Keep It Coolatta

Whenever you think of Dunkin' Donuts, your first instinct is usually a given, donuts. Two summers ago, Dunkin' Donuts came up with a very successful campaign that helped create an image of incentives instead of donuts. By racking their brains, the marketing team came up with a campaign that involved offline brand experience with online social media promotions.

In June of 2009, Dunkin' Donuts introduced their newest addition to their line, the Coolatta. Dunkin' Donuts used a Facebook Fan Page strategy combined with some Twitter help, @dunkindonuts to promote the idea of the campaign and attract more traffic to the fan page. Their main idea was to gain access to friends of friends while helping brand advocates to feel equally rewarded and recognized. They came up with a campaign called "Keep It Coolatta". They utilized their Facebook Fan Page (which includes over 800,000 fans) and asked the consumer to post a photo of themselves with any Coolatta beverage to the fan page wall along with a caption that states #CoolattaGiveaway, and updated their profile with the picture. The prizes that were offered were iPhones, JetBlue vouchers, a flat screen TV and more.

While learning more about this campaign and the success that it brought, I believe that this proves that by using unique and fun ideas within your campaign, you potentially will attract a larger number of your target audience. Also, by combining on-line and offline experiences, you are bringing loyalty and opportunity to your customer instead of waiting on them to choose you.

Dunkin' Donuts is hoping that the campaign will inspire the masses on Facebook to participate in other upcoming campaigns, allowing them to stay in-touch with the consumer. 



 

YouTube: Expand Your Business Today!

Whenever you are asked what is your favorite commercial, you are probably quick reply. As times are changing constantly, the new common question asked is to name your favorite YouTube Video. YouTube, as most of you know, is a world-wide video-sharing community. Someone, some where is creating a marketing video go viral as we speak. This newly innovated form of social media could help promote your brand with the consumer in numerous ways.

Because of our media-driven society, we as the consumer absorb more information from watching a television advertisement or a video. While researching the benefits of YouTube for a business, I came across a website that provides 10 tips that all marketing executives should keep in mind while utilizing YouTube.

1. Find the right content for you brand. What will your audience find beneficial? Hospitality and consumer packaged goods companies are probably going to have vast differences in what audiences need or want to hear.
2. Use real people. Brangelina and Bennifer sell movie tickets, but YouTube videos surge with real people doing real things.  It never ceases to amaze how an unknown person can help drive awareness or interest talking about personal experiences.
3. Give people something to do. Don’t just focus on the video view number – quantify what action you are driving. And how do you do that? Tell people in the video what they should do!
4. Use Humor (or other type of emotion). Video is more powerful than other mediums because it brings audio, visuals and movement together in one package.  That in itself creates a feeling in viewers. Embrace this opportunity and incorporate funny discussion, serious points of view or other aspects that make your content tap into emotions and thus more impactful (and memorable).
5. Add an element of surprise. Product tours and client interview rock. But sometimes, when the topic warrants it, a surprise element, comment or visual can grab attention and bring your corporate video from underwhelming to unforgettable.
6. Tag. And tag. And tag some more. How do people find content on the web? Search. And how do they find content on the web? Tags. Enough said.
7.  Include your logo or contact info. We’ve all seen some of the most unforgettable videos on YouTube and thought – I wonder who made that? Don’t let your video become a hit without providing branding on who you are and how people can get in touch.
8. Annotate. The next generation of video gives viewers the opportunity to actually interact with the content. And on YouTube, that’s exactly what annotations offer – the ability to click on a live link or read a back-story while they watch.
9. Embed across your channels. Tagging will help organic video search greatly, But embedding videos on your own owned media channels ensures that you reach the people in your community.
10. Reach out and share. Don’t limit your sharing to embeds on your channels. Reach to reporters, bloggers or brand advocates to share on your behalf. Get creative in who you can share with to make a bigger splash. (10 tips while using YouTube)

These tips could really boost a business' positioning in the consumer mind as well at the ability to become aware of the products benefits. A marketer has the potential to reach their target market by also uploading this video to other social media outlets including the business' facebook page, twitter, website, etc.

By having the potential of turning a boring demostrational video into a blockbuster production is just another way that social media is taking over, reaching out, and influencing the consumer on a day-to-day basis.

Office Max: Elf Yourself

WARNING: Although we are all trying to escape from the Christmas season and only look into the future filled with buttercups and butterflies, I am going to ask that you find that little bit of "Ho Ho" that you have left while reading this blog.  

