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British Airways has utilised a number of social media platforms to unveil its London 2012 Olympics advert, according to an article published by Marketing Week.
Entitled ‘The Race’, the 60-second advert debuted on the airline’s Facebook page yesterday; it was then made available on Google+ – a platform expected to become hugely popular amongst social media marketing professionals – shortly after.
The light-hearted advert features British Airways staff and follows a young girl as she eagerly awaits her British bag, as it races against luggage from rival nations to make it first to the baggage collection hall.
Other parts of British Airways London 2012 Olympics campaign include a print advert, emphasising the fact that the airline’s cabin crew will serve passengers with enough tea to fill three Olympic-sized swimming pools this year alone, while another ad will feature a gold medal with the tags “To Fly. To Serve” and “2012. We’re Ready.”
‘The Race’ is set to make its TV debut tonight (February 10) during Coronation Street on ITV.
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Although celebrated by many in the Silicon Valley, it has been suggested that the monthly and daily users figures released by Facebook might not be entirely accurate, according to an article published by ZDNet Asia News.
The social media site – popular for social media marketing campaigns – claimed in the filing of its IPO (initial public offering) that it had around 845 million active users per month and 483 million active users per day.
However, New York Times columnist, Andrew Ross Sorkin, has argued that Facebook failed to mention that a good section of those users might not actually be visiting Facebook.com.
In its S-1 filing papers, Facebook state: “We define a daily active user as a registered Facebook user who logged in and visited Facebook through our website or a mobile device, or took an action to share content or activity with his or her Facebook friends or connections via a third-party website that is integrated with Facebook, on a given day.”
Others such as Barry Ritholtz, director of equity research at Fusion IQ, have said that the number of users visiting Facebook on a daily basis is actually much lower than the figure of 483 million presented by Facebook.
Speaking from a business perspective, Ritholtz went on to add that those not visiting the site “cannot be marketed to, they do not see any advertising, they cannot be sold any goods or services.”
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s co-founder and CEO, has previously stated that the site’s measurement of success has shifted away from the amount of users on the site to how engaged they are.
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Research carried out by an automotive digital marketing firm has suggested that businesses aren’t harnessing the full potential offered by social media sites, according to an article published by Car Dealer Magazine.
Razsor’s survey found that while car dealers were active in their use of Facebook and Twitter for social media marketing campaigns, they were overlooking other sites, such as YouTube and LinkedIn.
Group director of digital marketing at Trader Media Group, Craig Stevens, commented on the findings of the survey.
He said: “There’s widespread agreement that in an increasingly competitive market, customer services is a key differentiator that can offer dealers the opportunity to stand out from the crowd.
“The last few years has seen significant growth in online activity, both for dealers and customers, but many dealers are still missing out on the opportunity to further engage with online customers. Social can be much more than just a Facebook page. With the right engagement dealers can receive in-depth reviews, feedback on their website and extend marketing campaigns beyond traditional channels,” he added.
Stevens concluded by adding: “The real value of social media doesn’t necessarily come from employing someone to “do social,” but from wider training, understanding and adoption of social media as a communications channel. With a few simple tools, a dealership can offer its customers a new level of customer service, engaging with them whenever they are online.”
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Cadbury’s has announced the launch of a new social media marketing campaign to coincide with the launch of a new Wispa product, according to an article published by the Drum.
Fans of Wispa’s official Facebook page will be able to enter a Daily Lottery competition to win two bags of the new product, entitled Bitsa Wispa.
To enter the competition, which opens at 10am and closes at 4pm every weekday, fans are simply required to state who they would share their Bitsa Wispa prize with if they won.
The competition is the second launched by Wispa in as many weeks, with the previous one – lasting 24 hours – culminating with Kate Mead being crowned Wispa’s ultimate fan – receiving the first bag of Bitsa Wispa in the process.
Facebook fans have played an integral role in getting the chocolate bar back on shelves, following its discontinuation in 2003 , with a successful campaign carried out on the social networking site.
Bitsa Wispa is set to go on sale nationwide on April 2.
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Popular amongst social media marketing professionals, Facebook is set to capitalise on the growth in Internet usage on mobile devices (such as smartphones and tablets) by launching mobile adverts, according to an article published by New Media Age.
Although Facebook has significantly expanded its presence on mobile devices in the past year, it has yet to take advantage of mobile adverts.
Reported in the Financial Times, it has been rumoured that mobile adverts could be unveiled and rolled-out in the next couple of weeks; Facebook are also thought to be in discussions with ad agencies to integrate Sponsored Stories into the news feeds displayed on mobile devices too.
Sponsored Stories were previously launched earlier this year with the name Featured Stories; these ads appear in a Facebook user’s news feed – displaying their friends interactions with various brands.
These latest rumours follow Facebook’s decision to file an IPO (initial public offering) last week to raise an estimated $5 billion.
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Unsurprisingly, a recent study has found that Facebook remains the most popular platform amongst advertisers and businesses looking to conduct social media marketing campaigns, according to an article published by ZDNet.
Conducted by Strata during the fourth quarter of 2011, the study displayed that 89 per cent of agencies said that they planned to utilise Facebook for their clients in the near future. Around 39 per cent responded by stating that they planned to use Twitter with 36 per cent opting for YouTube.
The majority (81 per cent) of agencies expect their approach to marketing to remain the same – representing an increase of 14 per cent compared to the same study carried out during the third quarter of 2011.
