Creating conversation and effective engagement in the Breaking Bad series finale!

Did anyone catch the series finale of Breaking Bad last week? Did you talk about it on social media before, after or during the final episode? Today's post will examine the social media strategies used to promote the finale of the popular TV series, Breaking Bad. How did AMC, the show's TV station, manage to accumulate 10.3 million viewers for the final episode of Breaking Bad? Well, aside from providing an intriguing story line for viewers to follow, AMC used effective engagement techniques on social media.

Breaking Bad: An Introduction

Breaking Bad is a US television series that began in 2008. It follows the story of Walter White, a struggling chemistry teacher diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. To ensure financial security for his family before his death, Walter starts to produce and sell drugs with one of his former students, Jesse Pinkman.

The show ran for 5 seasons with the TV station, AMC, and developed a huge fan base. It was known for placing characters in seemingly hopeless situations, where they would need to use all their wit to escape. It was this intelligent and engaging plot that hooked viewers to follow the series. Last week, the final episode aired on US TV. Up against some critically acclaimed shows and the NFL, the TV station needed to draw attention to its final episode. This was achieved largely through social media...

What sort of social media strategies and techniques were used to promote the Finale?

Conversation and engagement on social media

Social media was used by the cast and producers of the show to interact with fans, share videos and cast predictions for the final episode. AMC provided additional content and activities to express thanks to the audience for their loyalty over the years. Here are some of the specific techniques used across different social media platforms to enhance interaction with audiences and draw viewers towards the finale...

Facebook: On Facebook, the show already had over 5,000,000 likes. To engage viewers, AMC asked followers to show their affection for Breaking Bad by changing their profile picture to the following and tagging #BBaddict. This would send the show out in style, whilst advertising the finale to viewers' friends. This activity resulted in over 57,000 likes, 3,200 comments and 13,000 shares.

                                                       

They also created conversation with fans leading up to the final episode by asking followers on Facebook, 'How is it all going to end? Tell us your predictions.' This got fans talking about their theories and resulted in 19,000 likes, 17,000 comments and 1,900 shares. This conversation continued during the airing of the final episode with fans encouraged to tweet about their viewing experiences, and to farewell the show using the hashtag #GoodbyeBreakingBad on Twitter.

Twitter: A week before the finale, AMC ran a marathon online of all the Breaking Bad episodes. Casts of the series helped to promote this with Aaron Paul (who played the character Jesse Pinkman) live tweeting the Pilot episode. As he currently has over 1.2 million followers, and the series has over 680,000 followers, this quickly spread word of mouth about the finale.

Official Website & Blog: AMC also engaged their audience on the official website with social TV activities including 'story sync' a web-based application which provided a live, two screen experience that allowed viewers to vote on snap polls, answer trivia questions, play games and review moments of the show as they watched it air on TV. Users would have to register beforehand and log-on to the platform as the show started. On story sync, viewers could vote on whether or not the main character had turned to the dark side on a 'Judgement poll'...They could also ask characters questions and rank their most ingenious criminal stunts on the 'Mastermind Meter.' These activities helped to turn the viewing experience into an interactive one, where viewers could share their ideas and feelings with other excited fans. 

                               

                                     

AMC also posted plenty of additional video content on the network's site for fans, including interviews with cast and a special final farewell episode, filmed from the finale party. This farewell video was shared across Facebook and Twitter. While it received 186 views and comments on the website, it gathered over 10,800 comments, 188,000 likes and about 40,000 shares on Facebook! Talk about spreading far and fast with social media! 

                          

Before and during the final episode, fans were encouraged to post questions on the official Breaking Bad blog, on Facebook and on Twitter, to be answered by the series' cast members and its creator, Vince Gilligan. This helped to engage many viewers who were interested in conversing with the masterminds who had brought them their favourite series.

                             

Aligned promotional activities

AMC also created offline events which were strongly connected to their social media activities. As mentioned before, a party was thrown for the the airing of the final episode. Leading up to the finale, fans could enter-to-win or buy tickets to the Finale Watch Party at Cinespia at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, thrown by Aaron Paul (Jesse Pinkman). This was a fundraiser event, with ticket proceeds going towards the Kind Campaign, an organisation devoted to stamping out bullying.

