Brands who got it RIGHT: Oreo

A brand who have always done their social media marketing exceptionally well is Oreo! They have been referred to a "social media innovators" and have received exceptional recognition for the social media marketing they have demonstrated.

This post is on why I think they are social media masters:

I mentioned them in the newsjacking post previously, but there are hundreds of more examples of excellent use of social media by Oreo.

Check out these vines that they produced:





The thing that makes these so entertaining is the creativity and the success that Oreo create is SHAREABLE.

There is no point creating a loyal fan base or even posting social media content which has no shareability value- make content which people want to tweet or revine or tell their friends about!

Oreo connect with their audience, they have a strong following amongst their social media platforms and they engage with their target audience CONSTANTLY.

What some brands tend to do is run social media campaigns which publish heavy content and responses around a particular product release or around a particular time of year and then remain fairly quiet until the next one. However, Oreo continually updates with relevant, current and consistent content.

They respond to news stories, important dates, trends and peaks- this means users react in real time and are willing to interact with the Oreo brand. Look above at the phone case tweet- Oreo uses wit and humour to engage their audience and inspire others to share more!

Reasons why Oreo wins best use of social media marketing:
HUMOUR, CREATIVITY, CONSISTENCY, SHAREABILITY

an inspiration and a case study for all brands to learn from- Congrats Oreo!!

Thoughts and opinions all my own.
Stephanie Clark

Social Media Day @ Ogilvy

Hello!

So a couple of weeks ago I got the opportunity, with my team, to visit one of IBM's suppliers. We spent the day at the Ogilvy offices in Canary Wharf discussing the issues around social media and digital marketing. Ogilvy are one of the biggest marketing agencies in the world so you can imagine how excited I was to spend the day with the IBM account team and to visit their UK HQ!

The office for a start was amazing! Set in Cabot square in Canary Wharf- it was my 1st visit to Canary Wharf but it is definitely somewhere I can see myself working! The office was a really creative, modern and stylish setting (much different from the IBM offices...)

We got to hear from a number of interesting speakers and discuss issues around social media that the team had. As you may or may not know (having read this blog I hope!!) social media is one of my passions and something which I think I can talk about with a level of knowledge and experience- therefore I really found the day beneficial and enriching!

We discussed the importance of content on social media and how it shouldn't just be a selling page, delivering content to your target audience means they will use your owned media sources as an information source and this will therefore enhance their experience- meaning your brand is a) a trusted source b) in the forefront of their mind c) not thrust upon them in a sales perspective and therefore they feel as though they are making an informed decision rather than being sold to.

A problem that arose was that HOW can this content be created by a marketing team alone? Especially in high investment/involvement purchases where a great deal of inside knowledge, expertise and specific information is needed, how can a small, specific marketing team manage a social media presence? We also considered how difficult it is to measure the effectiveness of a social media presence, especially in terms of return.

Aside from these issues and concerns, there was an understanding from the day as to the relevance of social media in a B2B environment. Most people consider social media essential in  B2C marketing but don't often associate marketing with B2B, however we were given the idea that it is not a new concept in this market. Networking has been a key part of a B2B organisation for a long time, this is just a shift in how key decision makers connect with their peers.

When marketing in a B2B context, the focus must be on a peer-to-peer basis, rather than brand-to-consumer.

This was the key concept that I recognised from the day, a quote from one of the presenters, "social is a behavioural reality, not just a channel". This gave me a lot to think about...

For example; key decision makers in an organisation who are invited to attend numerous events are more likely to accept an invitation if they are invited in a person to person invitational context.

This brings about the key rule when using social media in B2B: Make it personal

After discussing these issues and concepts, we had a presentation from someone at IDG, a technology media company- they publish magazines and online media all focused on technology throughout the UK.

They showed us the results from their engagement study found here...this reinforced the messages we had heard from Ogilvy and discusses Twitter and Linkedin as the primary B2B social networks. It was an interesting presentation and gave the team a lot to think about.

We then heard a presentation from Linkedin who showed us some interesting stats about how much reach Linkedin can provide when trying to target other businesses. Social media has provided an interesting platform, you may think that "stalking your ex on Facebook" is purely for entertainment purposes, but in reality- how much better to understand your customer's likes, dislikes, interests and connections than to have it written plainly in front of you on Linkedin?

