Online Promotion Portfolio

Assignment 1

S11710958

Week 1 Marketing Technique: Direct Marketing

Objective: Trying to attract Facebook likes and/or Twitter followers and in doing so promoting your brand to wider audiences.

Idea 1:

Client: Yumm Cafe

Yumm is an independent cafe in Digbeth, Birmingham, that serves home cooked food, freshly prepared sandwiches and salads as well as a variety of hot drinks and cakes. They also cater for parties or functions.

As they are a small company, realistically they are looking at increasing their likes by approx 100.

Elevator Pitch:

The plan is to use QR codes as a way to access discounts and offers on products, whilst also publicising on Facebook that you are at Yumm, enjoying their products.

Full Pitch:

The idea is to have QR codes by the checkout of Yumm that customers can scan whilst they’re waiting to be served. I chose to put it by the checkout as you are already likely to be buying something if you are there. This then acts as an extra treat and incentive if customers can’t decide what to have. When you scan the code, you automatically like the Yumm Facebook page and receive a welcome offer for 20% of drinks/cakes/snacks or a free drink with every hot meal. A status is then posted which shows all your Facebook friends that you are at Yumm enjoying their food, for example, “I’m at Yumm cafe (tagged) in Digbeth. I’ve just liked them on Facebook and got 20%off my bill.” This publicises two things on the news feed and should hopefully catch the attention of some of your friends. It’s likely that some of the friends are work colleagues and as Yumm’s main customers are people who work around the area, they are a local audience who are more inclined to take up the offer and pop in during their lunch break or after work. Similarly, other friends may see it and think that the recommendation is a good thing or get enticed by the offer and decide to try it themselves. This will hopefully then generate a catapult

effect with people scanning the QR for themselves, a friend seeing it and doing the same, their friend then seeing it and doing the same and so on. It is valuable free exposure.

The QR code would work in a similar way to the mock-up shown below.

Online Tools or Platforms:

I would need a QR code that can only be scanned once by each device. This then limits any misuse and controls the whole activity. It would be down to the customer to have a QR scanner on their phone but it is likely that they do as Digbeth is home to a lot of media savvy people.

I would also need to use a Facebook tracker tool to that I can see the results by monitoring the number of Facebook likes. Free tools like ‘Facebook Page Insights’ will allow me to do this as it monitors activity on your Facebook page and displays useful information like the demographic of your customer and how many likes you’ve had. Below is an example of some of the data it produces:

Intended Outcome:

The intended outcome is to promote the brand to a market that has local access to the cafe. It is also to increase likes by at least 100.

Dangers:

The main danger is that customers could rescan the QR code to get another discount code or reuse the discount code once they have opened it. To avoid these dangers happening I will ensure there is a setting within the code that means you can only scan it once per device. Once it has been scanned, the code will be locked and people will no longer have access. With regard to reusing the voucher, I plan to have a unique code on each one that you quote when making your purchase. The code can only be used once and the computer will recognise if there are any repeat codes used.

Costs:

The obvious cost is the free drink being given away and the money off from the discount. Yumm would have to work out their margins to see how many discounts/free drinks they are able to give away in order to still make a profit on the idea. By limiting the offers, it reduces and controls the amount of money being taken off. By having to buy a main meal to qualify for a free drink, it forces customers into buying more expensive items off the menu. It makes customers think they have a good deal and makes them more willing to buy.

Case Study:

One case study I found was Ed Sheeran’s ‘Tweet Me Love’ campaign. From the picture below you can see that Ed is asking you to post something onto Twitter and in doing so you automatically like his Twitter page. I thought this was a clever idea and have taken inspiration from this by automatically liking the Yumm Facebook page when the QR code is scanned. As Ed has done a similar thing, I can see this it is a feasible idea and has worked before.

Another case study specifically using QR codes is Diesel’s ‘I Like’ campaign. They introduced QR codes in their stores which enable you to “Like” a product by scanning a QR code which then posts to your Facebook wall. Friends can then comment on posts and pick which products they like best. For your friends, the campaign is like going shopping minus the effort as your friend has already picked out some of the best items in store. I think this is a really clever idea and have used it as inspiration for my own pitch. The part I particularly liked was the fact is posts to Facebook so that your friends can see and engage with it as well. To improve this campaign they could perhaps offer an incentive into liking the products as customers aren’t really getting that much out of it, but at the same time I think the simplicity is what makes it work so well.

Evaluation of the pitch and idea:

Overall I think this is a realistic idea that could generate a lot of Facebook likes for Yumm. Although there are some areas it could improve on, like making the QR scanning process run smoother, it generally meets the brands objectives and intended outcome.

Idea 2:

Client: Mars

Mars is a well known chocolate and confection company that produces Galaxy, Maltesers, Twix and Mars itself. It is a family friendly brand and in the past has sponsored the England football team.

Elevator Pitch:

Idea is to open pop up photo booths in all the major UK shopping centres where people can take silly photos embezzled with the mars logo, that they can see and save by liking the mars Facebook page. The idea is that they like the page tag themselves in the photo which then comes up on their friends news feed which then promotes the product to a wider audience.

