Creativity Unearthed!

Larry Summers came to Sauder and gave us a talk yesterday on the economic trend of the world now; he started the talk by mentioning the importance of smartphone.

If you were to give me access to Harvard Library, one of the largest university library in the world but no access at all to my smartphone. OR. Access to my smartphone and no access to the Harvard Library. I would choose the latter, because smartphones can do everything. A smartphone has more computing power than the Apollo program had that sent a man to the moon.

That’s what Dr. Summers mentioned at the beginning of his speech. Nowadays, people use their phones for many functions such as making a payment and do mobile shopping. My Marketing Applications Professor Ann Stone mentioned before that she prefers Linkedin Mobile just because it is so much easier to view and navigate.

With the holiday season approaching, Mashable has identified a trend of mobile shopping, Thanksgiving mobile shopping will double this year. With the mobile shopping trend, retailers are getting on the track of offering mobile shopping to consumers. One of my favourite fashion mobile app is ASOS.

The reason why I love this app is:

1.) Ease of Navigation – My friend recommended ASOS to me last year with its mobile app and guess what? I spent two hours browsing on the clothes and accessories on my iPhone. It is so easy to navigate and I say it is very interactive. There’s no lag page when I browsed through the items one by one. This simple and fast shopping way made me enjoy it so much. It is even easier than shopping on their website. The screen size is just nice for a piece of clothing, compared to shopping on a laptop, I prefer the mobile version more.

2.) Wishlist and Saved Items – Consumers often have a wishlist for certain products especially in clothing or cosmetics. They do not purchase on the spot and prefer to wait longer maybe when the price is lower. This app integrates this idea so well that they have a saved section where you can save it and come back to check on it later. I tried it on their webpage and items that I saved normally are gone due to some issues of my different IP addresses. Shopping on mobile made me interact with the page more.

3.) Fast and Secured Payment – Payments are easy to be made, you can enter your credit card information and it will be stored on the app for your second and future payments.

4.) Store Locations Map (for UK only) – We can search for key stores that accept returns in UK and this is convenient for consumers because they do not have to go on Google Maps separately to search for one.

ASOS is smart to build a comprehensive mobile shopping app because it keeps consumers engage and attention on their smartphones. Thus, bounce rate is much lower compared to shopping on their website. This ASOS app has all you need for an awesome mobile shopping experience. Do your favorite mobile apps beat mine?

This is Melbourne’s Public Service Announcement and it has gone viral on the internet with its catchy music, interesting lyrics and cute animations. This video targets younger audiences as a reminder to be cautious when they are at the train platform. It now has more than 8million views on Youtube though it was only released in less than a week. I say this would be the mini Gangnam wave for the online community, especially among the younger audiences.

Few Reasons to the Success of this Campaign:

1. Setting the mood of the campaign appropriately in a creative sense: I think this is a tactful video that has captured audiences attention successfully on this topic. It is very smart of the creator to turn audiences’ avoidance for accidents to a happy and creative clip that they would share it to their friends and family. A conventional PSA on accidents would probably picture bloody unbearable scenes that delivers high level of stress to audiences. Surreal ads that reminds audiences directly about their safety would not be as effective as this one because audiences will shift their attention away from the screen. However, this video is set in a fun and happy mood with its cute animations that engages audiences’ attention to watch the beginning of the video to the end.

2. Elements of the Video: There’s a surprise element at the end of the song. People would not know what it is all about until the part when it says “Be safe around trains. A message from Metro.” at the end of the video. The lyrics are fun and easy to understand. The tune of the song is lively and happy. Although it talks about a sensitive topic (death), the song delivers joy to people. Audiences who view the video are thrilled and gladly share it to their friends and family.

3. Uses of other Social Media Channels: They created a Tumblr page for this campaign too. Audiences can download the cute animations in gif. format from Tumblr. This allows people to reblog the content from Tumblr and it increases audiences’ engagement for the campaign.

This campaign fits Groundswell POST method perfectly too.
People – The element of the video is fun and cute that directly targets younger audiences
Objective – To remind people to stay safe at the train platform. It is an effort to curb train related deaths.
Strategy – Create something that people will share it to their friends and family in order to cover larger amount of audiences.
Technology – A video that is fun to watch that will encourage people to share around.

