Prompt #7: Pros and Cons of Controversial Marketing

In this current digital age, hundreds of multi-media stories flood our minds every day. The stories we remember though, catch our attention because their subjects provoke controversy and deliberately violate our expectations. Individuals and companies use “Shock Marketing” tactics, believing that their controversial activities or marketing methods will spark interest in a wide population of readers and word will spread more rapidly than the traffic that typical news stories achieve. This allows companies to evolve by building a larger audience and develop a personal brand. 

It's difficult to use shock marketing without offending a part of your audience. According to forbes.com Some companies however are able to find a happy medium between being intriguing, and completely offensive. Here is an example of succsessful shock marketing:

Donald Trump's Presidential Campaign

media-salon.com

When people heard Donald Trump was running for president, it wasn't taken seriously. He was simply a celebrity with a big mouth that no one really believed. He used many forms of shock marketing by saying many controversial and shocking things that stuck with the audience. There are many controversies surrounding his shocking actions, which propelled him into his republican candidacy. Shock marketing created a powerful campaign for Donald Trump. He was transformed into a "respected" politician, as excessively bold personality gained supporters. From this, he earned respect and potential votes that voters never really considered prior to his bold campaign. However, he offended a good portion of the American population during this process. He sparked mass hatred around the country, which cause him to may not be taken seriously in the long run. 

A successful shock marketing campaign predicts the publics reaction from every possible angle it will be reached. The companies must base their campaign and strategy off the reactions and the noise it will create. Controversy sets companies and people apart from their competitors, and allows them to utilize their own personality and creativity to build a personal brand or business. It's important for them to find that medium between costumer, and company. 














Social Media, PR, and ....Oreos.

Caution! Do not read if you're hungry!
Oreos have become more than milk's favorite cookie in today's society. This isn't just because the fandom of this delicious treat has been in the homes of hundreds of thousands of people for the last century. But rather, John Doyle tells us the PR team of Nabisco has taken a different stance on social media promotion.

Source: bobleesays.com

One may think, how does social media have to do with the overwhelming success Oreo has had over the years? Wouldn't the success of sales and ads be the reason? Well, it wasn't about the success stories and stunning advertisements their cookie had like most companies would promote. In fact, Oreo wasn't even talking about the cookie at all. Rather, they were talking about the experiences they had with the cookie. 

Nabisco worked to meet the experiences of each age group that could reach an audience in a more meaningful way. For example, for the Baby Boomer generation, the story brought back nostalgic childhood memories with milk's favorite cookie. At the same time, the children of this generation could be reminded of Grandma's house and imagination. 

Source: twitter.com

Not only are the experiences more personal, but they're placed at the perfect time too. During the 2013 Super Bowl when the power went out, the PR team of Oreo seized the opportunity to promote the product through a tweet, telling viewers "you can still dunk in the dark." This simple time placement captivated viewers and promoted their company at the same time, all for free.  

Oreos have swiftly jolted ahead of others' companies due to their personalization and timeliness. By playing your cards right through social media, you take control of the audience. By taking control of the audience, the positive reputation of your business skyrockets. You've got to be quick, relevant, and execute the two in harmony. Oreo does just that.  

I hope this didn't make you too hungry. Join back next week for an interview between me and an actual PR professional!
-Grace 

The Importance of Social Media in Sports Marketing

 By engaging fans via social media, sports rights holders can open new communication channels with their audience that can be measured and valued as a new commercial opportunity with sponsors. Businesses that get involved through sponsorships and social media promotions, meanwhile, benefit from increased brand affinity and loyalty. According to forbes.com With the emergence of social media, sports right holders have opened up new communication channels and value as a new commercial opportunity for sponsors. Businesses that are involved with sponsorships and social media promotions benefit from the increased affinity and loyalty. 

Although social media has become a large window of opportunity, some clubs and organizations are only beginning to use this tactic. One of the worlds largest sports organizations, FC Barcelona, worked with sports marketing agency IMG to examine what value social media adds to its shirt sponsorship rights. Over only one weekend, there were over 60 million impressions of the Qatar Foundations sponsorship of the club kits. “We found there was an extraordinary amount of value that the shirt sponsor of Barcelona was receiving on social media, which wasn’t really factored into the sponsorship,” says Rob Mason, managing director of IMG Consulting, IMG’s advisory and brand strategy and activation division. “Our work there told us that social media is the next great frontier for sports sponsorships. But sports rights holders need to understand their social media value, and sponsors need to know what they want from it.”

sportingnews.com

Cell phones and other technologies have allowed social media to flourish in soccer stadiums such as Liverpool’s Anfield and the Etihad Stadium, home of Manchester City. These soccer clubs offer fans Wi-Fi, enabling not only more interactions at live events but more commercial activity, too. Spectators now have the ability to make additional purchases or seat upgrades, for example, from the venue. The challenge for businesses is to find ways of measuring the value social media offers, beyond simple page views and unique user data. 

Technology has become very important to sports-based organizations whether its ticketing software to optimize the venue's capacity, or stadiums being able to project different advertising boards to different world markets from the same events. These initiatives and many others will be explored as the business of sport series progresses.

-Jackson

         

You Get a Car Thanks to PR

YOU GET A CAR! YOU GET A CAR! YOU GET A CAR! YOU GET A CAR! EVERYBODY GETS A CAR! EVERYBODY GETS A CAR!


