Second Screen Marketing – Looking at The Only Way is Essex and The John Lewis Christmas Advert

As of January 2012 there were 1.23 billion Facebook members and Twitter had 243 million active monthly users. Traditionally social media is used to talk to friends and family and share photos and videos. Yet the reason I am so interested in social media is the potential to have a career through it whether it be YouTube vlogging, blogging or starting a career on Instagram as a photographer. The problem with social media is the general obsession to talk to people who aren’t there are not paying attention to anyone else you are with in real life! This is the worry of television companies as in a study by BSkyB 48% of viewers admitted to using social media whilst watching television. Television companies have no other option that than embrace it. The only way is Essex (TOWIE) came on top of a poll on the 24^th of February 2013 stating it was the most tweeted about show that day. The popular staged reality television show, now aired on ITV’s new channel ITVBe and rakes in on average 730,000 views making it the channels most popular show. Most of the characters on the programme, past and present, tend to live tweet while the programme is on encouraging audiences to interact with them.

It's #TOWIE time!!! @ITVBe

— Bobby Norris (@BobbyCNorris) November 12, 2014

Not only television programmes encourage interaction from the audiences, now television adverts do too! Usually embedding hashtags in adverts prompts viewers to tweet about an interesting advert they may have seen on television, spreading word about the product. It is now rare to see any sort of production on television without an incorporated hashtag.

John Lewis Monty the Penguin

On the 6^th of November 2014 John Lewis released the eagerly anticipated Christmas advert for the year. After producing the bear and the hare and the snowman in previous years much was to be desired for what was to come next. The retail giant spent £1 million on the CGI animated penguin. The advert blew up on the Twittersphere with use of the hashtag #MontyThePenguin and mentioning @JohnLewisRetail The company also created a page for both Monty and Mabel, the penguins featured in the advert. Both penguins interact with one another using humour and typical couple conversations.

Morning @MontyThePenguin I just looked at your profile. How come you’re following so many dating sites? #MontyThePenguin

— MabelThePenguin (@MabelThePenguin) November 22, 2014

The penguin had dominated social media with 200,000 shares the day it was posted. Interestingly John Lewis uploaded the video to YouTube a week before it was actually premiered on the X Factor. Is this just another sign that the second screen really is becoming the dominant form of marketing over the television?

For more information about second screen please feel free to read my dissertation. Download link is below. Cathryn_Appleton_Dissertation

Oreo and Social Media

Oreo according to statistics has been the best-selling cookie in the United States since is launch in 1912 and since May 2008 it has been sold in the United Kingdom. In May 2013 Oreos started being produced in the UK. Oreo have a huge social media following on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Vine and use that platform to distribute interesting marketing strategies.

Followers (Correct as of 1^st November 2014)

Facebook – 38,000,000+

Twitter – 456,000+

Instagram – 225,000+

Vine – 30,000+

Youtube – 67,000+

Oreos Daily Twist

To celebrate Oreo’s 100^th anniversary, between the 25^th of June and 2^nd of October 2012 Oreo ran a campaign called Oreo’s daily twist, which gave information on an anniversary, celebration or fact relating to the date. The strategy ran over a dedicated page on the Oreo website and expanded on to social sites such as Pintrest. Oreo released a picture a day of a redesigned Oreo cookie to commemorate something that happened on that day, but not a fact that was too well-known and always fun rather than gloomy. The campaign also included adverts for Super Mario 3DS and The Dark Knight Rises coming out in cinemas. According to Oreo customer engagement increased by 110% when the campaign ran and they gained 5 million followers on various social media accounts.       

Oreo’s Twitter Account Oreos twitter page provides current information about the brand but also relates as much as it can to stories in the news and entertainment. An example of the quick responses Oreo produce was a tweet relating to the Superbowl Blackout 2013.

The response to the tweet was outstanding, many people surprised at how quick Oreo responded to a topical discussion. Oreo also reply and interact with consumers over their Twitter account. This also includes interacting with other rival brands. On the 11^th of March 2013, Twitter user @LauraEllen_xx tweeted:

 Can tell I like chocolate abit too much when I’m following @kitkat and @oreo hahahahahah

This is how both Kit Kat and Oreo responded:

Vine and Youtube

Oreo have huge followings on both Youtube and Vine and their video content provides a visual marketing output that also relates itself to current events. During Halloween this year Oreo ran a campaign on Vine called #OreoLab. In a Frankenstein style the video shows the biscuits transforming into different monsters and creature, whilst also incorporating Oreo’s recipe ideas.

