Recently we talked about A/B testing and how it is used by every marketer to test certain campaigns and the response rate. Marketers will test out an A scenario vs a B scenario on consumers to measure the engagement prior to launching a full campaign that reaches their entire target market. It is an interesting and simple tool that allows marketers to see which wording, picture, theme, etc. is most liked by consumers between two options and using that information to target a specific market. However, this article in Wired called Your A/B Testing Isn’t Working Nearly As Well As You Think brings up valid flaws associated with the method. How do you know which variables are working and which aren’t? Every campaign encompasses numerous variables because in today’s digital world marketers aren’t solely focusing on one medium to communicate with consumers. A/B testing limits to just how to change one variable, but not necessarily how a campaign could be better without a variable all together.

This article suggests the concept of experimental design where a company launches a campaign that includes all the different possible variables such as promotion, email, format, layout, messages, etc. and then measured the response rates at the end and combined them with all possible combinations. They were able to identify where they were wasting time and money on variables that weren’t working and where they could focus for future campaigns.

I think this is a cool concept and as digital continues to grow and analytics tools continue to be created, experimental design may make A/B testing a thing of the past. Granted this process is still a little complicated, can be expensive, and can take time to implement, the results it provides are invaluable. Who knows where this will go next, someone just needs to create a platform that simplifies the process.

Everywhere I look now, Christmas is popping up. It is nearing the end of November and for some it means that it is becoming a respectable time to shift from fall, Halloween, and Thanksgiving to the next holiday. I love the holidays and everything about it, people may say its too commercialized and product driven, but I think companies bringing a touch of Christmas to their stores, promotions, ads, and products just further creates Christmas spirit. I always find it interesting how different companies can leverage different holidays for their marketing initiatives. Christmas is the biggest holiday of the year, besides new years and the super bowl in the ad world, where companies need to step up their game to be heard through all the Christmas noise.

Starbucks is a clear winner with this holiday because of their signature red cups that come out every year on November 1st. People wait all year for the red cups and it seems that as soon as they are out, people by more coffee just because of the festive cup their coffee is in. Starbucks got it right and now has people counting down to the red cup reveal and has created a tradition for its consumers. This simple form of consistency every year gets people excited for the holidays, and for some, the red cups signify the beginning of the Christmas holidays.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JEkuQ2vykk

The other company that does it well and has established tradition is Coca-cola. As the years have gone by they have gotten more modern with their ads shifting from the old school Santa Clause to polar bears and other themes. But they still have some how managed to embrace the season and be a brand winner during this overly competitive time.

This year, an unlikely organization has found a way to creatively use the Christmas holiday to promote themselves.

The NBA recently released their NBA Jingle Bells video which shows some of the leagues stars shooting hoops and playing the classic Christmas tune. I saw this and laughed at first because it just seemed so odd seeing jingles bells being played with basketballs. But then I was impressed. It is a pretty cool way for the organization to promote themselves, while embracing the holiday season, and doing something that impresses people all at the same time.

All in all, some people can be cynical and talk about how commercialized the holidays are. But it is pretty smart of certain brands to embrace the season and promote their products. It is a yearly holiday and unless you are Starbucks, you need to think of a new way to break through the holiday noise with your brand. The creativity that comes every year is so cool and I think the NBA nailed it with their Jingle Bells video. For this year…

Click this link to see some Christmas Print Ads

Recently, we discussed the mobile space and the various opportunities there are for digital marketing on this platform. Many companies however are still trying to determine a way to take advantage of the mobile platform on which billions of consumers are active. There are numerous ways mobile can be used from simply making a mobile friendly website to creating a full blow app. A company who has recently found a way to maximize this space with the hopes of increasing revenues is Indigo books. Many consumers were seeking a way to make their online shopping experience mobile and they have done just that by adding value to a consumers in store experience. Consumers are able to check in when they enter a store, this check in provides them deals and suggestions based on their purchase history. Furthermore, it allows them to access their online wish list. The coolest part of it though is the ability to scan products in the store, then the products will appear on their mobile screen and allow them to purchase it and have it shipped to their house.

