beach on a hot day with your good looking friends, laughing, listening to good music and enjoying an ice cold, glistening refreshing coke?

 

 

 

Yeah me too, because its been implanted in my brain as well. 

 

I recently read an article discussing the idea that advertising is altering our memories, claiming that 

 

“Vivid commercials are incredibly good at tricking the hippocampus (a center of long-term memory in the brain) into believing that the scene we just watched on television actually happened”

 

Pretty much, you can watch an advertisement on TV and subconsciously believe that it actually happened to you! And that got me thinking, how many of my memories have been altered or completely created by advertising? When I picture myself doing something as simple as going the movies the memory I recall is of an outsider, watching myself sitting in the chair, 3D glasses on, popcorn in hand, laughing with my friends. I’ve never seen myself do that, I can just picture it in my head. 

 

And thinking further on it, I pondered how it can extend to digital advertising, especially through social media. The number of advertisements displayed throughout Facebook are staggering and the effect that it seems to be having is people trying to recreate these moments in their own lives. How many times have your friends (or even you) posted a photo similar to that one above, one that could have come straight from an advertisement? (Guilty)

 

Advice given from the article was that 

 

“As a result, consumers need to be vigilant while processing high-imagery advertisements.”

 

Personally I feel like the advice could be more along the lines of “don’t brainwash people” but thats just me…

 

What do you think, are your memories real? Or just fabricated advertisements replaying in your mind?

 

– Todd

What the hell is user-generated content?

Last week I was speaking to a friend of mine, who works in social media, about my recent foray into blogging. After asking me what I would be blogging about (digital marketing) he told me that I should write a post about user-generated content (UGC) as it was such a huge deal in the digital marketing world right now. I smiled and quickly agreed that it was a great topic to write about while trying to hide the fact that . . . I have basically no idea what it means. 

Which is ridiculous! Surely a marketing student should have a pretty good idea of what UCG is! I mean I get the general idea of it, but if someone walked up to me and asked me for a definition and an explanation they would be met with a blank stare while I slowly backed away. So I decided to get my head firmly around the concept by attempting to write a blog about it.

The simplest way to define UGC would be to say that it can be any data or media that is contributed/created by individual users of a publication, particularly websites. Pretty much it is the production of content by the general public rather than by paid professionals. 

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For example..

Write a product review? = UGC

Comment on a business’ Facebook status? = UGC

Make a video on YouTube? = UGC

Interact on social media? = UGC

Write a blog about UGC? = UGC

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Content that is created by users is becoming increasing popular in the digital world, with many of the most frequently visited sites on the Internet being primarily user generated, such as Wikipedia and YouTube. Other websites like Amazon and eBay utilise UGC to augment their already existing websites through reviews and user interaction. 

The interesting thing about UGC is the change it has had on the relationship between consumers and companies, with organisations now shifting from influencing consumers directly through advertising to instead mediating the influence that consumers have on each other! So, instead of a company spending money trying to make you buy/like their product, they instead create the opportunity for YOU to tell/influence other people to like the product. By creating UGC, consumers’ choices and opinions become more transparent while their actions and decisions shape the behaviour of other consumers. 

Watch how Sears in the US uses UGC to their advantage

Who knows where UGC will progress to in the future! What do you think of UGC, is it a handy tool for marketing? Or an unreliable mass of random information?

 – Todd