While Joyce raises a good point that the sheer volume of free advertising the teams of students did was almost overwhelming, I disagree with the idea that it turned off a large volume of potential consumers.

Personally, a week after seeing all of the teams advertising NESTEA throughout my timeline on Facebook, I was compelled to buy a NESTEA.  I am not a person who has ever gone out of his way to drink NESTEA or even soda in general.  However, these ads placed NESTEA in my evoked set, so when I went was choosing a drink to go with my meal at McDonald’s (another brand I rarely deal with) the first thing I thought of was NESTEA.

In relation to the AIDA model, “The Recruit” made me think about the last time I had NESTEA and led me to realize that it had been a long time since my last NESTEA, so I bought one when I got the chance.  The spam of videos on my newsfeed may have in fact sped up the lagged effect (the delayed response to marketing communications campaign).  It can take several exposures before consumers process the message of the marketing campaign, but because of the immense volume of exposures, I may have processed the message more efficiently.

Overall, I like the idea of “The Recruit” as a good PR activity because it allows NESTEA to access students’ social groups better than say commercials directed at students.

Joyce Li’s Post

Free Coffee – McDonald’s

Recap:  The 17 second ad consists of an empty McCafe coffee cup being filled.  Five seconds in, the cup is filled to the max but more coffee is poured in, implying that the cup is bottomless.  At the end, the times of the promotion appears and the McDonald’s logo is shown.

Liked:  I liked the simplicity of the commercial.  The promotion was easily communicated.  The promotion can build some customer loyalty to McDonald’s.  McDonald’s brand equity allows them to offer a free product without consumers questioning the quality.  The free coffee promotion (which is basically a sample) also allows McDonald’s to get their coffee to more people.

Disliked:  I disliked the simplicity of the commercial at the same time.  Even though McDonald’s is a household name, the ad left me wanting/wishing there more.

For example, I thought the commercial could have been improved if the coffee cup couldn’t be more than half-full.  Rather than seeing the cup as half-empty, viewers would see the cup as half-full.  If the coffee is 1) free and 2) bottomless then a customer would still be getting more than they would have otherwise.  By adding the wrinkle of always having a cup half-full, I think the ad would offer a slightly different take on/presentation of the brand.  The commercial would say that McDonald’s offers fast-food of good quality.  Additionally, the cup half-full reference would be indicative of how consumers have their cups [metaphorically] half-filled by going to McDonald’s.  Whether it is the value menu, the sociable atmosphere, or something more, consumers have their cup half-filled.  The cup half-full reference would hopefully communicate that to potential consumers.

Conclusion:  I like the commercial and the promotion because of how it gets more people (potentially) to try the McCafe coffee, hopefully building some customer loyalty in the competitive “morning coffee” market.