Indigo Deepens In-Store Experience

This idea is interesting because it attempts to tackle the trend of online shopping that is becoming increasingly common among consumers. They like the simplicity of having products shipped directly to their door, not having to search a product out in store, or have to leave their house to make a purchase. Indigo is trying to encourage consumers to come to their retail stores while simplifying their purchase experience through the mobile app. Hopefully this new perk to shopping will increase their revenues and drive sales over the next year. Then they can look to make improvements to the app to make the purchase experience even better. Imagine being able to search a book or product on your phone, then it will guide you directly to where it is in the store.

There is ample opportunity in this space and Indigo has found a cool way to leverage mobile and try to better the consumer experience.

Creating an online presence for a brand is becoming increasingly important for those trying to reach target consumers. Advertising and marketing is shifting towards digital platforms as opposed to more traditional platforms because of the simplicity of online, in addition to the growing number of consumers using social media and other digital platforms. Furthermore, digital marketing provides an increase in consumer information and analytics because everything done on multiple platforms can be analyzed with one program. The increase in information provided by these programs allows for targeted marketing campaigns that are specifically directed to a the target market of the brand.

Now all this information is awesome, but is it become too complex and overwhelming? This article Is Online Advertising Getting Too Complex? written in AdAge, they talk about how the increased information is causing too specific of campaigns and effectively reducing the success rate of those campaigns. Becoming too targeted because of information creates sylos for each component of a campaign and fails to create a synergy across all of the platforms. Effective campaigns are those that use the benefits of all platforms and uses it to make one impactful message, too much information causes marketers to lose sight of the overall message.

Do you think online strategy is coming to complex?

Editorial: Adapting you way to the top

This is a really cool article that goes on to talk about adaptability and how it is a must have trait for brands. I found it very applicable to what its being learned in 464 because the marketing landscape is completely changing with the rapid advancement and adoption of social media and digital marketing. One of the winners of the Brand of the Year awards (congrats to all the winners by the way!) was McDonalds because of their Ask us Anything campaign that was run online. They embraced the negative publicity they were getting from consumers about their food and directly addressed the rumours by being transparent. The article goes on to talk about other brand winners and how they have adapted to the changing landscape, in addition to other brands who unfortunately weren’t able to change with the trends. With social media and digital being so prominent, in addition to the internet providing so many more ways for consumers to get information on brands and products. This article just goes to show how important it is for companies to embrace the changes and begin to adapt their business for those changes. If they can accept it early, they can become brand winners and avoid losing because of stubbornness of the new norms.

Just some food for thought… any one else have an opinion?

The fast food giant who has been competing in the same industry as McDonald and Wendys, among others, has just recently launched a new campaign in an effort to drive brand awareness and sales. However, not staying true to their name, they have introduced to us their Gratifries and based their campaign on this product. In Canada they are know as Gratifries and in the US they are Satisfries. It seems odd for the fast food chain who prides itself on the Whopper to be promoting french fries instead of burgers, their name has Burger in it… what are they thinking! They are also going the lower calorie option trying to attract consumers because they are french fries that are also supposed to be good for you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajesfE2ZGDY

Not only have they rolled out commercials but they have launched a large scale sampling effort where you can sample gratifries for free every friday between noon and 2pm until Nov. 1. They have also been seen changing their name to Fries King at certain locations.

My big question about his campaign is why fries? Why go away from what you are known for doing and try to promote something completely different?

When I look at this campaign I can see the company trying to spark some talk. I see them attempting to create some word of mouth promotion from people talking about what they are doing and why they are putting so much emphasis on their fries. I think it is a very risky move for them to be making and I am very interested to see the consumer response.

