Download Social Media Effects on Internet Advertising

Social Media Effects on Internet Advertising
Until relatively recently, the marketing menu for businesses consisted of print,
radio and television. Even television was not immediately seen as having
advertising potential.
The appearance of commercial TV, funded by
advertising, proved that TV is a very different form of communication, one that
is driven by images. The use of images changed everything.
In the 1990s, the Internet was born and its potential as a new advertising
medium was rapidly grasped – aided by ‘search engines’ and faster and faster
download speeds. At first there were just emails and banner ads, but as the
Internet took hold, people began to spend larger and larger shares of their time
online and businesses began to see the opportunities offered by Internet
marketing (e-commerce).
Today, Internet commerce, in its various forms, is overtaking traditional modes
of product distribution – whether they be physical products or ‘virtual’ products.
Amazon, the ‘star’ of this sector, in just 17 years has become the giant of ecommerce, crushing many traditional distribution channels – for books, films,
music, as well as a myriad of other hi-tech products for purchase online – with
its $61.9 billion of turnover (2012 – well ahead of Google, with $50 billion).
This commercial revolution is accelerating, as a result of numerous new
Internet-based technologies, new (especially mobile) devices and of course, the
appearance, first of ‘chat rooms’ and then, with the arrival of Facebook on the
scene in 2007, Social Networks, ‘blogs’ and other means of ‘e-communication’.
Social Networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus and others, some of
which became increasingly more specialized and targeted at special interest
groups including adult audiences, are attracting millions of followers – that
translate into millions of consumers. Already baptized as f-commerce (short for
Facebook commerce), these Social Networks are in the process of overturning
traditional modes of advertising and are becoming a key means of promotion for
products and services in all developed markets. As well as using existing
general social networks, some companies have created successful ‘own brand’
commercial social networks for adherents to share experiences, for the supplier
to promote its exclusive offerings and to develop and maintain ‘brand loyalty’.
In the sporting world, the Nike Social Network is a prime example of such
initiative and ingenuity.
Only a few years ago, we used to come home and watch TV. Now, as a result
of not only widespread availability of the ‘office PC’, but also the phenomenal
success of the smartphone, the tablet and the increase in use of ‘smart’ (internetconnected) TVs, our horizons have broadened beyond recognition. Thus, in
2013, we watch TV on our computers, our smartphones and our tablets – as well
as on our TVs. We search for information, look at route maps, read books on
Kindles. We create blogs, upload our photos and videos, update our personal
profiles via Social websites, such as Facebook and LinkedIn and others.
Today, Internet marketing is a massive business – you only need to look as far
as the sums that businesses spent on Google ads in the last year – which is just
the tip of the iceberg. The reason they are spending their money online is that
Internet marketing allows businesses to reach much bigger audiences in
completely new and more sophisticated ways.
Now that over 1.5 billion of us use Social Media (according to eMarketer), the
more innovative companies are using the social customer experience to gain a
competitive advantage.
Many of us are not only using the Internet as passive observers, but are using its
capabilities to have a shared experience and to interact with others. The Internet
is now a new way to communicate, learn, think, live, work – and love.
Particularly relevant to TXI and Xisle, the social customer experience is made
up of open conversations between peers in online communities and social
networks. It is nothing short of a game-changer. Because of social media,
consumers are more empowered, connected and vocal than ever before, and
they are disrupting the old order for business. The new order embraces the new
paradigm – and forward-thinking enterprises, from Amazon, to start-ups, are
benefitting.
New technologies, new products or even new concepts, often demand new ways
to communicate them and to ‘spread the word’.
An example could be a new brilliant idea. Instead of creating an image-based
advertising plan, designed for TV, you instead create a video that can embrace
and enlighten this new idea, a video that creates a shared experience that
educates and disseminates it to a wide audience. You can advertise your video
through Social Media (on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc) and put this video
on-line – on YouTube, DailyMotion or similar sites. At first, only a few people
may find it, but if this video is interesting, humorous, entertaining, or novel – or
just simply describes a product people may want –those viewing it will likely
feel compelled to share it with others.
