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Whistler!

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As avid skiers and snowboarders probably know, Whistler opens this weekend! It has been 203 days since Whistler closed its lifts last season and ski bums have been praying for snow ever since. Finally, the day has come!

Extreme sports are popular among younger generations today. Whether its skiing and snowboarding or sky diving and bungee jumping, it seems the more daring the activity, the more popular it’s becoming. A company that has capitalized on this trend is Red Bull. Red Bull is world renown for sponsoring extreme sports in all forms.

Although Red Bull has incredible marketing both online and offline, it is the company’s video content that spreads like wildfire. Red Bull’s YouTube channel has received over 470 million views since its launch in 2006 and has close to 1 million subscribers.

What makes Red Bulls videos so successful?

1) Selection of sponsored events – Red Bull carefully selects the events it sponsors and has its brand affiliated with. As mentioned previously, the company focuses largely on extreme sports. A prime example of this was the broadcast and sponsorship of Felix Baumgartner’s space jump. This video alone was watched by 8 million viewers form around the globe. Not all sports Red Bull affiliates itself with are this extreme, however, it is unlikely to see Red Bull being associated with horseback riding or tennis. As well as selecting extreme sports, Red Bull also seeks out bizarre and one of a kind events. For example, Red Bull hosts ‘Flying Day’ in nations around the world. This day consists of participants creating flying devices, launching them from a 10 m high platform and traveling as far as possible before plummeting into water below. This event combines innovation, creativity and sport.

2) Discrete advertising – As well as being selective in the events they sponsor, Red Bull is also selective in the way they promote their brand through their videos. Red Bull isn’t invasive. The company sponsors events but subtly places their advertising throughout the events, making sure not to take the attention away from the sports and the participants themselves. Instead, Red Bull focuses on the content, shooting and editing videos in compelling ways to promote the experience rather than the brand. This approach garners more respect form participants and viewers while still effectively increasing brand awareness.

Red Bull has one of the strongest brands in the world with an estimated value of $10 billion.* It has successfully found its niche, targeting extreme sports and generating excitement around them by shooting and posting videos online. By carefully selecting sporting events and dispersing their advertisements throughout, Red Bull has an increasing brand awareness without being overbearing for viewers.

* http://www.millwardbrown.com/brandz/2012/Documents/2012_BrandZ_Top100_Chart.pdf

Movember

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Movember – an annual month long event that lets grown men around the world shave their moustaches in obscure designs while raising money for charity.

The Movember initiative is a great example of an online community. The company website ‘Movember and Sons’ offers several pages relating to its community such as:

1) Global Leaderboard – shows the number of participants registered from each country and the total amount of money they have raised for the Movember Foundation. This generates friendly global competition as well as giving Canada a pedestal to stand on for raising $14 million to date – more than any other nation.

2) Mo Stories – offers participants an opportunity to share their story whether it relates to Cancer and mental health issues, love stories stemming from Movember creations or just general observations relating to the movement as a whole.

3) Mo Photos – allows participants to post photos of their moustaches progress from their clean shaven state on November 1st to its fully blossomed state on November 30th. This platform encourages participants to get creative with their shaving and inspire others to do the same.

4) Hall of Fame – each year since Movember began in 2007, one man has been entered into the Hall of Fame for his beautifully terrible moustache creation. This serves as a goal for men worldwide to strive for.

As of 2011, $300 million dollars have been raised for the Movember Foundation supporting Prostate Cancer and mens mental health initiatives.

Since its creation, many companies have capitalized on the excitement and buzz generated by Movember. An example close to home is Granville Island Brewery. For the month of November, Granville Island drink coasters get into the Movember spirit by offering different cardboard moustaches attached to each coaster. This encourages all bar goers to participate in the event regardless of their moustache growing abilities. In return, Granville Island Brewery donates 10 cents from every Granville Island beer they sell.

The Movember initiative is such a simple concept yet it has the ability to join together men from opposites sides of the globe through a moustache growing competition. Not only that, but it has generated millions of dollars for charity and continues to grow exponentially as a movement each year.

#UWRightNow

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#UWRightNow

User generated content: users can create any content in a variety of forms: text, photos, videos and audio and this content can be placed on infinite platforms such as Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, Twitter, blog sites etc.

UGC offers many advantages to companies and users across the globe:

  1. It is free for the company – no salaries are paid and no company time is used.
  2. Increases search engine rankings by having frequently created content from a wide variety of sources.
  3. It is considered more trustworthy and authentic than company created content.
  4. Enriches user experience through engagement and provides a voice to the average person.