Full Pitch:

The photo booths will have a dressing up box of all things red and black (wigs, oversized glasses, crazy hats etc...) which people can use to make themselves look funny. The colours have been chosen as subtle advertising because they are the colours used on the brands packaging and logo. When users go in they get given a couple of celebration sized mars bars to try, before using whatever props they like. As the photos are likely to be funny and people will be enjoying themselves, they will hopefully associate Mars with those same feelings and be more inclined to buy them in the hope they can feel positive again. I also think that if the photos are funny, then people will be more inclined to want to look at them again and therefore more likely to tag them.

Once the photos are taken they are then uploaded onto Facebook and labelled with the mars logo. (See below for an example – actual photo will be in colour.) In order to see the photos, you have to be a Facebook friend so you will have to like the page. As an incentive for people to tag themselves in the photos, Mars will send you a voucher for a free chocolate bar if you do and you will also be put into a prize draw to win a £100 voucher for the shopping centre you had your photo taken in.

In uploading the pictures on Facebook, there are three opportunities for Mars to appear on your news feed. The first is the initial like, the second is if you tag yourself in the photo and the third is if you comment or like the photo. This then exposes the brand to Facebook friends who may also be inclined to like them if they like the product and can see they are engaging with their customers.

Intended Outcome:

As Mars is such a big, global company, you would expect a campaign like this to generate a lot of likes. Propaganda Birmingham follows similar principles and has just under 10,000 likes which on average should mean a similar concept could get 9000 likes per city. If we ran this campaign in 20 shopping centres across the UK (including: the Metro Centre, The Trafford Centre, The Bullring, Westfield Stratford, Liverpool One etc...), and got 5000 likes from each centre, then we would get 100,000 likes on Facebook. Similarly, if we did it in 15 shopping centres and got 7000 likes from each, we would have 105,000 likes. I feel these are achievable figures and ones Mars could actually surpass given that Saturday is the busiest day and there is a lot of foot traffic.

Online Tools and Platforms:

The only platform I will need to use is Facebook as all of the images will be uploaded directly from the booth to the Mars news feed. These will be previously approved to ensure they fit in with the brands image and are not offensive in any way.

To monitor the behaviour and activity on the Facebook page I will use the free tool Facebook Insights, as this will allow me to monitor what people are doing on the page. The biggest thing I will have to monitor is the number of Facebook likes and number of tagged people. Another thing that would be useful is the demographic of people who have responded. This could help to form an idea of Mars target market.

Dangers:

The biggest danger and problem with this idea is that children under the age of 16 will not be able to take part unless they have consent from their parent or guardian. This is because you cannot publish images of children who are under 16 for protective reasons. Due to this, the target audience for this campaign would be 16-30 which I think is appropriate as it is the age where people are most likely to use Facebook and be more inclined to take part in the activity as they still have a level of ‘sillyness’ in them.

Another danger is that people could misuse it and go in more than once. Obviously this is hard to control but by setting a time limit on each photo session, it should hopefully mean that more people get to have a go rather than people spending ages inside, causing a big queue.

Also, a danger could be the camera breaking from misuse. This would be expensive to replace.

Costs:

A campaign like this is likely to have a lot of hidden costs but as Mars are such a profitable company, it is likely that they have a big budget for marketing. It would all depend on how much they are prepared to pay to get brand exposure and Facebook likes. Potential costs include:

• Cost of the photo booth –I found that on average a photo booth costs around £300-£450 to hire. Obviously this would become very expensive having to keep renting it out and would also mean that they couldn’t customise it. Rather than rent, I therefore suggest mars buy one as a cheaper alternative. I found that they vary between £3000 and £8000 depending on type. This is a lot of money but the investment should provide a lot more than that in return.

• Cost of space in shopping centre – Based on research and conversations with contacts I have, I think the most you would pay for a space is approx. £2000. Prices vary depending on location so hopefully some centres will be cheaper, minimising costs.

• Cost of fancy dress equipment – Max £500 • Cost of staff to run the booth – Roughly £10 an hour • Cost of time – Uploading the photos will take a lot of time but it should be worth it in the end • Cost of prize for incentive - £100 for voucher (a prize people are more likely to want.) • Cost of giveaway Mars bars – As they own the company, it is likely they have a lot of Mars bars spare

and can afford to give away the cost of what it actually takes to make them.

Case Study:

Club nights use this tagging process all the time and it works successfully, generating a lot of Facebook likes.

Example: Propaganda Birmingham

As you can see below, Propaganda upload photo albums from each week, all labelled with the propaganda logo. If you go through the albums you can see that the majority or photos have been tagged by people, which works as great promotion for the brand. To ensure they get Facebook likes, they limit the access to the photos unless you become a friend with them. I thought this was a good method and one I would employ for my own pitch as it ensures that people like the page rather than take what they want from it and leave again.

A problem I found however was that many people tend to save the picture and then re-upload it to their Facebook, with the logo cropped out, rather than tag themselves directly in the Facebook album. To avoid this happening with mars, I thought it would be a good idea to offer an incentive to tag. This will avoid any of the previous behaviour happening as they could potentially win something and everybody likes the idea of that.

