Guide To World Cup Advertising Success
The World Cup is a great place to raise brand awareness, but probably isn't the event you're going to debut a new product or unveil a revolutionary idea. This is simply because the World Cup has a global viewership and is fragmented based largely upon national allegiances. For instance, viewership in England among women increases from 38% to 46% when their native country is playing (The Guardian, June 2010). Another reason for this is that the event takes place over the course of a month and is similar to March Madness in that regard.
Because many companies see the World Cup as an opportunity to showcase their business on a global scale, the creative is top-notch. This may be one of the reasons that the ads resonate with women more than with men, although the viewership skews more male than female.
In an event that showcases superstars like Messi, Suarez, Neymar, and Ronaldo…this is your opportunity to make your business the hero. YOU'RE the superstar. Now is not the time to do a human interest piece that tugs at your heart strings. Promote the brand early.
Unexpected ads that work within the context of the World Cup seem to gain traction among viewers. The popular ” I believe that we will win” chant that the USA has adopted, might be a good example of how a business might pair nationalism, fanaticism, and product placement if it fits with the brand.
Celebrity endorsements are hit and miss. It would take a global superstar with incredible recognition for this to work they way people are accustomed.
Finally, clarity of vision is paramount.
So, there you have it! Take these tips and corner kick them to your best play-maker for a game-winning header and enjoy the fruits of your labor!
The Epic Battle for Net Neutrality
What is net neutrality? Well, net neutrality is the “principle that Internet service providers should enable access to all content and applications regardless of the source, and without favoring or blocking particular products or websites.” Basically, one website can’t be favored over another in terms of speed or accessibility just because they paid for it.
Typically, when this topic is discussed, proponents of net neutrality mention how consumers will not be given equal access to internet content such as streaming services unless the website or the consumer pays for it. They argue that smaller websites who cannot pay outrageous fees to keep their content accessible will fail. Freedom of internet speech will be given only to large corporations with enough money to pay for it. This is true, but not the only problem. All small businesses, not only those in entertainment, will be hurt if the internet is not kept open and accessible.
Smaller marketing firms, and by extension other small businesses, will be hurt tremendously if net neutrality ceases to exist. Small businesses often rely on the internet as a cost-effective form of advertising. The internet allows small businesses to reach people around the world at a much cheaper rate than traditional media. If net neutrality is abolished, small businesses will no longer be able to compete against large corporations for cheap ad-space on the internet. Large corporations will have the money to advertise on sites that are more accessible to consumers.
In short, this is a very big deal. Just ask Netflix…who had a brief fallout with Comcast…their streaming content was streaming noticeably slower until they reached a compromise with the internet service provider. Lo and behold, in February, they began to see an immediate improvement (or perhaps just restoration of where it once was) in streaming speed. Netflix was literally held hostage by Comcast until its demands were met. It's naive to think they playing field will ever be completely level, but steps should definitely be taken to ensure that we're doing all we can.
Netflix Re-brand and More
The logo has received mixed reviews by various internet blogs. Some people think that the new logo is more modern and shows that Netflix is moving away from being just a movie platform. It represents their move into original content such as House of Cards and Orange is the New Black. Others feel that the new logo is a downgrade from the original that takes away the cinema feel but brings nothing in return.
Netflix’s logo change follows a trend of numerous companies changing their logos or other aspects of their brand identities. Some have received positive reviews while others have lost customers due to the change. One example of an excellent rebrand is Old Spice. They targeted a new demographic with an innovative strategy and saw sales skyrocket. There are also examples of rebranding mishaps such as the ill-received Gap logo redesign which only lasted for one week before the original logo came back.
So this begs the question, when should a company rebrand? There are positive and negative factors to consider when you are making any changes to your company’s brand identity. Is it worth the cost? Is it worth the risk that employees and customers may not accept the change? Will this new change bring in the clientele your business is looking for? Does this change better represent how you want your business to be perceived?
You may want to change your branding if your current brand is boring or stale, if it has a bad reputation, if you are changing services or target audience, or if there is a change in ownership/management. But always remember that any change you make may alienate your current clientele and hurt your business.
A company should always do its research before settling on new branding. That may be what Netflix is doing by only revealing their new logo design on a promotional piece. They may be testing the waters to see how the general public feels about the change. We will just have to wait and see.
The Less You Do….The More You DO
As I perused AdAge this morning, I stumbled upon a lengthy article about Eat24 parting ways with the “social” giant. I must say that Eat24 made some very valid points. Facebook has been acquiring a wide array of social media companies as well as some more questionable acquisitions in the form of Oculis Rift, a VR gaming company. The push for monetization on Facebook's end has been maddening. The downward spiral seemingly stemmed from its IPO some time ago. Since then, a myriad of questionable decisions and frivelous spending have plagued the once mighty social giant.
Eat24 wrote “We made mistakes too. We actually paid for some of those annoying promoted posts. You were all like, 'Dude, you gotta try out promoted posts, It'll help you make more friends and then more people can enjoy your LOLZ.' So we tried it because we loved you. Also, YOLO… And it's true, we got a ton of new likes on our page. Look at all these new friends, we thought. There's a guy in Houston, and this guy in… Bangladesh? And this girl in… Dubai? WTF Facebook!?… Right now we're only in the U.S., so even though we love our new international friends, we'd prefer not to piss them off by showing them a photo of a delicious calzone that they can't even order.”
While this was hilarious, it was also frighteningly true. You couldn't hit the nail on the head any better, unless you were to read further….
“But the bigger picture issue is that we can't trust you. You lied to us and said you were a social network but you're totally not a social network. At least not anymore… Why should we have to wade through a dozen promoted posts about how to lose belly fat (are you trying to tell us something?) and requests for Candy Crush (NO! Just no.) and suggesting we like our arch nemesis' page (seriously, WTF) before we can finally find the perfect Doge meme? It really seems like you've lost your way and have become nothing more than an ad platform.”
As someone who must delve into the social realm on a daily basis, sometimes against my better judgment, I can completely understand. So why do we stay active on Facebook. Simply put, it's the perceived lack of alternatives. I WILL, however, step out on a limb and vouch for the legitimacy of Google Plus. Not only can you network with anyone regardless of whether you originally knew them or not, but you can receive feeds from people that you actually want to hear from and organize your contacts into endless sub-groups. This past week, I even played trivia in real-time via Google Plus Hangout's Sporcle app.
What's more is that Facebook is constantly changing their user interface as well as the frequency with which organic reach for small businesses occurs. Change happens far too often and sometimes things are best left alone.
End of rant.
More Platform Jumping Than Ezio Auditore
What this means is that if you were to view an advertisement on your laptop, in theory, the same ad would appear on your smartphone or tablet. This would be absolutely HUGE if it works as anticipated. Currently, this is in a sort of beta phase, with large agencies with high traffic testing this nouveau hashtagging system. If this works, this could be a boon to the advertising community at-large. Digital marketing has already grown leaps and bounds due in large part to the ability to view and track analytics and hypertarget demographic groups. This has the potential to usher in a new era within the purview of the digital marketing age, and with streaming television services becoming more and more the norm, how long will it be before digital supplants traditional media as the dominant medium for advertising? Food for thought….