Linkedin presented us with this idea and explained how the increasing use of Linkedin means B2B marketing teams can tailor their marketing messages based on their individual target recipient's behaviour, connections and experience.

The presentation was interesting and reinforced the idea of personal, direct, individual, relationship marketing which I believe is fundamental in any B2B environment.

I thoroughly enjoyed the day and can honestly say I felt at home in the Ogilvy offices- I would love to work there! It was one of the best days working at IBM that I have had so far!!

Views and opinions are entirely my own- Stephanie Clark

Tesco doing it right!!

I have wrote about the importance of a social media presence a thousand times and seriously if your organisation doesn't know that by now, how are you actually still in operation?! Here is one of my Favourites Tesco Mobile who have a fantastic twitter account:

Tesco Mobile

This buzzfeed post summarises it quite nicel, but here are some of my personal faves!!

 When you're competing with the big dogs, i.e. Orange, Vodafone and O2, I can imagine advertising budget is limited, as is a loyal set of brand advocates- however Tesco Mobile's wit, enthusiasm and understanding of their target audience's 'banter' trend, is enough to CLEARLY get tesco mobile noticed in the social media world and is fingers crossed enough to allow them to relaunch their brand image into a lighthearted, fun and laidback brand, which may differ from that of tesco as a parent company.

Views are my own,


Stephanie

Brands who did it BADLY

I'm often talking about brands who use their social media channels and advertising well, but 'they' say "by seeking and blundering we learn.” and in the marketing world, we can also learn from others mistakes... 

and I guess they are more interesting to read to!

So here we go.... Marketing Flops!

1.

Firstly, a US brand, SpaghettiOs posted this tweet in commemoration of the anniversary of Pearl Harbour:

This was followed by many angry tweets;

This tweet will live in infamy / @SpaghettiOs Take a moment to remember #PearlHarbor with us. http://t.co/C9dTJSDGF5
— David Clinch (@DavidClinchNews) December 7, 2013

Uh, brand. You're doing it wrong RT @SpaghettiOs: Take a moment to remember #PearlHarbor with us. http://t.co/bsfQPgNKkJ
— Shawn Reynolds (@WCL_Shawn) December 7, 2013

The tweet was deleted and replaced with an apology.

 Well followed up considering the consumer response. However- what can we learn from SpaghettiOs mistake?

Never make it about yourself- a quote from Mack Collier "You don't ask others to remember a military tragedy by putting the focus on your brand mascot. NEVER make it about you."

The fact is- in order to bring brand value, make the tweets personal  and empathise  with people, make your tweets seem human!!

2.

In the US, the supermarket Kmart tweeted to reveal they would be open on this Thanksgiving and would stay open on Black Friday. Customers complained about the ethics of the decision by the masses: 

What can we learn from Kmart's mistake?

a) Marketing isn't just about the communications you portray and publish i.e. advertising, direct marketing etc. it is also about Corporate Social Responsibility and how you treat your staff is a big part of this- as is fair competition. By opening on Thanksgiving- Kmart were demonstrating their lack of ethical standards for both, this was clearly pointed out by their customers. By publicising this fact, Kmart allowed themselves to be exposed to a storm of dismay.
b) Don't post the same response to every tweet!!! Re my above comment on SpaghettiOs make your tweets personal! If customers have an issue or complaint they want to feel valued and understood, not dumped in the pile with everyone else and given a phony excuse!

3.

So far we have seen American brands failing on social media, but here's a British brand who make it in to the ranks! This one comes from Facebook on Luton Airport's page:

The message behind it could have been enforced in so many better ways! The pictured they posted was from a plane crash in 2005 in which there were fatalities which included a 6-year-old boy.

Way to show your insensitive side?? I don't think this example needs much explanation as 'what not to do'...

4.

This little gem from Red Robin....



As a vegetarian I can't say I am highly offended by this advert, however I can imagine how, especially in the US Culture, some people would be. The fact that Red Robin suggests that "vegetarians are just going through a phase" is poking fun at peoples' beliefs and I believe as a brand anything which ANYONE could find offensive should be avoided!