"Go Elf Yourself". No, this is not me being rude and showing the Scrooge side of Christmas. This is Office Max's way of providing social media in a convenient way  to the consumer. In 2006, Office Max teamed up with the ecard provider, JibJab, and created a new exciting way to send an ecard for the holiday season.

Elf Yourself, allows the consumer to upload pictures from their own computer while personalizing an electronic holiday card. You begin by choosing the amount of people (or pets) that you would like to include in the card. You then upload your personal pictures and begin cropping them to fit the Elf's face. After completion, you just sit back and watch the entertainment of the elf's dancing to a holiday tune. 

"The campaign, created by New York-based independent agency Toy and San Francisco-based EVB, led to the creation of more than 122 million elves during that holiday season. It increased site traffic and generated a number of wannabes and spin offs, driving sales and brand awareness, according to the judges." (Elf Yourself) Office Max utilized various social media outlets and made this feature available on Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace.

Office Max used this exposure to their benefit. After you created your ecard, they offered the service of emailing the ecard to friends and family, creating a different ecard that you could get printed off and mailed to your residence. They also listed the many other services that Office Max offers as far as holiday cards, merchandise specials, and their newly added postal service. By promoting these, they were able to accumulate a word of mouth advertisement and free publicity. Before they knew, the term "Go Elf Yourself" was an expression of every one's holiday spirit.

Deciding factor: Social Media

Whenever you first hear of someones name being told in a story, that sounds familiar to you, what is your first instinct? Take the time to ask the person telling the story to give you a brief description of the person? Generally not; we sign onto Facebook and look them up. By doing so, we not only see what the person looks like, but we can also see which friends we have in common, which usually leads to how we might know the person. Employers do this same type of research while determining future employees.

It is vital that we would use the old saying ,"Don't do anything that you wouldn't mind if your grandmother found out", while promoting our name on social media outlets including facebook and twitter. Being that both of these are both used for more personal use than for business purposes, it is very easy to slack on keeping them "clean". On other social media outlets including LinkedIn and WorldPress, which are highly looked at from a professional standpoint from employers, it is important that you 100% completed with your page, and also 100% confident in the material that is posted. The majority of employers will not take the time to look at the page unless it is completely finished.

Because of day-to-day new innovations, the competition level is increasing at a high rate. In Dan Schawbel  article, 7 Secrets to Getting Your Next Job Using Social Media, prospects are using these social media outlets in order to create a better brand image for themselves in comparison to the competition. By uploading an online resume onto YouTube, you are showing the employer that you are technology friendly and willing to try new options in order to set yourself apart from the rest. Employers are also catching onto this trend by having online job interviews via Skype. Your lack of interest or knowledge in this field could honestly become a huge disadvantage to you in this day and time!

Social Media: Hop on the train or get left in the dust

As young adults, social media has become prevalent within our society. Our generation has not only become familiar with social media sites (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube), but we have developed a passion for them. In Paul Gillin's book, Secrets of Social Media Marketing, he states that the average young adult checks their Facebook 18 times within their day-to-day activity. This allows us to become an asset to marketing teams’ nationwide because of our common knowledge with this new trend of marketing. On that note, by the time we are reaching our mid-thirties, what will college graduates at the time have an expertise in that makes our knowledge of social media look like a type writer in an un-air-conditioned press shop.

For most businesses, they reference to social media as a way to supercharge their marketing efforts. Not only are these techniques cost efficient, but they also allow the business to increase their ability to relate to the consumer on a more personal basis. While watching the movie, Social Media, I was amazed at the rapid growth that was formed within communities on the websites.

As far as the debate weather social media is permanent-vs.- a fad, it is hard to determine because of the increase of innovation throughout the past 20 years. I by no means believe that social media will ever become non-existent, rather than the strength of technology and new innovations will allow for new outlets and application within social media.

As a child growing up, the newest trend of communication was MSN instant messenger and AOL instant messenger. Less than 10 years later, Facebook has formed including an instant messenger application allowing users to instantly chat with other users. Businesses have also including this feature within their company websites allowing customers to have an instant chat with a customer service representative instead of the hassle of an hour and a half wait on the phone just to explain your confusion with a hard to comprehend and insensitive representative. This hassle and frustration could instantly change the consumers’ mind of purchasing your product then or in the future. By providing this convenience, you can improve your brand image by perfecting the answer before actually submitting it to the customer, allowing for less harsh

I am intrigued to see the continuance of social media along with the new innovations that will come along. In this techno-focused world, it is our responsibility to stay on board with the consumer by becoming a relatable source allowing them the ease of shopping, researching, and communicating with your business. We should focus on staying turbo-charged in order to reach buyers directly.