Marketing Matters is a blog that tells marketing stories from an industry, academic and student's perspective. We confront and debate today’s business trends. Views expressed by the blogs do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Sydney Business School.
Whenever it rains in Sydney I always get told, “This is so unusual”, or “Don’t worry, it will pass quickly.” And though it’s mostly proven to be true, when it rains in Sydney, it REALLY rains.
Despite the storm on Sunday, our cohort all showed up to our final class this semester for Associate Professor Marylouise Caldwell’s Contemporary Consumer Insights class. I wanted to share with you this adorable and hilarious evidence of our endurance.
Come rain or shine, we are eager to be in class! It’s been a great semester, and the whole group is looking forward to what next semester will bring!
Current students: tell us what you enjoyed most this semester in the comments.
Today we bring you the very first installment of our SIX QUESTIONS series, where we ask a few fun questions to our friends in the industry to not only try and get to know them better, but maybe get a better insight into what marketing is for them. Today we have Andrew Moss from Pegasus Strategic, Insights and Brand Strategy. Here he is with our lecturer, Associate Professor Marylouise Caldwell.
I quickly learned that the Masters of Marketing was going to be a pretty hands-on course, filled with group projects, problem solving, class involvement – and best of all, Industry experts as guest speakers. This gives us one of the best learning experiences: hearing how they stuffed up. Well, maybe not so much ‘stuffing’ up, but how they overcame real life problems and situations. Andrew came and spoke to us about this experience rebranding the A-League and creating a new image for soccer in Australia, producing some of the best advertisements out there.
Andrew Moss:
1. What is your favourite thing that you do in a regular day as a marketer?
Being allowed to (by clients and colleagues) and paid to wonder.
2. Describe your job in 5 words or less:
Thinker, Dreamer, Finder, Problem-Solver
3. What keeps to motivated?
The innovation process – being invited to develop new ways of doing things – and the buzz that occurs when the thinking and planning works!
4. Where do you think you'll be in 10 years?
I would hope a wide variety of things – and certainly a bunch of creative type pursuits – personal and business.
5. If you were an animal, what animal would you be?
Tricky – maybe something like a sea eagle – scanning the environment, travelling large distances and looking for and seizing on opportunity!
6. What is the one book you would recommend everyone to read?
For business learning I think biographies of people are always good reading – and the one on Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson is well worth reading.
Last week, a showcase reception was held in the new Business School CBD Campus. Being a student of the Masters of Marketing, we are often privy to events such as these that provide invaluable networking opportunities, as well as a chance to broaden our knowledge and insight.
I’ve got to be honest, the canapés and beverages always draw me in, but I always leave with more than just a satisfied tummy. The highlight of “Branding You” was around a panel discussion between three leading marketing practitioners around the topic of personal brands. We had explored this in class before with Pennie Frow, but it was great to hear a lot of these aspects from real life experiences. Being somewhat of a hot topic at the moment, there was definitely a lot to discuss.
The panel was:
Christine Bishop, the Managing Director of Social Business Strategy Group, specialising in the areas of social media, strategic marketing, branding and business strategy. She is also a recent Executive MBA Graduate of the Business School.
Mike Read, HR and Corporate Culture Director, Starcom Media Vest, Australia’s largest Media Agency.
James Watson, one of our first class Honours graduates in Marketing. James has had a meritorious career with Procter and Gamble in Australia and Singapore, Reckitt Benckiser in Australia, the UK and USA and PZ Cussons in Australia.
Christine, Mike and James lead the panel discussion about using appropriate marketing tools to create “Brand You”, a critical factor in meeting the challenges of today’s highly competitive employment marketplace. We were lucky enough to harvest more than a few pearls of wisdom from the esteemed panel, and in the coming weeks, will share with you what we learned from each of them - So keep an eye out!
Thanks to the University of Sydney Business School, Program Director Pennie Frow and particularly Associate Professor Terry Beed for putting on the event and allowing us the chance to engage with such an amazing group of people.
Since Google Glass was released, it immediately sparked big debate whether Google glass is the next big player in digital changes or a privacy aggressor. Having a computer basically linked with your mind is a geek’s dream. With this, Google’s device has stridden further than any other. I assume Glass would be very welcome within certain professionals like engineers, doctors, scientists and, of course movie makers. As for layfolk usage, I guess, very few people do want to be into a computer 24/7.
But the fact that someone can take a picture of me without permission make me think whether Google Glass is changing our life in a positive way. Can imagine how it would be awful talking with someone with Glass that could be doing who knows what. Whether it taking photos of me, or capturing my social accounts by using my identity? From this, it will become a big ethical challenge once Glass is available not only for professional usage.
Google Glass is still in its early stages and there are still lots of bugs reported by early adapters in terms of its functionality. However, being very enthusiastic in terms of all things digital, I would definitely like to try Glass in any way. It looks so futuristic, like it was drawn from the Wachowski brother's movie, "The Matrix".
Fortunately, a friend of mine has already tested Google Glass. Vasily Gatov is a respectable Russian expert in the global media market, and was one of the lucky few who Google introduced its new device to. I've asked Vasily to answer a few questions to find out what Google Glass is all about.
Q So, how did it happen that you tried it?
I was at Google Campus in Mountain View, with an educational research purposes, and, thanks to the googlers who invited us, we were given a chance to try the Glass. A demonstration was about one hour long; we were able to put the device on our heads, try the software and ergonomics. The presenter also gave us an overview of the use cases and his personal experience (he was using Glass for some months).
Coleman Rusnock, the googler who introduced
Glass
Q What are the main features and functionality?
Actually, I don't feel it's a practical device yet. Glass is a massive research project that establishes new frontier in the gadget design, gadget capacity to communicate and to be "smart". It's also a research project that studies those who use Glass and establish its place in the world of the geeks. Speaking about the functions that are available now: voice command system that works quite well with an international English (both words and simple queries like "show me the way to the hotel I have booked"); great camera that does both stills and video (both 1080i). Some standard Android/ChromeOS
features like Google Maps.
Q How cool is it in terms of design?
It is cool but very technological. Imagine that someone took glasses out and embedded a small (7 mm cube over your right eye). And there's nothing on the left one. The cube projects a screen that feels like a LARGE computer screen just above your line of sight. Due to the specifics of the projector, Glass emits a bit of pink light to the right of your eyes. Also it feels strange but the Glass is very well balanced - although the computerised right side of the device is big and has a certain weight, you don't feel that it presses your ear or nose.