We've all heard this familiar phrase a time or two. This was featured in Oprah Winfrey's 2004 "Ultimate Car Giveaway" episode where all members of the audience were given keys to a brand new Pontiac G6 during the show. Most people probably just assume Oprah purchased these vehicles as a generous act for her "Wildest Dreams Come True" season. However, according to AutoBlog, this act was the sneaky work of GM's PR team. 

Source: knowyourmeme.com GM donated countless Pontiac G6s to the show in hopes the name would get out to the public. Their purpose was to revive sales of the Pontiac. Mary Henige, Pontiac's communications director at the time said, "At the time it was kind of a novel approach, which is why it caught people's attention." The marketing strategy was a dashing attempt at revival, but could not receive enough success to smuggle a lasting identity. So next time you see promotional giveaways on television shows, consider this: a Public Relations team is working to advocate the business to boost the sales and reputation of a product. The joy rise is amusing, but it is not just Oprah giving away free cars.


Join back next week for additional PR knowledge! 

-Grace

Prompt #10: Recognizing Truth

One of the most well-known television shows that takes place in a business setting is The Office. This TV show documents the everyday lives of employees working at a paper supply company in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Many of the characters do experience many issues that would take place in a business setting in the real world. For example, Dwight must choose a healthcare plan in the first season, the employees must attend sensitivity-training sessions, and employees must attend human resource consultations. In addition, the business underwent changes that real-world businesses would experience. For example, the Scranton branch was merged with another branch, the company nearly went under, and they even had to deal with competitors like when Michael Scott started a rival paper company. Although The Office does portray some aspects of the business field accurately, many aspects of the business field are misrepresented throughout the series.

Photo Credit: stuffpoint.com

One of the most obvious ways in which The Office misrepresents the business field is simply in how it portrays the work ethic of the employees. Throughout the show, it seems as if the employees rarely do work related to their business. Many of the employees spend their time planning and organizing office events, pranking each other, or simply socializing. For example, according to We Got This Covered, Jim Halpert plays several pranks on his desk mate, Dwight Schrute, to relieve boredom. In addition, it often seems like the employees of Dunder-Mifflin are too busy holding paper-airplane contests, Office Olympics, and other events like these instead of doing the work that will keep the business running. These types of off tasks activities would never be as common in a real-world business.

Photo Credit: www.slate.com

Another way in which The Office misrepresents the business field comes with how the employees treat each other. Within the business, like mentioned above, some of the characters often prank each other. In addition, romantic relationships form between employees which is often times not allowed in real world businesses. For example, Jim Halpert and Pam Beesly form a romantic relationship that is followed throughout the series. In addition, the relationship between the boss, Michael Scott, and his employees is very unprofessional. Throughout most of the episodes, Michael Scott makes comments toward employees that would never be acceptable in a business setting. For example, Michael Scott makes many racist remarks toward Kelly Kapoor because she is Indian, and fat jokes toward Phyllis Vance according to TV Guide. These types of behavior would not be acceptable in real-world businesses.

-Brianna

Photo Credit: www.businessnewsdaily.com

5 Influencer Marketing Trends That Will Lead You To Success

    Influencer Marketing: A nonpromotional approach to marketing in which brands focus their efforts on opinion leaders, as opposed to direct target market touchpoint. According to forbes.com, Influencer marketing has skyrocketed over the past couple of years. It can help you reach a broader audience, but a trusted influencer creates credibility to your brand and makes it easier to build trust among your followers. Here are some tips to improve your influencer marketing strategy:

1. Greater influence will be more important than a big check.

What is more important is a great influence, not a great check. A big influence is a greater thing to offer to a person. They have more things to take away from influencers that will benefit them in the long run regardless of the outcome. An influencer is is only as valuable as the influence he or she has. So if you build an internal influence along with the influence you have gained from other influencers, you have something strong to bring to the table. 

2. Micro-influencers will be the new influencers.

Important niche and trade sites tend to attract and engage a larger audience. The same idea is also applied to influencer marketing, who have an 82% approval rating, which proves that you don't need huge-mega influencers to advocate for your brand. Companies focus and rely on the most influential people in their areas, which isn't always the best option. The best influencer marketing strategies can come from anyone, specifically one who hasn't let their ego get in the way. 

3. Earned influencer marketing will outpace paid efforts.

Often, influencer marketing is categorized as "paid marketing", which is where they pay for their marketing services. But, with the increase of contribution from online publications who are concerned about their work more than their pay, paid marketing has decreased. This area will increase because of influencer marketing because there are way more options than there were ten years ago. Now, there are thousands of channels of distribution that will increase influencer marketing 

4. Paid influencer marketing will become more authentic.

Getting paid to talk about how great a product is won't last forever. But just because influencers will need to explicitly disclose their paid relationships doesn’t mean they can’t also truly enjoy the product, service, or brand they endorse. It's vital to find influencers who actually have an interest to a specific product or brand. Stay away from those who will do anything for a certain amount of money.


5. Influencer relationship management teams will give you the edge

Influencers are beginning to become as important, if not more important than your actual customers, so its best to treat them with similar care. More companies use influencer relationship management teams to focus on outreach and relationship-building with influencers. So if you’re still half-assing your approach to influencer marketing, don’t expect to see incredible results. Carefully manage your influencer relationships to compete with other companies. 

Influencer marketing will only increase from this point in marketing. It's important to stay ahead of the curve and prepare for the next major marketing trend.

-Jackson