Dumb ways to virality?

There are so many campaigns that businesses have run and gone viral for many reasons that don’t always go to plan or as intended. However virality can occur in a matter of seconds. It is a chance and can’t be insured to go viral. Now the main thing is what type of media they want to use to effectively communicate their message the largest audience range and in the most budgeted way. Guess what? Here comes the role of social media right now. Nevertheless, the effective ability to share and have a personal interaction on social media can’t be debated. It also goes to show how social media has the power to make campaigns go viral. Now in a recent article published by Kaplan and Haenlein in 2011, viral marketing is defined as electronic word of mouth, transmitted in an exponentially growing way, often through social media.

Now I had a look at a few campaigns that have used this to their advantage and using the rules that was stated out by Jenifer Lonof Schiff in her 7 ways to create a successful integrated marketing campaign. <https://www.cio.com/article/2377257/marketing/online-marketing-7-ways-to-create-a-successful-integrated-marketing-campaign.html&gt;.

Step 1. Have a clear understanding of who your target audience is

Step 2: Pick your channels

Step 3: Have a consistent look

Step 4: Create clear, consistent content that can easily be adapted or repurposed to suit different media or channels

Step 5: Ensure that your messaging is integrated

Step 6: Make sure your marketing teams/agencies are working in sync

Step 7: Don’t forget to track your campaigns — and coupons.

These steps are almost integral to ensure a successful IMC plan, however there is a much more concise rule to follow if you find this seven step too much. This article provides an excellent explanation of viral marketing, answering the question ‘why’ some content ‘go viral’, and some advice for marketers considering viral marketing: Kaplan, A.M. & Haenlein, M. (2011). <provides an excellent explanation of viral marketing, answering the question ‘why’ some content ‘go viral’, and some advice for marketers considering viral marketing: Kaplan, A.M. & Haenlein, M. (2011).>

▪ The RIGHT MESSAGE (memorable and interesting),

▪ To the RIGHT PEOPLE,

▪ Under the RIGHT CIRCUMSTANCES.

And a successful business ad campaign that went viral for mostly the right reasons was from Mcann Melbourne. I’m pretty sure most of you guys remember their ‘Dumb ways to die’ campaign and right now as you thought of it I know your humming to that terribly catchy song. Here’s a link if you haven’t seen it already or you just want to refresh your memory. (https://youtu.be/IJNR2EpS0jw)

McCann Melbourne had one goal and that too with a simple message to spread: the promotion of awareness of railway safety to a younger audience.they made sure to avoid a scare campaign such as that of the work safe ads (that may well have achieved the goal of raising awareness of safety), McCann created the perfect combination of uniqueness, humour, and memorability, backed by an infectiously catchy tune. This aligned perfectly with the target audience, an easily distracted generation of children/young adults.

Now just like the rule above, the right message has to be placed in the perfect environment to be able to flourish. Just like that Mcann made sure to use the rise of social media to promote their video all over multiple platforms such as Facebook and YouTube. This resulted in a huge number of shares and racking up almost a 167 million views. That’s just on YouTube. This was handled very smart by Mcann and from the song and animated fun video that people loved and shared and heard on repeat, they released sequels and games that could better yet still appeal to that specific audience. This increased their reach and engagement by a drastic amount.

The clever use of all these steps and pushing throwing a curve ball at an issue that particularly should have been taken very seriously, in my opinion was pure genius and I think it deserved the attention and virality it had received. It was just the right amount of uniqueness, the catchy tune and the underlying message that helped it spread that quick. Although some can debate on how maybe the message was obscured given its light approach to the safety issue, I think that would have just saved people instead of educate a younger audience.

Also in a recent TED talk (https://youtu.be/BpxVIwCbBK0) presented by YouTube’s trend manager Kevin Alloca, he emphasised the concept of community participation and how that is a key to viral success in an integrated marketing campaign. Mcann achieved that through the many parodies people have made and remixes done about this campaign just kept accumulations and it ended up having a snowball effect where it grew more and more very quickly.