Q In terms of marketing, from your point of view, who will be the potential customer?
Today? Mad geeks and developers who should create an application ecosystem for Glass. Again - the device is a research it is not a commercial product, and much has to be done to put it on the market. But, featuring, one can see it as a professional tool for those who need a lot of data all the time (brokers, air controllers, traffic police and SWAT squads), as well as people whose life is documenting the reality - journalists, perfectly.
Q How does Google describe its target audience?
Not yet is there an audience. The Glass is only available for developers now and this is just a beginning of product design.
Q Can’t avoid this question; do you think I can surf with Google glass?
Yes, and the footage will be amazing, if Google dares the waterproof version or Chinese manufacturers will create some kind of water protection to it.
Tea and coffee seem to be fine to drink hot or cold, but when I ask you to think about drinking a soft drink, you’ll probably think of a refrigerated drink with cold sweat beads running down the sides of a can or bottle. When taking your first sip, the icy cold fizzy liquid startles your taste buds and tickles your throat.
But have you ever drunk a warm or even hot soft drink? Just the thought makes me want to opt for water instead.
A few weeks ago, Ian Alwill, the former Executive Director of Group Marketing and Communications at Nestle Oceania presented a case study in class for the Contemporary Consumer Insights unit of the Master of Marketing program.
Much earlier in his career he was the Asia Pacific Region Marketing Director for The Seven–Up Company.
The Taiwanese franchisee of the business was complaining that the formulation of the well-known soft drink 7-Up was too sweet. They felt that this was dramatically affecting sales of the product in the country. They were understandably a little hot under the collar … and said so!!
When he was presented with this dilemma by the franchised bottler he was quite surprised. Neighbouring Asian countries were happily drinking the exact formulation with no similar complaints. The global policy was not to change the formulation of such a well-known product until the market situation was well understood. His instincts and “gut feel” was that formulation was not the problem.
A market visit to the Taiwanese market place for 7-Up showed that the majority of the 7-Up sold in the country was in market stalls or in small stores… but most of these did not provide a sufficiently iced or refrigerated product, the way it was in other regional markets. His basic knowledge of the product was that temperature affects the sweetness of a product. The higher the temperature, the sweeter the product; and conversely, the lower the temperature, the less sweet the product tastes. Who would have known?
The product being sold in Taiwan did in fact taste sweeter because it was being consumed at a higher temperature since it was not adequately chilled. This explained why neighbouring Asian countries were not complaining of the same issue as they were selling the product for the most part refrigerated!
The real issue was now understood and the franchised bottler finally agreed that a different approach was needed.
A change in marketing support to the franchisee was in order. Rather than funding traditional brand advertising, the Seven–Up Company invested in 7-Up identified market coolers over a couple of seasons. As the product was then consumed chilled rather than warm/hot, there were no more complaints of the product being too sweet.
Ian then went on to stress to the class of Master students, the importance of understanding the culture, the consumer, and the market environment in which the sale occurs... to not assume that the standard mix of marketing activity is always the solution to marketing problems. In this case it was capital expenditure not marketing expense!!
He recommended a simple and important principle when formal market research is not available and your instincts say something is not right!
GO… SEE…… THINK……… DO!!!
Sounds simple, but it’s paramount, especially when working in a culture that you did not grow up in.
“According to one recent report, in the next decade American colleges will mint 40,000 graduates with a bachelor's degree in computer science, though the U.S. economy is slated to create 120,000 computing jobs that require such degrees. You don't have to be a math major to do the math: That's three times as many jobs as we have people qualified to fill them.” – Kirk McDonald (Read more)
Okay, this is pretty bleak news. After reading the opinion piece by Mr. McDonald, the president of an ad tech company in Manhattan, I’m questioning how far I can get with my Fine Arts degree. Thank goodness I’ve ventured into the field of Marketing …but according to McDonald, it won’t have saved me completely either:
“Even if your dream job is in marketing or sales or another department seemingly unrelated to programming, I'm not going to hire you unless you can at least understand the basic way my company works. And I'm not alone.”
Although his open letter is quite specific to the situation in America, it’s hard not to be concerned as a recent graduate – and now post graduate student – in our current global economic situation. Mcdonald talks about the necessity to be able to understand simple programming in order to function in a modern day company. Perhaps it’s too much to ask for, and extremely hard to deliver, especially when many universities do not see the need in creating dynamic programmes that create well-rounded graduates.
But Mr. McDonald, I implore you to have more faith in us. Have faith in us like I have faith. While technology is constantly made redundant and updated, our passion will never whither. And it is this passion that will get us through.
To say that you would hire someone with skills in programming over someone with passion could be one of the biggest mistakes you can make. I believe you neglect the fact that it is also the role of the company to support and encourage your employees to grow, learn and develop. I am sure, Mr. McDonald, that being the successful businessman you are, you already understand this. But you must not lose faith in us.
So while I suggest all recent graduates, graduates-to-be, and just anyone looking for a job to read Mr. McDonalds open letter (because I feel it’s important we understand where employers are coming from), I suggest you read it with an open mind, and have faith in yourself.
I may be an optimist, but I’m sure the future is not as bleak as it appears.
European Union is already taking action to protect the personal data of their citizens. A proposed new data collection reform directly refers to the way companies are able to collect and use consumers’ personal information. With these protection rules to be elected by June this year, this new policy has become a highly controversial topic.
EU officials believe that it could protect the people’s privacy, so neither IT companies nor digital marketers are able to make personal data available for commercial use, or create user profiles without prior permission. According to the new rules, users should also be given the right to be forgotten when they request it.
However, the question is whether too much government regulation could deter potential benefits for consumers and the economy. In terms of marketing, it could mean a big step back to traditional TV and outdoor advertising, since there would be significant limitation in targeted ads and direct marketing. Without user clear-cut agreements, companies wouldn’t be able to generate consumer personal data, so it could make direct marketing less effective, as well as very difficult to manage.
Some more radical opponents to the policy said that the EU's data protection reforms are a way towards "user-paid internet." They argue that if web giants such Facebook or Google couldn’t gather the personal data of users for advertising needs, the services would have to look elsewhere for funding. Users will have to pay for services, or service remains free - but we will be exposed of hundreds of adverts because personal data was not used to create targeted ads. This is why those whom the EU thinks they are protecting, are in fact not really satisfied with such initiatives.