The inspiration for my blog today is something that was mentioned in class and I reallly wanted to build on the idea. Jamie McDougall found an article about a guy who sent a short video to a girl he met in Starbucks in an attempt to seduce her.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdS9pdiYF4o

Instead he became a social media sensation that adopted the hashtag #starbucksdrakehands. This simple video created a fire storm on social media with people quickly creating parodies of the video and using the #starbucksdrakehands tag. After seeing the video a question was posed to the class. Should Starbucks leverage this social media sensation and if so, how should they leverage it? This question about how the company should leverage this viral social media trend is what leads me to where I want to expand. I am curious as to how companies decide to leverage viral videos and social media trends in order to increase their own brand awareness. The one company that sticks out most in my mind as being a prime example of how to do this well is Wonderful Pistachios. This company took viral youtube videos and created their Get Crackin campaign which went “viral” in itself.

The first one launched leveraged the YouTube sensation Keyboard Cat who has over 32 million views. After its success they went on to create more and basically made their get cracking campaign a success.

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

And launched the Gagnam style ad during the superbowl.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rE6iiiDdTNY

This campaign must have seemed farfetched when first presented as an idea but I think that it is an excellent example of how social media and viral videos were leveraged to help a brand. I wonder how they decided to use the campaign it would be interesting to hear their process. Visit their Get Crackin Website to see more of their ads starring The Harlem Globe Trotters, Snoop, and others.

All in all, I am interested to see what Starbucks does with this trend, but as agreed upon in class, I wouldn’t be surprised to see them do nothing.

Any other examples you guys can think of?

Thanks for reading!

Before it’s invention in 2007, the # stood for a number sign, something to use in order to abbreviate and shorten numbers. But Chris Messina decided in 2007, being an avid Twitter user, that he was going to change the meaning of the # completely.

He explains why he invented the hashtag in this short Bloomberg Video above but it can be summed up in a few words. Twitter is the online social platform for streamlined and short and sweet messages since users are restricted to the 140 character limit. Messina felt that there was no real way for people to connect their conversations through common trends. Twitter originally had it that common key words could be searched but Messina thought there was a better way and so invented the #hashtag. He effectively created a way for people to create and follow trends that could be organized and easy to find. The hashtag is a great tool for brands to keep conversations going among their consumers about their products and their brands. It allows people to follow the latest news on a what is happening somewhere in the world. It also provides a way for people have conversations about social trends and social issues.  Little did he know that his creation would eventually take on a whole new direction.

Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake illustrate it best in their skit #hashtags. The tool for users to create trends to build a community, in addition to building a brand, has morphed into a weird way of speaking and has become over used in all the wrong ways. It brings about the concern that hashtags may not be useful anymore because they will be so watered down with all these random made up trends. This article by NYMag goes on to describe The 7 Types of Hashtag Abusers and I know all of us have been guilty of one of these at some point.

At the end of the day, I wonder how hashtags are going to continue to morph and whether they will die out a slow death, or if they will come back and provide a whole new set of opportunities. I will leave you with this thought, what if hashtags were used for your own personal brand… I read an article on the Elite Daily where the writer goes on about creating a personal hashtag campaign and attaching your name as a hashtag to resumes and job applications. Say whattt!? He goes on to explain how you can bring all of your social media platforms together, and pool all your ideas into one place. Who knows, this could be the next trend with the hashtag since it seems to be changing by the day but using it for job applications? I can’t decide if this idea is genius or just plain stupid. What are your thoughts?

#thanksforreading #peaceout

I was just recently away on a road trip with my soccer team to Regina and Saskatoon. While on these road trips, we aren’t really able to do too much other than rest in our rooms, do our school work, and play the games we came to play. However, on the first night there a teammate and I got bored and decided to walk to a gas station to get some snacks and water. I was pretty efficient and got what I wanted quickly, but my friend took awhile to make her decisions so I wandered the store just browsing while I waited for her to make her selections. Who knew boredom would turn up something interesting…

Found at a 7Eleven in Regina

I was looking at all the gift cards you can buy for various companies through 7Eleven and I came across a gift card for Facebook apps! I had no idea this existed. These gift cards looked similar to the ones iTunes sells except these were to purchase apps within Facebook. What first got me was that I thought everything on Facebook was free, but seeing these cards told me differently.