For AMC, the event, and competition, helped to drive their audience members online, as well as to the TV - everyone who scored tickets to the event was posting statuses, pictures and tweets during the party that helped to increase awareness of the final episode.

It also drove online discussions because the event helped to support a charity that was considered important to many Breaking Bad fans. This promotional event helped to generate over 51,000 likes as well as numerous comments on Facebook...here is an example of the Facebook conversations that took place on the event/competition homepage while it was active (click to view larger picture):

From analysing the Breaking bad finale campaign, we can see that AMC created conversation and engagement online by using several of the techniques suggested by W. Glynn Mangold and David J Faulds (in their article, 'Social Media: The New Hybrid Element of the Promotion Mix):

• They provided networking platforms through their story sync applications on their website.
• They used blogs and other social media tools to engage customers, interacting with them about the finale and connecting them to the actors and creators of the show.
• They designed a product with talking points and Utilized the power of story by developing a TV series with a strong plot that invited discussion.
• They used both traditional and internet-based promotions, aligning offline activities with online ones. These activities also supported causes considered important to audiences, such as the Kind Campaign.

All this drove people to talk about the series and generated popularity for the show's final episodes. Finally, fans talked about the finale because AMC put a lot of effort into thanking them on social media. Unlike other series such as LOST, Gossip Girl or Dexter, which ended quietly or tamely, Breaking Bad provided additional content and activities that got fans involved in the finale, both online and off; they made the ending exciting for fans....Did you find yourself tweeting or Facebooking about it? I would be interested to know if you could leave me a comment!

Read more about Breaking Bad social media strategies and results here:

http://socialtimes.com/breaking-bad-does-good-with-finale-social-media_b135976
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101074132
http://vator.tv/news/2013-10-07-breaking-bad-wins-first-nielsen-twitter-ratings

Key points to take away to take away from this post:

• To engage individuals in conversation about products on social media, ask directly for opinions, experiences and ideas. Link social media activities to other topics individuals will be interested in talking about: social causes, issues, celebrities, events etc. Also, encourage audiences to post their own questions about the product.
• Align marketing events with social media activities. Events should help to drive individuals onto the brand's social media sites, whilst social media activities should drive audience members towards attending events. All marketing activities should shape an experience worth sharing on social media. In other words, they should generate interaction with others over the product.
• Social media can provide companies with a cost-efficient way to thank their customers. By using networking platforms to provide additional services, information and entertainment, companies can show they value and appreciate customers. This makes them happy, and as such is likely to increase positive brand discussion online.

Differentiation and Diffusion through social media in Melbourne's restaurant scene (Part 1)

The idea for my post came this week while having brunch with my sister. As a foodie, I really appreciate the many good cafes and restaurants available to us here in Melbourne. But if you were to start an eatery in this city, it would be highly competitive. This has made me wonder...how can small cafe and restaurant businesses differentiate themselves from their various competitors? 

One way is though their use of social media! This is the first of a 2-part-post on social-media savvy eateries in Melbourne. In these posts, we will look at the strategies they have employed to stand out from the crowd.

Case study 1:  Jimmy Grants - Selecting new platforms to target influencers & co-creating value with unique content/ promotional activities 

For those who watch Masterchef, Jimmy Grants is the new gourmet souvlaki joint opened by George Calombaris in August, 2013. While his fame as a Masterchef judge has added to the success of his restaurant, Calombaris has also been clever in marketing his restaurant online...

To appeal to their young, hip, urban customers, the restaurant has established pages and profiles on social media platforms commonly used by their target demographics. This includes Facebook and Twitter, but also newer platforms such as Instagram and Tumblr. Their official website is created on a Tumblr platform, so the content they post can be easily shared by their fans. Tumblr is a blogging site that has been popular with both Foodies and Hipsters, who are influential groups for the restaurant.