Yes, it’s true: I don’t want somebody to take my personal details without a clear understanding of how, and whom, this data will be used. Just one glance at my junk email inbox, there are companies from somewhere in Latin America that knows I like mounting ski more than snowboarding. How did this completely unfamiliar company get my personal details? And in this case, I would definitely like to be protected from such annoying interference in my private life. But honestly, I am still not sure whether I want to pay to be protected.
There has been plenty of hype surrounding the potential of social media as a low-cost, high-impact promotional tool for business.
Much of the social media hype has been fuelled by the various success stories, in particular the YouTube sensations that have generated millions of views from relatively low-cost production videos. A few of the classic examples in recent years include Blendtec, Old Spice, Tippex and the Dollar Shave Club.
Blendtec is a premier example as it has managed to make everyday food blenders look cool and exciting. From their collection of videos, where they blend a range of bizarre items such as iPads, super glue and golf balls, they have reached a broad audience and have now surpassed 220 million views. But what is particularly effective about their videos is that they have generated such interest by simply demonstrating their blenders in action.
Another great success is the Old Spice campaign from 2010, which helped repositioned the brand to being a younger, more modern brand, and was able to generate around 1.4 billion total impressions in just six months through the combination of YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and mainstream media.
So it’s no wonder that businesses are now increasingly looking at social media to dramatically grow their brand awareness, substantially leverage word-of-mouth and deliver significant increases in sales.
But unfortunately it’s not as easy and effective as the hype suggests. And as time goes on, it is becoming more apparent that social media is not a magic pathway to building a strong brand and growing the bottom-line. Indeed, for many organisations, social media is now proving to be a long, hard and expensive road paved with many pitfalls.
One significant pitfall is brand integrity. To generate social media interest, the campaign needs to be innovative, funny, controversial and/or grossly entertaining. That is often hard to do within the confines of a well-crafted brand image.
As an example, a couple of years back, Perth-based pie manufacturer Mrs Mac’s had a very successful online campaign in Australia that utilized numerous social media platforms. Their YouTube video from this campaign now exceeds 2 million views. However, I would suggest that the campaign was not overly consistent with the traditional image of their brand.
Therefore, in their next online campaign, which was in aid of a new product launch, they took a more conservative approach in line with their traditional positioning. The end result was only a couple of thousand YouTube views in total and little interest in the new product as a result.
The growing cost and effort of social media, coupled with a long payback period, is also becoming more apparent. A good case study for this point is Westpac Bank. Westpac have had a social media team in place for a few years now, with the main goal of trying to leverage their 10 million or so account holders.
So how successful have they been in leveraging and engaging their customer base? Well, as at May 2013, they had less than 15,000 Twitter followers, just over 50,000 Facebook likes and only about 370,000 total YouTube views. Clearly, at this stage, I would guess that their social media investment has a negative ROI and is likely to have a long payback period.
Therefore, it appears that social media is becoming a long, hard grind without much of the magic that we’ve been led to believe. And for every success story, there are probably 100’s or maybe 1000’s of campaigns that went nowhere. While, I am still positive about the long-term value of social media for many firms, I would strongly counsel against the extent of optimism and high expectations that normally accompany social media activities.
As I sat in the Great Hall of the University of Sydney on graduation day waiting patiently for my name to be called so that I could collect the degree that I had earned with its fair share of sacrifices along the way, I thought of what Graduation from the Master of Marketing Program at the University of Sydney meant to me.
My immediate thoughts were: an upgrade in my LinkedIn profile, a few pictures on Facebook, and something new to frame and hang on the wall.
Past the short term posts on social media, what this degree has really offered me is a change in direction. A second chance. The opportunity to start a career better suited to who I have become beyond the Bachelor degree that I obtained about a decade ago.
When I started the program over a year ago I wasn’t entirely sure that I had made the right decision to continue my education. The idea of not working full time (although a number of my classmates continued their full time employment while doing the program) and getting back into assignment writing and presentations was quite daunting. Now that I’ve graduated, I can honestly say that doing this degree was the best thing that I have done.
I have drawn as much from the lecturers and industry specialists that have presented in class as I have from interacting with fellow classmates from a wide variety of professional backgrounds. Hands-on exercises and engaging lectures always made me look forward to attending class.
And as the 2013 graduating class gathered outside the Great Hall after the ceremony to congratulate each other, we took a moment to savor our accomplishments by tossing our hats in the air. Then we all rushed back to work to begin the rest of our lives.
Have you considered applying to the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney?
It’s hard not to feeling something when Boston is brought up. Amid tragedy, it’s undisputable that a sense of humanity is brought out in all of us.
This is so clearly shown with sportswear rivals New Balance, Nike, PUMA and Adidas coming together to deliver a simple message of solidarity. Their latest print ad has a simple message: “Today we are in the same team.”
It’s hard to be critical of this ad. When we are constantly being sold to, this simple message reminds us that at the end of the day, the companies out there are not only servicing us, but they are one of us. Sure, you can pick out all the financial motivations behind an action like this, but sometimes we just need to savor these moments of sentiment.
In terms of a lesson in marketing, perhaps the most important thing I take away is that fact that there are certain truths that apply to all of us. Sure, this advertisement is only a small gesture, but these gestures mean so much, because it accesses an aspect of humanity that lives in us all. It’s not really a matter of a common good, but an innate ability to care.
As a student in marketing, there are so many things we are learning, especially in terms of how to engage with people. We are constantly asking questions, looking outward, doing experiments and researching. We are so busy; we forget to look internally at ourselves. We cannot forget that we are also a part of the system.
So when I saw the collaborative ad, I thought it was great. Then I asked myself a simple question of “why?” I have concluded that it is because this ad has the ability to bring out the care in all of us, and this communal sense of care brings comfort in times of hardship. For four rival shoes companies to be able to do that with a simple message should show that we don’t need cheap tricks to engage with people. We should look deeper and have more faith in our audience and their ability to care.
I know this theory probably isn’t appropriate for every situation, but it’s something I feel is important, and that we shouldn’t forget. We should care.
So these last couple of weeks has seen an immense amount of information passed around on the Internet regarding Daft Punk. I’m sure you’ve already heard/read/seen/watched the fake fan made version of Daft Punk’s new song, Get Lucky. If you haven’t already, it’s incredible – listen to it here.
If you don’t know who they are (a French electronic music duo), that’s fine too, just follow along and I’ll get to my point soon.
So the abbreviated timeline goes something like this:
Daft Punk announces new Album: crowd goes wild.