One of the recent trends that was identified by PSFK in The Future of Retail Report is – “Shopper as an Affiliate“. Companies now are trying to turn their customers into affiliates aka evangelists. PSFK Consulting team finds that brands and firms are focusing on their most influential customers in order to help them promote and sell their products. This trend encourages firms to find appropriate tools to monitor the community and pick out their most influential group of customers.

Companies rolls out different strategies through its customers in order to increase its sales:

1.) Referral program -When you refer a friend to Groupon, a $10 will be credited to your account when your friend purchase the coupon successfully. GlossyBox offers incentives in points when you refer a friend on a purchase.

2.) Customers’ Interaction – Company like 500 friends partner with retailers to engage customers in their brands. Their aim is to turn these shoppers to loyal customers then to brand advocates. People on 500 friends will fill out surveys, write a review, share or refer their friends to a particular brand. They then earn tokens through their activities and these tokens will enable them to store credits. Also, customers are grouped differently depending on their activities on 500 friends. This will enable brands to target customers separately depending on the group that they fall into.

Challenges – Although separating consumers will enable firms to identify evangelists, there are some downfall to this. How do companies give title to customers? By their interaction such as offering product reviews? or by customer per spending per period? Guidelines as to how customers are treated as VIP / Top Contributors should be clearly stated on the website of the brands in order to avoid any confusion among customers. Customers might feel unfair if they are not given the VIP title when they thought they are qualified for it. Thus, firms have to be cautious when grouping customers in order to be fair to everyone.

3.) Monitoring Customers on Social Media – Customers are now sharing the products that they bought on social media channels such as blogs or Youtube. Youtube is now a platform for customers to do their “shopping hauls – a video on products that you buy”. Shopping hauls are more specific to women and the products that are shared are normally cosmetics or clothing items. Companies can leverage the influence of these online community to help promote their brands.

Challenges – The challenges for this is the “genuity” in the haul videos. Would consumers be attracted to “haul videos” that are sponsored by a specific brands? Consumers might question the quality and truth of the comments and reviews on the hauls if they know that the shopper is sponsored by the brand. Companies will have to find a tactful way to get their brand out from these social media channels and avoid being questioned the truth of these product reviews from the consumers.

The voice and interaction between firms and consumers have changed from top down to bottom up. Customers now have more options and more say in the brands of products they consume. With the emerging trend of firms offering personalized experience for customers, crowdsourcing is what firms use now to engage consumers. Nowadays, consumers do not solely participate in purchasing  and consuming the products but have also become co-developers of personalized experiences for the firms; almost every firm’s businesses involves some elements of crowdsourcing.

There are a few successful crowdsourcing campaigns in the past. The conventional ones are Doritos Crash the SuperBowl Campaign and Pepsi Refresh Project that focuses on social community effort. Firms seek ideas from the community for their plans on product inventions, corporate social responsibility and so on. However, the number one reason for firms to participate in crowdsourcing is to engage consumers into their brands.

However, an effective crowdsourcing campaign takes time and effort during planning in order to achieve the desire results. To achieve an effective campaign, you need to choose the right audience and placing the campaign on the right channel. Crowdsourcing action has  to link with the brand and products you sell. Appropriate incentives should be provided as well.

I came across  Coca Cola’s Blank You Very Much crowdsourcing campaign recently, its voting deadline was last week. Looking into this Coke T-shirt Design Campaign, I was surprised by the small number of entries for this campaign. There are only 117 design submissions, the top three designs that receive the highest vote were around 950 votes.

Considering that Coke is a universal brand, my personal thoughts on this campaign is that it did not go well due to the smaller reach of audiences. One of the reasons of lower reach to audiences is low sharing and engagement among people. Also, I assume that people are not into this campaign because it does not have much association with Coke products, it is a T shirt design campaign that does not have anything to do with Coca Cola beverages. But who knows what is the underlying purpose of this campaign? Maybe Coca Cola wants to target just this group of people for their creativity in logo creations.

The video above is a crowdsourcing campaign in May this year done by McDonald’s Germany. There were 116000 burgers created by people, 1.5million people voted on their ideal burgers. It was indeed a successful crowdsourcing campaign that managed to engage McD’s customers strategically.

The campaign was a success because the action was strongly associated with the products. Creating your ideal burger all in one and having it available in McDonald’s outlets if it receives the most vote. Who would say NO to that? Also, it was easy for customers to participate in the campaign which is just a few clicks away on their laptops. It is hard to measure the effectiveness of this campaign (to trace sales? impossible as McD’s sales are always high). However, by just looking at the submissions and votes, we can say that McD Germany has successfully engages customers in this campaign.

