Link to Rain City Essential: http://rcessential.blogspot.com/
Blogging…It was an unknown for me coming into Comm 296, I had always known about them and heard of people writing blogs but never figured myself to take part. This term things completely changed. At the beginning, I found myself almost being forced to write a blog just so I could attain a percentage of a mark. It wasn’t overly stimulating nor did I really take anything away from it. Little did I know that by applying something you love to the blog you write on is the most effective way to become a proficient blogger.
About 3 weeks ago I created my 3rd blog with the intention of making it as big as possible. Rain City Essential, an Electronic Dance Music blog was just an idea, and I was just an amateur blogger using basic tools to format and post. I instantly fell in love with the idea of putting up posts of my favourite artists and allowing my friends, as well as others view my blog and give feedback. Gradually I felt the desire to make it more official, and so I began experimenting by adding different “widgets” and changing the coding to personalize my blog. All of this was completely new to me, but the desire I felt and the satisfaction I knew I would have once the blog was perfect would be worth all the hard work.
Soon enough I started using social media as a tool to promote the blog, and what happened next I could have never imagined. I began receiving hits from all over the world, and DJ’s and fans alike started following the blog on Twitter. It has gone as far as receiving messages on Facebook, as well as in person about how much people enjoy the site. I plan on continuing to grow the site purely for the enjoyment of knowing others want to listen and read it. It is prudent to suggest that I owe it all to Elaine and Comm 296 for “forcing” me to start blogging. It has made all the difference.
It is prudent to suggest that if you are an avid hockey fan or even just someone who turns the tele on during the playoffs to support your team, you have probably seen the NHL commercials, “History Will be Made.” The campaign was started last year as a way to not only promote the playoffs but also to praise the unforgettable moments that the stars of the NHL has given us. The effectiveness of the advertisements comes from the push/pull factor that the NHL implements. With reference to fellow class mate, Salim Visram’s Blog, he discusses the idea that the “pull” factor is effective because, when one watches one of the advertisements they can connect, relate, and feel the pressure of what the advertisement is really trying to persuade or remind you of. For a more specific example, here is the same commercial that Salim posted.
However, after watching the advertisement, I would suggest that there is also a certain degree of “push” factor implemented. With reference to the title “Wish,” and the concept of the advertisement, there is speculation that the NHL is pushing the younger target audience. It would be nice to think that they are simply trying to promote a message that when your at that age if you wish for something and put in the hardwork, dreams can come true. Unfortunately, reality reminds us that no one has that good of intentions, at least not for the amount of money that these advertisements cost. A more identifiable but not necessarily obvious way to interpret the “push” aspect of this advertisement is that the NHL is in fact trying to target the younger audience while exploiting things like geographic or demographic (Canadian kid growing up and playing hockey). Could these ads lead to a potential increase in players in minor hockey leagues around the world?
Youtube has been hit by yet another viral teen video, however this particular video isn’t famous because of its quality… its more so famous for its lack their of. The music video “Friday” starring 13-year old Anaheim native Rebecca Black was released on youtube on Friday, February 11th as her first ever attempt at recording a single, and it shows. Asides from the song being terrible, as demonstrated by lyrics such as “yesterday was Thursday, today is Friday, tomorrow is Saturday, and Sunday comes afterwards” and “Kickin’ in the front seat, sittin’ in the back seat, gotta make my mind up which seat can I take?”, her voice is clearly not up to recording artist standard, as the song producers have auto-tuned practically every line she sings. So with that being said, how did Rebecca Black even get a single in the first place? Money. Black’s family paid the producing company Ark Music Factory (AMF) to make her daughter a single. AMF specializes in writing songs for young girls who don’t have material for themselves, and then they record the single for them, including producing a music video, promising instant stardom.
As stated above, this video premiered way back in February…so how come it is only going viral now? Simple. Black can thank publicity from social networks and word of mouth for her instant fame. Comedian Michael Jensen first tweeted about the video on March 11th, which ignited a chain of re-tweets, as well as facebook posts and shares. Additionally, Black’s song was mentioned in widely read music magazine Billboard Magazine, which has also contributed to her instant fame. Within 1 day the number of viewers who had watched the video skyrocketed from below 400,000 to over 1.2 million, and now just 5 days later has reached an astounding 9.56 million views.