Evaluation of idea:

I personally like this idea and think that it could be a success as I have seen similar working examples. Nintendo for instance, often do pop up games consoles in the middle of shopping centres to showcase a new game. Although it is likely to attract a younger age group, it is in fact quite varied which is a positive for my idea as it can appeal to all ages. Nintendo inspired me to provide samples of the chocolate as it ensures the product is always there and gives people the chance to try it if they never have.

However, I also think there are weaknesses in the idea and areas where potential problems could occur. One of the main weaknesses is that it may exclude older adults who may not have a Facebook account, or who may not want to take part but who still like mars and want to support it. A positive can come out of this though as by targeting younger people, it shows mars is looking to the future of its products and who is going to be buying it in a few decades.

Week 2 Marketing Technique: Competitions

Client: Ed Sheeran, a UK singer/songwriter

Objective: To get more followers, more likes, more YouTube hits, more album sales, more traffic to Ed’s website, and to give back to fans that have supported him in his career. It also provides a community amongst the fans as it unites them with interaction.

Elevator Pitch: Running two competitions, a big, more skilled one and a smaller, chance based one. First one is a virtual treasure hunt where clues will be posted across a number of social media platforms and the second is a question and answer, grouped together by a twitter hashtag.

Full Pitch:

1. Main, Skill Based Competition

Ed Sheeran has hidden 4 of his trademark hoodies in cyberspace and it’s up to his fans to track them down to be in with the chance for a meet and greet with the singer. The competition runs for a month and the idea is to create an ‘Ed-vent’ calendar, where each day Ed will post a tweet/video/status with a clue before announcing the winner every Sunday night. Videos can work in collaboration with his musical friends (he is well connected in the business), in order to get a wider reach. Could have artists like Example, Rizzle Kicks, One Direction etc... Unveiling the clues in a video, or providing one of the clues to make them harder to find. This works as cross promotion for everyone. Break down of clue schedule:

1. 1st Clue – a clue to the artist who has the first proper clue (Facebook) 2. 2nd Clue – a clue from the guest artist about the location (twitter) 3. 3rd Clue – a picture of the hoodie in the location, not too obvious (both platforms, instagram) 4. 4th Clue – video of artist who provided first clue wearing the hoodie (Ed’s YouTube channel, linked to on

Facebook and twitter) 5. 5th Clue – more obvious clue about the location 6. 6th Clue – on the spot competition (this could be any day of the week – details of comp to follow) 7. 7th Day – winner is announced (all platforms), starts again.

Competition could also run in collaboration with a clothing brand for further cross promotion.

Answers to the competition will be submitted via a competitions page on Ed’s website (bring people to online site), which would look similar to Ed’s existing competition to go to Legoland with him.

This shows there is a tool out there for this to work. Above is an example of how the submission page could look:

When you submit an answer a tweet goes out to your followers that you’ve entered which creates further promotion.

Online Tools and Platforms for competition 1:

• Twitter – used to provide clues, links to videos – can track activity using tweetstats which shows you the number of comments, number of retweets, who interacted with the links etc...Easy and free tool. If you use bit.ly, then it shows you the number of clicks your link has got which would be useful for links to the video or to where the submission is. Analytical tools will also show the demographic of Ed’s fans which will allow him to cater and market those likely to interact with him online.

• Facebook – used to give clues, post links to videos – can track activity using Facebook insights, bit.ly links • YouTube – Use Ed’s YouTube channel to post videos of artists with the clues. Whilst on the channel, it’s likely

that you will see other Ed related videos. Watch them = more hits. Can control and track by looking at the number of views.

• Ed’s website – used to submit the answers. Whilst there it’s likely you will have a browse, see other news and products, listen to his music etc.

This is promotion across all platforms.

Competition 2 – Chance Based

This would be a sideline competition done through a twitter hash tag similar to how Awesome Merch run competitions on their twitter feed. It could be as part of the ‘Edvent’ calendar to give fans more chance of winning.

For the chance to win some signed Ed merchandise, fans have to answer a question like ‘How many songs are there on Ed Sheeran’s + album? Answers must be submitted using the # #signedsheeranstuff as everyone can see the post rather than using a direct @. This results in even more exposure.

The nature of the question also makes people go back and look at the album or if they don’t have it, look where you can buy it, making them more inclined to purchase it. Looking at the track list may also remind you of some songs you haven’t heard in a while. This could generate more YouTube hits as fans go to listen to the songs.

Alternative question could be a maths puzzle, ‘How many songs are there on Ed’s album + (add but also the title of the album), number of hoodies hidden in the other competition. Inter promotion of the competition which makes people who may not be aware, aware and links all Ed’s activity together. Winner is then picked at random from those who used the #.

I chose these competitions because they tie in with the Ed Sheeran brand and are realistic prizes based on his current existing competitions.

Online Tools and Platforms for competition 2:

Twitter – Competition is through twitter and using a twitter hashtag. Get answers by looking at the hashtag but you could also use analytical tools like tweetstats, twazzup and tweetronics. A full breakdown of these tools can be found here.

Here is an example of how I would track a trending topic using a hashtag.

