Author Archive
Think Differently
What if you turned right when you should have turned left?
You might drive into oncoming traffic, which would be bad. Or maybe you’ll end up somewhere you never expected. Sometimes doing the unusual, unnatural or unexpected thing will help you see something new and possibly inspire an idea for your next digital strategy.
Some of the most popular social media networks were built with an intended purpose. They have features and functions that allow users to perform intended tasks. For example, you’re suppose to post 140 character messages on Twitter. You’re suppose to upload videos to YouTube. You’re suppose to upload photos to Flickr. You’re suppose to pin images on Pinterest. You’re suppose to create a Facebook Timeline Business Page.
But what if we re-imagined how we used these networks?
What if you used Twitter solely for taking customer food purchase orders?
- Users would send an @reply to your account saying, Combo A, Combo B, etc.
What if you used Twitter to publish a collection of photos?
- Publish links to photos hosted on Instagram, TwitPic or YFrog.
YouTube
What if you used YouTube to conduct focus groups?
- Publish 3 videos, each with a different idea. Ask participants to like the video/idea they like best.
What if you used YouTube to as a customer service tool?
- Publish a video of the customer service representative describing himself/herself and his/her responsibilities. Ask customers to post inquires in the comments section. Monitor and respond to the comments.
Flickr
What if you used Flickr to publish a comic strip or a picture story?
- Each photo will act as one box in a comic strip. Different photos sets and photo galleries can be created for each story.
What if you used Pinterest to create a instructional manual?
- The step by step manual will have a picture and written instructions. Users can even comment on a specific step if they need clarification.
What if you used the new Facebook Page Timeline to post a fictional story?
- The story will be display chronologically along the timeline. Status updates with text can be added and photos can be added.
Victor Chan
Digital Strategist
Photo Credit: nestor galina
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What If …Series (5 most recent posts)
What if Marketing Stopped Evolving
What if You Had No Control of Your Brand? Oh Right. You Don’t!
What If All You Needed Was One Device?
What if You Described Your Digital Strategy as a Volleyball Team?
What if the Marketing Rule of 7 Became the Rule of 1?
Tags: facebook, flickr, pinterest, Twitter, youtube
What if Marketing Stopped Evolving
Change is difficult, but at times, necessary. There are many things in the world that we can understand, that we can predict, that we can control, people are not one of them.
At the core of any marketing or communications strategy is the connection between a person and a brand. As people and society continues to evolve and change, so does marketing and communications strategies. Failure to do so, and the connection between the person and brand is broken.
On March 9, Google published a post about its Project Re: Brief as part of a celebration to recognize 18 years of digital advertising. Google began an experiment to link the future of digital advertising to iconic ad campaigns of the past.
One of these past iconic campaigns was Coca-Cola’s ad in 1971 which featured young people from around the world singing on a hilltop. Google invited Harvey Gabor, the original art director of the ad, to join a Google creative team to re-imagine the Coca-Cola ad for the modern web. They created a video highlighting the journey they took to re-imagine the ad.
Technology plays an important role in changing consumer behaviour. How people choose to connect and interact today is very different from that in the 1970s. Coca-Cola’s TV commercial may have had a great impact in the 1970s, but if that same commercial was aired today, the reaction may be very different. Would consumers pay attention? Would consumers connect with the message? Would consumers even get exposed to the commercial?
Let’s continue to re-imagine marketing.
Victor
Digital Strategist
Photo Credit: skippyjon
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What If …Series (5 most recent posts)
What if You Had No Control of Your Brand? Oh Right. You Don’t!
What If All You Needed Was One Device?
What if You Described Your Digital Strategy as a Volleyball Team?
What if the Marketing Rule of 7 Became the Rule of 1?
What If There Was a Formula for Viral Content?
Tags: advertising, coca-cola, evolve, marketing
What if You Had No Control of Your Brand? Oh Right. You Don’t!
A brand may consist of elements such as a name, image, design or personality. A company may have absolute control of these elements, but it is impossible for a company to control how people perceive or interpret these brand elements. As a result, it’s also impossible for a company to control how people think of its brand.
If that is the case, why do people spend so much time and money trying to?
We know a brand plays an important role in consumer purchases. A consumer might choose to buy a brand named product because they think it’s popular, it’s more credible or it has a reputation of doing the best job at whatever it’s meant to do. They might even choose to avoid a popular brand instead choosing to buy a lesser known brand because they think the popular brand is over-rated. Branding and the consumer’s perception of a brand played a part in these purchase decisions.
The goal of branding is to create positive sentiment between the brand and the consumer so that when a consumer is ready to make a purchase, they choose the company’s brand.
The tricky part with branding is if the consumer does not recognize your brand, all the positive sentiment they may have associated with your brand is lost. This is why it is important to ensure branding consistency online and off.
Online Brand Consistency Checklist
Here is a quick online brand consistency checklist:
- Do the company profiles use the same display name or handle?