I think Mcanns campaign was very successful and that they used all of the steps and tools necessary to ensure virality success. Do you think they conveyed their message in the best way possible and was the viral campaign a good one? Let me know down in the comments below.

SEO, PPC and Analytic

Search engine optimisations, pay per click and marketing analytics. Big words that may sound complicated. It is, I’m not denying that but that’s because it is the internet. It’s made of countless numerical values, formulas and creates more web pages than we could count on our fingers. If we had like a squillion maybe.

Now let’s talk about search engine optimisations. This concept is essentially the process of any website trying to compete with other websites to be ranked as the first search result depending on the key words used. That must have been a bit complicated. Here’s an example to ease it up. Imagine you create a business. And you want to create a website for it where your hoping as much people as possible should visit. You would have to link other platforms that are much more credible and have a higher traffic rate in order to give your website a “boost” in a way so more people can see it and have access to it.

Now you have competitors that wish the same. And as explained by Lucio Ribeiro; Managing Director of the online circle in the interview with Torgier. <https://youtu.be/dczoc470efY&gt; he says to think of your website as a retail shop. He was making it easier to understand the concept of SOE. He said if websites purely targeted advertisements on their websites and no detail towards user experience or satisfaction, yes you might get a large visitor count but a very low number to none, worth of profits or sales being met.

Now there are “businesses” that literally create a website on the pure and dull vision of creating money through just the promotions of ads. It will be a website solely dedicated to this. It a scam and makes the creator a lot of money but has zero user value. It’s a temporary money making scheme, however has a very high risk of being taken down and reported for scam.

So when ethical factors come into play, as explained in the lecture video by Torgeir, its all about trying to find out what exactly the consumers will be searching. Now you have to put yourself as a marketer into the consumers shoes and be creative with this process. Try to think of what types of keywords they will use to locate your business. There are auctions for such keywords that businesses are participating in while you the consumer are searching using key terms. Such as Cafes in Melbourne. Businesses that are relevant to these are always fighting for the top rank in order to be seen by their consumers straight away and therefore increase traffic and possible revenue.

So what do you think is the future of SOE? Will it matter more given technologies expansion and will it be the Main focus of businesses in order to reach their customers online?

Let me know in the comments.

J-Dubb

The Internet Of Things And BIG Data

Now the internet of things. What is this. What does “Things” mean? What does it signify. What exactly is BIG data? Join me on my blog post today and allow me to explain and at the same time understand this concept myself.

The internet has so much content and most of this content is significantly made up of data. Data that is almost countless and reaches up into the quintillion’s. At a recent TEDx Talk, Dr.John Barrett talks about this very topic on the internet of things. [https://youtu.be/QaTIt1C5R-M]. Now Barrett mentions the fact that the creation of the internet has indeed evolved so much and will continue to a point where a perfect, world filled with a network of artificial intelligence would be able to take control of the way our world is functioning and allocate the needed resources to their locations at the needed times. Although Barrett does convey this concept of an “utopia” and how it may not be realistic, he throws out a statement that says part of it could be. Things such as controlling our carbon footprint, waste management, traffic control or individuals health monitoring.

 

 

Now I am aware of an organisation called Corning. Now I found a video by them a few years back and it shows how businesses are creating their visions based on the internet of things and how it can help them in the future in terms of using the internet and the fast paced growth of technology for many uses like I mentioned earlier. Just check this video out and look at it not from the view of the what the business is trying to show you about their glass but through the internet of things perspective. [https://youtu.be/jZkHpNnXLB0]

 

 

Now have you ever wondered why right after you have been looking at purchasing a pair of jeans or a jacket or the latest fidget spinner, the same product appears on the sides of your Facebook page or your Instagram feed?

 

 

This is organisations using the internet of things and transforming the big data available to them to create personalised promotions of their products to their consumers. Like Dr.Barrett mentioned about the part of the utopia we may be living in right now is where artificial intelligence is used, in this case Big Data is used by organisations to allocate their products to their consumers. Now for businesses this is a huge development in using the internet to their strengths. But this can at time be creepy for us I mean the consumers.