Dangers:

My original idea was to have an actual hunt where Ed literally hid the hoodies around the UK. This however, could have been dangerous for the fans, which are likely to be teenagers and was changed for something more suitable.

The hashtag could get hijacked by people, although this is pretty unlikely as it’s not hurting anyone or controversial.

Costs:

Ed meet and greet competition is generally very low cost with the only cost being Ed’s time, and travel to the meet and greet. It could be difficult to separate the UK from worldwide fans so perhaps or to decide whether to solely do it for UK fans in general. I think UK fans would be more suitable as it is more achievable for the prize and it is where his core fan base is. Each instruction would have to state it was UK only and the submission box entries must only be ones that are compatible with the UK e.g. telephone numbers.

Case Study:

EMI’s Pink Floyd Treasure Hunt Competition

For this competition, people had to find classic Pink Floyd album posters around the UK and post images of themselves and the posters online.

It aimed to promote the release of special editions of the band’s albums and the launch of the remastered versions of Pink Floyd’s back catalogue.

The treasure hunt directs fans via social media to where the 14 posters are in 11 UK towns, with each poster representing a classic Pink Floyd album. You enter the competition by taking a photo and uploading it to webdoc.com (a platform similar to pinterest but anyone can upload to one page). The feed is seen below.

The prize was a Cambridge audio streaming music player and a box set of the 14 remastered albums.

EMI decided against hosting it on more recognisable social media sites which I personally think worked as a disadvantage. By using a platform that people aren’t as familiar with, it may exclude people as it only has a small reach and put people off from using the site. If it was on a site like Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, there are more active users so users would be more likely to see it promoted and take part. This feed only drew in 42 posts which I think is a shame because it has the potential to be a really good idea.

These figures were another reason I decided to make my hunt virtual as it meant I could reach a wider audience and not exclude anyone from parts of the country.

Another issue is that a typical Pink Floyd fan most likely doesn’t engage with social media to see the competition in the first place. Obviously they are a very well know band with fans of all ages but the core fans are likely to be 40+ and aren’t the target market for Facebook and Twitter.

Positives of this campaign however, include the fact the posters and feed of pictures are a great way to promote the albums and boost sales. Seeing them all in one place will appeal to fans or remind people of how good the albums are.

Another positive is the community feel it provides. People are able to bond over shared experiences which I think they are able to do in the Ed competitions I propose as people can work together to guess the right answer.

One of the most influential things about this case study is that it provides clues though social media. I think this is very important for Ed’s target audience and is something I incorporated into my own idea. I have however, adapted EMI’s version by using more social media such as YouTube to appeal to the fans and have a cross media promotion.

Evaluation of Idea:

This is my favourite pitch in my portfolio as I think it is the one that most suits the brand and its audience. I think the biggest strength is that it creates a lot of interaction between Ed and his fans which is likely to make them more loyal, results in more album sales and a bigger social media following. The competition is fun and appropriate and should make people want to be involved rather than exclude them.

The biggest weakness of this idea would be if people didn’t respond to it. The Pink Floyd idea shows that just because you have a good idea, doesn’t mean you are going to get a good response from your audience. There is however a significant difference in the amount of followers they have, with Ed close to 6 million and Pink Floyd only in the thousands. This should hopefully mean that it reaches more people, thus resulting in a bigger response.

Week 3 – Direct Marking Technique – Creating Conversation

Idea 1 is to create topical conversation

Client: McDonalds

Elevator Pitch – (idea was thought of during the week of Valentine’s Day)

For a topical, universal conversation that promotes the brand at the same time, I propose a conversation linked together with the hashtag #imlovingit.

It would involve people talking about all the things they love (ties in with Valentine’s Day), but the hashtag would instantly remind you of McDonalds as it is such a recognisable slogan.

The choice of hashtag also means you can post more than one tweet, making it more likely to go viral. Creates a community feel as everyone bonds over what they love. Also already exists which makes it more likely to.

With the slogan in their head (and hopefully) all over twitter, people will be more inclined to go out and buy the products as they get a craving. This will particularly work for singletons on Valentine’s Day who may be trying to cheer themselves up.

It could also spread to instagram or pinterest with people posting pictures of what they love. It also has potential to be McDonald’s food which will provide further publicity as pictures help to sell.

This would result in McDonalds creating a topical conversation whilst maintaining the brand and its products at the back of customer’s minds.

Online Tools and Platforms:

Twitter – monitor through the hashtag, use free analytical tools like twitterfall and hashtracking (free 30 day trial).

Instagram – could analyse through statigram, an analytical tool that tracks trends and comments.

Dangers:

• Most obvious danger is that it could get hijacked by hackers or rival companies like Burger King was. Also people complaining about how unhealthy it is or animal rights activists/vegetarians campaigning against use of meat.

• People may not instantly understand what they have to tweet about (this is more a weakness in the idea.)

Costs:

A campaign like this is completely free to run and should generate a big return through good reputation and product sales.

Case Study:

Jet Blue Airlines regularly tweet their followers with topical questions. I think that this is a good thing because it personalises the brand and shows they have good customer service. This is useful for a big corporation like McDonalds as you would not expect a company so big to have ‘a face’.