Speculation and fake ‘leaked’ albums pop up all over the Internet.
Hype fades ever so slightly
Daft Punk releases online series, The Collaborators, featuring videos of all the super famous musicians who have also worked on their album.
Daft Punk announces that they will be releasing their new album in rural Wee Waa, NSW at an agricultural show.
• Everyone is a bit puzzled…but hype skyrockets.
A teaser of Get Lucky is played during Coachella festival. The Internet almost breaks when this news was released.
THEN, Hedi Silmane, fashion designer, photographs Daft Punk for his new campaign for Saint Laurent (previously Yves Saint Laurent.)
And now, after officially releasing Get Lucky, Daft Punk has broken the Spotify record in the US and UK for the biggest streaming day for a single track. I am sure they are not done surprising us with all their other hype-building tactics hidden up their sleeves just yet, but I’m beginning to worry this hype is going to break the internet for good. I know that sounds silly, but you get what I mean.
Google Trends Data for searches containing "Daft Punk"
Since the news of a new album in February, searches in Daft Punk grew pretty healthily. After March, ‘Daft Punk’ has been trending so much; it looks like it’s going to fall off the graph.
I know I probably sound like a crazy person, but it’s getting hard to keep up, and this ‘news’ is becoming a little old, pretty fast. Despite the obvious benefits of building all this exposure, there is the potential for the general public to get sick of it all, before the album is even released. When they are swamped repetitive information, there is a likelihood they may become desensitized to it.
However, on the other side of the argument is that when information is regurgitated so quickly in our hyper-connected age, could this tactic be a way of sustaining the audience’s attention? Repetition can really drill information into heads. When each day, we are bombarded with thousands upon thousands of snippets of information, perhaps this strategy of more is more could work?
I can’t decide where I sit between the two. I guess it all comes down to the circumstances, and to employ a strategy that is appropriate for what you are trying to advertise for. For Daft Punk, I think it’s getting hard to remember that while every other day more ‘news’ appears on the internet– this ‘news’ is actually just strategic, planned, and well executed advertising. Perhaps the very fact that I’ve forgotten I’m being advertised to means they’ve done a pretty good job.
A common joke nowadays is that the difference between networking and not working is just one letter.
I used to be relatively sceptical about the importance of LinkedIn for my career improvement until I moved to Sydney from Moscow about a year ago. In Russia LinkedIn is still not considered a useful tool for job seekers, as potential Russian employers would be more satisfied having a conversation with former employers rather than rely on information from the Internet.
In Australia, I see a ‘LinkedIn-mania’ among professionals. Everyone here talks about LinkedIn, thinks about LinkedIn and looks at your LinkedIn profile as soon as you get to know each other. Having just glanced at my LinkedIn page, a friend of mine immediately responded - you have no chance of using LinkedIn successfully unless you contact list is much longer (I have 82 connections). This makes me think: “What is LinkedIn really all about, and how does it work for professionals?”
Honestly I like LinkedIn since it enables me to keep track of my professional contacts in the cloud. However, I receive a lot of invitations and often cannot even figure out what the motivation for connecting is. The majority of these invitations appear to be meaningless and probably will never be converted into useful business opportunities. There is no doubt that LinkedIn makes business communication easier, but it could also make our network useless if the connections that we have are merely strangers. Does a sizable network provide the wrong impression: that quantity is equally important as quality. But let us look at our connection list from a practical angle: can we communicate with each of our connections in a business environment?
To what extent are these connections personal and thus to what extent they are valuable? In this case, the invitation process is a crucial step in gaining a connection. Even more, there should be an ethical standard where by when sending an invitation to a person, that you clearly state how you met or the purpose of why it would be valuable to connect. If this were the case, many people similar to me would be better off accepting invitations to connect rather than not even opening them at all.
However, I try to keep my connections down to those who I really know and I am comfortable with. I also frequently monitor my connection list and disconnect from those people I cannot recall.
This is why I am distrustful of those who get “over 500” connections. Have they just sent invitations to all their mail accounts (there is an easy tool in LinkedIn to assist with that)? Does this number of connections really mean business?
I have no doubt that the honest answer would be “no”.
Electronic Direct Mail. Those pesky emails you receive every other day from that contact lens website you used that one time. You don’t read it, but you also don’t unsubscribe.
Last month before I moved to Sydney, I happened to glance at a friend’s empty inbox. “How could it be? It must be an internet anomaly!” I thought. I asked him where were his ‘opened but not dealt with messages’ and the endless unread mail from ‘newsletters you intend to catch up with one day’. He didn’t have any. He systematically unsubscribes from any emails he doesn’t want to receive.
Now I thought about this…mail I don’t want to receive… Sure, I delete 99% of EDMs I receive without even glancing at the subject title. But the idea of missing out on the potential of one day, missing out on an inkling of information may be of interest to me, really freaked me out. I’d never thought about ‘unsubscribing’ until now.
So what are people like me doing to people who are working hard at trying to market though EDMs?
In our Evaluate Market Performance paper, we talked about the power of amassing a list of email contacts. Email, considered to be more reliable than addresses or phone numbers, is highly valuable as a way to get in touch. But are people like me ruining the point of having a big list of emails in your database?
At my pervious employment, creating daily EDMs was even a part of my job! Just like any other webpage, we were able to analyse how long a person opened the email, whether they then clicked on a link, whether they made a purchase, or browsed our website – or whether it was sent to trash without being opened.
Even so, their purpose is totally lost on me. I can’t speak for others, but the ‘delete’ button is just a bit too convenient. So this battle between the desire for a streamlined inbox and wanting all the information all the time will never be resolved for me.
What I do take away from this realisation is that perhaps it’s not about how big your database is, but rather a database full of people who are not going to simply delete you. Companies now are too focused on tactics that pressure any passing visitor to join their mailing list, and neglecting the fact that not every person on the Internet is their target audience. The electronic age means information is so quickly transferred, but it also is so quickly forgotten.
The benefit of having a very specific database means that your EDMs could become a two-way thing; a portal for communication. When you are dealing with a specific market, there is the opportunity to target that market in ways you would not be able to if you were casting your net wider.
I guess the blame isn’t solely on the companies. We are also the ones who go and sign ourselves up for this in the first place. We, the ‘deleters’ of EDMs, are equally at fault for not understanding and aligning our personal brands with those companies we actually care about.
I have no solid answers to this dilemma. I will keep subscribing, and keep deleting, in the hope that one day my inbox will magically be empty of it all.