What can we learn from Red Robin's mistakes?
a) Understand the culture of your target audience and make sure you respect, inhabit and encompass it into your consistent branding themes. Make their culture, your culture....
b) I feel like Red Robin could have completely turned this around with a good recovery strategy and clever PR. When you make a muck-up- recover, recover, recover. They could have offered vegetarians a free burger, introduced new vegetarian options or even created a new ad campaign to turn this one on it's head! However, the disaster recovery wasn't effective and the video and it's angry responses went viral....

Check out these video responses on YouTube:

5.

Just read this article on Food Beast: 14 Ways To Ruin Your Restaurant Business and Lose Friends

Uh oh..... major fail! Be careful about your own publicity!! Pretty sure thats the No1 Rule of Marketing....



Let me know if you enjoyed this post! I may do more like it!!
All opinions are my own!

Stephanie

A Christmassy Marketing Day in Southbank!

Hi guys, sorry it's been so long! I can't believe I haven't blogged in an entire month. Will try and keep content consistent from now on!

I've been super busy recently and I can't wait to tell you all the stuff I've been up to!

Starting with last week, I went up to London to attend the 2nd IBM Marketing Placement day in London, I blogged about the first one earlier this year!

The event was held in the Client Centre at IBM's Southbank, London office. This is usually where we host clients and host events and meetings with them. It's a really nice office and much nicer than the Portsmouth one- so it's nice to get out of there, even if it is just for a day ;-)

 

I like it when all the Marketing Placement students get together as we do  fairly often, I've made some good friends from the IBM locations all over the country! The day was mostly focused on IBM's brand and how marketing and communications strategies can positively affect this.

Firstly, we met Alison Orsi who is Head of Marketing, Communication and Citizenship for IBM UK & Ireland- this means she is my bosses, bosses, boss! It was really exciting to hear how she had got to the position in which she is in now and how she never even planned to work in Marketing to begin with! She told us about an IBM advertising campaign in the 90's featuring the pink panter and Johnathan Ross.....?? Not really fitting with the IBM brand we know now!

Softening the corporate image may have been an objective then- but now IBM's Marketing is a lot more targeted and they are much more considerate and thoughtful when making marketing decisions. She focused her presentation on social, valued content creation, SEO and mobile marketing. An interesting thought from the day was the fact that the strategy seems to be shifting from paid-owned-earned towards owned-earned-paid.

Secondly, we had Tony Chapman-Dawe from Strand Communication deliver a presentation on how to write better Marketing text. I found this particularly interesting because of my interest in Journalism- it kind of reminded me of being back in an English lesson!!

He spoke about advertisers being able to grip people in 9 words and how difficult this can be in getting a message across, but also that this is a scope for immense creativity. He presented us with examples from The Economist:

This spark some thought as he noted that brands need to think carefully about the language they use and also what content is actually relevant and of some value to the target audience. He also taught us about the structure of powerpoints and how to create useful and eye catching language. His main theory was that any marketing message should contain Structure, Facts, Examples and Brevity. A great lesson which I will be enforcing in the future! It makes you think about the way that brands craft tweets, in tweets you only have 140 characters to get your message across- therefore they have to be snappy, relevant and concise.

Then, we had Bill Jinks, who project managed IBM's presence at Wimbledon for the last few years. He came to speak to us about the work he had done and how we might like to get involved in working there next year with IBM. The stuff we do at Wimbledon is awesome and far too much to narrow down into one blog post- so check out the website if you would like to know more here.

Then we had a brand quality workshop from 2 members of Marketing who work on the graduate scheme. They spoke to us about the IBM Brand and how it is represented in terms of looking, sounding, thinking and performing like IBM. We also got chance to have a look and dissect IBM's current brand strategy.

We then had an IBM speaker; Mark Devlin spoke to us about IBM's history and the way the IBM brand has been affected and shaped over time. An interesting concept he mentioned was that IBM has never had a figure head like Bill Gates or Steve Jobs to represent it's brand image, instead of having this one person to look to, IBM is represented by it's employees who have their own name aka IBMers!

Overall it was a great day with some great people- afterwards we got to check out the Southbank Christmas Markets and then we were treated to a Chinese in Leicester Square!!