This particular hashtag is useful to JetBlue as it lets them know where their audience is travelling to. This means they can cater their services to suit.

Example of a McDonald’s campaign that went bad:

When McDonalds used the hashtag #McDStories, they thought it would inspire happy memories of times at McDonalds. Instead, the hashtag got hijacked and it got turned into a chance to share #McDHorrorStories. Yes the hashtag generated a big response, but it could have been easily hijacked and is hard to control as brands have no say over trending topics.

Although my hashtag has the potential to be hijacked, it is not as bad as this case as it is more subtle.

Below are some examples of the tweets that hijacked the conversation:

Conversation Idea 2 – Long lasting results

Elevator Pitch: Using the hashtag #ukstaycation, people tweet where they are holidaying in the UK, what month they are going and what kind of holiday it is e.g. relaxing, adventure...

This then plots to a map so that people can get an idea of where’s popular or where to go themselves. There will also be user generated content like pictures and reviews so that people can discuss potential staycation ideas.

One of the most important features is that the map has a filter to narrow your search by holiday type, location, season etc...

These features should result in a big, interactive map that people can use to see what there is to do in the UK, promoting the British economy.

Full Pitch:

Following on from the previous ideas, there would also be a live twitter and instagram feed that display people’s posts as they are posted. The images are linked to the specific place on the map which means you can see particular places that look appealing to you.

People can also respond and tweet directly on the site as a way to encourage interaction. Below is a mock-up of how it might look:

It also has the potential to be a mobile phone app, which would act as a smaller, pocket sized version.

Client: There is no specific client for this although it would most likely be for the UK tourist board. There is already a twitter feed account that is called @ukstaycation so it could also work in collaboration with them. A lot of the tweets they post offer similar ideas so this map could be an expansion.

Objective:

To showcase UK holiday hotspots, promote staycations and create online buzz and conversation in doing so.

Intended Outcome:

To create an interactive map of popular places to have a staycation in the UK. As it is plotted on a map, there may be numerous points for the same location, this shows that it is a popular choice. To also put the spotlight on the UK rather than have families spend money oversees.

Online Tools and Platforms:

• Cartodb.com allows you to create data driven (including tweets) maps which could be useful as I am extracting data from Twitter directly to plot onto a map. The first map is free which is a bonus as I would only have to create one and it minimises the cost.

• Zeemaps is another example of a free tool you can create and publish interactive maps with. • Yahoo Pipes - Pipes is a composition tool to aggregate, manipulate, and mashup content from around the

web. Could be used to put together all the data collected. • Like Unix pipes, simple commands can be combined together to create output that meets your needs: • Twitter – Used to generate content for the map, embedded feed on the site, way to communicate with others • Instagram - # groups together pictures to be used for the map, images would have to be pre approved before

they are published onto the site to avoid any inappropriate pictures leaking through. Hashtag would be on instagram itself but there would also be an embedded feet on the site. Activity would be monitored through free, online tools like staigr.am

• Pinterest – this would work in the same way as instagram. People would pictures of places with the hashtag. • Review Submission – this could be done through an email submission box. Would also mean #ukstaycation

has a database of emails to use and promote to.

Dangers:

The biggest danger is that the hash tag could be hijacked. As it already exists and is a popular phrase, it could be used for another purpose. This could be solved by simply adding map onto the end so it would be #ukstaycationmap or by filtering the relevant tweets for the existing hashtag. Similarly, companies could pay people to review them in a positive way. This would mean that the map doesn’t reflect actual opinion reducing the use of it. This would be hard to monitor but by having to approve reviews and pictures, it could provide a little bit of control as suspicious behaviour could be stopped.

Costs

The main cost is to create the initial software. Although there are many free tools online to use, there is a possibility you will have to pay for additional features, but that shouldn’t be too much of an issue as the return will significantly outweigh the investment put in by hopefully providing a boost for the British economy.

Case Study

UK Snow Map

Obviously this case study was provided in class but I thought it was the best example to showcase the general idea and how it works.

UK snow map uses #uksnow tweets to draw an up-to-the-minute map of where it is currently snowing in the UK.

I have taken inspiration by this by plotting on a map, where people are going on/holidaying, however I feel I have adapted the idea to include more interaction and conversation across a range of social media platforms.

A big strength of this study is that the website design is simple and easy to use. I hope to emulate this with my own design as it will make people more likely to want to take part.

Another strength is that is shows that the idea works and that people are willing to tweet in. It is extremely useful to have a working model already out there as it makes the campaign realistic to create.

A weakness in this idea however, is that it doesn’t snow all year round which makes the map pointless for at least 8 months of the year. To avoid this happening and to engage with customers throughout the year, I chose something that can continuingly be talked about and refreshed each year so that new places can be plotted. This means that there is always a need for the product and engagement continues all the time.

Another problem with this case study is that it limits itself by only using one social media platform. More conversation and interaction will come from a cross section of platforms which is why I plan to use twitter, instagram and pinterest. This could easy be included on the #uksnowmap, and would make it more likely to reach more people.

Evaluation of idea:

I think that this idea has the potential to work really well however I am wary of people thinking I am copying UK snow map. I do feel however, that I have adapted and improved the idea to make it more interactive resulting in more engagement and conversation, which is what the marketing technique is all about.