The Internet is the ideal medium for sharing experiences. As they are shared
once, they are shared again twice and so on. As the process is repeated and they
are shared again and again, the sharing becomes an exponential progression –
demonstrating the same characteristics of a virus. It is the new, more effective
and lower cost way to advertise.
Of course, the better your advertisement is, the more people will want to view
it… and the more cost effective it becomes. Prior to the Internet, in the days of
newspaper, radio and TV advertising, audiences were limited and no matter
how good the commercial was, the supplier of the product or service had to
spend more money in order to bring the product or service to a wider audience.
Viral Marketing
The above describes, in crude terms, the phenomenon known as ‘viral
marketing’1 – any strategy that encourages individuals to pass on a marketing
message to others, creating the potential for exponential growth in the
message’s exposure and influence. Like biological viruses, such strategies take
advantage of rapid multiplication to replicate and spread the message to the
masses.
Off the Internet, this type of marketing has been referred to as ‘word-of-mouth’,
‘creating a buzz’, ‘leveraging the media’, ‘network marketing’. But on the
Internet, for better or worse, it is called ‘viral marketing’.
1
Viral marketing, viral advertising, or marketing buzz are buzzwords referring to marketing techniques that use
pre-existing social networks and other technologies to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other
marketing objectives (such as product sales) through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of
viruses or computer viruses. Source: Wikipedia
The Hotmail Example
The classic example of viral marketing is hotmail.com, one of the first free webbased email services.
The strategy was simple:
1. Give away free email addresses and services;
2. Attach a simple tag at the bottom of every free message sent out: ‘Get
your private, free email at http://www.hotmail.com’;
3. Stand back while people email their own network of friends and
associates;
4. Who see the message and sign up for their own free email service;
5. Propel the message still wider to an ever-increasing circle of friends and
associates.
A carefully designed viral marketing strategy ripples outward, encompassing
more and more of the Internet population.
Marketing campaigns are now often created with a key feature being the
preparation of a video that can then ‘go viral’.
Two good examples of this mode of advertising are the ‘The Trojan Games’
campaign, back in 2003 and more recently, the ‘Old Spice’ viral advertising
campaign of June 2010. ‘The Trojan Games’ campaign ran prior to the Social
Networks and video sharing sites available to advertisers today. Even so, the
Trojan Games campaign is a perfect example of a great strategy to implement a
viral marketing campaign.
’The Trojan Games’
In 2003, Trojan, a US condom brand planned to enter the UK market having as
its main objectives:
1. Launch a new condom brand onto the UK market;
2. Engage young males and tap into their network of friends;
3. Differentiate Trojan from other UK condom brands;
4. Position the brand as:
a) Fun,
b) Performance enhancing
c) Relevant.
In order to achieve these objectives, Trojan devised a strategy to create an
online viral campaign, aiming at creating a buzz around the product, prior to the
product launch in stores. With this campaign, Trojan intended to associate the
brand values of performance and fun to sport, linking this to the product itself
by creating an association with sex.
To ensure the viral effect, Trojan
strategically chose humor as a key feature of the campaign. The creative
concept of the campaign was “The Trojan Games”, a parody of Olympic
Games, with the inference revolving around sex.
To that effect, a Trojan Games website was created containing 3 viral videos
downloaded from a custom website. The campaign was carefully ‘seeded’ in
selected websites, specifically dedicated to that purpose. The campaign started
to spread across the web.
The results were overwhelming – in the first few days, the campaign counted 4
million views and by the end of the first month, 6 million people had viewed the
videos. As of September 15, 2009, the campaign had achieved more than 62
million views – the videos are still available and continue to be viewed (see:
http://www.trojangames.co.uk ).
The success of this or any other marketing campaign – viral or otherwise –
cannot be measured purely by number of people who ‘connected’ with the
campaign. To truly measure a campaign’s effectiveness, one has to determine
to what extent the campaign’s strategic objectives are met. Specifically, to what
extent were the objectives of awareness, brand positioning, engagement with the
target market and brand consideration accomplished.
In the case of the Trojan campaign, results have clearly demonstrated its success
and effectiveness.
Results from a consumer survey that took place during the campaign (the
campaign extended from March 2003 to April 2004) are a clear indicator of the
level of success achieved by ‘The Trojan Games’ campaign.