Crowdsourcing is another way of “listening” to your community. McDonald’s can look into the ingredients where people submitted the most and gear their new menus towards that direction. Instead of doing the conventional way of listening and monitoring, why not listen in to audiences when they tell you what they want easily through crowdsourcing?

I own my personal blog since 2008, though I am not always an active blogger I have always love reading blogs. I found out that Nuffnang recently launched an awesome mobile app NuffnangX. Nuffnang is a blog advertising community that operates in Asia Pacific. They own an e-commerce platform – Jipaban, Twitter advertising network – ChurpChurp and the most recent one a Social Blog Tool – NuffnangX.  Nuffnang aims to bring bloggers together then cultivates and expands the blogging community.

My experience in the blogging community when I was in Malaysia told me that the power of bloggers are influential ambassadors to brands. Companies would leverage the interaction between bloggers and readers to promote their brands. They do it in a few ways, firms offer sample products to bloggers, they invite bloggers to their event and so on, bloggers then get to return the favor by blogging about their brands and product reviews. I think this is a good way of firms promoting their brands because bloggers are seen as creators in the technographics ladder below. They hold the title of affluent people who have the power to influence readers on purchases of products and brands. From my own experience, I refer to fashion bloggers when it comes to clothing and make up for the thought of them being the leader in fashion. “well, also because they blog about fashion and they have thousands of readers for their blogs.”

NuffnangX made a smart move by shifting bloggers and readers up to the top of this Social Technographics Ladder from Forrester. Before the app of NuffnangX, readers might be spectators who read blogs but not commenting or participating in the community. This app makes it easier for readers to comment on a blog. There’s also a conversation function that allows conversation box between just the reader and the blogger. This shifts spectators to critics and conversationalists.

I think Nuffnang has done a great job in listening and monitoring their blogging community well before investing into the new app. This made the blogging community more interactive and more conversations can be generated among bloggers and readers. I am sure the quality of blogs will be greatly enhanced too due to more feedback receive from the readers.

A very smart move by Nuffnang, well done BossMing & Timothy!

If you are interested in reading the interview between e27 and BossMing – one of the cofounders about NuffnangX, click here.

I saw the news that recently Facebook is looking into integrating a “want” button onto its system so that users can have a wishlist of the products that are posted by retailers. Facebook is testing this system on several retailers such as Victoria Secret and Michael Kors. Besides the want button, Facebook has the entire collection feature that allows users to “like”, “want” and “collect” the visual items that they see online.

That looks like this, as the picture below:

Also, Facebook is considering of offering the service of allowing users to buy the items off Facebook promptly. It seems like a great feature that allows more interaction between users and retailers on Facebook.

Regardless, I personally think that Facebook is gearing towards retailers’ needs instead of enhancing its platform for us the “ordinary” users. The new “Collection Feature” that is introduced by Facebook only caters the needs of retailers. Yes, users will click the “want” button when they see something that catches their attention on the retailers’ page. However, one of the concerns that I have is that whether it fits Facebook users’ purposes of logging into their Facebook or not. To me, Facebook is a platform that connects my family & friends and I. It is more like a casual site for me to reconnect with my high school friends, to update my family on the other side of the world, or to invite some friends to my birthday bash. Offering me products that are available for purchase on Facebook seems a little sketchy to me now. I don’t see myself shopping or purchasing Michael Kors bag or a bedframe from Wayfair on Facebook. All these seems so new to me because Facebook has not involve cash transaction on its website yet other than some games that are offered on the site. Maybe maybe… I will start accepting the new features when I see more benefits to me on this system.

If the new feature is set to be launched, I say that Facebook would have a hard time in the first few months in persuading users to make their first purchase of products on Facebook. It would be nice if Facebook offers flexibility for us users in changing the settings of this features, at least it gives users a bigger transition phase to switch from “purely” social networking site to a social commerce era.

Source:
http://allfacebook.com/want-button-collect-button-like-button_b102097

I Learned about viral marketing in class this week and that in order to make an ad go viral, there should be 3 things. You need 1. surprise, 2. intensity and a little bit of 3. happiness.

I will analyze two videos that went viral online.