The biggest strength is that it could result in a really useful online tool that people can use and interact with to help benefit the UK. It follows the countries notion of ‘the best of British’ and portrays the country in a positive way.

The biggest weakness is that it has the potential to flop if nobody tweets about it. I would therefore suggest some promotion before hand to advertise the campaign to people and inform them of what they have to do.

Week 4 Direct Marketing Technique – Gamification

Gamification is the idea of incentivising certain activities or desired behaviours by offering rewards. The method encourages engagement with a product/or service and includes leaderboards as one of the main features.

Client: This idea could be used for any travel/airline company as it is a general idea that rewards regular customers when they complete tasks.

Elevator Pitch:

It would involve gamifying the amount of mileage people have done by offering points to customers for the amount of miles they travel, using the company in general, recommendations/reviews of the company, completing your online profile etc...

Points are then displayed on a leaderboard and can be exchanged for prizes or rewards from the airline.

Full Pitch:

The plan is to create an online ‘Flight Club’, a play on the popular film ‘Fight Club’s’ title, where users get rewarded for taking part in activities linked to the airlines products. It has a similar premise to the Holiday Inn rewards scheme but focuses on using online tools to generate points.

Users get the chance to show off their mileage and online activity through an online leaderboard, where they are ranked by the amount of points they have got.

It works by providing a code every time you buy a ticket on your receipt that you then have to enter into the online platform. The code calculates the mileage based on the airports and you get points for how far you have travelled, how many times you have visited, for imputing the code etc...

An example of the process:

On your flight club page you have your own profile where you can earn points for completing it. You also have a map feature which tracks all the codes you’ve entered and allows you to keep a visual of the places you have travelled around the world. This personalises the idea and is a nice keep sake for people to look at.

The points get added up and ranked on a leaderboard. You can win badges by progressing through levels, achieved by reaching a certain amount of points. There will also be a progress bar so that people can see how far they are into the level. This provides an incentive to want to progress further. The levels are:

1. Economy 2. Business Class 3. First Class 4. Cockpit

These are tongue in cheek names that link to the concept of the brand but also show a recognisable rank.

When you win a badge you have the chance to post to your social media, for more exposure of the campaign.

Points can then be exchanged for rewards such as a free drink on board, a chance to go in a private lounge before your flight, express check in, more baggage allowance and money off flights (the hardest prize to get and would involving saving up A LOT of points.)

To link it to social media, you could also get points for reviewing the airline online. This needs to be done by logging into Facebook or twitter through the flight club page so that the review can be registered and tracked.

Similarly, if you refer a friend (they must name you and your flight club identity when they purchase their tickets), you both earn points which you can go on to exchange.

The Flight club would look like a much nicer, professional version of the mock-up below. This shows all features that will be available for people to use and interact with.

The leaderboard would have a variety of filters or tabs so you can look at each a variety of leader boards. Prize for being at the top of the board for two weeks would be free plane tickets to anywhere (anywhere they fly to).

The designs would combine features from these existing examples:

1. Step 2 Buzz Board: I will use the breakdown of what points have been scored on i.e. 5000 for air miles, 50 for friend referral, but I will make it more social by incentivising people to have profile pictures. I also like the idea of ‘queen bee’ etc. This is my version of the economy, business class etc... levels.

2. Pepsi I like that you can filter the choices of the leaderboard by friends, weeks etc... I will incorporate this into mine by being able to filter down by badges, by user and by level.

Objective:

• To recognise and reward brand loyalty by incentivising interaction with the brand and its products. • To create an online community of loyal customers

Online Tools and Platforms:

• Gigya – Gigya offers social media tools to online businesses helping them integrate their sites with top social networks. They specifically use gamification by offering features such as showcasing achievements (destinations travelled to on my map, badges), using a leaderboard, progress bars and activity feeds. These are all features I included in my mock-up which would make it incredibly useful to put my ideas into practice. Gigya also analyses activity which would be useful to see areas of improvement, how the campaign is running.

• Facebook/Twitter – You can log in using social networking to comment in the chat box at the bottom or to let friends know of achievements (badges). I would analyse this through Facebook insights as well as an internal monitoring device that tracks comments and statuses made through the flight club platform.

• Another platform I could use is Badegeville. This would be particularly useful to showcase the badges and levels users are on.

Dangers:

One of the dangers is that it could be misused by people who regularly fly on business trips as they get more opportunities to travel using the airline. At the same time, it could appeal to these people as it puts a positive on having to be away from friends and family by having to travel through work.

Costs:

• To set up the initial gamification software. The platforms and tools I suggested however offer free trials which would remove the cost altogether as it could be done using that.

• Cost of rewards – anything from the price of a drink to discounts on flights. This is controlled through the number of points people get. They are already purchasing and engaging with the products so the cost of a reward would be included as part of the package. They have already paid so they are being rewarded with great customer service and special treatment. This boosts the brand reputation as they are seen to be giving something back to customers.

Case Study 1:

Linkedln – The progress bar

The profile completeness bar on LinkedIn can be seen as an example of game mechanics. By seeing how much more complete the profile needs to be, many people will be driven to take steps to 100% completion with the promise of being able to take advantage of LinkedIn’s more advanced features.

