Commercial Ads has come a long journey. From the beginning,
it is just a banner, slogan, simple video which main content is to display the
product, brand name. And then it becomes more complicate content, more effects,
more actions, and more attractive than ever. Recently, there is a trend about
the touching commercial ads which employ the emotional appeal to the audiences.
The touching commercial‘s content is not just about the
product or brand name, it tells a story (most likely a sad story) which draws
out the feeling, the sympathy, the curiosity of the audiences. That kind of
commercial ad may last for 3 to 4 minutes, but more than 90% of its screen time
is not about the product. The audience cannot know which commercial ad is about
until the last few seconds. The content of the video may irrelevant to the
product, but the audiences still have different feelings when watching. The
first feeling might be sympathy with the characters in the video; people tend
to be lured by the touching or sad situation and story which lead to the second
feeling: curiosity. When they get attracted to the story, they will want to
know what is the ending look like, they curios about the conclusion of the
story, and they may be they want to know what is the commercial ad is about (which
product or brand name).
The story about a deaf girl who want to play violin -
Sunsilk Shampoo
The story about a student’s dream and his teacher - Education:
The story about the nice man - Insurance
Pros:
Nice story
Attractive, getting attention from audiences
Sympathy from the audiences
Can be shared by many customers
Cons:
More costly to product.
Too long
The audience may give up watching or misunderstand the
purpose of the video.
Video marketing is effective way to reach target audience. Online video has been growing as marketing channel lately. More than half of the companies are already using video marketing. Because videos attracts more attention than a picture or written text. It’s has higher retention rates (means the people who watch the video more than ¾) than many other marketing tools.
Video marketing is effective because it reaches a large number of customers and it evokes customers’ emotions. Evoking customers’ emotions gives video marketing personal level. Video marketing is most widely used online, especially in social media.
Online video grows the audiences because it’s easy to share and people likes to tell each other if they find something interesting. Usually, there is a story in video marketing which evokes people's emotions. And evoking emotions gets people talk. Companies should take advantage of that people trust above all other rather than commercial advertising. Word-of-mouth marketing is one the most valuable form of marketing.
Benefits of video marketing (for instance):
· - it’s a large target group online
· - optimizing a target group
· - video is more interesting - higher retention rates
Drawbacks of video marketing (for instance):
·
- video making might be expensive
· - making video takes lots of time
- differences between browsers, viewing the video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4xnyr2mCuI
I think this video captures consumers’ attention and it attracts to watch the end of the video. There is the story behind and the video shows the set of the values. I recommend you to take a look at this video!
Airline
Safety demonstration videos have been a subject earlier in the blog, but this
is actually quite a huge area already that many of us doesn’t know about. That
is why I want to bring up this subject again.
As earlier
in the blog mentioned, many airline companies are already discovering this way with
the videos to get passengers attention during the safety demonstration. Air New
Zeeland is rated to have the best safety demonstration videos in the world, and
they are even watched by people not even traveling with the company. Only
because they are curious what everyone else is enjoying watching and talking
about. This is also a very good marketing strategy for the company, as it shows
how much they care about their passengers, how important the safety is, and how
they want to entertain their passengers in an international way.
The airline
companies are also focusing on interesting, and even funny advertisements on
the TV.
This is a
funny way to get passengers attention and reliability for the company that they
actually know something about what the passengers are in need of. This video
also shows that low-cost airlines are very reliable, as they compare two countries
on their best sides (or what we like here in Finland). Usually when you mention
“low-cost” airlines to passengers and consumers, they think that both the
service and the safety is in a dangerous zone, and therefore prioritize a more
expensive, even longer flight.
People
should realize, trust and give new brands and companies a chance, and therefore we use video marketing and have marketing through the TV and mainly also through the social media.
-Maria
I was inspired by another blog post here that was discussing similar things that I'm going to.
As I have some insight from a B2B company's marketing and social media uses, I decided to lay down some of my own thoughts about it.