When Facebook has a group with nearly 40,000 ‘Likes’ whose sole purpose is to track your death, you know that you’re not in the running for a popularity contest. The Facebook group: ‘Is Margaret Thatcher Dead Yet?’ was created in 2010, and only changed its profile picture on April 8th from ‘NOT YET’ to ‘YES, Margaret Thatcher is Dead’. According to comments on the group, there were people that checked the page daily to see if she had passed.
Lady Thatcher, who also goes by a number of names including Iron Lady, Tin Ear, and other colorful names that I will not repeat in this blog, continues to have such a controversial presence. Margaret Thatcher’s 15 second elevator speech would consist of a few facts including being Britain’s first female Prime Minister, and then being re-elected twice to the position. Her ‘personal brand’ is quite a unique one. She has truly left her mark on history.
Some love her, some hate her. Those who love her seem to be the winning side of her reforms, while her enemies are amongst those whom she showed little remorse for as she steamed rolled through her terms.
Personal branding and how we portray our personal brand is very important, especially if you are in a communications based role such as Marketing, Advertising and Politics. In the Internal Marketing Unit of the Masters of Marketing program, we focused on personal branding, particularly what it is, how to develop it, and it’s importance. It still surprises me how many people are not on LinkedIn, especially those who I would have thought surely would have invested enough time to create an on-line professional presence.
Even Margaret Thatcher is on LinkedIn. Her profile might not be very strong, but she still has a personal profile as well as a number of groups about her. And she’s on Facebook as well. Isn’t it time that you spend the time to create or update your on-line personal brand? Hopefully you too won’t have a Facebook group following your death, but rather your on-line presence will lead to positive things.
At one time in our lives we’ve all had to share confined quarters with someone who has bad breath. The worst part is that the only person who doesn’t suffer the consequences of the noxious odors is the person who has bad breath, as they often are unaware of their effects on their neighbors. Breathing by your mouth, usually relieves you of the effects for a while, but if you have to spend 8 hours a day boxed up in a shared cubicle with Mr. Coffee-Breath, or Mrs. Smoker-Mouth, not even mouth breathing can help you.
Tic Tac has used humor in the above ad to show the devastation of the effects of bad breath on a small town in France. This ad is a take on the flash mob videos that have popped up in the past few years. The best part of the ad is that you don’t need to speak a word of French to understand the key message: Tic Tacs will take care of your bad breath.
When completing the Innovative Marketing Strategies Unit of the Masters of Marketing we analysed how humour can be used as a powerful marketing tool, but also how when humour used poorly can have devastating effects for a product and/or brand. When using humour an ad agency has to be careful not to put a market segment offside by negatively stereotyping a group ex. all old people are grumpy, or all young people are reckless. Country, political situations and target audiences are important to consider when creating your campaign.
Ideally you want your ad to be memorable: people remember your ad AND the product being advertised AND one key message. The icing on the cake comes when people talk to their friends about your ad, that’s when you really know that your ad has been successful.
I think that Tic Tac has done a great job in the above ad because it has met all those criteria. It also has international relevance, which not all humourous ads can boast of as it can easily overcome the language and cultural barriers of most countries in the western world.
Next time you’re in a confined space such as a lift, a car, or even on the street asking someone for direction, have a Tic Tac handy!
I would love to know what your favorite humourous ad is.
The other day when deciding on which eggs to buy during my weekly grocery shop, I stumbled upon branded eggs. By ‘branded eggs’ I don’t mean that there was a company name on the egg carton, these were literally branded eggs with the company logo printed on each egg shell.
Twelve beaming smiling faces greeted me as I opened the carton of eggs from Sunny Queen Farms to check that all the eggs were intact. These eggs looked ‘happy’ and were sparkling clean (no feces, feathers, or other egg debris… gross!). Just looking at these eggs gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling of happiness. These eggs HAD to come home with me. And they did!
Branded eggs? Brilliant. And ‘about time’, especially as everything else that I bring home from the shops is branded.
Eggs without branding are just eggs. They could be from organically fed chickens that were taken for walks twice a day, or even read a book at night, but for all I know, once eggs get taken out of their packaging and put into my egg-tray in the fridge, an egg is an egg, is an egg. Unless it has a smiling face on it or another branding stamp to differentiate it.
So why haven’t all egg companies jumped upon this very simple and probably not too expensive concept? It sure beats me.
Egg companies in my opinion waste money by trying to differentiate themselves by their carton packaging. They should really focus on the natural primary packaging of their product: the egg shell. Brand logo, expiry date, and even a short key message or company slogan should be printed on the egg.
Even my hubby likes the smiling eggs, and although he doesn’t yet remember the name of the brand, he no longer has to ring me in a panicked state from the grocery store to ask which kind of eggs to buy. He knows that the smiling face eggs are a sure win in our household.
What other products do you feel still have a long way to go in terms of branding opportunities?
How do you re-invent and improve an already good product? Saatchi & Saatchi LA have decided that a re-invented couch should be made up of toned and attractive females in bikinis, and should also be made available in a male version of topless buff men in shorts.
This ad however isn’t for the re-invented couch, or edible pizza curtains, or for plants that fight crime, but for the launch of an improved Toyota Camry. The creative touch of re-inventing the ordinary almost ‘un-re-inventible’ is quite funny, but I didn’t find that Toyota, or Saatchi and Saatchi on Toyota’s behalf, communicated the crux of their campaign… the improved features of the Camry in this particular ad.
But do the details of the sedan’s ‘re-invention’ really matter in this ad? I don’t think so. This ad is all about gaining attention and having people remember the ad rather than the car. Remembering the car and linking it back to the ad comes later in the campaign. This strategy is often used in advertising, where making a lasting impression in 60 seconds or less is challenging with so many ads bombarding our daily lives.
So what makes an ad successful? When evaluating ads in the Integrated Communications unit of the Master of Marketing Program, we used the acronym ‘S.C.O.R.E.’ to critique the ads.
Successful ads would rate high in every one of the criteria.
For this Toyota Camry ad, the ‘re-invention’ concept is Simple, and focuses on improving an already solid product. Making an analogy to a reinvented couch, curtain, and crime-fighting household potted plants is highly Creative. I would give this ad two thumbs up for Originality, how refreshing is it to see a car commercial without seeing the car wind along a quiet country road with a picturesque backdrop. Was this ad Relevant? No, in my opinion, but the fact that the ad isn’t relevant to the car’s improvements makes it Effective because the ad makes the car indirectly memorable.