I will use this case study for my own idea by offering points to those who complete their profile. It also makes the whole fight club experience more personable and social.

I will also use a progress bar to show how far you are away from your next badge/level as it will motivate people into wanting to proceed further.

Case Study 2:

Travelocity Roam with the Gnome

This is more if a sweepstake competition but it uses basic principles by asking users to press a button to win stamps. Stamps are then exchanged for prizes. I have taken the basic principles of this idea but used them for more of a marketing purpose by getting customers to directly engage and promote content.

What I liked about this idea was the idea of a passport where you can collect stamps. This fits my client perfectly and will be a nice feature to display the badges won.

This video is very insightful into the process and helped me get into the idea of using gamification as a marketing tool. It inspired some of my methods to get people to come back to the site such as the passport stamp, incentives and prizes.

The competition got a lot of response which shows people respond to the method, a positive for my idea and client.

Evaluation:

Overall, I think this is a good idea that could generate a lot of interaction with the brand. In this current day and age people will do a lot of things to get money off or something free, and this plays to that market.

A weakness is that it may not appeal to everyone because there could be an element of boasting or gloating about how many holidays you have been on. This would be limited by only seeing posts from people you are friends with on the network, and a general overview in the leaderboard.

Week 5 Direct Marketing Technique: Any

I have chose to combine all of the above plus a few others such as referrals, to show how they can all work in unison. This idea includes elements of gamification, getting Facebook likes/twitter followers/email addresses, creating conversation, referrals and competitions.

Client: This idea is very broad and can be applied to any brand that has a product, content to engage in and wants to create a loyal fan base.

I have chosen to pitch for Look Magazine, a weekly, female, fashion magazine. I chose Look because they have a core fan base yet are in a very competitive and saturated market. They need to do something to make them stand out and to get loyal weekly readers, which I think this proposed idea will do. They are also very good in keeping their social media up to date and have a lot of content on their website which users can constantly interact with.

Elevator Pitch:

My idea is to create a virtual community where readers are rewarded/incentivised by completing certain desired behaviours and tasks.

Users would get points for interacting with content; points for signing up, sharing content, commenting on articles and responding to social media (must be done whilst logged in, in order to register. You sign in with your Facebook/twitter account which makes this easier to do), being the first to review products, subscribing to the magazine, buying issues each week, watching online videos, taking part in quizzes.

These points would then be displayed in their own Look book, an internal social networking site where you can add friends and interact with people but also where you can post achievements, see leaderboard and see your activity log. Below is a rough copy of what it could look like.

Certain amount of points will result in a badge, which will be displayed in your Look book as a kind of trophy.

Badges include:

• Sharing superstar • Reviewing royalty • Social butterfly • Quiz queen • Commentating champ • And the ultimate badge for topping the overall leader board, the title of ‘Lady Look’.

Points and badges can then be exchanged for prizes such as exclusive fashion and beauty discounts, money off issues, free subscriptions, tickets to the look fashion show, £100 high street vouchers, makeovers. The bigger prizes are awarded (fashion show tickets/vouchers/makeovers) to people who top the leader board for each badge for more than a week.

Points could also potentially be used as an internal currency. You can buy issues online using the currency?

If you maintain your crown as Lady Look for more than a month, not only do you get all of the above prizes, you also get to come to the look office, have a tour and create a video for the online site of your day.

If you are Lady Look for a week you do not get the tour but your high street voucher increases to £250.

When you win a badge, your Facebook/Twitter automatically publishes your achievement (you are logged in with that login – give access to information such as email address and profile picture for your Look Book).

There could also be exclusive competitions for people who have a Look Book. Link here shows some of the competitions and discounts they have. They could be in this same vein but people get a greater chance to win as it in only people who have a Look Book.

Intended Outcome:

To create an online community that fully interacts with all elements and platforms the magazine runs on. It also provides rewards for loyal fans which will hopefully make them more likely to continue buying Look rather than competition like More magazine. Similarly, it will hopefully increase the fan base through the unique interaction Look provides for its readers.

It will also generate feedback from readers which is very useful data to have as it means you can improve your business.

In addition, the magazine will have been promoted and exposed to Facebook friends/Twitter followers creating further promotion for the brand.

Online tools/platform to use:

Gigya allows you to integrate gamification into your website by providing tools and game mechanics like actions, points, challenges, rewards and notifications. They make it easy to set up and optimise and also offer analytical tools to monitor activity.

They currently offer a free trial which would minimise costs which is more of a bonus as it seems like a great tool to create my gamified Look community.

Their past clients also include existing news and publicity brands like Elle, the Independent and Woman’s Day, showing that the platform works for my client’s business sector.

Other tools could, be Badgeville, who uses game mechanics to generate badges and leader boards. Below is an example of some the badges it produced for one of its clients.

I would hope to use similar features within my own badges such as the ability to share them on social media. This would make it a good online tool to use as it offers some of the design features that I want for my Look Book.

