Author: stacielscott

#FindNewRoads and #CruzeToLA

November 19, 2015intro-multimedia, UncategorizedBlog site, chevrolet, cruze, cruze to LA, Digital, events, facebook, Grad Student, IMC, Integrated Marketing, outdoor, radio disney music awards, Social Media, sweepstakes, University of Floridastacielscott Leave a comment

Company Analysis: Chevrolet

When someone says describe Chevrolet, one mark seems to always come to mind with consumers and that is the Chevrolet bow-tie emblem. This slanted plus sign has been the logo identity for the company since 1913 and is featured on the front of most if not all Chevrolet models. Wiki defines Chevrolet as the following, “Chevrolet colloquially referred to as Chevy and formally the Chevrolet Division of General Motors Company, is an American automobile division of the American manufacturer General Motors (GM)”. In North America, where we will focus on the Domestic marketing efforts of this project, Chevrolet produces a variety of automobiles from compact cars to trucks to sportsters. Chevrolet has been around for over 100 years selling cars under the GM brand. Chevy became a volume leader in 1919 selling mainstream vehicles to compete with Henry Ford’s Model T. By 1929, Chevy became known as the best selling car in the United States overtaking Ford. Since the company’s inception, the goal of the company has been to be a leader in the automotive world. Despite fierce competition, Chevy has done a great job at remaining mainstream. That’s not to say that in years past, Ford and Dodge haven’t edged Chevy out for best vehicle awards and overall brand popularity, but Chevy is making it’s way back to number one. In 2015, Chevy had three vehicles rank number one for the J.D. Power Initial Quality Award. The Silverado LD won in large light duty pickup category, Malibu took the midsize car category, and Equinox for the compact SUV category. For 2016, Chevy won Motor Trend Car and Truck of the year for their updated design and innovative features in the Camaro and Silverado! With momentum like this, it is imperative for Chevy to continue marketing their vehicles to consumers with an integrated marketing approach. It isn’t 1913 anymore where newspapers were the primary form of advertising for cars. Now more than ever, it is time to think about television everywhere and how every screen and platform is an advertising opportunity.

The goals and objectives for Chevrolet’s overarching brand are as follows:

Goals/Objectives

Reach moms and families and build awareness of Chevrolet brand.
Increase purchase intent for Chevrolet vehicles especially the Cruze and Equinox.
Build awareness of the cool factor and connectivity of Chevrolet vehicles.

The primary target audience for a campaign featuring the Chevy Cruze and Equinox is moms and families. The vehicle features for these models entice both moms and their families when purchasing such a big-ticket item. Everything from gas mileage to innovative technology features to comfort is analyzed before signing the purchase or lease agreement of a brand new vehicle. Moms want to know if the vehicle will entertain their children, is it safe to drive from point A to point B, and is it cost effective. Kids influence the model purchase by the cool factor.

Notably, the automotive industry as a whole is very competitive in design and available features. The biggest rivalry in American Motor history is between Chevrolet and Ford, closely followed by Dodge. The American automotive industry has the most competition between US brands, but lest not forget about the various other automotive companies out there vying for a piece of the auto pie like Toyota, Honda, BMW, Volvo, and Volkswagen just to name a few.

With such a competitive environment comes much opportunity!

Opportunities –

Ability to create innovative features and products offered first or only available in Chevy models.
Become more innovative and try edgy attention grabbing marketing promotions that resonate with the current market.

Strengths –

For 2016, Chevrolet won two categories… Motor Trend Truck and Car of the year. These awards help boost sales and visibility of the brand.
Integrated Technology – Keeps moms and families connected to everything and everyone by introducing Wi-Fi feature within the vehicles. (Up to 7 devices)
As of May this year, Forbes noted Chevrolet as the sixty-second most valuable brand in the United States.

Why Leverage an Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) Plan Traditional marketing has always been about brand awareness and having the media platforms push advertising campaigns out into the world for people to consume. Traditional advertising campaigns are time-consuming on the front end due to the production lead-time required and the extensive planning of media buys.

With a growing number of social media options, which are far less costly than traditional media, the question arises about why spend so much money on those pricey TV, radio and print ads. However the answer is simple, using both traditional and new media together, as opposed to one versus the other, you can move your message further and reach a larger audience.

“IMC is not a new concept, but it’s more important than ever, as there are now more marketing channels than ever before. Back in the 50’s, marketing campaigns relied heavily on print, radio, and television. It didn’t take much to keep these aligned. But, now with digital media, we have everything from newsletters to social media campaigns. Our marketing tool sheds are filled with new and effective tactics that range from broad messaging (your website’s homepage) to targeting more niche groups (via Instagram),” states Kyle Eliason from Pi Portent.

Quite simply put, your social footprint is just as important as having a website for consumers to find information about your company as is the television spot for additional brand awareness. The platforms all work together to reinforce your marketing message to your targeted consumers.

Additional Integrated Marketing Communications: Ideation

Additional IMC marketing efforts that I would love to see executed in this cross-platform #CruzeToLA campaign are Print, Outdoor, Email and Social.