What ads have you found to be so creative that they become highly memorable?
I LOVE Taco Bell. I love them so much; I would take any opportunity to talk with people about how amazing Taco Bell is. All of their marketing efforts have worked on me, and I am a proud advocate for their brand. Which is a bit strange, considering I’ve never even eaten there.
Why all the passion?
Because Taco Bell’s Internet personality is someone I’d like to be best friends with. Sure, they’ve run the regular kinds of monetary driven promotions, donations, fundraisers so on and so forth. But it’s all the little things they do that add up to a quirky sense of humor, and a brand that isn’t afraid to have a little laugh at itself.
If you ever stumble upon Taco Bell’s Twitter or Facebook page, their online teams are often quick to respond – and respond with a bit of delightful tongue-in-cheek. Many service companies find social media hard to deal with because the nature of the forum can lead to disgruntled customers openly tarnishing your good name. Taco Bell is not immune to this, but instead of standard replies, they often respond with personalized solutions. Not only that, it’s obvious that their web team are given the authority to reply to customers with something a little unconventional.
So why is this so important in social media? For me, it’s the feeling that I am engaging with more than just a company – that there is a personality behind it all. You can find endless examples, like the one above, of Taco Bell just being a nice guy. And isn’t it much easier to engage with a ‘nice guy’ than a company that sees you as another statistic? Engagement goes both ways, and Taco Bell proves that giving a little back has huge returns.
Although some can argue this is all just a part of the marketing strategy of an emotionless company, when it comes to Social Media, the notion of ‘perception is reality’ rings true. Perhaps it wouldn’t hurt for other companies to take a leaf out of Taco Bell’s book, and spend some time being a ‘nice guy’ on the Internet (or at least a guy with a sense of humor).
After watching ‘The Block’, a reality home renovation series on Channel Nine, I have come to the conclusion that there are many crucial factors that can affect the selling price of a property. It’s not only about how well the home is presented, (although that does feature high on directly affecting selling price), having a sound marketing strategy for the property sale is key to getting a high ROI for what is usually one’s highest valued asset.
There are many decision that need to be made when selling a property such as: when to put it on the market, which agent and real estate company to sell with, will the property be sold through an auction or a private sale, who will be the auctioneer (if the property sells at auction), your asking price, where to advertise… and the list goes on.
Although the TV show ‘The Block’ did not focus on how much time each bidder spent inspecting the property before showing up at the auction, on average, people spend more time choosing a car than they do on inspecting a property. According to the Melbourne Bank, potential buyers spend on average 45 minutes or less inspecting a property before purchasing it (that does not include the time spent researching the property market or the area). Since buyers don’t spend much time within the four walls of their potential new purchase, marketing the property before inspection is crucial.
An important part of the marketing strategy for the sale of the property is the advertising. The local newspaper, Australian real estate web sites, Asian real estate web sites, sign posting outside the property, and mail drops are some of the advertising options to choose from. These all cost money and it is best to understand what historical ROI these mediums have before making a decision.
A phone call to my local newspaper quoted me almost $1000 for a half page ad in the real estate section for one week. That seemed to me to be quite expensive for old fashion print media, especially when so many people are turning to on-line search engines for property searches. That said, understanding where your target market looks for properties is crucial when finally making the decision on how and where to advertise.
Although not all of us are talented home renovators like the contestants on ‘The Block’, highlighting your property’s desirable features as well as features that make your property unique during your marketing campaign is crucial. Perhaps a tasteful colourful painting on the living room wall, or a home smelling of freshly baked bread would be a suggestion for standing out that is achievable for everyone regardless of your renovation skills.
If you have sold a property, do you have any marketing strategies that you found useful that you are willing to share?
The latest smartphone hitting the Australian market is Sony’s new flagship smartphone, the Xperia Z. The company claims that the phone is waterproof and dustproof, these features can be extrapolated as making the phone ‘adventure proof’.
A phone that can be dropped in up to a meter of water for 30 minutes and still function normally would be appreciated by anyone who has had to dig deep into their pocket to replace a handset that has been ruined by exposure to water. None of the other phones dominating the smartphone market to this point can boast of being both water and dustproof (ex. Apple’s iPhone 5, Samsung Galaxy S3, HCT One).
The Xperia Z is very much targeted at the upper class tertiary educated 25-40 year old who enjoys life and appreciates a quality phone camera that will capture their adventurous moments. A market segment that Sony has missed in terms of targeting are mothers of young children, who highly value anything that is electrical and waterproof.
With sons aged 2 and 3 years old, (who I collectively refer to as my ‘jungle animals’), I am constantly in the middle of daily if not hourly ‘adventure’. I have had to replace a smart phone after ‘nobody’ dropped it in the toilet recently. It’s replacement was quickly covered with a military grade, dust, water, and shock proof case. The downfall of this case is that the sound is very muffled, leading me to question why I have a phone if I struggle to use it for it’s most basic of functions: communicating on the phone.
The number of times that I have to ‘rescue’ my phone from testing the true capabilities of its protective case vary on a daily basis, but usually range within the 5-10 mark. Fish tanks, sinks and bath tubs filled with soapy water, and even sprinklers and swimming pools are potential dangers to my phone. Ideally I want to have a phone that I can use without a cover and be assured that it is going to endure a day in my household.
Had the Xperia Z been targeted to also include those caring for little ones, I’m sure that Sony’s ‘waterproof-dustproof-adventure proof’ features would have been recognized as sought after handset for this market segment.
When have you seen a product overlook a very relevant segment of a target market?
Not every brand survives 5-10 years of existence, and even fewer can brag about being a centenarian. So what’s the secret behind Oreo’s over 100 years of success? Good Marketing of course.
Recently Oreo, the delicious crunchy dark chocolate cookie whose two biscuits sandwich a disk of contrasting white ‘melt-in-the-mouth’ sweet crème, has focused on building a strong and creative social media presence.
A highly relevant advertisement on Twitter during the 30 minute blackout at the Superbowl this year has made Social Media Marketers turn to Oreo in terms of resetting the bar for social media campaigns.
Oreo has struck gold once again with their latest social media campaign. They have chosen 4 teams of ‘Super Oreo Lovers’ with mechanical backgrounds to build ‘Oreo Separator machines’. The overall goal of the Oreo Separator is to separate the cookie from the crème so that the preferred part of an Oreo cookie can be fully enjoyed. The above video is just one of the 4 inventions created for this purpose (the other three videos can be found on YouTube). This video obtained over 4 million views in less than 4 weeks, a result even better than what the Oreo marketing team could have wished for.