Other potential gamification tools/sites could be:

• Bunch ball, a leader in gamification with a free demo • Gamify – uses html to apply game mechanics such as levels, badges, quests and rewards. Can be

used for web and mobile, which appeals to Looks target readers. Could be very useful tool.

Facebook/Twitter –interact with statuses and tweets, , share posts, publish accomplishments. Friends/Followers see behaviour. Look into the brand.

Dangers:

People could misuse the points system and just like everything without reading it. To avoid this happening, liking an article will result in the lowest point score – 5 –so that it is unlikely people who just like anything will be able to experience some of the bigger prizes.

The whole points system would also need to be carefully controlled and monitored which I hope I can achieve by using one of the platforms above.

Costs:

• Cost to set up gamifcation – the examples above all have a free trial or free go for your first go (good example of providing incentives), so there should be minimum cost here.

• Cost of prizes:

o Look fashion show tickets – fairly low as it is a Look organised event so they own the tickets o Travel/Tour to London – max £100 for train tickets, return on same day, cost of time as someone would

have to be with them at all times throughout the day o Cost of high street vouchers - £1,250 (£100 for each badge, £250 for Look Lady) could work in

collaboration with shops? Could get cheaper o All in all – no more than £5,000 approximately. Should get a good return on investment through and

create a core loyal fan base. Results would far outweigh cost.

o Subscriptions are relatively low cost as they should have spare copies of each issue. Subscription costs are:

Case Study:

Example 1: Dropbox

Cloud storage supplier Dropbox has included an element of gamification in its platform by offering additional storage space if users complete certain tasks.

A free account gives you access to 2GB of storage, but you can earn an extra 250MB by taking a tour of Dropbox’s services.

There’s also 125MB up for grabs for connecting your account to either Twitter or Facebook, following Dropbox on Twitter or leaving feedback.

But the biggest rewards are reserved for referring friends – 500MB for each referral up to a maximum of 16GB.

These methods are all great ideas and ones I plan to employ for my own Look Magazine gamification. Rather than storage, I can offer points which can then be used for prizes.

It follows key features of gamification by rewarding certain desired behaviours.

Example 2: USA florist called Teleflora

They gamify their online store by using a reviews loyalty scheme. It offers points for actions like reviews, comments and sharing on Facebook. I plan to use this as inspiration by rewarding my readers for engaging with online content.

As customers clock up points they are rewarded with badges which are then ranked on a leader board. So far, Teleflora have employed all the gamification techniques for successful marketing that I am aware of and it proved wonders for their business with their conversion rate improving by 92%.

Although I don’t expect such a high figure, I hope that by implementing the same tools and ideas I will be able to generate more issue sales, more hits, more facebook likes, more user feedback and so on.

Negative of this is that few people on the leader board have a profile picture.

This reduces the social interaction and community feel of the process as it doesn’t look personable. I aim to eliminate this problem by taking profile pictures directly from Facebook or Twitter when they log on using the platform. This personalises people’s accounts and makes the Look Books look more appealing.

Another weakness is that although badges are unlocked, there are no visual elements to display this. I will ensure I have actual badges so that people can show them off proudly in their Look Book and feel a sense of achievement.

Evaluation of Ideas:

I am pleased with my final pitch idea and think that it would be able to work in the real world. Strengths include the fact it incorporates a variety of online promotion techniques across a range of interactive, social platforms. This means it can reach a wider audience, promoting the brand to more people.

If I were to improve the idea I would ensure that the point system and prizes were clearly defined to avoid any confusion from users.

I would also control the interaction on the chat as obviously that could get misused by people trying to get access to Look’s target reader.

Evaluation:

In general, I think I have created a well balanced portfolio that covers a variety of different techniques and platforms. I believe that many of my ideas, if not all, would be able to work in the real world with few problems and result in the intended outcome and objective of my client being fulfilled.

Although the competition week was my favourite idea, I am realistic that it wouldn’t showcase many skills for Assignment 2, nor would my direct marketing idea. I was therefore stuck between Flight Club, The Look magazine online community and the #ukstaycation map. These ideas all incorporate different online tools and would allow me to showcase and develop a variety of online promotion skills rather than just using social media like the Ed Sheeran week would.

I decided against the #ukstaycation map purely for the fact that is has similarities to an existing idea, UK snow map. Although this means the idea is effective and would work in the real word, I do not want to appear like I am copying the idea like Kleenex did with their hayfever hotspot map. In addition, I could not find a tool or platform that would definitely allow me to complete the task and would have made the idea on my budget and time scale unrealistic.

Out of the final two ideas, I found it very difficult to decide as I liked the fun idea of the Flight Club but feel the Look community would suit my interests as a journalism specialist more. I decided to then look at it more realistically and consider the time frame I have to make the product.

I decided to choose the Flight Club so that I can focus my skills on a more narrowed idea, compared to the Look community that uses a vast range of online promotional tools and could be very time consuming. I feel the Flight Club is a strong idea that would work in the outside world and also has appropriate, free tools that would let me create the idea. This is therefore a realistic and achievable idea which I am looking forward to putting together.

So that it is the best it can be, I plan to iron out all weaknesses and dangers so that there is no danger of it going wrong. I will arrange feedback from people to see further weaknesses I may not have noticed.