The first video is the one that went viral yesterday – Felix Baumgartner’s freefall action that is sponsored by Red Bull. He broke the world record by jumping from the edge of the space which is 39045 meters from the ground after flying to the altitude in a helium filled balloon. The news has gone viral for the whole day, now the recorded video is trending on Youtube and elsewhere on the web. I found out about the news yesterday when I saw many postings on my facebook homepage. This shows that Red Bull is doing a good job in being the sponsor of this stunt because the audiences share and like the links.

The stunt performed by Felix went viral because it has a high intensity and surprises in it. It’s not just jumping from a helium balloon but from a high altitude of around 24miles from the ground. This is a dangerous act because the helium balloon might break anytime if there’s air objects that pierces the balloon. Felix broke the world record and its free falling exceeded the speed of sound which makes it the hot topic in this coming week. Audiences are surprised by his courage in performing this action, also we all felt the nervousness and our hearts paused for him when watching him LIVE jumping in front of our laptop screen.

Everyone is talking about it, audiences ranging from young children to company CEOs. This shows the power of viral campaign, Forbes predicted that the sale of Red Bull is going to increase tremendously in the coming month. I personally think that Red Bull is doing it right in this campaign because the act matches the the slogan of the company. The slogan – “Red Bull Gives You Wings” greatly matches the stunt that was sponsored by them. This stunning act leaves a long lasting impression in my mind that will greatly associate with Red Bull’s brand. This enhances their brand association and customers can strongly relate to the schema that they have on Red Bull. Good job, Red Bull!

Another video that went viral was internet meme proposal by a Malaysian guy, Timothy to his fiancee, Audrey.

It went viral after the video is posted on Youtube from his blog. I have been following Timothy’s and Audrey’s blog for a while and it’s shocking to me how this video went viral on Youtube later. I watched it right from his blog and thought the proposal was simple and sweet, I then shared the video with my friends. The content of this video has a high level of surprise and dose of happiness which makes the video viral. People loved it, and we all love sharing and spreading happiness to our family and friends. Video like this makes me want to share it with my friends, who wouldn’t have a smile on their face after watching this proposal video? =)

Ever wonder how a product or brand create buzz through the audiences online (other than viral videos)? Involving audiences in everything you do is the key!

I came to know about the 90 days Challenge that is buzzing in the world of diet through a friend’s status on Facebook. I was curious about the 90days Challenge and I came to realize that it sounds like a diet plan before I google it. So I went online and realized that (yeah!) as I predicted it’s a diet plan. This 90 days Challenge is proposed by a company – ViSalus that produces diet products. Besides, they resemble a direct selling company because anyone can be a dealer by paying a one time fee. I was surprised by how effective their online marketing strategies work.

Visalus marketing strategy works effectively, its brand is highly acknowledged by customers in this niche market. Visalus involves its customers in their marketing campaign by:

i.) Encouraging customers to post their goals and the progress of diet plan – Visalus’ brand image are mostly supported by the WOM that is passed from current customers to potential ones. It encourages customers to post their goals such as # of lbs they want to lose in x days on Facebook or other social media channels. This encourages customers to work harder and to keep up with their dieting plan, also spreading and getting the brand out there to their friends.

ii.) Leading conversation in their forums – Customers feel more involved when they participate in forums and this gives Visalus a great way of getting inputs and feedbacks from customers. People who chat in the forum are people who are on diet as well, customers feel more engaged and would like the brand more. The brand association between customers and Visalus is intense. Visalus also gives every customer a wrist band, so they could be reminded that they are on a diet every time they see it.

iii.) Holding competition that greatly rewards customers – Visalus customers love recording themselves before and after the diet plan, it show people how much weight they loss. The 90days Challenge was trending on Youtube a while ago too. Customers tape their experience and share it with their friends. Visalus holds many kinds of competition that entitles customers to win a car or free protein shakes that you initially have to purchase.

Sounds too good to be true, eh? Can’t deny that Visalus does a great job in its online marketing, people who buy their products and join the challenge feels affiliated with the brand; thus, sharing their experiences with their friends. Its marketing plan is one that creates buzz in this niche market.

One of the messages that is delivered to firms through the recent social media trend is that “pictures say a thousand words”. Since instagram and pinterest users flooded the social media niche, the growth of these apps have skyrocketed. Firms have been trying to acquire instagram in their social media platform and use it as a tool of enhancing their brand image among targeted audiences.

