Archive for Social Media
You think your dog enjoyed car rides before?
Posted by: | CommentsSince this is a social media course, I found this very neat. While playing on facebook, I went to the dogbook I created for my dogs. Then, I noticed at the top of the page a perfectly positioned ad for the Honda Element…. which they have made DOG FRIENDLY!? Of course, being a dog owner, I clicked on the ad which took me to Honda’s website for the Element. What a great concept. They have dog proofed the car with ruber floor mats, and have added a kennel in the back, along with a ramp, a fan to keep your pooch cool, and a water bowl that fits into the car and won’t spill.
This is a great example of how social media can be such a great tool for marketers. I also think Honda did a great job with this concept. In a world that shouts at consumers to demand luxury vehicles… Honda appeals to the consumer’s love for their pets, and their reasonable side. Well done Honda. 
Responsible Advertising for Blogs?
Posted by: | CommentsSince this is a blog dedicated to the pursuit of responsible advertising, I found this article very interesting. While very opinionated, it gives bloggers good guidelines for adding advertising to their blogs, while limiting the intrusiveness of the ads. It also helps bloggers to decide where to post ads, offering ideas such as not advertising on new content to reward frequent readers, and perhaps delaying advertising on content until it has aged a bit.
SMU’s Heart Beats for Haiti Initiative takes flight through social media
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After the destructive earthquakes in Haiti in January, SMU’s Student Senate began a program called SMU’s Heart Beats for Haiti. The idea is that donors pay money and get their name put on a heart, which is posted in Hughes Trigg. Your name is also posted on the SMU Website. For organizations the price is $1,000 for a heart. The money all goes to the Clinton-Bush Relief Fund. As far as advertising goes, I think that SMU students have really come together and put in a lot of time and effort to see this succeed. SMU’s Heart Beats for Haiti can be found on Facebook and many people have made comments about it on their twitter pages. Students volunteer to sell hearts everyday outside of Hughes Trigg. The campaign is unique, involved, and persuasive. It is a fine example of some local advertising here on campus.
Land’s End Brings Social Responsibility to a Personal Level
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Land’s End, in partnership with the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless (MCH), the National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH), and its retailer Sears, has begun an initiative they dubbed “BigBostonWarmUp.” It began in Boston and has spread nationwide. With its goal to provide coats to keep the nation’s homeless warm in the upcoming freezing winter months, especially in Boston, Sears has asked consumers to bring in their lightly-used coats to its Land’s End Shop at Sears. In return, Sears will grant a discount of 20% off any new Land’s End coat purchased by the consumer. The website, available at http://www.bigwarmup.com/, tracks how many coats are donated per store, per state, and how many homeless are in that state. A heart, which is a motif they have used recurrently on the website, is placed next to the store in which most coats have been donated. Once you donate your coat, you can track where it is and where it has finally been donated. The site also provides statistics of the steadily increasing size of the homeless population (11% increase in Boston last year alone), and the fact that most of them are families is very sobering.
The commercial Land’s End Shop at Sears has created to promote its initiative is extremely creative! The commercial begins with a drama–a story unfolds about a mother who gives her son a red, Land’s End coat for Christmas. She sews on his name, and the commercial follows him through milestones in his life: college,, first kiss, marriage, children, moving, etc. Finally, it’s time to dispose of the coat that has been with him his whole life. The next screen shows a homeless man receiving the coat. The incredible twist to this online commercial is that at the end, we see a woman leaving the shelter holding a coat; when she looks down to see the name of the past owner, it’s your name! It ends with: “[Your Name], your gently used coat can help one of our nation’s many homeless people stay warm this coming winter.”
The commercial (featured above) inspires affective involvement from its viewers–it is both touching and surprising in that it really drives the point home that social responsibility is not just a lofty idea, it is a something YOU can do for one another. It makes social responsibility relevant to each consumer, on a personal level, literally by name. This ad demonstrates shared values we strive for in our culture, namely the importance of family, greater social unity, and generosity towards the less fortunate. The drama that opens the ad hooks us in with its relevance to the life of any average American. And that is the point–every average American can make a difference. The company is also uniting altruistic motives with profit-based motives, in that in addition to donating, it also sells it products (new coats) and promotes positive associations of the Land’s End brand. Moreover, it is using social media and optimizing on the current trend of internet advertising and user-generated content. It also targets the disposition of the product in the consumption behavior tripartite model, and reducing the buyer’s perceived risk and hesitation of buying a new coat and having to dispose of the old coat–we are instead recycling and not wasting. Additionally, the music aids in this perfect example of transformational advertising–it is touching, yet simple.
Enjoy the commercial, and have fun sending it to others!! And remember, only 12 more days to donate a coat (the campaign ends in November).
Haagen-Dazs and its social media campaign “Help the Honey Bees”
Posted by: | Commentshttp://adage.com/goodworks/post?article_id=140412
http://www.experienceproject.com/index.php
I have found this great Advertising Age article above regarding the media campaign “Help the Honey Bees” by Haagen-Dazs. Through the ExperienceProject.com website, the company raises awareness and educates the public about the mysterious epidemic of hive collapse, called Colony Collapse Disorder, and its threat to global well-being.
I personally think that this is a great initiative and is very memorable and involving. The website is structured in very personal way where real people share their stories, experiences and confessions. It also challenges the people to eat healthy thus promoting healthy living. It is a great cause-related marketing campaign which gives the opportunity both to the company and its customers to show they care.