Foodies are important because they are potential food bloggers and photo-sharers. If we consider Brian Solis' 3 pillars of influence, these individuals have reach (high popularity on social media), resonance (high posting frequency) and relevance (high authority on the subject of food). Consequently, they have a high level of influence on social media.

Hipsters are the dominant sub-cultural group in the inner city suburbs. They have a tendency to want to try new things before others. As a result, these groups are Innovators and/or Early Adopters that can help to spread word of mouth for the restaurant. By selecting social media platforms commonly used by these two groups, the restaurant has been able to differentiate their brand and diffuse it more quickly across Melbourne.

To connect with their target audience the restaurant has developed a fun online brand personality to relate to their customers. This is portrayed through the interesting and quirky content posted on their social media pages. For example, the restaurant has created their own memes about the 'food culture' of immigrant grand-parents and posted this across social media. This not only matches the theme of the restaurant (Jimmy Grant is old Australian rhyming slang for immigrants; the theme of the restaurant is about immigration and multi-culturalism), it also establishes a connection with customers who can relate and laugh at the quotes. 

As their target audience are becoming increasingly health conscious, and souvlakis are not known for being the healthiest of meals, the restaurant has worked to address this concern on social media. Instead of providing just nutritional tables, they have posted creative photos deconstructing the ingredients of each souvlaki sold on their menu. These post have not only been informative, but also creative. 

On top of providing interesting content, the restaurant has also used social media to run a promotional Scavenger hunt for the last few weekends. Staff have posted pictorial clues on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and asked followers to find specific objects hidden around Fitzroy. Individuals who find the objects specified can claim a free souvlaki. This idea was unique and helped to gain publicity for the restaurant as blogs/food communities such as Broadsheet Melbourne, and Mel: hot or not, published stories about the promotional activity. 

 

From analyzing Jimmy Grants, we can see that the restaurant has used social media effectively to target and attract social influencers. Rather than use social media for straight advertising, the business has engaged their customers with interesting content that make them want to talk about the restaurant and its food. Although Jimmy Grants has only just opened in August, they already have 715 followers on Twitter and 1897 likes on Facebook. Talk about quick Word of Mouth! Have you guys tried out Jimmy Grants or heard about the restaurant on social media? Let me know with a comment!

Feel free to read a little more about their social media promotional events here:
http://www.broadsheet.com.au/melbourne/events/event/jimmy-grants-souva-search-27-09-2013

Key points to take away from this post:

• To reach their target audiences, companies should use a combination of popular platforms like Facebook and Twitter, but also conduct research about the target audience and select niche platforms appealing to their their interest. Eg. Instagram or Tumblr, for art, crafting and youth culture. 
• Firms should create content that entertains and engages people on a personal level. This means more than just creating status updates about new products online; it means understanding the trends on social media and using them - memes, trolls, creative pictures and hashtags etc - to speak to audiences in their own language. As Andreas Kaplan points out, no ones wants to interact with a boring organisation online.
• Firms need to incorporate fun promotional activities with social media. This helps to shift online audiences from being 'likers' to actual customers. Conversely, it also increases interactions with a brands' social media pages by drawing in new customers who want to keep up with the brand online.
• Organisations must also identify the influential groups of their industry and develop unique content and activities that will attract them to join and talk about their social media pages.

Become The Wolverine! Virtual experiences + social media (Part 2)

Virtual experiences + social media in entertainment marketing

On my last post, we talked about using virtual experiences with social media to attract customers and augment offerings in travel campaigns. But virtual media can be used for more than just tourism advertising. Consider entertainment and film-based marketing. Younger audiences often develop fandoms for their favourite movie or TV characters, particularly if they are superheroes or fantasy characters - just think of all the Comicon conventions or midnight blockbuster film screenings where individuals dress up as Star Wars, Harry Potter or X-men characters.

Entertainment firms can take advantage of this and create shareable virtual experiences that allows audiences to become the characters they love. By doing this, firms create additional value for their audiences; they augment the entertainment they provide, turning it from a passive viewing activity to an interactive one. Audiences are not just waiting to be entertained...they can join in the fun themselves. The more fun they have, they more likely they are to share experience with others on social media. This co-creates value, leading to greater promotion for the product and company. Let's look at a creative film campaign that used virtual experience and social media to attract its audience.

