Australian fast food chain Chicken Treat has handed its social media account to an actual chicken named Betty. But this isn’t the usual automated tweet approach. Instead, Chicken Treat has put a keyboard in a chicken’s coop and allows the chicken to peck away at whatever keys it chooses. And from the absolute gibberish that has been tweeted thus far, it’s evident that this chicken is not gifted in the literary arts.
For latest extension of the ‘Legends’ campaign Clemenger’s content arm Flare (in conjunction with Eastern Bay of Plenty Road Safety) partnered with social media star Jimi Jackson on a content-led campaign that aims to reach young males who continue to take risks by getting behind the wheel while intoxicated.
Shouting out random things in a public space isn’t the best conversation starter in real life. And TRA’s Colleen Ryan argues the same applies in social media.
As is increasingly becoming clear, brands can no longer expect to put the bait out and wait for its audience to come. A bit more is required these days to target the more distracted modern audience, and brands are having to travel to audience-territory or risk being ignored. A big brand which has cottoned onto this is Sky TV which (along with a number of other brands) has now joined image and video-sharing app Snapchat in an attempt to target a millennial audience, to generate interest in its Rugby World Cup 2015 coverage.
Over the past few years, social media has become an enormous part of the lives of many. Studies show we spend hours online per day, and much of this time is spent perusing Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and the like. And apart from stalking old school friends who have become more successful than you, or (for some) discovering what Kim K’s latest move is, these have also become platforms for people to openly share their views, exercise their right to free speech, and learn what others think about relevant and important issues. This activity on social media has led to many news publishers embedding tweets in their online stories, or further, basing an entire story around a strong public reaction to a tweet. So, we decided to ask ‘why?’
Korean car manufacturer Hyundai has made an impression on the Instagram scene with its latest marketing attempt. A quiz spanning 18 accounts and close to 400 images determining which vehicle best suits the user’s lifestyle, the Tucson, Santa Fe, or Santa Fe Sport.
Jetstar introduced its new flight destinations today after running a Facebook-based campaign where it uploaded videos of its regional tour and asked its Facebook fans for advice on which activities to partake in in each destination.
Social media might seem as easy as publishing a varied assortment of brand-related material onto a profile. But, after a chatting with a few Kiwi brands doing it well, Joshua Riddiford discovered that it’s harder than it looks.
It’s never been easier for marketers to learn about their audience. All they need to do is go to social media, look at what they’re posting and what’s trending among their target age demographic. Brands have begun travelling to their audience to market to them too, launching social media campaigns, joining Snapchat, Instagram, Pinterest, whatever it may be. But something else we’ve noticed recently is brands going to their audience and essentially asking for advice, crowd-sourcing ideas for products like websites, food, even ads. Here are a few examples from here and abroad.
As the host of Seven Sharp, a columnist on the Herald, a talkback presenter on Newstalk ZB and a generous giver of opinions, Mike Hosking has reached saturation levels across Kiwi media channels. And the frazzle-haired media machine has in the last week extended his brand’s reach across social media, with his likes on the official Mike Hosking page increasing by 90,000 in the space of a few days. So what exactly drove all this engagement?
There seems to be a month for everything now: Dry July, Movember, the Feb Fast and as of this year, Junk Free June. And perhaps there’s a reason for that, maybe they’re successful fundraisers because Kiwis like a challenge, and a month doesn’t seem like such a long time to kick the booze, not shave your dirty tache or hold back on the snacks (at least on paper). Whatever the allure is, it seems to work and as results have shown social-media campaign Junk Free June was a huge success raising well over its media spend and attracting thousands of social media followers and daily hits on its website. Here’s a rundown on the campaign.
This week, AdRoll’s Ben Sharp looks at why creativity is integral to an effective programmatic marketing strategy.
Snapchat has fast become a popular way for brands to reach out to a younger audience. ASB, Vodafone, Spark the NZTA and a number of other brands and organisations have seen merit in using the platform and have reported successful results. And while a little late in the game, Stuff has just jumped on the Snapchat bandwagon and only three days since launching its account, it already has a few thousand ‘friends’, and counting.
Snapchat was an unofficial star of the annual Social Media Awards last night with many brands citing it as a great marketing platform to engage with their audiences, including the Blogger of the Year and People’s Choice Award winner NZGirl.
Mass media used to have all the power. But the rise of social media has meant that many individuals are now gaining huge audiences for themselves and stealing some of that power away. And brands around the world are increasingly leaning on them to help spread their messages. In this part of the world, they don’t get much more popular than Jamie Curry, who hit ten million Facebook fans last year and has 1.5 million followers on YouTube. So, after working with Coca-Cola and Netflix, she’s now signed up with Kiwibank to create The KB Series, a six-part series that will follow Curry on her journey from Napier to Auckland as she moves out of home and pursues her career in acting and producing entertaining content for her legion of fans.