Oreo also have a substantial following on Youtube. With the popularity of Vloggers and creators on Youtube Oreo have taken a step in the right direction to start a channel that houses their adverts and short films, the most popular of which has over 21 million views.

Oreo may already be the top-selling cookie in America but their social network strategy is ensuring that their online presence turns customer interaction into intent to buy, therefore maintaining their reputation as a brand. Although many huge brands have a solid online presence, Oreo has the best that I have seen. It is simple and fun but works and its topical content allows consumers to interact and relate to the brand.

Immersive and Interactive Marketing

The two videos are examples of immersive marketing campaigns. Both prank videos have an element of humour and creativity that immediately makes them memorable.

Using the bus stop, usually a traditional place of advertising for the Pepsi Max campaign is particularly cleaver as it takes an old marketing technique and tips it on its head. Having both videos on YouTube also allows for more social media interaction, through sharing and commenting. Looking again at the Pepsi Max video they have also incorporated the hashtag #LiveForNow allowing again for social media interaction particularly on Twitter.

 Adidas Case Study – Predator 20th Anniversary

Adidas wanted to launch an immersive marketing experience to celebrate the 20^th Anniversary of the Predator football boot. Steven Gerrard, David Beckham and a like have made the boot notable. The experience allowed for members of the public to plat against robot like characters whilst also playing Laser Tag. It sounds outlandish yet it perfectly captures the age 14 – 19 audience that love football and gaming, which was Adidas’s main target audience. The predator costume has been worn by the likes of Beckham, Gerrard, Zidane and Raul.

Shop Window Advertisements

The shop window is a classic place for a company to advertise. What is displayed in a shop window can be the difference between a customer walking past or coming in and spending. Companies such as Diesel, Footlocker and Nike are now making shop windows an example of interactive and immersive marketing.

Diesel

Diesel used an interactive window display to advertise their new line of ‘Destroyed’ jeans. The window showed a destroyed home setting including a game that could control the weather, the weather changed the way the setting looked. In an interview managing director Michael Haiser talked about how innovation and technology were combined to create a completely new effect for the public.

Haiser continues to talk about the effect that the window had on the public and whether it was a success:

‘For the consumer, there is a high entertainment value and visual fun factor – the game allows him to actively move and destroy objects within the window. People walking past the window can join in and get carried away. For instance, by using only their own hand movements in front of the window, they are able to trigger thunder, lightening and stormy winds within the window. The gathering crowds continue to attract passersby. This playful approach within an otherwise rigid set-up is important for success here, for both players and spectators.

The success of the interactive windows also has a positive influence on brand building of Diesel. By lifting the barriers between shop and street there is a positive shift in brand image and an increase in customer traffic of more than 50 percent.’

The use of immersive and interactive marketing campaigns bridges the gap between commercial marketing and digital marketing. It allows potential consumers to engage without a click through or interaction as it usually just placed on the street, by a point of interest or in a shopping centre. This engagement would usually lead to the consumer sharing or posting their experiences on social media prompting other potential consumers to investigate or visit the advert themselves triggering word of mouth marketing. This technique is tried and tested on consumers and research shows that it works in a brand favour.

The Evolution of Facebook for Advertising

The first homepage for Facebook, 2004

Facebook was launched on the 4^th of February 2004 and was originally called [thefacebook]. The name came from the directory for American college students. Mark Zuckerburg came up with the idea with his Harvard college roomates, Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hudges. The site was originally set up for Harvard students only then expanded to other prestigious American Universities. On the 26^th of September 2006 Facebook was opened to the public and as of June 2014 Facebook has over 1.3 billion active users.

Facebook used to be and to extent still is a place to share status updates, life events and photos but now most of the website has been bombarded by adverts and like pages. This blog will look at the evolution of Facebook and how it has changed to a site based around adverts.

2006

Facebook announced a partnership with J.P Morgan Chase to promote the company credit card. The banner ad they set up offered a special offer to the users of Facebook. In my opinion this was a cruel, cheap advert as the users of Facebook were still all American students. This banner advert saw the first glimpse of Facebook advertising. Soon after the Microsoft Ad centre signed a deal with Facebook to become the exclusive advert provider for the site. A month later anybody could sign up to the social network. In November of this year the share feature was introduced, now the main form of word of mouth advertising usually with a competition incentive.