Case study: The Wolverine Augmented Powers Campaign

20th Century Fox studios wanted to attract audiences to the new The Wolverine film. As the sixth installment in the X-men series, the film was not expected to receive the same hype as it predecessors. Because of this, the studio needed to make the film stand out to their target audience. To achieve their goal, the studio decided to create campaign that would augment the film for customers by providing them with a virtual experience where they could becoming the lead character of the Wolverine. 

This experience was not offered through an online game, but through actual kiosks placed in shopping centres and cinemas in 17 different countries according to Mashable. Individuals could play on the kiosks for free. When they approached, a Microsoft Kinect sensor would transport the user to a scene from the movie where Wolverine fights a Yakuza soldier on top of a speeding bullet train. Individuals would become 'Wolverine' in the battle, their swift hand movements turning into claw swipes on screen.

To link this to social media, the kiosks would take pictures of individuals engaged with the virtual experience and post it on their Facebook walls as well as on the official fan page.

This campaign was strong because it reflected a great understanding of the target audience; it appealed to them effectively by giving them the chance to live out their fantasies. According to the studio, the activity augmented the film; 'By slicing through obstacles and defending themselves from ninja attacks, fans would experience a virtual thrill ride, based on an exhilarating scene from the up-coming movie.' By providing a virtual experience through game kiosks, the company changed the film (the product) from a viewing experience to a fun, participatory experience. 

This not only got fans involved with the movie, it also enticed them to share the experience....so it was a smart idea to provide players with a photo memento to be shared on social media. The photos allowed players to arouse the curiosity of their Facebook friends and helped them to recommend the activity, and the film, to others. I think the shareable element was a great idea and might have been better if the kiosks had recorded short videos of players. Videos would have demonstrated the actual activity. It could have also helped to generate a higher level of online discussion about the campaign if players had used funny or 'cool' moves. 

Nonetheless, the campaign was highly creative and played a part in promoting the film in countries such as Mexico, New Zeland and The Phillipines. In the end, The Wolverine generated ticket sales of over $370.5 million USD internationally, which was about three times more than the films' production budget of $120 million. 

More information about the campaign can be found on Mashable and the inspiration room

http://mashable.com/2013/07/02/be-the-wolverine-kinect/

http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2013/wolverine-experience-augmented/

After reading this case study, do you think it was a strong campaign? What other industries might benefit from creating campaigns with shareable virtual experiences? Leave a comment and let me know!

Key points to take away:

• Virtual experiences can help to create a strong social media campaign in experience-based industries. This can include tourism (as discussed in our last post), but also entertainment, where audience members often seek to be like their favourite movie characters or Hollywood celebrities.
• Virtual experiences help to transform passive experiences (advertisements, films etc) into interactive experiences.
• To be linked effectively to social media, the virtual experience should include a shareable element, a photo, a video or some digital token that can be embedded on peoples' Facebook profiles/blogs/ Twitter feeds/ Pinterest accounts and shared with friends or followers. This helps to arouse awareness and interest in the campaign (friends may go try out the virtual experience too) and in the product (as a result of this advertising, they are likely to become aware and interested in the product as well.)

Send your Facebook profile to South Africa! Become a back-up dancer in Hong Kong! Virtual experiences + social media (Part 1)

Welcome to post #6! Today, we explore virtual experiences on social media, looking at 2 creative travel campaigns for Cape Town, South Africa and Hong Kong.

Virtual experiences: An Introduction

Social media marketing is about creating an experience for customers, not just using social media to conduct straight advertising and selling. A few weeks ago we looked at a successful case study where US TV station, HBO, used social media updates and games to lead audiences to Game of Thrones events offline. This highlighted one way of creating fun experiences for customers using social media.

However, organisations can also create fun experiences for customers online. By providing simulations of real-life experiences, companies can allow customers to 'try' products or services before they buy them. Or if they have already tried these offerings, a virtual experience can augment products and services, using interactivity, animation and graphics to bring the product or service to life for customers. If this is conducted on social media, individuals can not only enjoy the virtual experiences themselves, they also share them with with friends, family and peers.