I would say the efficiency of using social media tools in marketing for a B2B company can very much depend on what the company is doing and what kind of customers they have. If the company has only expensive products/services that are provided to other businesses, there might be some limits to the help of social media in the short run. Surely this doesn't mean that social media is useless, but it definitely will raise a question should the company put more emphasis on social media marketing or should they focus more on some other digital marketing tool, such as email campaigns.
If the company is B2B, but on the side they offer products/services to individual users, it makes a whole lot easier, and these companies of course should put as much emphasis on social media marketing as they can. And in these companies the idea of encouraging employees to post statuses on social media would be extremely helpful.
But the fact is that digital marketing is increasing and new ways to advertise and promote a company will be found. I believe that even the companies in the "boring" industries will have their share from the social media power tools after finding the right way of using them for their own good. What I mean by this is that making "boring" things interesting, and sharing them to the big crowd.
The company I work for has just recently started to increase their use of social media. But if they had started to emphasize on social media a few years back already, I would say that they might have a much bigger audience now. The company operates strongly in weather business, and from that I think they could come up with lots of interesting topics. At least I would.
One reason why B2B companies should increase social media marketing could be that, because social media is rather fresh marketing tool, a lot of young people are its' main users. So by broadening the brand and making people remember the company name and its' industry can increase the company operations in the future as the young people step into working life.
Maybe not the most coherent text that I've written, but I hope you get my point.
And in case you're interested in some B2B/B2C social media statistics from the US, I recommend to check this link
I read an article, written by Thales S. Teixeira, on Harvard Business Review's website discussing video ads and capturing consumer's attention, and I though about sharing the article in my own words. In the article the writer discusses also about his research findings alongside the example videos but I decided to focus on the video ads and how they capture consumer attention when used in the right context.
There has already been several mentions of video marketing in these previous blog posts all highlighting the effectiveness of audio visual advertisements in marketing. It is true that videos are a powerful way to strengthen brand image, market products and ultimately persuade consumers into buying those products but in order to have that effect the videos need to first catch consumers' attention. Only by capturing consumer attention can the message of an ad be delivered.
Surely there is no fool proof recipe for this but what matters is the content in the right context. Take movie theatres for example. In cinema people are sitting down in a closed environment already looking at the screen so they tend to pay more attention to ads and trailers. On the other end we have teenagers (with already low attention spans) watching videos on their tablets. If an ad comes up they can easily switch over to their smartphones while the ad runs in the background. Not much consumer attention there. This is why it is crucial to choose the right content in the right context so that people pay will pay attention.
Here are four examples for video advertisements that have succeeded partially because they were used in the appropriate context.
1. When you have your audience still
Generally advertisements need to do two things: engage and persuade. They need to engage the consumer so that the message of the ad can be delivered and they need to persuade the consumer into thinking that the advertised product is the best alternative.
With today's constant stream of on-demand information engaging the consumer is the part advertisers should put the most effort into. However, there are also exceptions. Consider cinema where people are already sitting down and have no intention leaving. It is fair to assume that the audience is mostly engaged and the commercial can focus on persuasion - giving the consumer information about the product and convincing them of the product's quality. This Samsung commercial is a good example:
This ad shows the features of the product in a simple yet interesting way and at the end even explains how the product is operated.
2. When your audience starts off paying attention
Television ads don't have the luxury of an already captivated audience. People who watch television can switch channels as soon as commercials start or they can go to the fridge or even pause and skip through the ads once they're ready to continue. So the ad can't be too long and it needs to capture the audience's attention quite quickly while also giving the consumer enough information about the product and at the same time be entertaining.
What I think is good about Pepsi's 'Love Hurts' ad is that it quickly establishes the so called plot - the woman doesn't want her man to enjoy unhealthy foods. They keep it short and deliver the information, 'zero calories - maximum taste', quickly and top it off with the entertainment to make it feel less like a sales pitch.