2007

In May 2007 Facebook launched a Marketplace App for classified listings, similar to Gumtree. The company then had to create an opt-out feature to their advert options as British companies pulled out of Facebook ads after being placed next to the British National Party on the news feed. In November Facebook launched pages for brands and businesses. From this page users of the social network could gain more information about brands and start to interact.

2009

2009 was arguably the biggest year for the evolution of adverts on Facebook as it started to give companies more applications to be able to interact better with consumers. In February they added the Like button, so users could like photos, status updates and also like the information from businesses. In March they launched language and radius targeting for adverts, a necessity for local businesses! In the same month they relaunched pages for businesses so they could begin to post status updates and photos. Before this it was only users they could do this so this made the brand appear more human, particularly huge brand such as Coca-Cola and McDonalds. This also gave consumers a better chance to interact.

2011

In 2011 they launched sponsored stories, this was based on user;s activity with the brand whether this be a like or comment. This would then appear on the news feed of their friends, hence more recognition. They also launched a Groupon like deals application that allowed companies to post offers straight from their Like Page.

It is now estimated that Facebook Ads revenue has reached £7.64 billion this year and that more time is spent looking at Facebook and a like than at a television so it seems like an obvious jump for companies to move online to advertise. Personally I believe that the reason Facebook was created has been lost within advertising, it will be interesting to see if social networks such as Twitter and Instagram decide to do the same.

I haven’t touched on every change Facebook has made in this blog but if you would like more information please visit:

http://mashable.com/2011/06/28/facebook-advertising-infographic/

http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/history-facebook-adtips-slideshare

Vloggers contributing to branding and marketing

Pointlessblog. Zoella. FunforLouis. JacksGap.

Household names for a new type of audience.

Also know as Alfie Deyes, Zoe Sugg, Louis Cole and Jack Harries these ‘vloggers’ have a combined audience of 14.4 million and that figure is growing by the minute. These are just four of the hundreds, maybe thousands, of successful vloggers out there who provide content to a large online audience. Whether their videos are beauty tips (Zoella), daily travel vlogs (FunforLouis), gaming videos (Pointlessblog) or short films (Jack’sGap), yet each vlogger is not set on one particular type of content. For example Deyes (Pointlessblog), runs 3 different extremely successful channels.

Channel Name	Subscribers	Overall Views	Typical Content
PointlessBlog	3,250,601	152,912,801	Topical sketches and collaboration videos with other vloggers. Also includes videos know as hauls where vloggers show items they have ‘bought’ from particular shops, often sponsored videos.
PointlessBlogTV	1,627,919	90,607,205	Daily vlogs that simply show his day to day activities, similar to FunForLouis. These videos also often contain guest apperences from other famous vloggers.
AlfieGames	1,111,581	58,740,059	Gaming videos, similar to the likes of PewDiePie (Youtubes most subscribed to channel). Gaming videos are considered to be the most popular videos on Youtube.

Unsurprisingly, due to the amount viewers these vloggers gain they will often advertise items in the videos. This is present more in videos from Sugg (Zoella) who often advertises beauty products and clothes, usually offering a discount code and a link to the website. In fact in April of this year the Daily Mail reported that vloggers such as Zoella are taking away £20,000 a month mentioning beauty products and clothing lines in their videos.

 Zoella has now also become a brand with a beauty range deal with Superdrug and a novel titled ‘Girl Online’. The book is released on the 25^th of November under Penguin Publishing and is also tipped to top the Christmas book charts.

Vloggers such as Louis Cole don’t often advertise products in their videos but they do advertise travel companies in return for free holidays, flights and tours. While this is true they use sponsorships to enable them to create more interesting content for their viewers. For example Cole recently took to a trip to the Amazon Jungle sponsored by Amazon Gero trips, he created 5 daily vlogs on the trip there and advertised them in every video. Viewers often comment about how disappointing sponsorship can be, often claiming the creator is selling out, yet this particular video shows how incredible the experience was rather than bombarding the viewer with adverts.

I feel like using vloggers to market a service rather than products bodes well with viewers as they tend to be far more interested in a round the world trip than a free audiobook from Audible.com! Service advertising also shows how much of an amazing time the creator had.

Below I have linked all the main channels of vloggers mentioned in this blog:

Zoella: www.youtube.com/user/zoella280390

Pointless Blog: www.youtube.com/user/PointlessBlog

FunForLouis: https://www.youtube.com/user/FunForLouis

JacksGap: https://www.youtube.com/user/JacksGap