This is all just an evident example of how social media can be used in our generation to promote anything, and how large of an effect it has on the acceptance or rejection of a product, or in this case a song. As soon as people saw the hateful comments, and numerous jokes made about Black’s song, she became an instant laughing stock practically over night. If companies were able to use this technique to their advantage however, they could benefit tremendously. For example, if a company were to make a parody video surrounding one of their new products, all if would take would be a few twitter mentions and facebook posts to instantly create a huge amount of word of mouth surrounding their product, and if executed properly, a huge amount of interest for their product as well.
In the world of entertainment, the last two weeks have been completely seized by the great Charlie Sheen and his unorthodox antics. Charlie Sheen admitting to his Cocaine addiction hasn’t even been the most exciting headline, that goes to his new found love for #winning. By revealing to the public his particular situation, and through the means of the most bizarre come back story, it seems as though society has opened up to Sheen.
If one were to follow the activity of Sheen over the last two weeks they would know, he has not only become one of the faces of twitter, trending, on what seems to be a daily occurrence, but also has put out videos with certain products in them in what some are calling a marketing stint.
Charlie Sheen Promoting DIRECTV
Could the man really be this smart, or just desperate. By publicly becoming the figurehead and leader of, the most out of control celebrities, he has been able to take over the social media world. By utilizing this luxury he has supposedly started his own marketing stint in which companies are paying him to promote their product. This is evident in the twitter photo that reveals Sheen promoting DIRECTV. Further more Sheen has started his own radio show. I tuned into the very first show last week and was not overly shocked when the first ten minutes were devoted to promoting sponsors and the rest of the show, discussing #winning. In some degree Charlie Sheen is #winning, he has successfully established his own brand, albeit it is on a very thin line that is seperating crazy from genius. Regardless it would be ignorant to ignore the fact that Sheen has started his own self employed marketing ploy that continues to see growth day after day.
It wasn’t more than a year ago when my friends and I started the acclimated Basement Knee MMA blog. All of us realized that our passion for the sport exceeded that of just watching the fights in a buddies basement. From this idea, Basement Knee was born.
There was an understanding that to start your own blog you didn’t necessarily need to have superior knowledge but just a desire to share your opinion. Five best friends pressed the “create” button and the site that many have come to know today was formed.
In the ever growing MMA world there are multiple websites and blogs that are trying to reach stardum comparable to the success that sites such as Bloody Elbow, MMA Fighting or MMA Junkie have achieved. None of us expected high results from this blog, but rather used it as a way to keep in contact and share our ideas over a sport we loved, while we attended university in different regions. We quickly found out that people were willing to accept what we had to say and some opportunities arose. Quite rapidly our small blog was attracting views from North America as well as Europe. After attending last years UFC115 in Vancouver our staff became aligned with world renowned MMA journalist Ariel Helwani, and also managed to get a few moments with some of the fighters that headlined the card. From this opportunity we were able to establish an online interview with fighters Pat Barry and Rory MacDonald, which helped accredit our blog.
Ultimately, this blog has become something more than just an opinion on a fight. It is site we all look forward to browsing, and developing. Regardless of whether or not it ever reaches super stardom on the net, the staff of Basement Knee can be, and should be proud that they started something from nothing.
It is without question that the Electronic Dance Music (EDM) genre is already massive in many parts of the world. It has become so big that some of the largest music festivals in the world are based purely on the unique genre that spreads from house to trance to electro (and many more). So what is Vancouver waiting for?
This beautiful city has been bringing A-list DJ’s here for years now, none bigger than last years Winter Olympic stretch that featured many of the most prominent DJ’s of the last 2 decades. Thanks to Blueprint Events we have been able to enjoy the plethora of talent they have brought us, but now with the newly announced Seasons Electronic Music Festival, fans may be witnessing the birth of something new. The festival which features world renowned DJ’s Calvin Harris, Laidback Luke and up and comer’s Felguk and Lazy Rich, will be a true testament to the ever growing EDM fanbase in Vancouver. In this its first year, the festival will be held at the Vancouver Convention Center which holds a mere 4000 people. With the intent to make this an annual event is there any limit to what we see this festival becoming. With a positive response who knows what’s in store, maybe a multi day festival much like LA’s Electric Daisy Carnival.
