Throughout this course i have thoroughly enjoyed working with my team mates and carrying out our assignments on groupon. It really allowed to gain in depth understanding and knowledge of how a large corporation can psotion itself in the market and the small but very useful marketing tools that use.

Creating the video was also an excellent experience and it opened my eyes as the importance of filming techniques and media tools that can be utilised. Before the project I honestly never thought we would be able to make a 5 miunte video that wasn’t going to look like a diaster. However in the end I was actually very proud of the final product and how well it all fit together. Making the video was definitely my favourite part of the class, although the whole experience was invaluable.

Thank you

In the past 5 years the explosion of social media has opened countless doors for brands to reach millions in a simple post. One of the big trends that this has given birth to is the “Viral Video”, often they’re just videos of friends doing stupid stunts, although increasingly corporations are using them as a marketing tool. And very effectively. The effective use of Twitter and Facebook means these videos can reach the news feed of anyone in the world in just a matter of hours or minutes.

Take for example the “Kony 2012” video. It was launched by the non-profit group Invisible Children Inc on a Monday and by Friday it had over 70 million views, 200 clips associated with it and more than 500,000 comments, according to Visible Measures. This video really set the standard as the worlds fastest moving viral video and opened the eyes of marketers as the the value these videos have.

Redbull are another Viral Video giant and below is one of my personal favorite viral videos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0jmSsQ5ptw#t=38

Filmed in four hours with a camera mounted on a Mercedes SUV and 40 GoPro cameras, it took a 23 person crew consisting of NASA aeronautical engineers, mechanical engineers, and former Disney Imagineers working with the athletes to devise the device.

No doubt Invisible Children Inc and Redbull shelled out a mini fortune to make these videos, and it really has to be something to go “Viral”. Although they pay nothing for reaching millions within a week or two of the initial posting. This is surely much cheaper than any other type of advertising when you consider the cost to number of views ratio.

Viral Videos are still young and expect in the next 10 to 20 years that companies are going to make it or break it depending their rapid spread.

In todays developed world a mixture of improved health care and less family orientation in western culutres has resulted in an ageing population, whereby the eldery are living longer and familys are having fewer children.

This has resulted in the elderly becoming a massive target market for marketers. A study by the Boston Consulting Group has shown that globally, those over 55 will account for more than half the consumer spending growth in developed markets over the next two decades. Thus the development of the “Grey Dollar” becoming one of the most attractive market segments in developed economies.

Most noteable Japan and Germany are the two nations that are ageing at the fastest rates. Nearly 1/4 of the population in Japan is over 65, being dubbed the “Grand Generation”. This has led to a whole new focus for marketers in these countries, as older shoppers in supermarkets can access medical clinics, benefit from 5 per cent discounts on pension day, partake in any of 140 leisure activities ranging from calligraphy to hula dancing and, through the “Begins Partner” programme, find love.

Furthermore Kaiser, one of Berlin’s biggest supermarket chains, has fitted out its elderly-friendly stores with brighter lighting, extra-wide aisles that can better accommodate mobility scooters, non-slip floors and even emergency call buttons.

This brings up the question will we see this shift in marketing focus in North America? Will the Grey Dollar take over?

The graph above shows that Canada is also experiencing and ageing population.

I have no doubt that marketers here have and will continue to focus on the over 65 markets. However I feel it is unlikely they will become a main focus purely do to there low income and often basic lifestyles.

Today I am reviewing the blog by Sherice Jacob on how to market with Hashtags – http://digitalmarketer.com/successfully-market-hashtags/

Hashtags started upon twitter as way to organise tweets so users can view tweets on specific topics, however in the last few years they’ve really taken off. Sherice’s blog goes through the essential do’s and don’ts of marketing with hashtags.

An interesting concept was the idea of Hashtags hijacking. This means using an already successful or popular hashtag that orignates from someone else and usig it to draw attention to your marketing program. However this can be risky and there have been noteable fails like #McDStories and #notguilty.

Hashtags can also create a sense of community for those using it. Often it allows people from certain groups, organisations and charitys to share their stories with people from the same walks of life.

I found this article particularly interesting as a twitter user myself. Normally when I see a hashtag facebook or twitter I view it as a joke or a poor attempt to claim fame. Although this blog really opened my eyes as to the usefullness of Hashtags for marketing campaigns and highlighted their worth.

It will be interesting in the coming years to see if they survive or fade off into the grace yard of poor marketing tools

#MarketingWithHashtags