3. When your audience is not paying attention at first
Generally a good ad captures the audience's attention in the first five seconds or so but sometimes the audience is not even looking during those five seconds. They might be looking at their smart phones so the ad needs to capture their attention over the course of the ad. This ad for Target aims to do that:
This ad might feel a bit long but that is why it is aimed at an audience that is not paying attention to begin with. The colours are bright and the music is cheerful. If you hear this ad at the background or catch a glimpse of it in the corner of your eye you most likely will check it out. The stop motion type of filming gives it an artistic feel that is intriguing. They leave the information at the very end when the audience is actually looking and they keep it short, simple and informative.
4. When there's no attention (and the product is not really that interesting)
Sometimes the audience's attention is so divided that capturing it is a lost cause. On top of that the product itself might be so mundane that people have no interest in hearing what's so good about it. Take batteries for instance. We all use them, many of us even daily, but we pay no attention to them. That is until we have to buy new ones and even then most of us opt for the cheapest alternative. So how does a company with a mundane product market itself? With this ad Duracell has managed to rack up almost 16 million views on Youtube:
It was not an easy setting for Duracell to turn this ad campaign into a viral sensation. They are marketing a product that we all see as a commodity, the ad is a about free climbing, a somewhat marginal sport, and it stars Kevin Jorgeson, a name that says nothing to most people.
The way Duracell approached this challenge was by targeting the ad to a very narrow target group. Professional climbers, bloggers, internet personalities and other remarkable people related to climbing world. Then those people would share the ad and other people would see it, and that is exactly what happened.
I liked this ad very much and even watched some behind the scenes footage that Youtube suggests at the end of the video even though I am not a climbing enthusiast. The ad tells an emotional story while very subtly shows the product and in the end makes the information clear to the audience.
So first and foremost advertisers should focus on capturing consumers' attention. With mobile devices and social media full of ads it can be complicated. Nowadays people want to be entertained so advertisers should focus on that and once they have the attention then they can deliver the information.
First I want to ask you all that " Who is afraid of flying?" Yes, I am afraid. Especially I am really afraid flying with any airline that is not Finnair, which is ( Yes, I know) really weird and maybe pointless. Because of this new policy in Virgin America Airline has a really good way to kick ass that a little fear bogey in us that is trying to beat you up. Watch it and tell me what you think.
I wanted to write about Virgin America`s Safety Video. I used their services last May when I was flying from Los Angeles to New York in USA. I was so terrified of this upcoming night-flight and remember just sitting there pale and like waiting for my up-coming executing. Then I headed my eyes to the small aisle waiting to see flight-attendants, but I could see only one. Suddenly the small screen in front of me started to show safety instructions and I was so ready leave my spot, but I did not. The music made me forget my anxiety and the video is quite funny too. Before I noticed the history was made on. I was sold.
Virgin America Airline is North-American Airline that offers cheap flights only inland. Their head station places in San Francisco´s Airport. The company was established in 2004.Virgin America´s Airline´s company slogan is A Breath of Fresh Airline. A Breath of Fresh Airline it was. Well to me it was fresh and exciting, because I had not experienced it before even that I have traveled a lot. I hope it will be funny and exciting on the second time and many other after that. I hope we don´t get bored to see this kind of videos on the plane time after time. Because if we get bored, do we really get the message then? The message on the video was not to panic, because there was professional stuff on the board and they would help us if something should happen. Still I can´t be sure that these videos are really giving the right information especially if something should happen and people got panic. Also is it right ethically to put so much money to this safety video and sack flight attendants? In that flight had so little amount of flight attendants that you obviously noticed it and wondered if the video was to blame.
Virgin America Airline´s is brainchild of the British entrepreneur Richard Branson`s. He really hit the home run by this vision. Honestly no one could expect the least from him. After all he is the brains/owner of The Virgin Records. You would think that he knows all about making music videos and making money too. Maybe all this publicity around this video has gave him a lots of extra customers. Otherwise its wasted money.
Anyway I´m looking forward to see Finnair doing this kind of video of the safety instructions. I wonder when they have time and money to put to that kind of effort.