Virtual experiences help to generate word-of-mouth advertising because it allow customers to tell interesting stories about the product or brand. According to Mangold and Faulds, from the article 'Social Media: The Hybrid Element of the Promotion Mix,' stories are memorable and repeatable. By helping to create stories that individuals can share about a brand or product, virtual experiences help to drive online brand discussions. Below, we will look at two creative case studies that have succeeded in creating brand discussion online:

Case Study 1: Send Your Facebook profile to Cape Town Campaign

Advertising firm, Ogilvy, helped to create a social media campaign for Cape Town Tourism that sent individuals' on a virtual holiday to the city through Facebook. Individuals could sign up and select the aspects of a holiday they were interested in (shopping, dining, adventures). This information was then used to tailor content to individuals' timelines. To send peoples' profiles on a virtual holiday, Ogilvy and the Cape Town tourism board put photos, videos and status updates that not only entertained individuals, but made it look like they were actually on holidays in Cape Town to their friends! Individuals who joined up for the program also had the chance to win a real trip to Cape Town.

This campaign was quite smart because it used virtual experience to give customers a taste of what it would be like to visit Cape Town. There were many different pictures and videos that were placed on individuals' profiles that displayed the beauty of city. Rather than give people a tour of the main attractions, this campaign took individuals to the secret gems of the country and allowed them to visit small communities and beatufuil natural mountains and beaches. By conducting this campaign on social media, pictures and experiences were 'shared' naturally, as peoples' friends and families would be curious with the Cape Town content appearing on their newsfeed.

What were the results of the campaign?

Overall tourism up by 4% and bookings for the following year up by 118%. On social media:

Case Study 1: Hong Kong Summer Spectacular Dance campaign

As mentioned in a previous post on this blog, Hong Kong hosts many events during the summer months including a large pop concert with many Chinese performers. To attract audiences from Asia to travel to Hong Kong and attend these events, the Hong Kong tourism board created a virtual music experience for audiences. Individuals could create their own music video and become dancers - they just had to upload their photos and their face would be placed on a pre-recorded dancers' body. This would create a funny videos that individuals could share with friends on platforms such as Facebook or Renren Wang (chinese social media platform).

                     

This campaign used virtual experience to give individuals a taste of 'stardom' and allowed them to experience the fun activities taking place in HK during the summer. These music videos not only showed the summer events, they were also outrageous and humourous media clips that amused individuals and enticed them to share with friends. According to Mangold and Faulds, outrageous content generates discussion and sharing online. In addition to this, individuals could encourage their friends to go on the Hong Kong Tourism website like their videos. The individual with the most likes could win a trip to Hong Kong with free accommodation. 

What were the results of the campaign?

The campaign received over 3000 submissions and the videos recorded received over 300,000 views. The site also had over 50,000 page views. Overall, the campaign raised travel to Hong Kong during the Summer months from the target destinations including Korea, China and Taiwan. 

Why were these virtual campaigns so successful? 

There were a few things that both campaign did that helped to increase success:

• Both campaigns gave audiences fun experiences that they might not yet have experienced in real life, e.g. travelling to South Africa, dancing in a music video
• Both campaigns were interactive and allowed individuals to personalize their virtual experience, e.g. select your holiday interest, select which photo to upload and which dancer to become
• Both campaigns provided avenues to share the content, e.g. on Facebook and other websites
• Both campaigns used competitions to incentivize viewing, participation and sharing. 

This is what I have observed. But please leave a comment... let me know if you have noticed other things that have made these campaigns successful! Would you try a virtual travel experience on social media? Would you share it? 

Key points to take away from this post:

• Make virtual experiences ones that customers haven't had the chance to experience in 'real life.'
• Allow these experiences to be personalised and shared across social media.
• Use virtual experiences to give customers a taste of the product or service being sold.
• Make experiences outrageous or humourous to generate discussion and sharing.
• Provide an incentive to share content!