Facebook is clearly the front runner by far in terms of online social media websites. With this in mind the idea of a social media website is to be able to share with others over the internet. When you sign up for a free Facebook account essentially you are revealing your unknown self to the world.
Upon sign up many users choose to reveal their name, gender, age, phone number, email addresses as well as where they reside. One important thing to take away from this is that users choose the option to publish this personal information. This feature allows marketers to connect to the database and use the information we concede to develop a general idea of target audiences that they can try and promote to.
Facebook has made it even easier for external users such as marketers to identify certain demographics with apps such as the “like” button. This allows users to be able to “like” comments but more importantly groups, such as musicians, movies or companies. So why is this important? Well for one marketers can quickly identify and split potential consumers into groups based on what the average consumer “likes”.
This strategy has been further developed with the introduction of Facebook Places. This application reveals to other users where one’s current location is and which friends they are with. This also allows marketers to easily identify consumer patterns and favourite locations making the survey system obsolete in these circumstances and therefore applying the trend that Facebook provides for free.
For the first time in UFC history, the fan expo will be brought to Canada. Some of you may wonder what is featured at the the expo and why does the UFC put this event on. Other then the obvious that it brings in revenue for the UFC without having to actually set up fights or show them on PPV, the main purpose of this event is to give back to the fans. As mentioned before this will be the first fan expo featured in Canada, and it should come to no surprise. The UFC on countless occasions have told media that the fan base in Canada is one of the strongest in the world of MMA.
It is prudent to suggest that the UFC has certainly used a system such as CDSTEP or perhaps an STP model during their analysis of how to promote a successful fan expo in Canada. It is not a secret that some of the biggest names in the UFC will be in attendance including numerous Canadian fighters and most certainly GSP. With the recognition that this event is for the fans, the UFC is selling tickets at a relatively low price of $35-$40. And if your worried about meeting fighters, don’t be. The UFC is featuring an interactive Q & A, autograph signings and even training sessions. All this and more lead to the ever increasing popularity that the UFC has seen over the past few years.
A few weeks ago Dana White and the UFC announced that they would be streaming non televised prelim fights live on Facebook. After initially booking 2 fights to be shown, the idea was reconsidered and an additional 2 more fights were added to the experimental ploy. So what did viewers have to do to watch them? By simply logging into Facebook and “liking” the UFC page, fans across the world were able to access the live stream and watch the fights for free. It is reported that over the weekend the page increased its “likes” by over 60,000, a 1.3% increase. Did i mention that once you “like” the page the UFC can promote other events and they can pop up on your home page for Facebook to keep you up to date.
UFC Home Page on Facebook
By using the ultra popular social media network Facebook, the UFC has continued to successfully promote the company on its own page. In my opinion this strategy is brilliant, there is no other athletic organization that uses social media quite like the UFC does. That being said, an interesting point that has been trending across the internet is the reaction from fans. Although many fans claimed the quality was excellent, there were some including myself that had sub par quality off of the live stream. It is uncertain at the moment as to the effects that this could have, but I know personally as an avid MMA fan just receiving the fights for free was a bonus in and of itself. As for the Facebook/UFC connection, it is clearly the next step in promoting sports through the means of social media. In my opinion this is only a foot hole with plenty more fights going to be streamed live in the future.
As if a Venti size wasn’t big enough for all the coffee lovers out there. Starbucks has just announced its marketing ploy to introduce the new size ‘Trenta’ (31 ounces as opposed to the Venti, only 24 ounces) throughout the United States. After much success in what Starbuck’s refers to as the testing phase in which the size was introduced last spring in Phoenix and Tampa Bay, the company will continue to produce this drink size in the hope to market a larger ‘cold’ drink cup to consumers. Starbucks needless to say has tried to capture the essence of brand loyalty and it is with this in mind that the company hopes to make the Starbucks experience that much more enjoyable. In my opinion, even a Venti is to much in one cup, but it is prudent to say in the world we live in the bigger is better idea reigns supreme.