Customer behavior have change significantly in past 20 years. When I was a child we had a land-line phone and use of Internet was minimal compared to nowadays. In 2015 people are in the Internet all of the time - their mobile phones are constantly connected and they are in the computer many hours in a day with connected to Internet. So, I say that the consumer behavior is transformed from paper reading to the Internet use. Nowadays the use of Internet happens with mobile for the reason that it is constantly with us. When people use the mobile and are connected all the time, marketing should happen in there too.
Watch the video for clarification:
Many people use nowadays twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat for example. And they use them with mobile mostly. So, when consumers are in the mobile the marketers should be there too. Also content marketing in social media should be attractive in visual way or other ways and the content has to stand out from other companies content.
The top trends that marketers should be take into account (by Forbes) are..
1. Mobile is going to become the center of marketing.
2.Transparency will dictate brand-customer relationship.
3. The need for good content will not slow down. ever.
4. User-generated content will be the new hit.
5. Social will become the next internet.
6. Brands will own their audience.
7. Brands solely-focused on Millennials will go out of relevance.
8. Good brands will behave like product companies and not like service companies.
9. Personalized, data-driven marketing will become more refined.
10. More accurate metrics will surface.
I agree that mobile will become the center of marketing because you can see that nowadays people are always in their mobile. They are searching information, being in social media, texting, browsing news and so on... From the upper 10 trends for my opinion the most important are mobile and transparency which should both be noticed when doing content marketing.
Here is other good video about trends in content marketing.
What I like to add to all trends: I think that the video material will become more important marketing strategy. The use of video can effect to human mind as it can manipulate the someones mind. So I thinks that videos are the best way to effect to customers and create credibility to them. Video marketing should be add to one of the important trends in content marketing and marketing in general.
I decided to write about how to do marketing in a fun way. LG is a great example for it. This company has showed us marketing can be humorous and entertaining
During these past years smart TVs have became more and more popular and LG has found a fun way to advertise them. LG is reinventing advertisements and commercials and came up with many extremely memorable and enjoyable ideas.
Maybe some of you remember the elevator prank where LG group set their new LG IPS monitors on the floor and it made it look like the floor collapsed under the people who were inside of the elevator. This got over 24 000 000 million viewers on LG's official website. People also shared this video a lot on on their social media profiles. It got a lot of positive attraction from consumers.
One year after LG came up with this prank where they faked a meteor crashing down to the earth in the middle of the job interview. Consumers loved this video as well. This video got very popular on social media as well. You don't need to scroll many comments down on youtube to see most of the people found their advertisements very entertaining and amusing.
LG has really succeed on their advertisements and hooking different kind of target groups up. On their marketing idea they surely bring out the high standard level of their TVs. The viewers can see how their TVs feel like they are not only TVs, it gives you a feeling everything you see could be happening in front of your eyes.
We have learned about marketing and consumerism in the digital era in chapter 1. There was a list of positive outcomes that LG meets in my opinion. "In the book "Content Rules" Ann Handley and C.C. Chapman have listed the positive outcomes of a successful content strategy as follows. If a company does it successfully, then it can:
* Attract customers * Educate buyers about a purchase they are considering * Overcome resistance or address objections * Tell the story of the company * Create buzz via social networks * Build a base of fans and inspire customers to like the company * Inspire impulse buys"
If you want to know more about LG's marketing and how LG is dragging it into the 21st centure, click here!
Hi! I chose
to write about the importance of content marketing within B2B. I got the
inspiration to write about this topic after discussing this with my parents,
both CEO’s in two different B2B companies. This discussion got its’ start after
a couple of weeks after the start of our digital business course at school,
when our group decided to focus our presentations in videos. That led us to
study more video marketing and so on. So when I had this conversation about the
importance of content marketing (video marketing, social media…) with my
parents, they both said “not essential within B2B”.
The other
one works for a cargo harbor. Ok, within that branch it may not be that
important with this kind of marketing because of the customers being mostly
long term customers and the branch being quite intent. But the other parent
works for a fair building company. It is a very creative branch with constantly
new (and old of course) customers, and I believe the most of the clients
interact in social media. I’m convinced that they could increase their business
and develop their customer relationships by participating the world of content
marketing.
