MMB 11/22

The Future of Advertising Has Been Promoted: A New Study

http://www.briansolis.com/2010/11/the-future-of-advertising-has-been-promoted/

Solis writes about how Twitter is no longer seen as a microblogging network and is now seen as a one-of-a-kind network on its own platform. It's special among social media sites because while other websites built off of an established or burgeoning social media, Twitter built its community from the ground up. This highly engaged community combined with the ability to spread information and advertisements creates the perfect blend of a social network and an ad network. Recent changes to Twitter, like its format and CEO who has a different way of monetizing Twitter, have resulted in greater advertising done on Twitter.

Advertising on Twitter is based on interest groups rather than social groups, so it's all about reaching the right people at the right time rather reaching a bunch of friends. A brand's success depends on its ability to raise awareness and "clicks to action," which are basically desired outcomes. According to various studies, it is important for Twitter to understand the difference between intention and attention. A company might intend for something but get a different outcome. Basically, we're living in an age where advertising by focusing on interest groups rather than social groups has become more welcome to everyone and is becoming revolutionized by Twitter.

I agree with Brian Solis that advertising is being revolutionized. It's no longer about watching ads or just listening to information. It's become much more interactive where people are becoming a bigger and bigger part of spreading the information. People's opinions also count much more because advertising is much more reliant on people. Brands now have to do more than just spread information; they have to inspire people to spread the information for them.

Twitter analytics could have been a money making machine
Twitter is releasing an analytics service that analyzes a brand's influence and popularity on Twitter. In other words, it is "launching a powerful tool that will make marketers salivate." Best of all, it is doing this for free. This seems a little foolish because many services and products charge a lot of money to analyze a company's influence in social media so Twitter could potentially be throwing away a lot of money. For example, Radian6 charges its users at least $600. However, many brands are unaware of the service, so Twitter bringing its service out and introducing it to 175 million users is a big deal and worth millions of dollars.

However, releasing it for free would make sense if Twitter was trying to get businesses to tweet more often or retain their Twitter usage. By releasing an analysis service, Twitter is basically showing brands how influential they are and thus persuading them to use Twitter more. Also, Facebook has a free analyzer so if Twitter charges, people might prefer Facebook's services over Twitter's. In addition, when using a free service, customers tend to have lower expectations and thus less complaints so this could be a way of pleasing people in the easiest way possible. It is also likely that Twitter is following the "freemium" model, where it introduces a free service to its customers. After customers start using it often, it introduces better versions or extra features for money. So, making this service free could actually be a good business decision for Twitter.

I agree that making the service free makes sense. However, I do hope Twitter tries to monetize the service or tries to make some profit by using the "freemium" model because that is just good business sense. The "freemium" model is also a really good business model because it introduces something great to a customer and hooks them and later monetizes rather than attracting just a few customers by charging from the beginning.

How Social Media is Changing the Way Movies are Promoted
http://mashable.com/2010/11/29/social-media-movie-marketing/
The film industry has completely embraced social media and this makes sense because it is a modern version of the fan magazines of old Hollywood. In modern times, studios can gauge social media to find where interest in a film truly lies. The best example for this was Paramount's Paranormal Activity, which cost less than $15,000 to make but grossed over $150 million. What Paramount did was use Facebook to see where people wanted to watch it most and released it in those areas. MGM also did this with Hot Tub Time Machine. What's appealing about this method is that fans feel as if they have some sort of ownership or special affinity with this film.

Social media also allows extensive viral marketing campaigning, which is what Inception's PR was largely based on. Marketing for films evolved from having to go to the movies to watch previews to watching previews during TV shows to watching previews online to what social media does now. Although movie studios still have special sites that people could access for information, more and more studios are using Twitter and Facebook to release the latest information about movies. Disney used Facebook to debut its Alice in Wonderland characters and release trailers. Facebook apps are used to create interactive ways of advertising as in the case of TRON: Legacy. The fact that many of the most successful films of the year had strong social media campaigns demonstrates that social media will be embraced more and more by studios.

I agree with the author that social media has a huge impact on movie advertising and this impact will only increase. Many of the movies that were released, I heard for the first time on Facebook and learned more information about on the movie's Facebook page. So, to continue appealing with younger audiences and more engaged audiences, studios will have to embrace social media more and in more innovative ways.

What is Black Friday?
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-black-friday.htm
http://www.dailyworldbuzz.com/black-friday-2009-ads-best-doorbuster-deals-for-walmart-target-and-kmart/1070/
Black Friday is the discount shopping day that follows American Thanksgiving, which is always on a Thursday. Many retailers mail special Black Friday circulars to consumers, announcing deeply discounted items in the hopes that consumers will visit their store on Black Friday because the profits they make depend on the volume of sales that day. Retailers profit (although not greatly) through the deeply discounted deals because many people come out to buy them, so it is important to them. I've noticed ads from many clothing and electronic stores. I thought the deals were good if I was going to buy the product anyway. However, it would not be a good deal if I was not going to buy the product but I do just because there is a sale. Many of the products were also cheap products or products that no one wanted, so those were bad deals too.

