The Web of Life

The web of life – it is what holds us together and binds us as people, groups, communities, countries, continents – as the world!


It is amazing to think how we are all bound together through technology – it is people like us who have made this happen and it is people like us who will continue to improve and innovate to allow communication across the globe to be even more efficient and effective.

When I began this subject I had no idea of the power of the digital world – it was something I accepted as reality and knew we could use to our advantage, yet I couldn’t quite grasp just how powerful the web really is. To think that we can communicate with such ease to people on the other side of the world is startling, and to think of the new innovations coming our way really excites me!

The possibilities are endless, and I believe that we are only limited by our own imaginations – it seems that given the right tools just about anything in this world is possible, and I cannot wait to enter the world of marketing with the insights that I have learned through studying e-marketing.

I hope to continue this blog, as it is something that was out of my comfort zone, yet I embraced it and have enjoyed writing!

Earth Hour

As e-marketing students I am sure we all can agree that social media can be hugely successful for particular organisations, and that earth hour is a great example of this.
Earth hour 2010’s success can be directly attributed to Facebook where the event spread like wildfire and got everybody , from all over the world involved – that is more than 100 million over about 40 countries!

The campaign for Earth Hour 2011 has already been launched – and you guessed where – on Facebook!

In order to view the main video you must click ‘like’ on Earth Hour’s Facebook page. So far about 419,518 people have clicked ‘like’ – a huge number!! The video campaign is a compilation of user-generated media – taken by people all over the world and put together – highlighting the power of digital and how it can bring people together.

I would expect the campaign to keep growing and the number of people involved to soar thanks to their clever use of digital media and knowing how to make the most of it in order to spread a message!

Scented Banner Advertising!

I just came across what I think is a truly ingenious and very unique marketing campaign for a perfume in Brazil:

SCENTED BANNER NATURA KAIAK from Black Mamba on Vimeo.

I am not sure if anyone has seen this before, but I really wanted to share it with everyone!

Whilst to most of us banner ads are annoying and intrusive, this shows that when done right they can achieve a really high click through rate and turn into sales. At the beginning of the semester I was of the view that nobody ever clicked on banner ads, and that they could be damaging for brand image...but my perceptions are slowly changing. I really applaud the creativity and wittiness of this campaign – it just goes to show how if you think outside the square banner ads can truly stand out and be valuable for a company. Whilst the strategy used in this case is obviously not sustainable in the long term, it is a great way to generate buzz and get people talking!

The value of a forum

I have been together with my boyfriend for about three years and in that time he has had about 3 different cars! For each car he has bought, he has joined a new ‘car’ forum for that specific brand and even car model! I’m not really a car person, so I couldn’t understand what exactly he could spend hours doing on a car forum when I have never joined one in my life!


But...it got me to thinking about the value that forums can have for a business. Forums provide an incredible amount of value by creating an online community. Users of the brand don’t even have to be members, but you can go online and read what other people have to say, ask questions and get answers. Some forums have incredibly large numbers of followers (hundreds of thousands) – and the one ‘link’ that unites them all is the fact that they have all purchased a particular brand!

The main value adding aspect of a forum is that it creates an online brand community where all these users can come together. I often don’t even realise it, but when ‘googling’ random questions I often end up in a forum, reading about what other people have to say. To me they seem like a portal into a world of people who are able to share information and communicate with a common denominator, and I feel that they add a lot of a value to a brand. More so, brands can actually see what their target markets are talking about and what is relevant to them – like a mirror into their brand community – what could be better??

BLACKLE

I just want to introduce everyone to Blackle (if you don't already know of it)! It is Google...but Black!

http://www.blackle.com/

Basically, Blackle was created by Heap Media and is a simple way to reduce your energy consumption. Blackle works in exactly the same way as Google, yet it uses a black screen in order to save the amount of power used.

I know a lot of people out there are sceptical about how much difference can actually be made through using a tool such as this, but up until today Blackle has saved 2,033,884.015 Watt hours!

Unfortunately it is missing a lot of the features of Google (images, maps, videos etc)...but if all you need to do is to search for a web page in Google, why not use Blackle? It works in the same way and is an easy way to help the environment one small step at a time! Maybe the more and more people use Blackle, Google may start to see that it can make a real difference in how it operates and become a leader in tackling our environmental concerns!

Spoof Ads!

Spoof advertising. Youtube is filled with it, and most of the time it is hilarious! It is amazing to see how people’s creativity shines through in these clips and the way they interpret each ad in different ways. But why is it that people bother to make these spoof ads? Is something in it for them in promoting the brand? Do they purposefully intend to create negativity towards a brand?


The motivations of people who take the time to create content of this type is often unclear. But the issue for many companies out there is how to track these ads and what they are really saying about a brand.

One example is this spoof of our well known “Where the bloody hell are you?” campaign, created by Dan Ilic, an Aussie comedian.

(Please beware it may be offensive but I do hope that you can see the humour :)



If the creators of this Australia campaign saw this spoof, what should they take away from it? This spoof uses humour to play on well known Australian events yet does so in a sarcastic way that undermines the Tourism Australia campaign. While we may laugh, the brand managers can take a lot out of a user-generated ad such as this – to know that perhaps their idea was not as well received by Australians as they had thought.