Oreo has managed to obtain such a high number of views on YouTube by tapping into a key insight: People have a preference between the cookie and crème, and are therefore interested in separating the cookie to isolate and eat their favorite part. In the past Oreo has used this key insight to build campaigns based around ‘how do you like to eat your Oreo?’. They have now taken this concept a step further and have asked the more mechanically inclined ‘how would you separate your Oreo?’.
Other leading brands such as Coca-Cola, Gillette, and RedBull have successfully navigated the social media domain. History has shown that to have a successful social media presence you must be able to continue to provide creative and relevant material.
I’m looking forward to see how Oreo will maintain the social media buzz around their brand for decades to come, especially now that the bar has been raised.
The Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney was fortunate to have Jodie Sangster, CEO of the ADMA (Association for Data-Driven Marketing and Advertising) present as part of a panel discussing the use of personal data for marketers gain.
Jodie explained that a customer’s journey starts from the minute you start talking or engaging a potential customer to the point where they are no longer your customer anymore. Between these two goal posts is the window of opportunity for your brand to impress customers and to keep them on side with your offerings.
Maintaining these two goal posts wide apart on a time line means that you are keeping your customer for as long as possible. The way to do this is by engaging with them. What better way to engage with a customer than to use the information that you have collected about them to better understand their needs and interests and then to serve them individually targeted messages?
So where does the ADMA fit into all of this? The Associations role is to work with government and business to help determine fair ground rules for customers and businesses, considering both of their interests in advertising and marketing transactions.
Jodie stated that the discussion regarding data is being pulled in three distinct directions when it comes to the use of personal information in targeted marketing communications:
Businesses want to use data so that they can offer more relevant, targeted messages to customers.
The government considers the realms of personal data being used by marketers an “unmanageable” according to Jodie. There is a lack of understanding of how data is being used, and the laws that have been established to regulate privacy are struggling to keep up with technological advancements.
Then there is the consumer sitting in the middle of this rapidly developing area of privacy laws. Customers divulge their personal information for a number of reasons, and in return they want their personal data to be treated with respect. If the line of respect is crossed in terms of exploiting personal data, customers will become understandably upset.
Jodie and her colleagues at the ADMA no doubt have their job cut out for them as I can imagine that there is not a dull moment in their Sydney based office.
How has your company kept up to date with changes to the regulations concerning the use of personal information for marketing purposes?
I’ve crossed paths with John Sergeant on enough occasions to predict that when he opens his mouth to speak you know that you are in for a succinct slice of his wisdom delivered with humor and enough wit to make even the driest of topics interesting.
It was no surprise that John had a room full of current students, alumni, industry leaders and fellow teaching staff from the Master of Marketing Program at the University of Sydney intently listening to his panel discussion on the future of marketing last week.
When John addressed the questions of what do Marketers do, he didn’t hesitate for a minute to think about his response. He said, “Marketers produce an intangible good. It’s magic. A Marketer’s job is to infiltrate the magic into the business in a way that makes it relevant to individuals”.
When asked ‘How do you understand the magic that marketers do?’, John responded, “you have to start by getting out of the mental habit of referring to human beings as consumers. Habits of speech become habits of mind. Continually referring to people as consumers is a habit of marketers that stands in the way of delivering empathy”.
John even delivered a potentially lucrative offer to his future 2013 students. Students that catch him referring to people as ‘consumers’, will be paid 5$ out of John’s hard earned cash in return for his sinful referral.
It’s easy to forget that our business is about adding the magic and not simply dealing with the numbers that present themselves as a result of the data explosion. What is important, however, is to understand the insights that the data offer us, turn those insights into a very fine magic powder and then sprinkle that magic powder over the business. And that’s what Marketing is all about, according to John.
James Butcher, Group Sales Manager at Microsoft Media Networks shared his wisdom on digital marketing at an event hosted by the University of Sydney’s Master of Marketing program last week.
When James started working in on-line marketing 8 years back facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Pinterest didn’t exist. Running on-line campaigns was a simple task of creating a presence on Google’s ‘Search’.
How things have changed
With the predicted shift of tablet devices becoming the primary household computer based device by 2015, James believes that on-line marketing will gain in importance as more people will be able to connect to the internet easier.
According to James, on-line marketing is now all about tapping into the passion points of your target audience so that you can better understand your customer’s internet comings and goings. The ultimate goal is to create advertising touch points for your product or service to parallel their on-line locations.
For example, if an Axe/ Lynx deodorant (Unilever product) digital marketing campaign was created for a target audience of males aged 25-30 years old, digital Marketers must understand what interests they are likely to have and what other media they are tracking on-line in the day. In the morning while eating breakfast, where are they reading the news? During lunch, are they check the footy scores on-line? In the late afternoon do they use the internet to quickly catch up on celebrity gossip? How much disposable income do they have, does this affect how much time they spend on-line? Are they city dwellers? Have they previously engaged with the brand?
There has been an enormous shift in on-line marketing recently. I’m keen to see what the digital marketing space will look like in 5 years’ time.
How has your company shifted its on-line presence in the past 3 years to adjust to more tech savvy customers?
It is time for a new smart phone. My iPhone 3 has been losing one function at a time due to wear and tear. Last week I realised that I could no longer turn off the phone, two nights ago the volume control stopped working. I thought that buying a new phone would be a fun and easy activity.
A visit to the local Westfield to check out smart phones left me overwhelmed. With 40 phones to choose from and just an hour up my sleeve to choose the right phone, a quick decision was necessary. For me, a phone is not just a piece of plastic/metal with a fancy screen and some buttons on the side. A phone isn’t just a purchase, but rather more like an adoption. The phone that I choose would be another member of my family…. it would follow me around for most of the day, live in my handbag, have a safety case, be invited to all family events, take pictures of my family, video birthdays and graduations, text my friends, call my parents. A phone is my ‘digital’ best friend.
So after chatting with the smart phone expert at one of the leading mobile phone shops, I decided that I just wasn’t ready to buy. There was too much choice. I needed to go home and do a little bit more research and figure out what were the most important features for me. Did I want to just purchase the new iPhone 5 and then realise that the Samsung Galaxy S3’s camera was better, or would the Sony Xperia Z suit my needs because it’s waterproof and that would surely protect my phone if one day the kids were to decide to put the phone in the fish tank, or worse, the toilet?