Commenting on the results of the study, Strata CEO and president, John Shelton, said: “The key word for advertisers in 2012 is growth.
“The STRATA Survey shows that many advertisers are confident that their business and the economy will return to a strong period by midyear. That sentiment, coupled with strong numbers from the political race provides an overall positive barometer for advertising in 2012.”
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A recent study has revealed that not only is Facebook the most popular social networking site in general, but it’s also the social network of choice for marketing and advertising executives, according to an article published by BtoB Magazine.
Conducted by California-based firm, the Creative Group, the study asked: “If you had to limit yourself to only one social media platform, which of the following would it be?”
Just over half (56 per cent) of the 500 marketing and advertising professionals interviewed for the study chose Facebook; while LinkedIn came in second with 12 per cent; Google+ rounded out the top three with 4 per cent stating that they would limit themselves to the search engine giant’s first social media offering.
The participants were also asked what they thought was the most common mistake made by creative professionals when using social media sites.
Responses ranged from not updating their profile enough (29 per cent) to providing inappropriate information (24 per cent).
The release of the study results follow Facebook’s – a platform popular amongst social media marketing professionals – decision to file an IPO (initial public offering) application.
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To coincide with the build-up to Valentine’s Day, Heineken has unveiled a new themed app, according to an article published by New Media Age.
Titled the Serenade app, it will allow fans of the brand on Facebook to select one song from a total of 640 (in 20 different languages) to send to their Valentine; each of these songs is performed by Paul “Kiss” Kissaun - who previously appeared in the company’s The Date advert which aired on TV last May.
Heineken has also revealed that it is looking to move towards social media marketing campaigns based around events that their target audience – young men – can relate to.
Senior director for the global Heineken brand, Cyril Charzat, stated: “We want our Facebook profile to be the hub of all our conversations with our consumers and are using events like Valentine’s Day, as well as last month’s Australian Open final and the Champion League final later in the year, to generate tactical content to target young adults around the world.”
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We are increasingly moving from a search driven world to a social driven world. If your online marketing spend includes the vast proportion being spent on SEO and SEM, it is time for a rethink. Google’s development of Google Plus in an effort to ‘get social’ (against the behemoth in the social world that is Facebook) is based on a simple fact: that Facebook and social is beginning to dominate traffic on the Internet. And traffic = money. Not just for the big players such as Facebook and Google, but to those these giants serve. That’s you, and your business.
There is no getting round it. We have moved into a new era on the Internet and there are now companies (and not just those who at first glance would seem most suited to the social world) where anywhere from 30% upwards of traffic comes directly from Facebook activity, and not from the search engines. Some companies, according to research published in 2011, are seeing nearly all of their traffic coming from social sites such as Facebook, Stumbleupon, Twitter etc rather than the carefully crafted SERPs.
Whilst it is unlikely that the world is suddenly going to cease using the search engines, and hence the need for SEO will continue, the reality is that social media marketing is becoming THE traffic driver and cannot be ignored.
“We don’t do Twitter or Facebook because we have banned all access to social sites within our business” sounded fairly ludicrous 4 or 5 years ago. But now it sounds more like a death knell for any company taking such a stance.
Ignoring the fact that Facebook is introducing new forms of advertising and using social signals amongst friends and networks to bring advertisers closer to potential customers would be plain daft. Google would seem to be deeply concerned about the Facebook threat to the display advertising market Google has held almost absolute power over this last few years. After all, that’s part of Google’s core business, and any threat to that level of revenue has to be taken seriously.
We are seeing the big advertisers exchanging www.ourdomain.com on TV and print ads, packaging, websites etc with Follow Us on Twitter and Like us on Facebook. Short status updates are so much easier to manage than redesigns and website updates. There is a level of immediacy about social media which is missing from websites; a layer of personalisation and response that is difficult to ’see’ on your bog standard, old school website. Whilst adding +1, Tweet, Like and other social sharing buttons to content on a website can help to illustrate the popularity, authority and quality of content, it somehow lacks the impact of a status update with 100+ comments, or a tweet that has been ReTweeted multiple times. A website also lacks the reach of social updates and it is easy to see how a simple tweet or status update can go viral, (mainly because of the lack of overlap between every individual’s personal network), at a cost – HR and cash – that is verging on impossible with more ‘traditional’ internet marketing methods.
Google’s Search Plus Your World is a clear indication that social signals are receiving more importance in the algorithms. And hence businesses need to pay more attention to the social space.
Are you still focussed on SEO and SEM? Or has your business decided to put more budget into social? What are your social media marketing plans for 2012?
German football giant, Bayern Munich, has received a huge backlash from fans after duping them into ‘liking’ the official club page on Facebook, according to an article published by Econsultancy.
In a social media marketing campaign the club’s marketing team stated that the club would be unveiling the signing of a “new offensive player;” excitement soon turned to anger when the new signing turned out to be a hoax, used to draw people in for the launch of Bayern’s new app, “The New FCB Star.”
Following a barrage of angry responses, the Bundesliga club apologised to its “dear fans” just three hours later.
Commenting on the risk of such stunts, UK head of digital at Waggener Edstrom, Jon Silk, warned: “Marketers need to be more honest than ever – fans will quickly turn to enemies if they feel they are being conned, and that negativity will spread even more quickly that the support.”
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