Screw You Recession: Using Social Media With Brands -- Virgin Mobile
Labels: blogging, brand building, Connection, Consumers, Content, Marketing, Mood Meter, social media, Twitter
Traditional brands have had a hard time figuring out social media. They are used to old marketing models where they keep firm control of the message.
Create a brand phrase or concept and then repeat it millions of time on whatever media platforms, getting as much exposure as possible. The adage "If they say it often enough, it must be true" has been the prevailing wisdom for decades. The hoped-for by-product? "Gosh, if they are willing to spend so much money to tell me something about their product, it must be true...so I'll buy it."
All the traditional ad markets have softened: TV, newspapers, radio, magazines. And the projections for the next few years look tough.
For decades, consumers have been sold, pitched, cajoled, and almost guilted in buying products through the magic of marketing and advertising.
Why are the ad markets hurting? Psychologically, making a purchase satisfies many possible things: taking care of a need; a want; a desire; or for preventing something they fear. That is no different today than from previous generations. Traditional media still "sells" needs, wants, desire and fear-fixers.
It's just that today's consumers want more than simply being told to buy something before they make a purchase.
They want to engage.
They want to hear from other consumers to validate their own thinking about the brand choice.
They want their own voice heard.
So far, traditional brand marketing has been slow and inconsistent in its success using social (or user-generated) media for marketing.
Remember the user-generated Dorito's Super Bowl TV ads?
What about the GM's Chevy Tahoe SUV ad contest?
Just in the last few weeks, Skittles set the Twitterverse afire by changing their main brand homepage to their Twitter profile, then to their Facebook profile. To help their customers "Interweb the rainbow", users create custom "garageband-like" audio themes using various Skittles audio clips. What did it get them? Lots of social media hype, more than 630,000 Facebook friends (M&M's Facebook site only has 25,000 fans)...and an increase of their web traffic by more than 1,325% the first day it launched the campaign.
So can a brand do well by saying "Screw You, Recession"? One is trying...and using social media to do it.
Here's a site blending social media merged with an established brand. Go to ScrewTheRecession.ca/ and it comes from the new thinkers over at Virgin. Virgin tends to embrace marketing experiments; I think it's worthwhile to check it out. Tying in recession concerns with younger people, it's a blog with a heavy user comment section, simple Virgin Mobile advertising and various topics sections on money, living, fashion, going out, tech and more. Plus they Twitter and Facebook it tying it together.
The impact: How can you (the consumer) screw the recession? You need your cellphone. Screw the recession by using a Virgin Mobile cellphone.
They've done some cool research through the site on their users.
As reported this week in Virgin Mobile press release of their JD Power study:
The only thing they miss is not tying it into their Virgin Radio sites. It's a natural partner.
"Virgin Mobile Canada has created a mood meter that ranges from "Everything Sucks Huge" (red) to "The Recession Ain't Getting Me Down" (green). The five-stage colourcoded system shows that – this week – young Canadians are on Yellow Alert ("Sorta' Freaking Out Right Now"), which means:
* Biting nails - 72% are anxious about their future
* Brand disloyalty - 41% have given up a brand they love
* Show me the value! - 52% are open to trying value brands
* Chic-onomics - 88% have changed their shopping habits
* Recessionistas - 42% are making "noticeable sacrifices"
* Unemployment - 42% fear being unemployed
* Politics - 57% say they don't believe a change in government would change anything
* The Simple Life - 75% want a simpler life.
The Mood Meter looks exclusively at the impact the recession is having on young people's (17-35s) lives, how they're feeling about the state of the economy and what the recession means to them. It's also a barometer of their thoughts and shopping habits, as well as their feelings on how brands are behaving. See Virgin Mobile’s www.screwyourecession.ca."
Cross-platform connection on contemporary consumer demands, needs, desires or fears...with the consumer front-and-centre contributing and sharing the content.
The audience (listeners/customers) are the drivers...all we in media have to do is provide the proper vehicles for them to get where they want to go and what they want right now.
That's how brand marketing can use social media to its advantage.
posted by Unknown @ Friday, March 20, 2009,
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Media Trending: Spending Up, Usage Slightly Declining
Labels: 2007, Consumers, Future of Radio, Joint Communications, Media, Media trending, Predictions, Radio, Revenue, Usage, VSS
Has media reached a new usage plateau? A new level of consumer saturation? What's a new view of the future for media?
Private equity firm Veronis Suhler Stevenson (VSS) has released a new study forecasting spending in the media industry into 2011. The study found that while communications spending increased in 2006, consumer media usage actually dropped after multiple years of growth.
Total communications spending grew 6.8 percent to $885.2 billion in 2006. VSS predicts that in the first half of 2007, the industry will grow by 6.4 percent, making it among the fastest growing sectors of the U.S. economy.
VSS also predicts that Internet advertising will replace newspapers as the largest ad medium by 2011.
Meanwhile, media usage per person declined last year by 0.5 percent, according to their data, due to changing consumer behavior and the efficiency of digital media. VSS found that digital alternatives for news and entertainment require less time investment than traditional media. VSS predicts consumer media usage to stabilize this year and slightly increase through 2011.
Consumers are also moving away from ad-supported media, such as broadcast TV and newspapers. VSS labels options such as video games and cable TV "consumer-supported platforms," and says their usage is increasing as time with ad-supported media decreases.
"We are in the midst of a major shift in the media landscape that is being fueled by changes in technology, end-user behaviors and the response by brand marketers and communications companies," said James Rutherfurd, EVP and Managing Director for VSS. "We expect these shifts to continue over the next five years, as time and place shifting accelerate while consumers and businesses utilize more digital media alternatives, strengthening the new media pull model at the expense of the traditional media push model."
If we have reached a new plateau of media consumption, it is worthwhile to take a look around the media landscape right now. Who has survived? Which platforms are still thriving? Still hanging on?
More specifically, take a look at radio. Good news...radio still operates with strength. It is simple, reliable, cost-effective and still is used weekly by 94% of the population. Radio has gone through tremendous industry change and competitive challenge from new media options...and radio still survives.
Is radio ready to rev it back up and go after the demographic it has nearly lost (teens) or the demographic it has turned away from (Boomers)?
posted by Unknown @ Saturday, August 18, 2007,
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