The alignment with the defined objectives can clearly be seen:
 77% of consumers recalled the Trojan brand after seeing the campaign –
Brand Awareness
 73% positive rating for the overall impression of the campaign –
Engagement with the Brand
 80% perceived the campaign to be unique – Brand differentiation and
engagement
And most importantly:
 50% would be more likely to consider using the Trojan brand after
having seen the campaign – Brand Consideration
This successful campaign was executed without the benefit of today’s social
media, mobile phone and tablet technologies with ADSL and G3/G4
connectivity.
‘Old Spice’
The Old Spice campaign enjoyed the benefits of Social Media.
The success of the launch of the ‘Old Spice Man’ campaign stemmed from a
triumvirate of media penetration including: paid advertisement; an attractive
website and a highly successful viral campaign. The allocation of budgets for
these 3 phases resulted from extensive market research into how the modern
target audience consumes and subsequently shares, compelling media with its
peers.
The details of the Old Spice campaign and its main objectives are the following:
1. Old Spice had an ageing image. Younger men were uninterested in this
‘old-fashioned’ image. To break into a younger consumer group, Old
Spice had first to break out of its existing niche and do something
new. Research showed humor, edginess and uniqueness to be important
to this group, so any campaign would have to embrace these concepts.
2. Old Spice also had to speak to women who bought these products for
their men. They had to want to buy the products, so the reasons had to
appeal to them as well.
The campaign was deemed to be optimal if viewing by both men and women at
the same time could be achieved – for example, when they were together.
TV Shows that men and women typically watched together were used as a
launching point. Separate messages and campaigns were used for channels
where only men or only women could be reached.
P&G also used Twitter to announce a series of 16 YouTube videos, where the
‘Old Spice Man’ responded specifically to influencers. P&G used a hip and
funny message with a good looking guy, who speaks both to men and women,
but highlights the scent attribute.
Results
P&G planned for a 3-5% growth for Old Spice body wash but actually
experienced a 38% growth. Success was such that P&G could not keep up
with demand – products were ‘on allocation’. The brand channel is #1 on
YouTube and the #2 most subscribed to. P&G also saw close to 3000% growth
of their audience on Twitter and close to 300% growth in traffic
on www.oldspice.com. There was also a measurable lift in social media and
P&G increased sales in the first month.
While traditional television ads got the message across to a broad audience, the
viral campaign in particular helped to put Old Spice under a more youthful
spotlight. As word-of-mouth and the tremendous popularity of the campaign’s
‘Old Spice Man’ spread, Old Spice seized the momentum. By adapting to a
market that has become increasingly removed from traditional means of
advertising, Old Spice was able to engage a new generation of consumers on its
terms.
The Old Spice campaign, with the benefit of Social Media achieved 1-1.5
billion PR impressions (the number of people, who may have seen an article,
heard the ad on the radio, or in a podcast, watched the ad on television, or read
about the ad on a web page) within 1 week.
The Benefits to a Viral Campaign as Provided by Social Media
In 2003, Trojan employed the London based advertising agency ‘The Viral
Factory’ to promote its brand name in the UK. Using the tools available, The
Viral Factory created and promoted a very successful viral campaign for its
time. It succeeded in achieving these outstanding results without the benefit of
Social Media; however, it is interesting to note that with the advent of Video
Social Media, for example ‘YouTube’, the video is still being viewed around
the world. The ‘Trojan Videos’ were uploaded to YouTube in 2007 – and
continue to be viewed – now over 300 million times.
The Viral Factory had created an advertising campaign which utilized sex and
humor to great effect.
In 2010, the international advertising firm Wieden+Kennedy, working with
their client Procter and Gamble (P&G) were able to translate a successful TV
campaign into a monster viral Internet phenomenon, with their online work for
Old Spice. The ‘Social Media’ campaign began with ‘Twitter’. The manly star
from the TV spots responds to queries on Twitter via humorous 30-second
YouTube videos that are being watched and re-tweeted with abandon.