Flyers

At On The Road To events, custom co-branded flyers would be passed during the festival and to those that visited the Chevrolet booth on site. These flyers would provide all the details for the #CruzeToLA sweepstakes from what you could win to how to enter and earn more entries. The backside of the flyer would call out all the new features of the Chevrolet models they want to tout during this promotion. Additionally, due to the partnership with Nokia Theater, flyers can be handed to those leaving other events held at Nokia Live during the week of March 14 – 20 prior to the sweepstakes closing. Again, these flyers would be co-branded and tout features of the Cruze, but also the #CruzeToLA promotion. Granted these folks are probably from LA, but they can still be entered to win tickets to the RDMAs and a chance a keys to a new Cruze!

Email

Send sweepstakes promotion to the current Chevrolet email-marketing database to provide their super fans the opportunity to enter and just general awareness of the promotion.

Outdoor

Produce co-branded flag banners featuring the Chevrolet Cruze and RDMAs along the surrounding blocks of Downtown LA. This brands the outdoor space of the festival at Ardy’s Pre-show Party and adds to the overall brand awareness of Chevy’s presence and sponsorship of the RDMAs.

Pin-Party

Chevy and Disney to host a week long Pin Party encouraging moms to re-pin the custom promotional pin (found on Chevrolet’s Pinterest page) to their own boards for a chance to win $1,000 and a trip to the RDMAs. Should any of the Pinners also write a blog post about the promotion, and Tweet about it on their social handle hash tagging #CruzeToLA, they will receive 5 additional entries to the sweepstakes. This will be promoted on Chevy’s Facebook page and one of the main hero images on their website.

Pre-roll on YouTube

:10 second Chevrolet branded ad as pre-roll placement prior to main performance at the RDMAs.

For example, their branded spot could lead in to custom video content such as this:

View Here

Proximity Marketing

Those that opt in and accept to receive the offer from Chevy at the On The Road To tour and Ardy’s Pre-show Party will receive a free oil change at any Chevrolet dealership. This gets moms on Chevy lots to look around at the new models they saw at the RDMAs. There would be on-site signage at the pre-show festival about the opt-in offer.

Analysis: #CruzeToLA Sweepstakes Promotion

Analytics would be measured by sweepstakes entries, page views from the digital site and social engagement and impressions pulled from Sprinklr.

Thank you for your time and consideration of the pitch #CruzeToLA Sweepstakes presented by Chevrolet. This IMC promotion will meet your objectives and provide brand awareness to the cool new features of the Cruze!

Analytic Post Mortem and Creative Ideation for the Future

November 16, 2015intro-multimediaanalytics, Blog, campaign, facebook, HVAC, ideation, Integrated Marketing, post mortem, results, Social Media, yelpstacielscott Leave a comment

Assignment/Synopsis

This is our last week’s assignment for the Multi-media Communications class I’m currently enrolled. We’ve studied Integrated Marketing Communications, what it means and how it is executed by brands big and small. This final post is going to take us through a post mortem analytic review for a company labeled XYZ. Please note; this blog post is for academic purposes only.

XYZ is a heating and cooling company (HVAC) located in Western Massachusetts. This recently launched small business provides installations, maintenance, and repair to their customers. Currently XYZ utilizes the following platforms for advertising; website, Twitter, Yelp, Google+, Facebook and direct mail. The stats we will be examining below are from Facebook.

To date XYZ has 489 likes on their fan page. This means we have lots of room to grow the XYZ’s audience and followers.

Key Findings

Analytics like Research can be interpreted in a variety of ways. A lot of times Research can mean one thing to one person and something totally different to another. The same goes for how the research is translated and spun. With this in mind, here are some of my key findings for XYZ.

XYZ’s fans are online in the highest concentration at 12pm, 3pm and 6-8:30pm.
XYZ’s fans demographics are split with women taking 57% of the pie and men 43%.
Women are the dominant fan mix in every age range except 25-34.
The majority of XYZ’s likers are from Massachusetts or Connecticut.
For those that have commented, liked or shared XYZ’s posts in the last 28 days, the men demographic take the lead with a 65% engagement over 35% women.

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Campaign Improvements

Yelp is a great way to earn the trust of new customers. If you have great reviews, people are more likely to try your company over one that doesn’t have good things being said about their service. First off, XYZ could enhance and increase their reviewers on Yelp. (see Future Campaigns for additional details) Secondly, Twitter could be leveraged as a weather service update provider for Massachusetts area, service messages, or any cute type of heating/cooling related promotional tout that comes to XYZ’s mind. Leveraging SEO and tags within posts will improve overall awareness of the XYZ brand and their services.

Social Amplification

The definition of Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) according to Wikipedia is the application of consistent brand messaging across both traditional and non-traditional marketing channels and using different promotional methods to reinforce each other. XZY has a presence on their own website, Twitter, Yelp and Google+ pages. Having multiple social channels, promotions can easily be shared among the different channels to cross promote the overall brand promise of XYZ, but also any and all promotions that they may have to offer. What is great about sharing on other social media channels is that it is free to share to your current followers, and you have the opportunity to purchase or boost any content that you wish.

Future Campaigns / Promotional Ideation

HVAC is a seasonal business, and their marketing should be strategic and targeted. As we learned a few weeks ago, email marketing is not dead. Email marketing is very much alive, and XYZ should work on growing their audience’s data base in order to keep constant communication with their clients. Yelp and Google+ are two social channels that can be leveraged heavily to promote the brand and really provide a deep social footprint for the company.

Email Marketing – Build Database
- As customers start using XYZ’s services, they should start creating and building their email database. By doing this they will be able to send out reminders to their customers since their business is seasonally driven. Email marketing helps push consumers to make the call or purchase sooner especially if they have been thinking about a certain product or service.
Yelp – Increase Reviews
- Sometimes you have to give a little in order to build your brand and company. XYZ should invest in a Yelp promotion that would give consumers $100 credit towards heating and cooling repairs or maintenance after they have left a review. This would build reviews on their site, and promote repeat customers. Win, Win!
Google+ – Locate XYZ
- Building out the company’s social footprint is beneficial to the brand. It makes it easier for consumers to find information about the company easier than if information is only in one place.

Reputation Management in a Digital World

November 9, 2015intro-multimediaGrad Student, hilton, hotel reviews, hyatt, reputation, reputation management, Social Media, social media managers, trip advisor, UF, University of Floridastacielscott Leave a comment

This week in my Multimedia Communications course, we studied the value of reputation management and the important role Social Media Managers play in maintaining their company’s stature.

Social Media Managers have a very important role in digital marketing communications as they maintain the brand for company’s social channels. Social Media Managers not only create posts for the social channels they manage, but they also have public conversations on behalf of the brand.

These day’s people have a public place to express how they are feeling at any given moment in time through online forums and social media channels. The feedback that is expressed on these platforms could be either positive or negative.

For our assignment this week we are taking a closer look at how to diffuse negative situations and respond in a positive constructive manner in order to practice good reputation management techniques. Below are two comments left on Trip Advisor for hotel stays at a Hilton and Hyatt. In this assignment, below will be example posts for how Social Media Managers could respond to the comments in order to maintain each the hotels reputations.

Hilton Fort Lauderdale Marina Example:

“Maybe we’ll try you again in 10 years.”

Social Media Manager Response:

Dear Luv2TravelWithHubby,

Please accept our sincerest apologize for the lack of hospitality and cleanliness you feel you experienced at our hotel. We truly strive to make your stay a pleasant one since we know you have many hotels to choose from when booking your travel accommodations.

Due to the hotel being fully booked for the reunion, our staff was a little behind in fulfilling requests. We are sorry for any inconvenience. Please note, I will personally follow up with our maintenance staff to check on the plumbing to ensure the hot water heater is working properly and the pool is tended to daily. Our property is known for its relaxing heated outdoor pool and poolside deck, therefore, your experience of inky water and trash in the pool is unacceptable.

We recently renovated our guest rooms outfitting them in floor-to-ceiling windows enhancing the design and providing a breathtaking view of Fort Lauderdale’s famous Intracoastal Waterway. The new design is airy and you shouldn’t be stubbing any toes with the new furniture!

We loved hearing your feedback so that we may continually improve our guest experience, and make sure you have a great experience on a future stay at one of our hotels. Again, we at Hilton are truly sorry that your high school reunion weekend did not meet your expectations, but we hope that you will give us another chance and visit us again.

For your next reservation, please contact Stacie Scott in reservation guest services (800-867-5309), and she will be able to assist you with your future reservation at the Hilton.

Hyatt Regency Orlando Example:

“Really nice hotel, with great service”

Social Media Manager Response:

Dear TravelWith3Kiddos,

Thank you for the review on Trip Advisor! We love hearing guest feedback and experiences.

We apologize you did not receive the high floor room with a view of the pool. Our hotel does everything we can to accommodate all guests requests upon check in if there is availability.

The Fiorenzo restaurant is a great choice to dine for dinner! We’re sorry to hear you had to wait despite your reservation. Because the restaurant is very popular, we’ve found that even with reservations there can be a wait. For any reservation you make through our hotel, our staff is happy to call in advance to ensure your table is ready before you arrive. Just let concierge know and they will call on your behalf.

Orlando is known as a family destination due to it’s many theme parks. So glad you were able to venture to the parks for some fun-filled family time! We are exploring different costs and options for parking on hotel property as well as all surrounding attractions. If you visit our travel page, all travel options to attractions that are currently available are listed.

Thank you again for providing your guest experience while staying at the Hyatt in Orlando! We hope to have you visit us again soon! For your next reservation, please contact Stacie Scott in reservation guest services (800-867-5309), and she will be able to assist you with your future reservation at the Hyatt in Orlando.

Social Media Calendar for Disney’s Epcot

November 2, 2015intro-multimediaBlog, candelight processional, christmas, december, epcot, Grad Student, neil patrick harris, planning posts, Social Media, UF, walt disney worldstacielscott Leave a comment

Assignment:

Plan hypothetical posts for Disney’s Epcot social media pages for the month of December 2015.

Please note that this blog post is to be used as an educational resource only. The social media calendar of posts is an assignment for the University of Florida’s Multimedia Communications course.

Goals:

Build brand awareness for Epcot events and attractions.
Increase engagement with Facebook and Twitter audience, and cultivate two-way conversations with consumers.

***Epcot does not have their own social handle, therefore, all Epcot related posts are released from the main Walt Disney World Page. The posts will be branded Epcot and tout events and attractions that are found at Epcot.

Calendar of Posts for December:

CC = Character Count

A — CC 99: Visit Holidays Around the World at Epcot – an International Yuletide Extravaganza #CelebrateAtEpcot
B — CC 98: Catch .@ActuallyNPH November 30^th – December 3 as the guest narrator for Candlelight Processional!
C — CC 100: This winter, soak up the sights and sounds of Holidays Around the World at Epcot! #DisneyHolidays
D — CC 85: Don’t miss @ActuallyNPH tonight as he narrates the Candlelight Processional at #Epcot
E — CC 140: Celebrate a world of cheer commemorating the international spirit of the season #DisneyHolidays #AroundTheWorld #CelebrateAtEpcot
F — CC 106: There are so many countries to explore for the Holidays Around the World at #Epcot. #CelebrateAtEpcot
G — CC 122: Ring in the season at Epcot’s World Showcase, watch holiday traditions come alive from around the globe. #CelebrateAtEpcot
H — CC 208: Norway is one of the all-stars of the Epcot “snack crawl” – The snacks in Norway’s Kringla Bakeri Og Kafe are so good that you might just want to double up! For a full list of snackable treats, click here!
I — CC 130: This month, hear the stirring story of Christmas as told by celebrity narrators accompanied by a 50-piece orchestra and mass choir
J — CC 93: Visit #Epcot this season…enjoy Hanukkah traditions and experience the spirit of Kwanzaa!
K — CC 73: Tell us your favorite holiday moment with your family! #MagicalMoments
L — CC 127: Enjoy seasonal food and experience time-honored traditions spring to life for the holiday heritage throughout World Showcase.
M — CC 69: Discover your taste buds in Japan at #AroundTheWorld celebration!
N — CC 126: .@AmericaFerrera joins the cast of celebrity narrators for Candlelight Processional. Come see America December 15 to 17, 2015!
O — CC 89: Come see .@AmericaFerrera tonight as she hosts the Candlelight Processional at #Epcot!
P — CC 112: Tonight is the last chance to join us in the Candlelight Processional celebration with host .@AmericaFerrera!
Q — CC 116: Build your own traditions this season! Go #AroundTheWorld with your family at #Epcot and create #MagicalMoments!
R — CC 163: ¡Feliz Navidad! Join mariachis and dancers in the country of Mexico as they bring color and excitement to the music, dances and traditions of a holiday fiesta!
S — CC 79: Check out this seasonal recipe to try at home from Holidays #AroundTheWorld
T — CC 167: Make #MagicalMoments with your family this holiday season! Book your candlelight dinner today, and guarantee your seat for Epcot’s annual Candlelight Processional!
U — CC 64: Share your Christmas wishes with Santa and Mrs. Claus at #Epcot!
V — CC 126: When in Germany, listen closely as Helga tells the story of the first Christmas tree and the tale of her first Nutcracker.
W — CC 129: In France, discover the magic of Père Noël and the joy of the season through a Christmas letter from a child. #AroundTheWorld
X — CC 121: Mickey and Minnie are waiting to greet you at #Epcot this holiday season! Bring the whole family for #MagicalMoments!
Y — CC 106: Amy Grant is the celebrity narrator for our Candlelight Processional December 29 – 30, Don’t miss out!
Z — CC 87: Last chance to see .@AmyGrant tonight! Head on over and #CelebrateAtEpcot #HappyNewYear

Images to go along with posts that are applicable. Some images to be used for both FB and Twitter.

Holidays-Around-the-World-at-Epcot_Full_17595

Integrated Marketing Recap | Live Design Trade Show

October 26, 2015intro-multimediaGrad Student, IMC, Integrated Marketing, LDI, Live Design Trade Show, Social Media, University of Floridastacielscott Leave a comment

I’m a UF grad student and this blog post is for educational purposes only.

As part of a weekly assignment for the University of Florida’s MMC5006 Introduction to Multimedia Communication class, we are taking a deeper look at how Live Design International (LDI) does Integrated Marketing for their October trade show event in Las Vegas LDI Tradeshow.

The LDI Trade Show has been the leading global tradeshow and conference for live design professionals for 28 years. The tradeshow hosted over 10,000 attendees and more than 350 companies/exhibitors. I found it interesting that the University of Florida College of Fine Arts has a partnership with LDI and offers students credits towards their degree for masterclasses they attend through LDI. Their main website houses all sorts of information including link outs to LDI partners, details regarding offered masterclasses, and even the itinerary for the trade show.

LDIshow.com

LDI has a great start to IMC as they house all their information on their website and use it as their main information destination. On the right hand side of the home page there is a call out for attendees to download the LDI Mobile App and connect with LDI on all of their social channels. Those social channels include, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube. The 728×90 header is advertising space, and one sponsor used it to tout their booth number.

Email

Live Design sent out an email communication to their distribution list letting everyone know that LDI Tradeshow had begun, and they featured In the Eye of Rock ‘n Roll Hurricane providing ribbon ceremony cutting times and regular exhibit times.

Email communication continued throughout the week. I received an email about every other day. The last email I received linked out to an article announcing all the LDI award winners.

Facebook

Facebook has 5,122 people wanting to know the latest information via Facebook channels. LDI posted once or twice before the tradeshow began, but during the week is when they really stepped up their social engagement and sent multiple updates. The posts they distributed on Facebook were reminders to visit certain exhibits, they called out booth numbers for people to go check out, a couple of sponsor posts with one having a sweepstakes layer, and then tons of behind the scenes photos!

Twitter

LDI’s following on Twitter is 3,754. This is the social channel that LDI focused on pushing out information during the week of the tradeshow. Leading up to the tradeshow, LDI was posting once a day or every other day. On October 19, kicking off the LDI Tradeshow, they posted 13 times. Throughout the week, LDI pushed out post after post. Everything from panel info, where that night’s after party was being held to master class offerings and other Vegas specials. If you were looking for information about the happenings of LDI, you could find it on their Twitter page. #LDI2015 was the most widely used hashtag during the promotional window of the tradeshow as well as #LDIAfterDark which promoted the nighttime events. LDI @tagged many exhibitors new products and promoted it’s mobile app via Twitter as well.

At the end of the show, exhibitors and attendees alike were tweeting ‘that’s a wrap’ and ‘thank you for a great show’. The hashtag #LDI2015 saw much love at the end of the show. LDI didn’t do much two-way conversation during their social promotion, but at the very end they did re-tweet a few posts.

In future promotional strategies, it would be great to see some conversations regarding the events at the tradeshow or vendors products just to have some social back and forth banter.

YouTube

Their YouTube channel hasn’t been updated in 10 months. The top video is the highlight reel from the 2014 LDI tradeshow. With all the technology and cool visuals coming from this tradeshow, I would think that YouTube would be a great social channel to leverage. Definitely an opportunity missed by LDI.

Mobile App

LinkedIn

LDI has a LinkedIn page and the social chicklet on their website, however, it seems as though they do not have much activity through this social channel. This could be an area of improvement whereas LinkedIn could be leveraged to connect to all the tradeshow vendors and attendees.

Additional LDI Promotion from Vendors

Stacie Scott is A-W-E-S-O-M-E and She Likes Being Part of a Team

October 20, 2015intro-multimediaBlog, brand yourself, Grad Student, job application, University of Florida, warner brothersstacielscott Leave a comment

Dear Hiring Manager,

Thank you for taking the time to read a little bit about me, my experience, and why I would be a great fit on the Warner Bros. Pictures Worldwide Marketing team.

My name is Stacie Scott, and I’m a creative marketer with 13+ years of advertising experience. I have an expertise in art direction, brand development, strategic problem solving and construction of integrated marketing promotions. I am an extraordinary, brand and legal rule-following, imaginative marketing executive who is identified as one of the most awesome people in the industry. My enthusiasm to create knockout promotions, uncanny ability to organize, and knack for fostering great relationships has provided me with a portfolio of success stories.

I am really excited and ready to join the epic quest your team encounters with every theatrical release the department supports. With the Lego Movie being a huge success, and the Batman Lego Movie currently in production, I wanted to showcase my creativity by incorporating my resume in to a version of The Lego Movie DVD.

Some of the strengths and attributes that would make me a valuable asset to your team include:

“The Special” – Relationships

I have the aptness for fostering great relationships and a successful track record creating client promotions. In fact, I take great pride in my ability to lead from concept to completion and keep my clients happy.

“Social is AWESOME” – Digital and Social Wherewithal

With my expertise in digital and social media, my current leadership team has identified me as the social media guru for my department. Social amplification is top of mind with all our clients, and I’ve recently been tasked with training our entire sales and marketing department.

“Master Builder” – Creative Ideation and Promotion Development

For every campaign I manage and bring to market, I oversee the development of the promotion starting with the idea, the creative execution, spearhead metric laced conversations, host post-mortem meetings, and define best practices for future marketing strategies. Also, I love building decks, client sponsorship mocks, and sell sheets.

In summary, I believe I have the ability and experience you desire.

The opportunity to join the marketing team is a-w-e-s-o-m-e and it would be c-o-o-l to be part of the team!!!

Below, I’ve highlighted a few marketing elements from various integrated promotions I’ve managed so you can have a first-hand look at the type of content I produce and manage.

Disney Channel Sponsorship Spot – Television
Best Western Aurasma Experience – In-Hotel
Nintendo Splatoon Launch Event with Disney Talent Integration – Event

Also, you can find me on Pinterest to learn more about me!

Thank you for again for your time and consideration. I’m looking forward to hearing next steps.

Sincerely,

Stacie Scott

ScubaEarth: Specific Social Media

October 19, 2015intro-multimediadiving, Integrated Marketing, marketing, ocean, proximity marketing, scuba, scubaearth, Social Mediastacielscott Leave a comment

Industry Specific Social Media

This week we are learning about proximity marketing and industry-specific social networking. The increase in mobile devices is driving popularity for proximity marketing for its ability to reach consumers at point of purchase opportunities and for consumers on the go. And, industry specific social networking is gaining traction within social communities.

Below, take a look at one industry specific site I really like, ScubaEarth. Earlier this year I finally received my open water diver certification from PADI, and quickly enrolled in their social community ScubaEarth. With the help of ScubaEarth my next dive adventure is currently being planned!

So What Is ScubaEarth?

Scuba Earth

PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) created ScubaEarth, an industry specific social gathering place for divers and diving advocates. On PADI.com you can find a call to action stating join the evolution on ScubaEarth directly underneath the social channel call outs.

ScubaEarth® is an online scuba resource and social community for divers and other water lovers. It’s a robust, one-stop site to research, plan and share dive experiences. ScubaEarth targets PADI divers that want to stay in touch with diving experts and those that also want to receive the latest information on dive trips and equipment. Diving is an expensive hobby and one that is usually planned well in advance. With that in mind, this site aids in the research of finding a location to dive and ensuring you have all the information you need.

Not only can you connect with diving buddies, but you can share your images and dive information including visibility at the dive site, how long the dive consisted, and what sea life could be seen at each logged dive location.

This site is definitely a resource in that you can access your diving certification and dive classes administered by PADI, look up featured destinations, research dive sites and find dive shops.

Mission

To engage new divers and keep current divers diving | Support and mobilize the scuba diving lifestyle | Encourage customers to fulfill their scuba diving needs with a PADI Retailer or Resort

Vision

Establish a thriving online community of dive enthusiasts and professional experts who share valuable content.

Stand Out From the Crowd

ScubaEarth stands out from other forms of social communities because it is truly a resource and way to connect with other divers. The site provides the certification details you’ve received and has the log book feature woven as one of the main features. This site allows people to truly connect with those that are passionate about diving without being flooded with daily posts about what your friends did last night or ate for lunch today.

Get Schooled with Proximity Marketing

ScubaEarth has 4 main tabs at the top of the site. Featured Destinations and Dive Shops are two of the four tabs that could seamlessly incorporate proximity marketing to further the potential bookings of a dive trip and the purchase of new equipment for a divers next trip below the surface. If a diver is searching for a new destination for a dive trip, incentives could be sent out through posts to the wall or their network of buddies to encourage bookings. Also, discounts on new masks, fins, bcd’s, and other accessories is a no brainer! ScubaEarth also allows you to add your local dive shop to your profile. Discovery Dive Shop is my preferred retailer and their location is stored in my profile with a specific code. I think this geo-targeted information and link in my profile could give the dive shop the opportunity to send email notifications on the latest dive trips and any promotions they have going on in-store.

ScubaEarth Integrated Marketing

At the bottom of the main page of ScubaEarth’s site, it has the following call to action for four additional social sites.

There is a small presence on YouTube in addition to Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn. In my opinion, Instagram or Flickr could be two really cool visual social channels that would amplify and create excitement for future dive trips. Being able to see what other divers explored under the ocean’s surface in an aggregated gallery on ScubaEarth could make the experience so much more visually stimulating, and again, I think promote research for those featured dive locations found in the images.

ScubaEarth by PADI

ScubaEarth Instructional Video

Find me on ScubaEarth…I’d love to hear all about your diving experience!

Learnist is a place for learning and sharing what you know

October 15, 2015intro-multimediaBlog site, Building Brands, Discovery Channel, Grad Student, Grockit, Kaplan, Learn from Peers, Learnist, Sharing Knowledge, UFstacielscott Leave a comment

Learnist…Builds Brands and Shares Knowledge

Let’s Take It Back To Inception:

Farbood Nivi, a former teacher of the year for the Princeton Review and academic advisor at Kaplan, founded a company called Grockit in 2007.

Grockit was created as a social learning game company designed to help learners educate themselves through technology. In short, Grockit was an online test prep service geared at aiding students in their preparation to take standardized tests and help them earn their best possible scores. On December 18, 2012, Grockit announced a strategic $20 million dollar investment from Discovery Communications, best known for Discovery Channel, Animal Planet and TLC television channels. The announcement also included Uber and Scribd as additional investors along with previous investors Atlas Venture, Benchmark Capital, GSV Capital, New Schools Ventures, and Integral Capital Partners. Then in 2013, Kaplan acquired Grockit. Kaplan, being a test prep company itself, found the acquisition was a natural fit in the progression of shared learning through technology. With Grockit’s primary focus as instructional online learning for test prep, the acquisition allowed Nivi to focus on a new social learning tool for the company, which he called Learnist. Learnist differs from Grockit and Kaplan in that, it’s a social learning tool championing collaborative learning through sharing with others.

Learnist Has Grown:

Nivi originally developed Learnist for K-12 teachers and students alike, to help users create ‘learn boards’ to assist with studying and learning core curriculum.

In May of 2013, Learnist had around 700,00 registered users with 200,000 of those users being active monthly participants. Additionally, the company disclosed that each month, they received approximately two million page views. In February 2014, Learnist had roughly 10 million users. Talk about growth of the audience and users of a technology product! Today, Learnist is for users that want to share knowledge and collaborate with other subject matter experts. There is a lack of statistical demographical data for Learnist available to the public, but one could argue the target audience is reflective by the type of content that is highlighted on Learnist.

Articles all over the web compare the content communities Learnist and Pinterest to one another. In many instances, Learnist has been dubbed ‘The Pinterest for Education’. CEO Roy Gilbert cites the two communities are very different, but if you explore the functionality and look of the two social platforms, you’ll find they are very similar!

Nivi stated, “The word “integration” means to make something whole, and I think that’s an important point. The goal is for the organization to be optimized — not the individual parts.”

What Learnist Can Do For Your Brand:

Farbood Nivi, stated the following on his LinkedIn account, “We want to be the Instagram of knowledge-sharing… like a smart RSS.”

And that is what Learnist is working towards and striving to do. It is a content community of curious people sharing knowledge about anything and everything. It is taking individuals or brands and brings them together as a whole unit in a synergistic learning environment. Learnist believes in collaboration, that everyone is an expert in something, and that Learnist is the go-to platform to share knowledge with other folks that have the same passion or those that are just curious in nature looking to learn something new.

Learnist offers brands the opportunity to provide value to their consumers through the sharing of knowledge. The Learnist platform establishes brand credibility for all users creating content since they are viewed as the experts in their area of expertise.

Functionality of the site allows for simple browsing of categories or a specific search of a topic. Each board gathers content from multiple sources and complies the content for easy reading and computation. The Learnist app then provides the full article if the user wants to read more about a particular topic. One of my favorite features is after you are done reading an article you can save a board to your reading list and reference it again and again. There are so many times I’ve read content online that I would like to reference at a later date so I print the article not having a virtual bookmark to use, which leads to a stack of paper that eventually gets thrown away…the article never to be referenced again.

Learnist provides content viewing, how-to guides, and educational videos on a variety of subjects. A user can add things to a reading list, create boards, collect things, and follow subject matter experts or brands that the user finds interesting. Lessons or ‘learn boards’ can be annotated with notes and explanations and organized sequentially if needed. Another feature is the virtual checklist, which allows one to mark off learnings that are complete, or suggest new learnings. In addition to this ‘bookmark’ feature of learn boards, content from Learnist can be shared socially across Facebook, Twitter and email.

Learnist On Social:

Facebook: 80,488 Likes
Twitter: 9,633 Followers
Pinterest: 5,100 Followers
Instagram: 246 Followers
Linked In: 238 Followers
Tumblr: Presence

Available When You’re On The Move:

Learnist is offered through Google Play for android phones and the iTunes Store for iOS devices. Learnist audience grew exponentially when it was available through mobile apps for people on the go, especially with the Android version for those that are located internationally. The mobile apps were recently updated to make the experience more immersive and easier for the user to create their own learn boards.

Learnist Is A Money Maker and Has Celebrity Status:

In a strategy to have users coming back for additional content, the Learnist app features premium boards created by topic experts and celebrities.

Currently these premium boards may be purchased for ninety-nine cents. Some of the celebrities being featured are Olivia Wilde, Gus Van Sant, and Dhani Jones.

Nivi’s goal for Grockit and Learnist was to make high-quality education accessible to everyone, and that is what he is accomplishing through these educational learning tools.

Check out my Prezi!

Nike, McDonalds and Coca-Cola are Socially Savvy — They Just Do It and are Lovin’ it by Opening Happiness!

October 12, 2015Uncategorizedall day breakfast, coca-cola, coke, facebook, Grad Student, instagram, Integrated Marketing, just do it, mcdonald's, nike, open happiness, twitter, University of Floridastacielscott Leave a comment

Nike, McDonalds and Coca-Cola are Socially Savvy — They Just Do It, Are Lovin’ it and are Opening Happiness!

Below, check out how these brands use integrated marketing methods to promote themselves.

Facebook • Twitter • Instagram • Google+ • Pinterest • YouTube

Nike does take an integrated marketing approach to advertising, however, they do it without inundating the marketplace with their messaging. On most of their social platforms, it seems that the overall Nike brand retweets it’s sub-brands like Nike Football, Nike Women or Nike.com.

On Facebook, Nike posts once to twice a month. They limit their use of hashtags on the Facebook platform only leveraging their main campaign hashtags such as #JustDoIt or #NikeZoom.

For Twitter, Nike posted 4 times in the month of August (and they were all re-tweets), posted only twice in September , and has yet to post anything in October. When Nike posts, they do integrate a hashtag, but they keep it very simple and again stick to the main or trending hashtags.

You would think that hashtagging on Instagram would be a no brainer, but about half of the posts Nike disseminates via Instagram do not incorporate any hashtags at all. They do @tag their sub-brands in their messaging.

The content on Google + is posted more infrequently than any of the social platforms. This seems to be the same with Pinterest.

You can connect to the social channels below from Nike.com.

Facebook • Twitter • Instagram • Google+ • Pinterest • YouTube • Tumblr • Vine • Flickr

Has anyone ever craved breakfast for lunch, dinner or even a late night snack? Well, McDonalds released a new menu that serves breakfast all day long. This new promotion is being touted across all media platforms, and let’s just say Mickey D’s is rocking integrated marketing communications! Their television commercials even showcase people sharing their requests AND their joy for all day breakfast. I must say the commercials that touted the tweets for all day breakfast were hilarious. Well done McDonald’s… hat’s off to your creative agency for this promotion!

YOU CAN GET BREAKFAST ALL DAY

#AllDayBreakfast

McDonald’s instagram is highly stylized, very simple and is saturated with the primary colors in the color wheel. Insta gets around 4 to 5 posts a week.

Tweeting is a regular mainstay for the McDonald’s brand. The photo posts on Twitter are not like the photos of perfection you see on their instagram channel.

@McDonalds YAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS #alldaybreakfast SOOOOOOOO good

McDonald’s uses Google+ and YouTube to house all their videos so that they can be found in one easy location.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/yCTopiYQoYw“>

McDonald’s also uses Tumblr to collect tweets, instagram posts, gifs, memes and collect them in one easy local for sharing and re-sharing purposes.

Talk about synergy between two major brands. Check out this Vine that McDonalds posted…

Raise your hand if you love a coke with a big mac! Yes please, my hand is up!!

You can also find more information from this blog on McDonald’s social presence.

Facebook • Twitter • Instagram • Google+ • Pinterest • YouTube • Tumblr • Vine • Flickr (and I’m sure Many Many More)

Coca-Cola shares happiness across all media types and has a prolific social media footprint. Coca-Cola does integrated marketing well, and you can find brand consistency across all the media and social platforms they are on. They are very consistent in their messaging and posts.

When it comes to hashtags, Coke is very clever. They hashtag their campaign titles as well as hashtag current events with custom graphics like the blood moon post below.

Coke consistently updates each of their social platforms with new content every day or two.

I really love the pin boards Coca-Cola has on Pinterest. They are all related to events or a lifestyle thematic.

On Coca-Cola.com (United States version), the website has a module that drives to Social that features the latest posts, allows you to connect via the website and link outs to the following social platforms; Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr.

Doggone Best Products USA is ‘Paw’rrific

October 5, 2015intro-multimediaamazon, Blog site, dog doggone doggone best products, email, facebook, Grad Student, IMC, Integrated Marketing, pinterest, Social Media, University of Floridastacielscott Leave a comment

Whether or not you are marketing yourself or a brand, you must define your objectives and strategizes to achieve your marketing goals. The objectives and strategies you outline act as a guideline for creating all the integrated marketing communications for a particular campaign.

For this week’s assignment, I choose to help out a friend of mine and create marketing elements and further the social footprint for their dog supplement company.

DOGGONE BEST PRODUCTS USA (DoggoneBestUSA.com is coming soon!)

Doggone Best Products is a pet supplement company dedicated to the health and happiness of your four legged friends. Let’s take a closer look at the company and their marketing strategy.

Objectives:

Further awareness of Doggone Best Products
Create and further Doggone’s social footprint keeping the brand message, look and feel of the content consistent yet customized for each platform
Create and distribute email communication for their newest product, a 5 million count Probiotic

Strategies:

Update product information on Amazon
Create Pinterest account to target women
- Pin health tips for senior dogs, the right amount of exercise your dog should be getting, and tips for weight management
- Pin boards that further promote the Doggone brand and doggie parent interests
Target customers that have previously purchased the Joint Supplement with product information regarding the new Probiotic supplement

Let’s take a look at the IMC elements created to promote and market Doggone Best this week!

Amazon Product Info:

Doggone Best had two different formulas for their joint supplement. After many focus group testing’s with beloved pets, the original formula which was chicken liver flavor won out over the beef flavored formula. To market that the original formula will be in stock as of October 6, I crafted position statement about it being back by ‘Paw’pular demand and the discontinued use of the beef flavored supplement.

BACK BY ‘PAW’PULAR DEMAND: Your furbabies have spoken and we listened. We are exclusively offering our original joint supplement formula that your dog loves so much!

Pinterest: Created the entire Pinterest footprint for Doggone this week

The visual bookmarking tool that helps you discover and save creative ideas.

I created 8 boards for Doggone this week, and many more will be added in the future – but it’s a great start in creating a pet loving community for Doggone Best. The first set of pin boards are creative ideas for fall images with your pups, Pet Care with a focus on joint health for senior dogs and weight management, inspirational quotes about dogs, and of course a board about puppies is cuteness overload!

Email Marketing:

In the previous week’s lesson for integrated marketing platforms, we studied email marketing. Email marketing is not dead and is a great way for companies to boost sales and distribute the latest product information and sales to their consumers.

Email is the most dominant way of sharing information. Back in the day, one of the best parts of logging onto AOL was the knowledge that after minutes of agonizing squeals, you’d be treated to that wonderful phrase, “You’ve Got Mail!”

If you stop to think about it, email has become a mainstay for most businesses and how the majority of business communication is conducted. Email has replaced faxing documents as well as replaced many face to face and telephone communications. Email makes it easy to document communication, and reference it at a later point in time if necessary.

More than one in five people worldwide use email. That’s about 1.9 billion people. It’s predicted to increase to 2.5 billion email users in the next 2 years. Yup, email’s popular. The Radicati Group, who came up with that info, also reckon that the world sends about 294 billion emails daily. 192 billion emails sent daily, that is an incredible amount of electronic communication!

Here is a screenshot of the email I designed that went out to Doggone’s distribution list. The two main points of the email is to promote the Probiotic and drive customers to connect to Doggone’s social sites. The email also reminds the audience of the free shipping and returns feature when ordering.

Facebook:

The strategy for this social channel is to continue to update the main content of the page including updating the brands imagery. For example, the use of the image with the golden retrieving the stick is the same image that was prominent in the email communication. I’ve also set the social post strategy for the next coming weeks that will drive to Doggone’s Pinterest board, promote the buy 2 promo offer, as well as posts that promote the overall health and care of your pet!