As learned
in the chapter 1, content marketing includes pretty much everything published
and done in the internet. So there is soooo many opportunities to choose from.
Make a short introduction video about the company, post some pictures on
Instagram, write a couple of tweets in a week, month… Whatever you wish!
Here below I
will link a short video about B2B content marketing and why it is important.
But just briefly, the main points in the video is:
I believe
you could see content marketing as a pitch for your company. Like the first
impression, which by the way is super important. The content shared on the
internet has to be truthful, current and high-quality. With good content
marketing you can gain the trust of your customers and it also makes you well available.
Social
media is probably the most common way of content marketing. Then which channels
to use? If I think about this company building fair stands, Facebook is not the
place. I consider Facebook more (I don’t say it doesn’t work in ANY cases)
consumer based platform. What I think could work is Twitter, LinkedIn and maybe
even Instagram to show the creativity of the company. So every company has to
find the platforms that suites them the best.
Then there’s
the problem with money. Small companies, as my parents’, have no money to hire
an expert to take care of the content marketing. But in my opinion there is necessary
no need for that. Nowadays it’s relatively easy to do marketing through for example
social media. Whoever can make it happen and in no time.
I hope B2B
businesses will start more and more appreciating the opportunities within
content marketing. I myself for sure will try to make the most out of it, if
ever possible in the future.
Few days ago I googled for gym
shoes. Now when I sign in to Facebook or go read the news (www.iltasanomat.fi)
I get ads related to my search. Sometimes these ads are useful. On the other
hand, I wonder should we be worried about how much companies know about us
these days.
During these first assignments I
have learned that in business everyone is involved in marketing. Marketing has
changed dramatically and technology is creating new ways to get closer to consumer.
Nowadays marketing is about interaction and sharing.
Social media can create huge buzz
in a short time. Few years ago Coca-Cola had a vision. They wanted to think
that in America, everyone is equal, no matter the skin color or birth country.
Coca-Cola used national anthem in their ad and showed ethical minorities
singing it. Crowd did not take this message well. Some people felt that video
was offensive and national anthem was ruined. Anyhow, Coca-Cola got lot of
attention with this and lot of hits in Youtube. Is there such thing as bad publicity…
I once tried to write a blog. I
noticed that it was really hard to get readers/ followers. I guess that's what
content marketing is all about; you need to know what attracts people.
Content
marketing should always be interesting and publisher should keep in mind what
is the consumer’s interest. They might not come back the site if there is
nothing interesting when they first come to see it. Publisher should think that
would I read it myself or am I only posting this because I have to post
something. One other important thing is to have people remember your content, and
one way to have people remember it, is to influence their emotions.
Emotional
marketing can make the consumer feel all kinds of different emotions. One good example
of emotional marketing is Extra Gum’s commercial, which was published just this
week. The ad has touched many people and it has been viewed in Facebook within four
days over 67 million times already and in YouTube over 2 million times.
You can see
the ad here:
Another example of emotional marketing was in part 1.3 of this course: the GE's commercial "Ideas Are Scary" which was introduced in Anthony Gaenzle's blogpost "GE Raises the Bar for B2B Content Marketing". At first, the ad raised feelings like sadness and pity but fortunately in the end, you feel more like happy and relieved.
There are also
many ads from different kind of organizations concerning things like
environment, smoking, domestic violence, drinking and driving etc. These are
meant to shock and it will stick on your mind a while, at least it does on
mine.
Here is one
example:
I didn’t want
to show you the worst ones in here, but if someone wants to see those it is easy
to find, just google for example “emotional ads”.
The point
is, if the content makes consumer happy, sad, mad or any other way emotional they
will remember it much more likely. It is also a way to connect with the consumer
and they might even share the content with their friends. If you can influence
people’s emotions, you should.
If you get
enough people to react to the content, you might get it to go viral.