 

 

There is a very thin line dividing us the consumers’ privacy and the means to be connected says Dr.Barrett. And this has become ever more evident recently after the Mark Zuccenburg incident regarding how Cambridge analytics used their data and shared it publicly without any consent.

 

 

This is a concern for people and the businesses there around them and involved with them. However this will possibly be blurred in the near future where the internet of things and big data will be used to manipulate and influence people.

What do you think will happen with the line between privacy of our information and the longing to be connected to the world and or their people?

Let me know in the comment section about this world of ours that is turning into the matrix

J-Dubb

Mobile marketing. The new movement.

Mobile marketing. To understand this concept all you have to do as a reader is open your phone, download any form of social media from Instagram, Snapchat or Facebook and walla, to your left, right, top and bottom you’ll be filled with advertisements, promotions and celebrity endorsements to name the least.

But check this out. Instagram has just released a new feature for users to be able to shop straight away when they see a product. How crazy is that?

Remember the good old days where you just used Instagram to post about what you want in life and #goals. Well guess what? Now organisations have brought that right to your finger tips through their advanced mobile marketing schemes. Schemes does sound cheeky but that’s exactly what it is. There’s no way teenagers with identity crisis’ and troubles with fitting into society would ever miss a chance at buying the latest trends in fashion at the best deal and wait for it, right at their fingertips.

Instagram has evolved so much. I’m so proud. Now onto the newer age where technology has advanced so much  and now the concept and technologies of a smart phone is ever growing in developing countries like India and Africa. It’s this concept that ‘you can have everything at your fingertips’. The whole world in real time. In your hands. Just think about that. Now through that organisations have captured the wave of evolving technology and adapted with ease and marketing will never be the same as just billboards. Or just TV commercials. It’s presented to the youth. And billions of them at once. Through evolving tools like Instagram, the marketing world has changed and will continue to until organisations are floating around in empty space around us.

I love the fact that Instagram has been used the way it has with its recent updates for shopping. It is a fore runner for the many organisations to reach their target audinces in the multitudes, extremely cost effectively, so very quickly. It’s the ultimate marketing tool. And that my friends is mobile marketing.

Let me know your thoughts on this concept that marketers have come up with and whether or not you are on board with this.

Insta famous

Have you ever wondered how people use Instagram as a tool for proclaimed fame and so called success?

 

It’s the newest tool for many young entrepreneurs and businesses that like to keep updated in the new to be able to promote their products or services. Let’s just have a look at the power people gain through their Instagram following.

For example let’s look at a person we should all know in this century. Kylie Jenner. Her fame came about at a young age and now is one of the if not the top sought after celebrity endorsement icon. Through this business tool she was able to promote many businesses and had exclusive products to show off to her 105 million followers.

She is the perfect representation of one who is a millionaire in social currency. I mean even in real life currency she isn’t falling behind. Kylie promotes products such as Fashin nova and Fenty. Mainly girls products in the makeup and clothing industries.

Now given her social status on and off social media she has a cult following that is hugely influenced by her actions and decisions in what products she uses. When Kylie Jenner talks about or wears a brand, it is cool for her 105 million followers to do so as well. Since Kylie has many exclusive looks into brands, she promotes the same vision for her followers and that appeals to the groups of people who can feel like insiders and gain exclusivity and be an endorser just like Kylie.

Now another example using another form of social transmission is a very popular game called fort nite. This relates to the gaming mechanism theory where people tend to compare themselves socially because they have a tangible sense of credibility through points or credits.

This game has grown so big it has leaked onto Instagram with players using this as a way to create a social hierarchy based all of the ranks and levels they are on. A few now involved are celebrities such as Drake, Travis Scott, Ninja(the best player in the game) and many more. Now after a livestream of all these celebrities playing together went viral, the game has now earned worldwide recognition and is booming on social networks, especially Instagram.this has triggered many people that are attracted to the idea of earning social recognition.

. It has reached to the point where pages are made just for followers to stream gameplays and be a part of this socially competitive environment.

What do you think about celebrity endorsements on Instagram for particular brands and do you think businesses should hire anyone that do not have that influence over their social networking sites and have a huge following?

let me know in the comments people!

The Journey Begins

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton