Fighting Like Jordan

I may not be able to update this blog for the following 4 months. But before I turn to my Chinese blog, I would share a commercial with you in this post.

The "Maybe" commercial is for Jordan starring with Michael Jordan. I think they did a great job in the ad copy, which could be an encouragement for us to move on in our way.

Anyway, in this summer, let's fight like this NBA star to achieve what we want!

How Could Social Media Go Further

Social media is an evolving and cutting-edge field.

Firstly, information on social media spread so fast. After Knicks' Jeremy Lin has dominated on Twitter for multiple days, Twitter breaks news of Whitney Houston's death, which has spread fast and widely among Internet users. And the tragic news on Twitter was broken twenty-seven minutes before mainstream media. We could see social media competes against traditional media in its speed of breaking and spreading of the news.

The use of mobile phones makes the steps of social media even further. Information could reach mobile users wherever they are. That's why all kinds of social media services currently are developing their mobile marketing. In this year's Super Bowel, Shazam was a big winner. Apart from recognizing a song, it provided the service of tagging commercials by marketers including Acura, Best Buy, Bud Light, Disney, Honda, Pepsi Toyota and so on during the game. This is not only a smart campaign for Shazam, but also a revolution to make TV commercials more interactive. Another example of combing social media with mobile advertising should be Facebook's new move. After Facebook's IPO filing highlighted their lack of mobile advertising to day, recent news reported that Facebook would tune up Bango, which "provides many kinds of mobile payments and analytics services". The SoLoMo media convergence, which integrates social, local and mobile, actually predicts a new era of media has come.

Efforts to Feed My Blog into Other Sites

During my efforts to pull my blog feed into external sites, Twitterfeed did a great help. Other similar apps are Tweetscan, Tweetbeep, Twitteroo and so on. Instead of manually sharing the post when there's an update, Twitterfeed automatically pulls posts from my blog to my other accounts like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. One amazing thing is that Twitterfeed works for Facebook page too, so that the notification of my new post of blog would only appear on the newly created Facebook page instead of on my personal account.

However, Twitterfeed still doesn't work for Google plus. I tried to find another way to import RSS feed to my Google plus page, but in vain. And the discussion online showed that there was no service to feed an RSS feed into the Google plus stream currently. Users could use the API to integrate the app or website with Google plus and Google+ API only allows us to read people's stream not write things into it yet. So what I could do was sharing the link of my blog on my Google plus page. That's not a quite smart way. But fortunately I do find by linking Google plus profile with my blogger account, thus my blog updates could be sent to selected circles on my Google plus account easily.

Sth about Viral Stuff

Due to the growing number of social networking websites and increasing use of video sharing, viral videos have gained a rapid popularity. According to Purcell (2010), 69 percent of adult Internet users have watched or downloaded videos via the Internet and among those who watch videos online, the percentage of people who share videos have jumped to 61 percent in June 2009 from 33 percent in December 2006. The increasing popularity of video sharing has attracted attention of ad agencies; they started to add viral videos to their marketing strategies.

Viral video is within the field of viral advertising, which delivers persuasive messages with an aim of motivating the spread of messages via peer-to-peer communication. Many research on viral ads attempt to find the factors that make a viral campaign successful and make people want to forward the viral message. Millward Brown has unveiled four factors acounting for the success of viral ads-the awareness index, buzz, celebrity and distinctiveness and demonstrated the characteristics that made people would like to talk about an ad and forward the "virus" to their friends included Laugh out loud funny, Edgy, Gripping and Sexy, which are short as LEGS. I humbly think that making it go viral should always be a topic of new marketing strategies.

3 Ways How Web Changed the Rules of Marketing and PR

Here are several points that impress me most about how the web changed the rules of marketing and PR:

From Traditional Media to New Media:

Following the change of media, the rules of marketing and PR changes. It's a trend that companies are turning from traditional media like TV to new media based on the web. Investment on TV advertisement is huge so that some companies cut off their budget on TV advertisement but invest on web-based marketing campaigns. Social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter provide a good platform for marketers because of their large user base. Examples:



Set the Target:

A big change web has brought to marketing and PR is that the new rules have more targeted consumers. Backing to the old rules within the media like TV or newspapers, they have a wide but dispersive range of audiences. However, the new web-based marketing rules focus their efforts to attract and keep the attention of the targeted groups, which saves money as well as resources.

Relationship management:

The old rules of marketing and PR seems to be one-way interruption, in which consumers could only acting as the role of passive receiver. Within the new rules, the consumers take more participation. Since the web connect marketers and consumers, consumers could actively express what they need and how they evaluate the product or the service. Moreover, marketers even need to discover their customers' need before they say it out. Therefore, the web helps build a two-way relationship between marketers and consumers.

Coca-Cola Blade Roller by David Fincher

You don't want to miss "the first TV commercial in the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York City":

Coca-Cola Blade Roller(1993), directed by David Fincher for Coca-Cola Japan.

Social Media vs. Traditional Media Marketing Campaign

a. Campaign contents in social media are often available for retrieval to look them at later dates, but retrieval of information in traditional media is much harder.

b. Social media provides a two-way conversation between marketer and their targeted consumers, who are just seen as passive receivers in traditional media.

c. Marketing campaign in social media could be modified or corrected continuously according to feedback and comments, while in traditional media, the content could not be changed once it’s delivered to the public.

d. The popularity of a social media marketing campaign could be evaluated in real time based on their site visit, comment left or membership growth. However, statistics on popularity of a traditional media marketing campaign are often with a slower or lagging speed.

The Uniqueness of Google AdWords and Google AdSense

Here I would like to explain the uniqueness of Google AdWords system and Google AdSense system.

Google AdWords system

Google AdWords system allows users to purchase space on Google’s search result pages to publish their ads. Without a Google sales representative, Advertisers bid on specific search keywords or phrases.

Google AdWords is special because users could choose when and where their ads would appear and they also have a control on their investment as there’s little minimal investment. By combing their ads with some specific key words or phrases, their ads would only be displayed to people who already have a big potential to be interested in their product or service. Moreover, users just need to pay for clicks on those ads. This Cost Per Click (CPC) model would guarantee a high Return On Investment (ROI).

How much the advertiser bid for the search keyword would have an influence on whether their ads will show up on Google’s search result page of that particular keyword. But that’s not the only factor. Google also calculates the Quality Score of that advertisement, which would also influence whether an ad would be placed higher or lower. A higher score suggests a higher tendency of generating clicks and popularity among users, thus the ad is tended to receive an elevated placement. Actually the disobeying of the regular rule -- “pay more and you are the winner”, demonstrates Google’s higher socialist tendencies over other advertising models, as well as their focus on users by giving them a vote on the ads’ placement.

Google AdSense system

Google AdSense is a system which provides a channel to anyone who owes a website or a blog to add advertising space to their own sites. If a website owner subscribes to AdSense, their website will be given an access to Google’s huge network of advertisers and Google would help it manage the placement of ads which are relevant and targeted to the contents of the web pages.

The idea of Google AdSense system is so original and unique as it provides web users a chance to earn extra money from what they already have -- their own web contents. And they don’t need to be professional in advertising or marketing. All they need to do is to update contents on their website as usual and make it more appealing so that more people would come to visit their website and there will be more probabilities of clicks on the related ads, which suggests more money they would make from those clicks.

Why Google AdWords & Google AdSense Provide Effective Advertising

Here I have a brief analysis about how Google's philosophical design for Google AdWords and Google AdSense is unified with the their belief about the criteria of effective advertising:

a. Google AdWords only displays ads related to your search words and Google AdSense displays ads related to the web content. Ads provided by both of the two programs are nothing like irrelevant pop-up ads which suddenly show up when you browse web pages. They usually take limited spaces and are displayed as static words, which would not interrupt you unless you feel interested and click on those ads. So we think AdWords and AdSense provide a non-interruptive user experience.

b. AdWords is designed as a mechanism through which ads will only be shown on the search result page for the search of some specific key words or phrases. The design for AdSense is also consumer-targeted by delivering relevant ads that target to the site’s content or audience. So both AdWords and AdSense provide targeted advertisements for users.

c. Through AdWords, ads would only be shown to users who are already interested in some certain product categories. For example, if a web user searches “swimwear”, there will be ads of swimwear on his search result page which he might probably think it useful. For AdSense, there is a match between the web content and the ads provided. For example, in a website about travelling, some ads of trip planning or hotel booking might be useful to consumers. So basically AdWords and AdSense are useful to consumers as they are precisely targeted.