Working in collaboration with the creative team they were able to pick out the
messages that:
1. Have creative opportunity to produce amazing content; or
2. Have the ability to then embed themselves in an interesting or virallyrelevant community.
3. In this way they were able to identify and engage with all sizes of
communities – from those with millions of ‘followers’ down to those
with hardly any ‘followers’. Using humor and direct engagement with
their audience Wieden+Kennedy were able to create a successful viral
campaign.
The analysis of Twitter success and looking at which videos are at the top on
YouTube ( www.youtube.com/charts ) is also a way to analyze what subject
matter and content produce success in terms of ‘views’.
Examples of the ‘buzz’ created by Twitter and YouTube include:
 The tweet “Four more years” was how Barack Obama announced his
success in the 2012 US presidential campaign, alongside his wife Michel
 The YouTube video ‘Call me Maybe’ viewed over 360 million times,
including over 100 parodies.
 The epic 39km jump (sponsored and advertised by Red Bull) of Felix
Baumgartner, watched on YouTube by 8 million viewers (the opening
ceremony of the London Olympics ‘only’ attracted 500,000 spectators
‘on-line’. It was viewed by 30 million more, within 12 days.
 But the record goes to Psy with his YouTube dance/song ‘Gangnam
Style’, with more than one billion views.
Some of the most memorable advertising campaigns in recent history,
regardless of company size and marketing budget, whether broadcast, print or
online-only, have involved sex and humor. Consumers most enjoy being
entertained rather than being ‘sold to’. Appealing to an audience emotionally
can lead to further engagement with a Company’s product or service in the
future. Utilizing Social Media can be an inexpensive and extremely effective
way to do that.
Some Successful Viral Marketing Campaigns of 2012
1. Dollar Shave Club
Dollar Shave Club promises a great shave for as low as $1/per month, plus
shipping and handling. The business YouTube video drew more than 4 million
page views in the first 4 days of its launch.
Why did Dollar Shave Club’s campaign become so successful?
CEO Michael Dubin’s background in brand development and digital marketing
was what helped the brand create a powerful sales pitch in their video message.
Dubin based the video on a very simple fact – make people laugh and they’ll
remember what you’re saying.
The brand connected with its users through a witty campaign and a product that
is required by almost everyone. Combine this with affordable pricing options
and you have a formula for instant success!
2. Angry Birds
Rovio’s Angry Birds game for PCs, tablets, smartphones and other electronic
devices has been downloaded more than 1 billion times, worldwide. Since then,
several versions have been launched (at a cost of €1-3). The latest: ‘Angry
Birds Star Wars’ became the number one Apple store application download in
only 2 hours after launch.
The Angry Birds Space Video campaign has become one of the most viewed
viral videos. According to Visible Measures, the video gets 500,000 views per
day!
What is it that makes the video so likeable? One of the chief traffic drivers was
the authenticity of the video – it was shot in a space trailer that showed a NASA
scientist’s physics demonstration, making it relevant to the online audience.
Also, the lucid animations that showed how the game characters found their
way into space helped a lot.
3. Skittles, Taste the Rainbow Campaign
Skittles campaigns have always tended to redefine advertising, but
incorporation of Social Media on the website has definitely made advertising
campaigns viral. Promoting fan ‘tweets’ on the site, and giving fans the ability
to upload photos and videos to the brand’s Facebook page, has boosted
customer engagement rates to an all time high. In 2009, their social media
campaign increased website traffic by over 1,300%!
The Social Media success lies behind a simple premise: Skittles made it clear
that they wanted to showcase stories, updates and ‘tweets’ from their
consumers, thus boosting their customer engagement rates and making
customers feel special.
4. Google’s Project Glass
Google’s Project Glass video offers an insight into the artificial intelligence
software the company is developing in the form of some very powerful
augmented reality spectacles.
The video is a small demo of the hardware, which primarily functions like a
smartphone, but through voice recognition. It is very futuristic – a hardware
product that can be worn like glasses, but that functions as a smartphone with
intricate features previously unheard-of.
The viral video features a product that has artificial intelligence software and is
being developed by a brand that has been at the forefront of internet-based
technology for many years. What’s more to ask for?
There are many more examples.
A seemingly innocuous blog post, video, or a ‘tweet’, can get sudden media
attention and people will start sharing it with friends. Just like that, things
unknown to us become the topic of all online discussion virtually overnight.