This scenario isn’t uncommon. When customers are presented with too many choices, a phenomenon called ‘choice paralysis’ occurs. It can be easier to make no choice than to make a choice that you will regret post purchase. Studies have shown that people are attracted to variety, but find it easier to choose a product and complete the purchase when there are a smaller number of choices available. Post purchase regret is also less of a factor when the amount of choice is less.
So what’s the perfect amount of choice? 2-3 items, or 9-10 items, or somewhere in between? Does it vary for the type of product? Marketers must determine how to frame products to make customers feel that they have been offered enough variety but not too much choice to make a customer second guess their purchase.
I still haven’t decided which phone to buy but I have narrowed the possible 40 phones down to two finalists. I no longer feel as overwhelmed with choice because I have taken the time to research my decision. This luxury of product research does not occur for all the products that I buy, but for this purchase I wanted to get it right.
When did you feel like you were overloaded with choice and decided to walk away from a purchase rather than have post purchase regret?
How would you like to walk into a store and be advertised products that are best suited for your age, gender and demographics? How could a store possibly manage to tailor marketing campaigns on an individual basis?
The answer is through facial recognition. If you are unfamiliar with facial recognition, it is technology that scans your face, determining your age, gender and possibly even your name. Military and law enforcement agencies have been using it for years, but now with a potential to be used in the field of advertising, the fun stuff for us marketers begins.
Many opportunities exist with the information that can be collected with facial recognition. For example, you can know precisely what type of customers come into your store at specific times; you can determine even repeat customers across a number of stores allowing you to uncover trends which can be used to your advantage.
Facial recognition technology can be used to solve business issues. For example, you wanted to grow your customer base as the owner of the local pub. Data from facial recognition technology determined that between 6:00-9:00 on a Friday night your pub was 50% full with 75% male customers between the ages of 25-30 years old. Ideally you want your pub to be at least at a 70% capacity, especially on a Friday night. Wouldn’t you consider offering a special on cocktails targeted to increasing the number of ladies aged 23-27 years old in the pub?
In futuristic movies, facial recognition is even used to identify mood and ads are served to cater to that mood. That’s inching onto the creepy side of things in my opinion. I know that I would not like to walk into a supermarket in the middle writing an assignment for Uni, slightly stressed, and be served ads for ice cream and chocolate.
What’s there not to love about facial recognition? Those of us that are concerned about privacy would argue a lot. Where would boundaries be placed in terms of protecting identity? Is facial recognition a marketers dream come true or a Big Brother scenario waiting to surface?
Have you been ‘Scroogled’ recently? I know I have. When writing a paper on Cirque du Soleil as part of an assignment for Innovative Marketing Strategies class (Master of Marketing Program at the University of Sydney) I kept getting served ads about Cirque du Soleil.
Having seen a number of Cirque du Soleil shows, I truly appreciate the innovation and creativeness of the production. I did not however appreciate that Cirque du Soleil was invading my ad space which essentially gave me the feeling of being watched.
So how did these ads just start showing up coincidently at the same time that I was writing numerous emails to my fellow students in my presentation group about the Cirque du Soleil? At first I thought it was just by chance, but as time went on and I kept receiving ads related to words I was using in my Gmail emails I realised that I was being Scroogled!
Microsoft, Google’s competitor came up with the term ‘Scroogle’ by blending the words ‘screwed’ and Google. So being Scroogled poetically implies you are being screwed by Google.
Many Gmail users are unaware that Google’s Gmail system scans emails for keywords and then uses these key words to serve you ads. Brilliant? Perhaps. Invasion of my privacy? Definitely!
As email providers might just become the new competitive platform (at least until the next iPhone or Apple product comes out on the market), privacy policies will be held in high regards as a deciding feature to stay with a current email provider, or to move to a Microsoft’s product such as Outlook.com.
Microsoft’s Outlook.com offers many desirable features over and above those offered by Gmail, Yahoo, and Hotmail. Among them is privacy (currently being violated by Gmail in my opinion), sophistication in that Outlook.com can be connected to your social media networks, and a sorting option that makes it easy for a user to prioritise their emails.
I’m tempted to ditch my Gmail account because I don’t want to feel like my emails are not private. Do you feel that Gmail fairly communicates this lack of privacy to subscribers? How will Gmail have to modify their activities in the future to stay competitive?
When chatting over the phone with my parents last week we got on to the topic of viral videos, and in particular the latest viral video, The Harlem Shake. My parents were quite concerned that I was watching viral videos because they honestly thought that doing so might leave me with a virus on my computer.
The following 30 minutes of our conversation was spent explaining to my parents (both are in their 70’s), that viral videos do not leave viruses on your computer, but rather they are considered ‘viral’ videos because the way that the video gains popularity mimics the spread of an influenza virus. One person watches a video and they share the video with a number of their friends who then forward on the video link via email, video sharing web sites or social media to their friends. In no time at all the video has been shared exponentially, and is officially considered ‘having gone viral’.
Once my parents had been reassured that I was not putting my computer at risk of disease, they asked a simple question that I didn’t have the answer to: “Mina, what makes a video go viral?”. Although most kids over the age of 6 have the answers to all of their parent’s questions, this one caught me by surprise.
If only us Marketers had the answer! I decided to do a little research to find out the answer to that question. After searching hours on my virus free computer I realised that the question ‘What makes videos viral?’ falls in the same bucket as ‘Where can I find out the winning numbers for next Saturday’s lottery?’.
There is no winning formula that has yet been discovered that will consistently result in viral videos. I did however find a number of common elements in viral videos:
Humor
Strong Start: Enticing title, alluring description, and visually appealing video thumbnail enticing potential viewers to click through.
An emotional response
Sarcastic narcissism
Community participation
The element of surprise/originality
Identification with the target audience
Must be short, ideally less than 2 minutes in length
The Harlem Shake is a perfect example of these 8 elements at play. PSY’s Gangnam style, Old Spice’s The Man Your Man Could Smell Like, The Evolution of Dance, and Kony 2012 are all examples of highly successful viral videos where many if not all of these 8 elements were present.
Next time I chat with my parents I’ll at least have the above list of elements a video should have if it is aiming for ‘viral status’. What I won’t have however, is a logical explanation for what people are doing in the Harlem Shake.
Have you been part of creating a viral video? Any secrets you want to share?