d. Google uses a Cost Per Click (CPC) model for both AdWords and AdSense, in which advertisers just need to pay for every click on their ads instead of the impressions. This model guarantees advertisers a high return on investment, without wasting money on useless impressions. Additionally, both of the two programs have made efforts in reducing the influence of click fraud on the results. Therefore, AdWords and AdSense demonstrate accountability in terms of results.

e. The process of creating an ad using AdWords is not complicated. The user chooses a keyword to bid on and write a short ad copy for the link. In terms of AdSense, you just need to sign up for the program and set up your personalized ads. Users don’t need professional knowledge in advertising or marketing to make use of these two programs. So both of the two programs are easy-to-use for consumers.

3 Ideas about How AT&T Could Evolve to Meet the Changes

I must say AT&T has such a "general" market. It has no specific segmentation for a certain group of people. My suggestion to AT&T is line extension by "adding individual offerings that appeal to different market segments while remaining closely related to the existing product line". For example, they could build lines for students and businessmen exclusively with different levels in price and services. 

Moreover, among all those carriers that apply 4G mobile broadband, AT&T is not that competitive in 4G technology, speed, coverage, plans and devices. With Verizon having the fastest 4G speed and T-mobile having the largest 4G network, the price and service that AT&T provide are not that attractive to users. AT&T is facing a fierce battle in the future 4G market. (4G Comparison [Infographic] | 2011 Review)

AT&T was rated the worst wireless provider both in 2010 and 2011 by Consumer Reports. A recent presentation by Gregg Heard, who is the VP-brand identity and design for AT&T, told us that AT&T's new strategy is to win consumer love. They would evolve their original "Rethink possible" slogan to focusing on human experience.
Read this news: AT&T's Strategy to Win Consumer Love: Be Human
We will see what their next move is.

P&G's "Thank you, Mom" Campaign for London 2012 Olympic Games

How is P&G connected with Olymplcs? These two things sound so irrelevant.

The new P&G commercial features all moms of those athletes. It honors every little thing mothers do for their children, like cooking, washing clothes, dish washing, etc. It is those little things that make their children achieve progress while growing up. And P&G proclaims that being a mother is the hardest job in the world, but also the best job.

P&G's idea of this "Thank you, Mom" campaign is very smart to successfully involve their brands of consumer products to London 2012 Olympic Games. And the campaign also does a good job in its execution. With the same idea presented in various editions in different countries, this campaign has been able to spread their "thanking mom" idea worldwide.

Samuel L Jackson and Zooey Deschanel Commercial for iPhone 4s

Check out new commercials for iPhone 4s starring with Samuel L Jackson and Zooey Deschanel. Just wondering why Apple use stars in their commercials now. This is quite abnormal!

"Thanks Steve" Creator's New Design for Coca-Cola

You probably have seen this "Thanks Steve" logo which recreated the Apple logo. It was designed by Jonathan Mak Long, a then 19-year-old college student from Hong Kong.

His talent got the attention of Ogilvy China. And recently he created this new design for Coca-Cola, which now could be seen on bus shelters in Shanghai. Using a similar concept with the Steve Jobs apple-bite logo and embedding a topic of "sharing a coke", this succinct design is part of Coca-Cola's global "Open Happiness" campaign.

Relevant news on Ad Age:

Hong Kong Student Behind Steve Jobs Tribute Creates Coke Image

Facebook of Jonathan Mak Long

Coca Cola's Hug Machine Opens Happiness

Vending machines have feelings too?

Yes!

Using a hug, instead of money, you will get a coke!

Check out Coca Cola's new "open happiness" campaign in Singapore:

Presentation for Roxy's New Digital Strategy

Digital Strategy for Roxy

View more PowerPoint from Lu Zhang

Firstly I would have a brief introduction about Roxy. Roxy mainly targets young people and their niche market is surfing, snowboarding, swimwear and other extreme sports, in which their brand has faced a tough competition with other brands that sell similar products. To attract young customers, Roxy uses various media outlets, including Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and blog.