There is a discussion between instagram filtered pictures and professional photos taken by cameras on the fashion show that was held in NYC last month. Firms actually hire photographers to take pictures of the fashion show using their Android or iPhone app. For example, Getty has 4 photographers for the event, 3 of them uses iPhone of Android app to take pics while only one uses professional camera to take pictures of when they fashion show and the runway. They stated that Instagram is a side project that they work on the fashion show as a means of targeting another pool of audiences who use different communication channel. This clearly shows that firms are taking an initiative to lead the current trend before consumers realize that they need it.

How does this trend influence firms on their social media strategy?

First of all, firms would have to identify whether they need massive visual elements in their advertising.

• Take for example  fashion industry that relies on visual stimulation to attract consumers attention in their advertising would need to take note of this current trend and set up its Instagram account to keep up the pace of the industry and its competitors.
• One of the most prominent fashion brand – Burberry is doing great in managing its Instagram account. Burberry posts its real time runway pictures on Instagram for its followers before they are available on other mediums. Also, followers can view the backstage pictures that are seldom posted elsewhere online. Followers can retweet using tumblr or like the picture on instagram. This feature involves some interaction from the audiences and it enhances the relationship between potential customers and company. It pushes the consumers through the marketing funnel as shown below. 
• With consumer interaction online such as liking a picture on Instagram or reblogging a picture from Tumblr, all these interaction urges consumers subconsciously to go from awareness to consideration or preference. I would say that it saves a firm’s cost on initial marketing advertisement to catch customers’ attention because users would mostly be introduced or attracted to the page by peer influence.

                         

Sources: 
http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/media_entertainment/data-and-design-looking-at-data-visualization/

http://www.buzzfeed.com/hillaryreinsberg/fashion-week-instagrams-now-for-sale

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay-per-click (PPC) have been used by many firms in improving website visibility. However, the debate whether to use SEO or PPC for online advertising method still exists. 

SEO is what most companies now work on – to improve a website’s visibility in order to attract more visitors to their site. In order for a site to appear on customers’ organic searches, firms have done SEO campaigns for a website to be on top of the search result list.  PPC helps improve a site’s visibility too but there’s cost attached to it. For every relevant keyword that the visitor type, the website will be visible to customers who are searching about the product. This makes information that customers requests be visible to them, but every click does impose a cost on company. These two methods use similar tactics in enhancing the searches – which is targeting “keywords” on webpage.

“Would you consider implementing SEO that is technically free or PPC that costs the firm on every visitors’ clicks?”

There are many factors to consider:

Long term or Short term?
Are you looking for long term or short term goals? Of course, both SEO and PPC generates similar results. With SEO, you succeeded in getting customers’ attention when your firm appears on the organic search list. With PPC, you will generate customers’ clicks with the ads banner. However, PPC is more suited towards a short campaign that points toward a targeted market. I personally think that customers will for stronger bonds with firms from SEO than PPC. Talking about my own experience on SEO and PPC, I normally click on organic searches links. This is because the paid links doesn’t sound convincing enough to me, as they are paid to be on the top of the list! However, I believe that PPC is suitable for short viral campaign that grabs customers’ attention. Clearly Contacts’ Competition that went on Facebook would be a great example for PPC. For the competition, customers post a picture about them wearing their new glasses from the firm, and a winner will be picked and rewarded each week. If Clearly Contacts uses PPC for this campaign, I would be the first to respond to it as it is a catchy competition that attracts my attention!

Time Frame? 
Although SEO is technically free, it takes a longer period of time to be on top of the organic search list and to be noticeable to your customers. Also, firms normally outsource their SEO to experts in the field in order to get a more effective results. PPC will generates better results in a shorter time frame but it might cost more to the firm. Thus, the debates between saving costs or time is a concern to firm.

Type of Businesses?
Are you a bakery that targets local customers or a chain bakery that could serve the whole Vancity? These need to be taken into consideration as smaller firms normally find it harder to work with their SEO. This is true especially if you are a new start up firm and does not have much online connections. SEO will be harder to achieve, whereas a PPC campaign would suits you more. For local businesses, PPC campaign will helps new firms to have greater access to targeted markets as well as improving their online presence. Consumers will learn about the new firm through the campaign thus enhancing firm’s brand image. SEO can be implemented successfully by smaller firms if they chose the right keywords to targeted audience. For example, a local business might want to include the name of the business area as their keywords in order to target customers who are searching about locations of the products online.

There are many more factors that need to be considered and research has also shown that hybrid implementation generates positive results too. 3 factors that are mentioned above should be in your mind when you are deciding between SEO or PPC!