Of course, there are people who can argue that at the end of the day, it’s all about money, about products and marketing. And they are right, but I will pose the question: so what? Of course companies need to care about profits, if they didn’t, then they could go bankrupt and thus the consequence will be severe – with many jobless people. I don’t think that there is anything wrong with a company trying to be profitable – after all that is why companies exist. It is the means to achieving this profitability that I believe matter. If companies are concerned with profits only and are ready to do anything to meet the quarterly sales (and by anything I mean without consideration for the people, environment, and society), then I see a problem. However, when companies show that they care about social issues and try to help social causes such as the honey bee crisis, then go ahead!!! It is a win-win situation for the companies, people, society, and environment. And furthermore, if the execution of the marketing cause is done in a creative and involving way such as the website Haagen Dazs developed, then I believe that the company has truly managed to make a difference and has made the world a better place.
What do you think?
MTV Switch
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I want to start with the little known fact that I’m not a MTV fan. I haven’t turned on MTV since I was probably 16. But I came across this commercial which then brought me to the MTV switch website. I was blown away by the concept that a company that is generally known for is crazy tv shows, crude humor and much more was trying to educate their audience on what it means to “go green.” Now, obviously the “go green” theme is a little over used, but MTV has shown their audience what problem is out there and allowed the opportunity for the consumers to elaborate on this process and find solutions.
They also have a blog that allows readers to “GET INVOLVED – and find out what YOU can do to help the environment and STAY INFORMED – on the latest trends and fashions that are keeping the Earth clean and keeping you classy”
With their use of great music and visual aspects in their videos and site, it really engages the audience which leads to an interest to seek more information. I applaud MTVs efforts to reach out to the “unclean.” What other audiences could be reached by the media they watch?
Is there another organization that could help responsibly promote how to live e-friendly?
Levi’s Campaign for Harvey Milk Highschool
Posted by: | CommentsLevi Strauss & Co just recently launched the “Give them hope Now” Campaign. This campaign is to raise money for the Hetrick-Martin Institue, which is a non profit organization that that supports the Harvey Milk High School. As you can imagine the Harvey Milk High School is dedicated to support and help gays, lesbians, transgenders, and bisexuals during there time of need. They like to think of themselves as a school that is there for them when their family isnt. When their family kicks them out of there houses and wont support them. The school provides after school support groups and support services. At first when i viewed the ad i was unclear of what the message was for…Here is one of the commercials… What are your thoughts can you tell what it is for?? Also with Levis supporting a messsage like this do you think that people that are againt gay marriage and are homophobic may stay away from a company like this and stay away from purchasing their products? they have gone about delivering this message in a very modern way Rob Toledo, senior account director, Razorfish, Seattle says “We’ve put together a very impactful social media outreach strategy. We’ll be reaching out to bloggers and like-minded organizations and people in the LGBT community,” Do you think they did this because this topic is more of a modern issue and traditionalist might not agree and therefor they figured they could reach more of there target market? or because it cost less to get the message out??
Twouble with Twitters-How far can Social Media go?
Posted by: | CommentsWarning: This video contains minor profanity
This YouTube video is basically a mockery of the lengths at which social media and social networking sites have infiltrated our lives, and to an extent have consumed all aspects of our daily lives and interactions with others. The video enlists characters of every different personality and shows them twittering about extremely random and often irrelevant subjects. Even at the end of the video when the character is facing his death, he says “hold on I need to twitter about this.” So while I agree that social media is extremely helpful at relaying positive messages in an effective way, at the same time it produces a negative side effect: people being consumed by technology and casting off normal human interaction. This relates to the whole idea of cell phone usage. I often find myself guilty of giving into the power of cell phones and texting. It is my belief that when you are with someone and they are constantly on their phone, texting, making calls in a sense they are saying that that phone and the person on the other end is more valuable than their time with you. It is offensive. Same thing with social media to an extent. When people abuse the powers of social media networks and become addicts it destroys the natural communication between humans. In fact page 113 of our Secrets of Social Media book discusses how “adults cringe at that kind of talk, believing that it confirms their suspicion that kids are forsaking meaningful person-to-person contact in favor of idle online chatter.” So as social media marketing students, what would you say is our responsibility to promoting a healthy amount of social media. Do you agree with the fact that social networking sites can go to far? Additionally, what are some ways or approaches that social media can encourage healthy usage?
Social Media Adds Entertainment to a Dry Topic
Posted by: | CommentsI think advertisers should always be looking to create campaigns that can breathe life into a usually mundane product or topic. For people to pay attention to ads, the content has to be new and different. Sometimes a concept can be made entertaining by simply choosing the right media sources. IBM understands this idea and has developed a “tounge-in-cheek” way to reach software developers through a campaign centered around “Mr. Fong,” a software developer who is lost in space and trying to reconnect with his team. The campaign utilizes youtube, facebook, twitter and myspace. Ogilvy and Mather, who helped create the campaign says that they hope to “tap into cubicle culture and the popularity of passing along funny, offbeat sites and videos among colleagues.” I enjoy this creative approach and think that IBM is smart to utilize social forms of media considering their target market. To check out the campaign go to www.connectmrfong.com. 
Power to the Bloggers
Posted by: | CommentsThe website listed below is an article from Advertising Age. It is talking about how Frito Lay is sponsoring 7 blogs and allowing the bloggers to produce creative content for the Cheeto Brand. The Bloggers create content that will appeal to their blogging community. It was really interesting to come across this because it deals directly with what we have been talking about in class. How important it is to appeal to your blogger community. It’s cool to see companies taking the first steps toward word of mouth marketing, and giving the power to the talkers, ie: the bloggers.
http://adage.com/madisonandvine/article?article_id=134558