Viral marketing has the potential to turn lesser known brands into successful
ventures.
Nevertheless, the very fact that tweets, Facebook and YouTube posts are almost
instantaneous and have a worldwide scope, means that great care has to be taken
with content, style and message – which is why TXI will use extensive
marketing research, followed by enlisting advertising professionals for any
‘general’ marketing campaigns for its Xisle product.
Convergence
Consumer behavior is undergoing rapid change. The person who yesterday just
‘surfed the web’ today flits across a number of screens, sites, channels and
devices, often simultaneously, or very nearly so. The average person may ‘see’
up to some 3,000 brand impressions every day. The media and information they
consume might originate from traditional media, social media, advertising, or –
with increasing frequency – a mix of all three. Media choice is becoming a blur
to the consumer.
Owned Media
Paid Media
Corporate Content
Traditional Advertising
Brochures
Website
Earned Media
Word of Mouth
Press Coverage
Internet
The consumers’ primary quests are for entertainment, information, or shopping.
The goal is simply to find the ‘right’ medium, be it Paid, Owned or Earned, to
capture customers, regardless of which channel or medium consumers are
engaged with.
The convergence of Paid, Owned and Earned media is now a reality. The
coming together of media channels is hardly limited to ad hoc occurrences in
Social Networks, such as Facebook and Twitter. Marketing campaigns are being
built around models that combine Paid, Owned and Earned media, to increase
marketing effectiveness, cut through clutter and drive awareness across the
many channels that have now become essential to the dynamic journey
customers take along the digital highway.
TXI – the Marketing Company
The first step in creating a successful viral campaign is ‘seeding’. This is
necessary so that the campaign will to be seen by enough (and the right type) of
people for its inertia to arrive at a level that allows it to then move forward,
without help from push efforts, so it can continue via ‘word of mouth’.
The most common ways for a Marketing Company to get a viral campaign
started is to use existing online communities as leverage. The Marketing
Company will seek to nurture the right kind of digital community, which in turn
can provide a launching point. After exposure, if the content of the advertising
resonates with viewers, the initial group could allow it to be seen by hundreds
of thousands of visitors, quite rapidly.
To help seed the TXI marketing campaign, the following media are planned to
be used:
Digg/Reddit/StumbleUpon/Delicious: Any viral marketing campaign that
proves to be popular on one of these (and other) sites will ensure that it is seen
by thousands of people on these specific networks alone. In many cases, this
can be enough to get a viral campaign started, as these networks are made up of
the ‘connectors’ of the web.
Twitter: Having a person of authority, with possibly millions of ‘followers’,
‘tweet’ a campaign can have a snowball effect. The story will propagate
throughout Twitter and into other media on the internet. This ‘snowball effect’
can be enhanced by engaging with the ‘followers’ or ‘fans’ of such
personalities, or by directing viewers to another web-site or video, where the
marketing message can be strengthened.
Blogs: If a relationship can be developed with a blogger of authority and he/she
mentions the TXI story, this will give the campaign another chance of success.
Advertising: Standard advertising will help to spark the campaign. This can
use both classical media (newspapers, magazines, radio and television, as
appropriate) and commercial sites frequented by the same genre of consumer
that TXI expects to become a client – including electronics, car-related and
other mainly male-oriented e-commerce sites. Advertising on other adult
entertainment sites and on the adult industry’s website, will also be considered.
One of the most interesting possible
opportunities for seeding the TXI
campaign may be by using established
Adult Stars and celebrities – ‘Social
Influencers’. TXI plans to create
engaging and authentic content that
Social Influencers can share across their
Social Networks. This content should
achieve amplification (‘go viral’) as
audiences on these Social Networks
engage and interact with the content.
Performer Twitter ‘Followers
Bree Olson
424,610
Vicky Vette
398,574
Gabby Quinteros
427,104
Sasha Grey
401,057
Alexis Texas
377,841
Lisa Ann
388,079
Pinky XXX
227,796
Sara Jay
301,217
Amia Miley
199,395
Nikki Benz
303,618
Sunny Leone
337,037
Jesse Jane
213,360
Asa Akira
277,079
Jenne Jameson
511,332
Joanna Angel
181,720
Total Twitter
Followers
4,545,209
TXI plans to engage a number of the
most popular Adult Stars on Xisle, who
will also be able to ‘tweet’ and update
their Social Networks on a regular basis.