Here I would like to propose some new digital marketing strategies for Roxy, which include social media strategy, online advertising, and mobile marketing. For social media, I would suggest them build a profile on Pinterest because of their visual appealing feature. Also, Roxy could upload some teaching videos of surfing, snowboarding and swimming on Youtube or hold a contest asking consumers to upload their own videos related with Roxy. For online advertising, I proposed a Google AdWords campaign. Some keywords I suggest for Roxy are surfing, snowboard, swimwear and X-sports. The ad copy could be “Find your Roxy-style suit for surfing, snowboarding, swimwear and X-sports!” or "Wear like a Roxy girl: surfing, snowboarding, swimwear and X-sports." For mobile marketing, I suggest Roxy build an app for their brand, providing information about their product, advertisement, promotion, events, blogs, etc.

To evaluate success of those strategies, we could count the amount of Pinterest or Youtube followers, use Google Analytics to collect some data, and count app downloads. I propose a $50,000 budget for these strategies, with $24,000 for Google AdWords campaign, $1000 for the reward of Youtube contest winner, and $25,000 for app development.

How to Track Social Media Success Metrics

I had little idea about metrics of social media campaign success before I happened to read this resource one of my classmates provided:

6 Social Media Success Metrics You Need to Track

Before read it, all I know is counting followers or subscribers on those social media profiles. This article really provides me some new insights about tracking social media success metrics, like the Daily Story Feedback Chart, Klout, PostRank, "share of voice" report, Google Insights, inbound links, etc. Now I know there do exist some ways to measure social media success, I would try to use them like I'm already a real marketer.

Do You Need a Wedding Website?

Just read an interesting article: 7 Reasons Why You Need a Wedding Website.

It seems that more and more of us have a need for a digital wedding. Besides the wedding app I have mentioned in one of my previous posts, now we have wedding websites too! Maybe those wedding companies could take digital business into their next move.

Impressive GRid 70 Showcase

GRid 70 (Grand Rapids innovation and design at 70 lonia) is one big surprise for me during today's Grand Rapids showcase trip. What they do is to "put creative professionals from different industries together", including companies like Meijer, Amway, Steelcase, Wolverine, etc. By creating an open space for creative personels from those companies, such as all of them, to "collaborate and create", they're looking for more inspirations to produce more new ideas.

It's quite a fresh concept for me. You can't hide in your own space to think about an idea. What people do now is more like team-work and to communicate with other people is important. It's also to my surprise that they have offices in Shanghai. Can't wait to check it out!

BTW, I'm really impressed by their working environment. Posters are on every wall even in the kitchen to provide some inspirations. Another glad thing is that I encountered the wall poster for Holstee firsthand, which calls for living your dream and sharing your passion. Really love it!

An Example to Show Uncommon Causes for Cause-Related Marketing

Haagen-Dazs's 'Help The Honey Bee' campaign shows how cause-related marketing should make use of uncommon and localized causes. It's very smart to avoid choosing usual causes to which people might be immune. 

3 Ideas About “Boundaries of Acceptability” for Advertising in China

Firstly, advertising in China should obey the Advertisement Law of the People’s Republic of China. For example, the advertisement should not use claims of relative superiority by one brand over another, or carry information of racial, religious or sex discrimination, or harm the social public interests, etc. Any advertising that violates the law is not acceptable in China.

Besides those explicit prohibitions of the law, the advertising would not be accepted in China if it shows violations of or disrespect to Chinese customs or social values either in an explicit or implicit way as Chinese people are so proud of and would like to defend their customs and culture. Whether it is disrespectful might be hard to define under some circumstances, but it’s better and safer if advertisers in China do not take risks of testing people’s thresholds of perception towards those subliminal and potentially offensive messages made either unwittingly or intentionally.

In addition to social values, advertisers in China need to be careful to avoid challenging the nationalism among people. Because of the country’s culture and history, its people display a strong nationalist sensibility. The ads which are conflicted with those people’s nationalist sensibility would attract their particular resentment. The confliction is not only demonstrated in the content of the ads, but also in the choice of spokesmen or endorsers. An example of this is that Sharon Stone’s unpitiful speech about the disastrous earthquake happened in China infuriated Chinese people, which made Christian Dior drop her ads in China. Advertising in China should know how to deal with nationalism. Smart advertisers would make use of it to invoke positive nationalism to appeal to Chinese customers rather than negative feelings which will arouse dislikes and even boycotts of their products and brands.