MMB 11/15

Facebook Questions

1. It's basically email on Facebook where everyone has an '@facebook.com' address. It's a total revamping of Facebook's messaging system to make it more efficient to communicate with people who don't have a Facebook.
2. Its nickname is 'Gmail killer' because Facebook's project is expected to provide a lot of competition to Gmail and to take people away from Gmail.
3. The announcement is supposed to be made on Monday, Nov. 15.
4. No, Mark Zuckerberg is expected to speak at the San Francisco Conference on the 16th.
5. Facebook sent out invites to the media for a 10 a.m. launch today at the Conference so people thought the announcement would be made today.
6. http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Messaging-and-Collaboration/Facebook-Project-Titan-Preps-to-Challenge-Google-Gmail-206434/ and http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/facebook-mail-coming-monday/story?id=12133107

Dear Foursquare, Gowalla...

Facebook announced Facebook Deals for Facebook Places, where people get coupons for checking in at certain places. They're basically location-based deals. Websites that provide these, like Foursquare and Gowalla, are on the decline. They went from 5% of the population to 4%, a steep decrease. This is because many people don't really care about location-based games and unlocking badges, which is what is done on Foursquare and Gowalla. They attract only early-adopters. They don't reach the majority of the population because they're not well known and what they do (pretending that scavenger-hunting throughout the city for badges and mayorships is fun and interesting) is actually not fun and interesting. The article says Groupon is doing the location-based deals right, unlike Foursquare and Gowalla, and is the fastest-growing company ever because its objective and message are really clear and straight-forward.

Blog idea one: Give us a product and ask us to design packaging/awareness/promotion campaign on social media for it.

Blog idea two: Give us a picture of a lot of products and ask us if we would or would not buy the products and explain our choices.

Blog idea three: Write a paragraph about what the best company (when it comes to marketing) is and why.

Chris Brogan article: http://www.chrisbrogan.com/know-how-to-grow/

Branding Part 2

1. Innovative and in-style
2. 
3. Whole Foods Market's tagline is "Selling the highest quality natural and organic products." Apple and Nine West do not have taglines.
4. There are no jingles. Apple however has a jingle just for its iPad.
5. Apple is recognizable by everyone. Whole Foods is recognized by everyone except kids and preteens. Nine West is known by all shoe-oholics.

1.

2.

3. It did not last; it was used for one week before it was replaced with the original.

4. The new logo was released around October 5, 2010.

5. Crap Logo Yourself was a website advertising to "crap up" any logo if you typed it in. It did this by making the logo look exactly like Gap's. People created fake Twitter accounts, @GapLogo and @OldGapLogo, and would tweet as if they were the respective logos.

6. Gap has stated that it was trying to rebrand itself completely since its sales were falling and that the logo was a part of the rebranding. This was why they tried to change the logo.

7. I think the new logo was completely terrible. It was bland and looked like the least creative middle schooler had done it in five minutes using only Microsoft Word, not a multimillion dollar project.

8. There were many criticisms because it looked very bland and uncreative. People said that it didn't look professional and that it did not represent what Gap stood for while the classic, iconic Gap logo did.

9. This was because the new Gap logo created such a bad buzz on the internet and in social media that Gap had to revert back to its old logo, so people give the internet and social media credit for killing the new logo.

10. http://articles.sfgate.com/2010-10-08/business/24117233_1_new-logo-gap-brand-louise-callagy

http://nymag.com/daily/fashion/2010/10/deciphering_the_meaning_of_gap.html

Branding

1. Branding is associating certain features or characteristics with a certain company. It is a way of developing a trademark that customers think of when thinking of a company and is what differentiates that company from others.
2. Some forms of branding are name, terms, sign, symbol, and design.
3. Brand awareness is how many people know a brand and to what extent they know it.
4. Brand experience is feelings and emotions that are evoked when a certain brand is mentioned.
5. Branding sends a clear message about a company's products/services to consumers. It develops an image of reliability and responsibility around the company.
6. Brand identity is how a customer perceives a certain company through its brand.
7. Branding is important to a marketing strategy because it convices people to buy products from a certain brand by evoking certain feelings, confirming the product's credibility, and connecting to the target.
8. Personal branding is where people or careers are branded and used for marketing purposes.
9. Personal branding is important because it creates job security when an individual brands themselves as experts in their fields. It also creates a marketable image of someone that could be used to sell something.
10. Apple, Whole Foods, and Nine West

• 1. I respect them because they are known to sell only quality products.
• 2. They're very innovative and modern. Their symbols/designs give me the sense that they are very original and creative.
• 3. I do it partly because of their brands and partly for the products they sell. The extremely wholesome brands definitely convince me to always buy their brands if I want the best of stuff.
• 4. Yes, I am always loyal because I love them!