- Do the company profiles use the same colour scheme, logo and design?
- Do the company profiles have a consistent URL path (vanity URL)?
(eg. /magnifydigital) - Do the company profiles publish messages with the same personality or tone of voice?
Although a company cannot control how consumers think of its brand, it can influence how they perceive the brand through the experiences the consumers have with the brand. This influence will be stronger if there is a consistent brand presented across online and offline channels.
Happy Branding!
Victor
Digital Strategist
Photo Credit: tkraska
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What If …Series (5 most recent posts)
What If All You Needed Was One Device?
What if You Described Your Digital Strategy as a Volleyball Team?
What if the Marketing Rule of 7 Became the Rule of 1?
What If There Was a Formula for Viral Content?
What If Only 100 People Can Visit Your E-Commerce Website Per Day?
Tags: brand, branding, consistency, Social Media
Moyra Rodger at Prime Time in Ottawa
The Prime Time in Ottawa Breakout Session: “The Right Stuff – Find, Engage and Keep Your Audience” will take place on March 1 from 11:30am – 12:30pm. Our very own CEO, Moyra Rodger, will be one of the panelists discussing the key factors for building a loyal audience. The 4 key areas that will be discussed are:
- At what stage in the process do you consider your social media elements?
- At what stage do you begin implementing or outreaching?
- What are some of the big mistakes or missed opportunities you’ve witnessed?
- Top 10 tips for effective use of social media to engage your audience
Your audience is just one of the many considerations involved when developing a new program or series. At Magnify Digital, we have developed a web-based application called ALERT-TV+ which helps content producers analyze, design, implement and monitor digital strategies that have measurable ROI.
If you would like to learn more about ALERT-TV+ you can connect with Moyra Rodger at Prime Time in Ottawa by tweeting her @MoyraAtMagnify or emailing her at moyra@magnifydigital.com.
You can also visit http://alert-tv.com.
Tags: cftpa, cmpa, Moyra Rodger, Prime Time in Ottawa
What If All You Needed Was One Device?
Personal electronics have become an integral part of our lives. On any given day, I could use my iPod nano, smartphone, desktop computer, laptop, iPad and television. It’s a hassle bouncing between devices each day. Why should anyone have to when so many have similar functionality?
From a consumer’s perspective, what’s common among these devices is some type of visual display, audio and input device. When you think about it, all personal electronics boil down to altering a person’s sense of sight and sound. Smartphones are emerging as the “most universal” device at this time, but its screen size still limits its use as a personal computer or television.
On February 22, 2012, news about Google’s plan to launch glasses with a heads-up display by the end of 2012 gave me hope that, maybe, this dream of a universal device is one step closer to becoming a reality.
The current information available suggests the glasses will have a low-res camera, a 3G/4G connection, motion sensors and GPS. The glasses will use head tilting navigation and display real time information about the user’s surrounding environment through augmented reality apps.
This sounds like a good start, but my vision of a universal device is much grander. Think of it as merging Corning’s “A Day Made of Glass” concept with Google’s heads-up display glasses. So instead of interacting with multiple glass surfaces / devices, a user will simply interact with the images they perceive through his/her glasses. The glasses become the universal device.
As someone who has been wearing glasses for over 13 years, I realized that what I see is not actually the object or screen in front of me, but what I perceive through my glasses. If that is the case, are the objects or devices in front of me actually necessary? I would argue it’s not.
Imagine a pair of glasses with a computer built in and a single inconspicuous earpiece that allows you to hear audio. The glasses include voice command functionality and a projection keyboard that is only visible through the user’s glasses (on command). This handles the visual display, audio and input device. The glasses will, of course, be connected wirelessly and access data from the cloud.
Now here’s the really exciting feature, instead of having to physically sit in front of your desktop computer and television or take out your smartphone and tablet, you can simply prompt your glasses to display those devices and an image of the specified device will appear. The glasses will generate an image and you will perceive it as if you were looking at your regular television, sitting 10 ft way from you, for example. You will then be able to operate your television using voice commands or the projection keyboard to watch your favourite shows. Want to watch the show on a movie sized screen? Go into “movie mode” and an image of a theatre sized screen will appear in front of you. All the images and sounds produced through the glasses will only be perceived by the person wearing the glasses.
What do you think? Realistic? Creepy? Awesome?
Can you imaging the targeted marketing opportunities available with this device?
Victor
Digital Strategist
Photo Credit: IvanWalsh.com
- – - – - – - – -
What If …Series (5 most recent posts)
What if You Described Your Digital Strategy as a Volleyball Team?
What if the Marketing Rule of 7 Became the Rule of 1?
What If There Was a Formula for Viral Content?
What If Only 100 People Can Visit Your E-Commerce Website Per Day?
What If Your Twitter and Facebook Posts Were Deleted After 24 Hours?
Tags: electronics, Google glasses, heads up display, targeted marketing