Brands are normally seen as the bullies; corporate monsters taking advantage of the little guy. But they aren’t just a logo, a uniform or an ad. They are made up of multiple individuals working in different branches on different levels. And often it’s the people lower down the chain who bear the brunt of angry customers, as any front of house hospo worker or call centre operator or social media manager will know. So in light of the Harmful Digital Communications Bill passing its third reading, and following some recent anger directed at the likes of Nestle, Cadbury, Ticketek and many others, we decided to ask a few New Zealand companies with ‘passionate’ followers a potentially stupid question: have they ever felt like they’ve been bullied online?
Mitre 10 general manager Dave Elliott gave a full and frank insight into his business at the IAB Vertical Snapshot event on May 27.
There was a time when people seemed to get angry about autoplay video, with Fairfax in Australia getting a kicking a few years back. Now it seems to be part of the online furniture. Instagram and Facebook launched auotplay video in 2013 and Twitter has also just announced it. But as those videos don’t play with sound unless users click on them, brands and publishers are adapting to an era of silent video marketing—and, just as some have done with pre-roll ads, they’re starting to find some creative solutions.
Jamesons was reportedly the first brand to embrace the nascent realm of 3D videos on social media when it slid a sponsored shot across the bar for St Patricks Day. Now AMP Capital, which owns four malls across New Zealand, is using the multi-dimensional technology across its social media channels to create a series of short, innovative videos showcasing its food and fashion.
It wasn’t too long ago that Spark was a company to be railed against; a monopolistic monolith using confusion as a marketing tactic to suck money out of consumers. One Spark staffer tells of a focus group attendee from South Auckland before the rebrand saying that if an 027 number came up on their phone they knew it was either telemarketers or debt collectors so they’d just ignore it, which is a good indication of the level of disdain for the brand in that part of the country. But since then, there’s been a lot more openness from those inside the company and a lot more love shown by consumers, and this change in approach manifested itself in the Be Counted campaign, which was created by Touchcast and managed to get over 50,000 New Zealanders interested in regulatory process.
The human psyche is seemingly embedded with an unrelenting draw toward buttons—something illustrated in the exasperation of a parent begging a toddler to leave random switches alone. And this base impulse is something that brands are looking to capitalise on by putting ‘buy now’ buttons just about everywhere (those with koumpounophobia are advised to look away now).
After one accelerator programme, a spell in a start-up incubator and a tonne of two minute noodles, digital venture Mish Guru, which has developed software designed to help businesses get bang for their marketing buck on Snapchat, has a springboard of nearly half a million dollars to break into the US market.
We live in visual times. We also live in an age of showoffery, where the experiences we now seem to crave over material goods are enhanced through sharing (and social validation). Brands and agencies have figured out a few clever ways of getting in on the rise of user-generated content, whether it’s Instagram printers at events or social media-enabled photobooths, but Hamilton-based app developer Kapja has launched a new app called Biz Brand Cam, which it says is the first fully customisable app of its type available to download directly from the Apple App Store.
Facebook has become a hugely important traffic source for many publishers. And last week Facebook announced the launch of a new feature called Instant Articles, which allows users to view articles from other websites (particularly enhancing mobile experience) without leaving the site. This is hoped to make for a faster loading time, more data about what users like to consume and therefore an enhanced overall user experience. And there are also benefits for the publishers. It’s very early days for the scheme, but we thought we’d find out a bit about the initiative and whether New Zealand’s main media outfits are keen on the idea.
Devin Graham, an American videographer who produces adventure and extreme sport videos under the name Devin Super Tramp, has become one of social media’s biggest names, with more than 2.9 million YouTube subscribers and over 530 million total views. Tourism New Zealand got him to come for a visit and it ended up being the most successful social influencer work it has done to date.
For many years, one of the primary tourism marketing strategies has been to pay for high-profile humans to come visit. Generally, that’s been in the form of travel writers. But as social media democratises publishing and individuals gain huge audiences through various social channels, that’s changing quickly. Tourism New Zealand has been embracing this for a while now (as has Contiki, which recently announced local YouTube star Jamie Curry would join its fourth roadtrip) and Tourism Wanaka got in on the act recently with its first official #instameet last weekend.
The Air New Zealand lollies are something of an institution in this country and many a Kiwi kid has had the pleasure of delivering them at the end of a flight. Now it’s planning on adding a new rugby-themed flavour to the roster so it played a bit of an early April Fool’s day prank on a few All Blacks in the form of a taste test.
The rapidly growing ‘better burger’ segment has brought joy to the mouths of many New Zealanders—and some concern to the cheaper, more quotidian fast food incumbents (in a classic case of if you can’t beat them, join them, McDonald’s is attempting to ride the premium train with some new ‘create your own’ options). Burger Burger has quickly become one of Auckland’s favourite posh burger establishments since Mimi Gilmour, she of Mexico fame, launched it last year and Motion Sickness Studio (MSS) has helped make that happen.
Messaging apps are coming of age and Colenso BBDO’s Neville Doyle has some suggestions for marketers who want to test the waters.
The rise of social media has given humans an opportunity to communicate directly with brands. That seems to have led to more gimme gimme gimme than positive endorsement, but Toyota has decided the risk is worth it and is soliciting questions from New Zealanders and attempting to answer them in an entertaining fashion as part of its Armchair Test Drive campaign.