I find this super interesting following Facebook’s performance in the Nasdaq since it’s IPO last year. When it opened at 38$ back in May, Facebook thought it was at a good competitive price, but investors quickly realized that it’s revenue stream wasn’t strong enough to support it and the stock quickly dropped more than 50% in the first 3 months. Since its IPO disaster, Facebook’s stock climbed up to an all time high of 40$ in August  and is currently at $49.46. This massive recovery is due to Facebook finding alternate sources of revenue to support the company and I am now wondering if this is one of those revenue strategies. Its seems very out of Facebook’s character and I wonder how people are reacting to it, or even if Facebook is selling any of these gift cards. The money on these gift cards doesn’t go towards buying an app, but it gives you money to use inside of an app (if that makes any sense). It’s kind of like if you were playing SIMS and spent money, but it isn’t fake money, it’s your real money. This seems weird, and the option to buy these cards are only in certain regions, but I don’t think I as a consumer would ever have the desire to purchase one of these. I’d be interested to hear from someone who has bought one and how they used it.

All in all, this post is just voicing my curiosity surrounding Facebook’s big turnaround, and I wonder how much this alternative type of revenue strategy is actually helping them. Many digital start-ups, and social media platforms have struggled with finding sustainable revenue streams, could this be one of them? And are consumers going to buy in?

The job of a marketer in a nutshell is basically to get people to listen to what they are selling. Whether it is a product, a service, or a message, they are trying to find the best channel to reach the most consumers. The marketing industry today is forever changing with marketers finding and using new ways to get consumers to listen or engage in what they are saying. In my opinion, selling a product or a service seems easy when compared to trying to sell an idea or a message.

There are many organizations in todays world trying to make the Earth a better place to live whether it be supporting environmental initiatives or battling world hunger or supporting peace in places of war. These organizations have the toughest job of getting people to listen and act because it takes more effort for consumers to buy into the message rather than just going out to purchase a product or a service. The campaign that got me thinking about this is the WWF/ Vancouver Aquarium Campaign which is targeting shoreline cleanups across Canada but specifically along the West Coast. This is just one way that we as human beings, and consumers, are negatively effecting the environment by dumping waste into our oceans. WWF and the Vancouver Aquarium, with help from an agency, have creatively tackled this issue in an effort to get people to listen and help the cause. My concern is are people actually going to listen and do something about it? When I look at the ad I see an effort to shock people into realizing that it actually could get as bad as seen in the clip. They use a shock or scare tactic to get people to clue into the real issue, then finish with the URL to visit for more information.

To me I see this campaign as half way there. I feel that there are other marketing tactics that could be used to further engage consumers and actually get people believing in this cause. As I stated at the beginning, trying to sell a message is the hardest thing to sell because people have to choose to take initiative. With any campaign that has a social message or is promoting a cause, it should include a digital channel that directly engages the consumer. When a message is just being broadcast to consumers, it allows people to engage in social loafing because they’ve heard the message but can hide in a crowd of people and not act. If I were to be working on this campaign, I would set up an online conversation through Twitter or Facebook to spread the word through sharing the video across these channels that would directly engage consumers. This would minimize their ability to hide and basically call them to action. Furthermore, I would organize an event on one day and make it a gathering of people from across Vancouver, bringing them together for one day of cleaning the coast line. The event would be spread across the Lower Mainland coastline basically have one big celebration up the west coast. WWF Canada has links for where you can sign up for a coast cleanup in your area, however, making a large event and bringing people, businesses, and entertainment out to one place would help spread the word and give people an even bigger incentive to join the initiative.

I could ramble on but to get to an all around point, basically I think those organizations wanting to spread a social message, cause or initiative have one of the hardest jobs. Having images and videos that share the message are a good place to start, but engaging consumers encourages people to not only listen, but to act.