At UBC, students and professors have access to large amounts of information relating to the University and its practices. For example, students can locate the University newspaper the “Ubyssey” online, each faculty can access their faculty website, everyone has access to the UBC generic website, students and professors can subscribe to UBC tweets and Facebook page, UBC REC has their own site etc. However, these sites are not connected in any way and users have to access each site individually seeking the information they need. All of this information is available, yet it is so hard to locate.

Addressing this issue flawlessly, the University of Wisconsin-Madison launched a site on April 18th (just for a one day trial) called UWRightNow. The idea is simply to provide a single platform to compile all student/professor/faculty Tweets, Facebook statuses, videos, photos, blogs etc. that relate to UW in some form. For example, a professor Tweeting that his class is cancelled could use the hashtag #UW and his Tweet would appear on this platform. Similarly, videos from varsity football games could be uploaded in the same manner or photos from a Halloween party.

This site is a great example of primarily UGC (although some University generated content) being provided in real time through a variety of mediums onto one platform. A possible improvement might be to allow users to ‘subscribe’ or select who they wish to see when they enter the site. Being able to tailor the site to their needs will reduce noise, irrelevant content and information overload. I definitely think this idea has a lot of potential for Universities worldwide –  it keeps students in the loop of events going on, opportunities for involvement and how to make the most of their University experience.

Viral Videos

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Last lecture we spoke about viral videos and the use of social media. Since then, a celebrity sensation has created the latest viral video.

Of all celebrities, Justin Bieber easily takes the title of Twitter king. With 29 million follows/fans/”Beliebers” there doesn’t seem to be anything they can’t achieve together. Most recently, Justin leveraged his influential status to promote his new music video “Beauty and a Beat” featuring Nicki Minaj. With such a large number of followers, Justin could simply have tweeted the link to his new video and it would have achieved millions of hits within the day. However, he decided to take a different approach..

On October 10th, Justin Bieber sent these tweets:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Later in the day, someone using the name “gexwy” tweeted Justin the following messages:

And so the speculation began.. countless media articles were posted speculating everything from sex tapes and naked photographs to drug use and violence. Little did they know that Justin was in the middle of a prank..

After days of speculation and publicity, at noon on October 12th, Justin Bieber released his new music video “Beauty and a Beat.” The music video received the most hits in 24 hours of any Vevo music videos on YouTube – 10.6 million and growing.

So what made the launch of this video so successful?

  1. Justin Bieber’s influential celebrity status
  2. The online community of “Beliebers” he has established and nurtured on his rise to fame
  3. The “buzz” he created over 2 days with a fake Twitter account
  4. The video serves as an outlet for Justin to share his story with fans
  5. Production of the video is original, relateable and funny

This story is a prime example of the power of social media and its impact on the world when used to its full potential.

Tumblr

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Tumblr is a social network that allows users to create blogs to share anything: text, photos, quotes, links, music and videos. A successful Tumblr blog that has many UBC students talking is:

 www.whatweshouldcallubc.tumblr.com

 

This blog and similar “what we should call me” blogs capitalize on the humor of everyday situations. The UBC version takes situations, places, annoyances etc. around UBC that most students encounter on a daily basis and finds the humor in them and expresses it using GIF’s. Often UBC is criticized by students for being cliquey within faculties and for getting limited opportunities to interact with students beyond their faculty. The success of this blog has sparked the beginning of a campus wide community, connecting students from all faculties and years through one common goal: finding humour in everyday frustrations.

This blog capitalizes on the “community” aspect of the 7 C’s of E-Marketing.  It unites a broad community of students through the simplicity of moving images. It allows users to interact and provide feedback by posting comments or questions relating to posts.

Sauderites

 

When someone asks a really stupid question with one minute left in lecture

The popularity and success of this site stems from several sources.

1. Firstly, the anonymity of the blogger creates a sense of mystery. Without knowing if the student is male or female, a Psychology major or an aspiring Marketing student, a social butterfly or a nerd allows users to create their own sense of who the blogger is and diminishes cross-faculty stereotypes.

2. Secondly, the content of the site is relateable. All UBC students have experienced fellow students asking questions just as class is supposed to end or having to detour for miles around campus just to reach their class. Students experience these frustrations daily and this blog offers a place to vent with other likeminded students.

3. Lastly, the bloggers ability to turn frustration and anger into something laughable. After a stressful day, students love to relax and laugh at something that happened to them and frustrated them just hours before.

Finding out my professors know about this blog