This ensures that many viewers will be
informed of the action on Xisle. Such
‘casual’ observers will have access to
video clips that they, in turn, can upload and share with others. This will
provide a launching pad for the appropriate digital community and thus give
enough inertia to the campaign. Xisle will also enhance these stars’ popularity
and of course, their earnings.
Above and to the right is a list of some AE stars, with estimates of their Twitter
‘followers’. The 15 adult stars in the chart above have over 4 million ‘followers’
on Twitter.
What is the Internet Community Browsing for?
When defining the most appropriate and effective media – and content – on
which to advertise TXI’s product offering, one of the most valuable factors is to
discover, using appropriate ‘page view count tools’ already available, is what
the Internet community is searching for, when using popular search engines,
such as Google.
As an example, the following chart (collated using ‘Google Trends’) compares
5 different search words, Sex, Business, Money, Twitter and Health. The most
popular by far is ‘SEX’!
Key Word Comparative Utilization in Searches
120
100
80
Sex
60
Business
40
Money
20
Twitter
Health
0
Information collated from Google Trends
In 2009, ‘Big Brother’ UK showed two of the contestants sharing a bed. The
video clip was posted on YouTube and has had, to date, in excess of 3 million
views, ‘Big Brother’ Germany also showed two contestants sharing a bed and to
date, the video clip has had over 5 million views… Everyone knows ‘sex sells’.
The gap between mainstream entertainment and ‘adult content’ is slowly
shrinking, but still wide for ‘explicit’ content. However, tastefully developed
glamorous or erotic advertising can be made more generally available and will
deliver, especially if it promises more. Thus, social media will continue to help
to further the ‘mainstream’ adult entertainment trend. In addition, social media
can potentially ‘humanise’ AE performers.
It is clear that Internet consumers are looking for content that is interesting, or
humorous, or entertaining, or novel, or just simply different. But most
importantly, many look for anything connected with sex, even more
importantly, ‘real, live’ sex, with real people, not the canned and choreographed
films that many people become rapidly bored with.
Having found something unique to follow, such as the Xisle series of
advertisements from TXI, people will likely feel compelled to share their
experience with others. The Internet is in large part designed to enable
interested groups to share experiences. It is the new way to communicate, it is
interactive, it is collective, and it is VIRAL!
TXI’s Advertising Plans
Over the past 4 years, e-commerce has taken on the mantle of f-commerce.
Brands have been strengthened – or even created ‘from scratch’ – by their
suppliers investing their marketing budgets into Social Media. By examining
success stories – and drawing lessons from failures caused by a refusal to grasp
the novel marketing methods now increasingly popular – e-commerce has
demonstrated the benefits of reaching out to customers via Internet-based
media.
To help achieve rapid visibility and success, TXI will integrate all forms of
advertising, including, of course, social media marketing, not just as a customer
engagement function, but as a fundamental element of all business functions,
supporting its overall business strategy.
TXI plans to employ marketing executives that will include Social Media
Managers with experience in social marketing and community building. Since
social media marketing tends to become fragmented, requiring specialists for
specific elements such as content strategy, customer service and behavioral
data, an appropriate emphasis will be placed on specific skill sets.
Content is key and just as importantly, it must be targeted. TXI plans to employ
Editorial specialists that will focus on Social Media Content creation.
TXI’s chosen advertising agency will have a number of advantages to work
with when creating a successful viral marketing campaign. Since sex and humor
will naturally be an integral part of Xisle, the advertising agency will have an
abundance of real situations that it can edit and use to create videos that are
appropriate for whichever type of community we wish to target.
Of course, advertising budgets, especially for unique, albeit interesting new
Internet entertainment offerings, will not be insubstantial. With this in mind,
the Business Plan suggests a prelaunch advertising budget of $10 million and a
monthly budget of $2 million. With such a budget allocation and a carefully
honed mix of advertising tools and locations, including a viral campaign, it is
predicted that TXI could reach many, many interested and like-minded
customers and quickly accumulate a sizeable subscriber base.