It seems as though thanks to Youtube and other channels, this is a growing trend and I think companies could benefit a lot from looking into what is out there and perhaps facilitating these ads, as most of the time consumers create what other consumers want to see!

The question is...would a spoof ad have more credibility to a brand than an actual structured marketing campaign? I would say that a lot of the time spoof ads are created by opinion leaders and thus they are probably deemed to be credible by many people out there! Also, people actually take the time to seek out these ads and thus the message resonates more in their mind. I would love to hear everyone’s thoughts on this topic!

Fraud-book

So on the news this morning there was a story about a 23 year old Canadian girl who shaved her head, eyebrows, plucked her eyelashes and starved herself in the hope that people would believe she was suffering from cancer. Using Facebook, she created a page for a ‘fake’ charity, where she received thousands of dollars of donations. This was all a (clever) plan of hers to help pay off her debts, and not even her parents knew that it was a fraud!! (When they found out they forced her to tell the truth and she is most likely going to serve some jail time).

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2010/08/07/2010-08-07_canadian_fraudster_ashley_kirilow_fakes_cancer_to_raise_20k_arrested.html

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/ashley-kirilows-father-told-admit-cancer-hoax/story?id=11353258

So in this day and age of social media there is always the possibility of fraud and hoaxes such as this! So should we be more wary online? Why is it that when using social media we tend to trust people and their pages, but when we receive marketing emails and telemarketing phone calls we assume that they are phony?? I have never really questioned any of my Facebook friends and the legitimacy of their Facebook pages, but I definitely go straight into ‘deletion’ mode when I receive emails that I don’t recognise.


I would love to hear what everyone thinks on this topic!

Where My Kids At?!

I came across this viral video just the other day in a lecture at uni:


It’s Toyota’s viral campaign for the “Swagger Wagon” (otherwise known as ‘Toyota Sienna’). In the video the ‘Sienna’ family rap about their hip, cool and trendy station wagon, in an attempt to break down all the stereotypical views of the family wagon/minivan!


I think this ad is hilarious on many levels – and catchy too!! Considering it is aimed at young 20-35 year olds that are starting families, Youtube is a great place to advertise an ad of this type. It is witty, humorous and would catch the eye of a young person who is accustomed to browsing Youtube.

I have been noticing a lot of viral video campaigns lately that have taken shape in rap! Another example is this Smirnoff viral ad:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTU2He2BIc0

Both the above ads have had over 5 million views!!!! This is a HUGE number! It shows that when done right they can have a massive following!

Whilst these ads are fun to watch, I was wondering if people think they are actually effective? Especially for Toyota, a car is a big decision to make, would a light-hearted ad such this influence you to actually buy the car?! I respect Toyota for creating an ad of this style – they are trying to break out of the typical 'car adveritsement mould' and it is exactly my type of humour - I would probably consider the Swagger Wagon if I was starting a family and wanted to look cool in a minivan!

Sucked In?

As a newbie to blogging, I can also admit that I am, or was, also a newbie to Twitter until just recently.



This was thanks to a very smart marketing scheme created by a well loved magazine here in Australia – “Shop Till You Drop”. Shop Till You Drop’s marketing department came up with what I thought was a really smart and strategic marketing idea, which got me completely sucked in, and you would think that as a marketing student I would know better!!


Using social media such as their Facebook page and also online and in their magazine, they created a one day shoe treasure hunt in the city! Yes, that is right, all around Melbourne they placed FREE pairs of shoes, (no wonder I was sucked in!). Using Twitter, they provided clues every few minutes as to where the shoes would be, and first in first served.


In my desperate attempt for more pairs of high heels, not only did I create a twitter page, but I joined the Shop Till You Drop group and followed them and also signed up to receive regular updates on my mobile!


I am so sure that I was not the only one doing this, which leads me to think that this promotion was a really unique and interesting approach and use of social media to promote the magazine. There were literally cars of screaming women following the Shop Till You Drop group, and each pair of shoes was literally snapped up in a matter of minutes! It shows just how powerful using social media for a promotion can be – the news literally spread around so quickly, from shoe loving woman to woman!


In addition to this, those on twitter could comment to each other and report on their progress and what had just happened at the last ‘shoe drop’. There was this feeling of everyone getting together to help each other in the search!


I would love to know if anybody else knew about this promotion?? Or if there are any others out there like this? It can be really astonishing the way information can spread like wildfire through places such as Twitter!

Stepping Into a Blogger's Shoe

So, this is my first blog. Ever. You would think that a young, internet savvy girl like me, an avid Facebook user would not find entering the world of blogging to be too distant or unfamiliar, would you? My initial thoughts are “who would want to read this?....why would they want to read this?” – why have I distanced myself from blogging?


Blogging is strange. In some ways you are typing to nobody. In other ways you are typing to EVERYBODY. Just who is out there reading this?! I guess that is what makes me a tad reluctant – blogging represents ‘the unknown’ – yet, as I have seen, it is also a place of massive success.

I am aiming for this blog to help me step out of my comfort zone and try a new technique of e-marketing – something I have thus far ignored – I always thought ‘I am not a blogging person’ not really knowing what a blogging person is!? Well, I will soon find out!!!