The universal saying ‘a diamond is forever’ originated from the De Beers Mining Company in 1947 and has since been called by many ‘the best advertising slogan of the 20^th Century’ (American Mosaic, 2007). Sixty-eight years later, this advertising line has a recognition rate of 90% in America, reflecting just how effective it has been over the years (American Mosaic, 2007).

De Beers essentially created a billion dollar industry from the ground up through the ingenious ploy of marketing diamonds as a universal symbol of love and commitment pioneered through strategic product placement. As industry demand declined in the 1930s due to unfavorable economic conditions, the De Beers Company launched a campaign bombarding the public with images of movie stars and celebrities sporting glamorous diamonds on various mediums. Not only did they utilize film and TV product placement, they also pushed the inclusion of their products in magazines, newspapers and radio programs. Through the success of their marketing plan, sales of diamonds increased by 50% (American Gem Society, 2015).

By the year 1965, 80% of U.S. brides wore diamond engagement rings and the idea that diamonds were an everlasting core symbolic item linked to romance, eternal love and emotional sentiment became deeply ingrained in Western society (American Gem Society, 2015). Through the marketing of an idea instead of a product, De Beers was able to build a multi-billion industry in which they dominated for almost a century.

For as long as I can remember, I have always associated diamond rings as a representation of marriage. But with the rising rates of divorce and separation, have younger generations become skeptical of romance? Perhaps it may be time for the diamond industry to move on from their carefully crafted image of love and marriage and begin to focus on other modern values such as personal success and achievement.

Consumers have to filter out all the different types of advertising and marketing campaigns thrown at them because we simply just can’t handle it if we tried to take on board everything. Therefore, it becomes even more important for companies to think of unique and creative ways to spread their message and grab the attention of the public.

An example of this is UNICEF’s guerrilla marketing campaign where they placed vending machines all over Manhattan with various disease-infected water options instead of the usual different varieties of soda. People were intrigued by the idea and wanted to see what the water looked like so they were willing to pay $1 out of curiosity. In return, the $1 went to charity and provided a child with clean drinking water for 40 days.

Not only was this an effective way of increasing awareness but it also provided an incentive for people to donate. UNICEF made the donating option extremely accessible for passersby as they were able to contribute through the vending machines or via SMS/online. The project was far more successful than UNICEF had anticipated which shows exactly how effective a creative and attention-grabbing marketing campaign can be.

To find out more about this project or to see more pictures, click here.

L’Oreal has had a long history of being linked to rumours surrounding the subject of animal testing and it’s ongoing battle with PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) has created much bad publicity for the company. Many animal activists feel so strongly about this issue that they called for boycotts of not only L’Oreal but also The Body Shop, which was bought by L’Oreal in March 2006.

There have been claims recently that L’Oreal is undergoing a new campaign of reaching an end goal to become “cruelty-free” by 2013. This has resulted in the company donating $1.2 million to the US Environmental Protection Agency in order to help improve the testing of safe chemicals, an act that could be seen as a strategy to improve their brand image. While this move was welcomed by welfare activists, some animal rights groups felt that more could be done by the company to fully terminate all animal testing processes that are occurring in L’Oreal labs currently. To find out more about this case, click here.

It can be seen from this example that business ethics and corporate social responsibility is becoming more and more important for companies to maintain, especially as the current citizens of the world are becoming increasingly aware of these issues. Business ethics can be paramount to the success of a business in the sense that it can help companies increase their consumer base if they have a strongly positive ethical reputation.

(Source: http://blog.sticky9.com/post/11095149810/happy-birthday-instagram-hard-to-believe-its)

The billion-dollar photo sharing social media platform turns five today! It’s growth since 2010 has been profound, now boasting approximately 400 million users on the app. This article (http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/instagram-birthday-how-old-a6682021.html) talks about some of the trends that have been established through Instagram, one of which is that a large number of influencers including celebrities and political figures have begun to take to Instagram instead of traditional media outlets to make important announcements. Whether it’s an engagement, a new addition to the family or big career moves, people have started to use Instagram to directly communicate with their audience and fans to let them know first-hand any changes in their lives.

Another interesting trend is that the top three accounts on Instagram all belong to women (Taylor Swift, Kim Kardashian and Beyonce). We can see that Instagram may be helping to perpetuate the concept of ‘girl power’ and it seems that users are more interested in following women than men. Another statistic is that the most liked photo on Instagram at the moment belongs to Kendall Jenner and racks up a total of 3.1 million times. That alone shows how wide the reach of this platform is and how much engagement is possible through the usage of this platform.

Personally, Instagram has always been my favourite social media platform compared to others like Facebook or Snapchat as Facebook has a tendency to become too cluttered and noisy while Snapchat is so temporary. Instagram has become almost like a visual diary for many people including myself and I am grateful that it was birthed 5 years ago as a tiny San Francisco startup with 13 employees.

Happy Birthday again, Instagram!

As part of the millennial generation, it is interesting to see how the advertising industry has adjusted to meet the needs of consumers similar to myself. In an article featured on Forbes highlighting a company called ‘Fanbytes’, this topic is explored further in depth by considering alternatives to traditional forms of advertising that have been around for longer than millennials have been alive.

Fanbytes is a company that helps brands including Go Pro, Adidas and Nickelodeon collaborate with social influencers on channels such as Youtube, Instagram or Vine. These platforms are popular amongst millennials and this 16-24 year old demographic is seen as the largest current market for many brands. However, there has been a need for brands to change the way that they engage with younger consumers as millennials are particularly resistant to obvious, disruptive forms of advertising. They are cautious of product placement and will reject advertising that seems artificial or unnatural. Therefore, companies need to find ways to shift their blatant advertising methods into native content.

Fanbytes connects these companies to the influencers that would fit their brand image and would be able to reach a large audience while staying believable and authentic. An example of this is a highly successful campaign that they arranged for Go Pro in which they teamed up with a Youtuber called Kieran Brown with 150k subscribers who specializes in creating videos featuring freestyle football tricks. Fanbytes tends not to use Youtubers who are too popular because a lot of times they have entered the ‘celebrity’ category in which anything they advertise tends to lose authenticity. I think that this is definitely a more effective way of advertising as it is incorporated more subtly into content that is already engaging consumers. Instead of forcing consumers to be receivers of information, this opens up an alternative in which consumers can actively seek out ‘advertising’ from companies and not feel like they are being advertised to.

For more information on Fanbytes, the article I referred to earlier can be found here.