Augmenting book products through games and content communities...A look at Harry Potter and Legend

This week I've been ushering at the Melbourne writer's festival and at each presentation, social media has been mentioned as a factor that has changed the writing, reading and marketing of books. So I thought I would explore this concept in this week's post.

 

The challenge with marketing books today

Book are generally more difficult to market than other entertainment products today. Firstly, there is a high level of competition with  more forms of visual entertainment, such as TV shows, films and internet entertainment. Secondly, consumers' preferences are changing due to the development of new technologies and more instantaneous entertainment. Members of the younger generation seek more interaction and involvement with their products. As a result, some think books are less entertaining today....unless you're talking about Facebook...

Augmentation through social media

In order to market books effectively, whether e-books or physical paperback stories, authors and publishers need to create involvement with readers. This should be done not only through the book itself (the actual product) , but through social media.

Social media can help to augment book products. What do we mean by augment? In Marketing Management, Philip Kotler explains that 3 levels of product exist: the core product, the actual product and the augmented product.

The augmented product is the value-added product;  this includes the  services and experiences that enhance a physical good. Social media is a tool that can  help augment books because it provides a way to supply additional content, experiences and services in an interactive and inclusive manner. But what forms of social media are most relevant for adding value to young adult fiction?

Games

According to Gamification expert, Gabe Zichermann, the use of game-based thinking and dynamics in a non-game context can engage individuals. This is particularly true with books, as these products already come with a game element: narrative. Virtual gaming worlds can draw younger audiences into stories by literally placing them within the context of the story and letting them experience the events described.

By using games to market books, publishers co-created value with their young audiences: children and teens can receive a more interactive and involved experience of a book, while publishers can market the book in a  more enticing manner to customers.  Publishers can also find out about their audiences' preferences from games and use this to inform other marketing activities.

Case Study: Harry Potter e-books enhanced through co-creating value with Pottermore

Harry Potter has been a phenomenally successful series, due largely to its imaginative world-building, relatable characters and good writing. However, social media has also helped to augment the series and propel sales.

J.K Rowling recently updated the Harry Potter website into Pottermore, an interactive social gaming and networking site. As well as providing a 'thank you' gift to fans, this was developed to sell Harry Potter e-books directly to readers (bypassing e-retailers such as Amazon).

From a marketing perspective, Pottermore has been a smart way of augmenting the Harry Potter e-books. Without Pottermore, there might have been less appeal for the products as most fans already own several copies of story. Some fans had also drifted away from the series altogether since its completion. However, by creating an interactive game world based on the series, Rowling created a more engaging experience of the story which drew readers back towards the books again. With an exclusive 'first million' entrants limitation into the new gaming world, the site diffused quickly, bringing back many old readers and therefore, consumers.

By placing users of the site at the centre of the story, Pottermore allowed fans to experience the narrative from the first book as a character themselves. This created nostalgia, which was fuelled by interaction between fans within the Pottermore gaming world.

But was this successful for e-book sales? ...Well, e-book sales topped 1 million pounds within 3 days according to The Guardian: Furthermore, it increased the sales of her physical books too. By augmenting the reading experience for her fans through game, Rowling was able to co-create value which led to benefits for her book sales as well.

Content communities

According to Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haelein in  'Users if the world, Unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media', content communities allow for the sharing of media between users. Content communities can augment books by offering a platform to  co-create value: by providing fans a space to produce fan-art, authors can gain additional advertising material and learn about what interests their audiences.

  

Case Study: Facebook games, Deviantart, Pinterest and Tumblr to enhance Legend

Legend is a series of dystopian teen novels written by an author called Marie Lu. While Legend does not have a fan base quite as big as Harry Potter, it has become a New York Times Best-seller.

This is may be due to Lu's interesting writing style, but also to her use of social media to augment the book experience for fans. Lu has highly active Twitter and Facebook pages (with an online game where players are characters in the dystopian world of the story). In addition, she also reaches out to fans via content communities. On Pinterest and Deviantart, Lu provides supplementary content to her book series, including ideas that inspired her stories and artworks based on her characters.

  

 Facebook game:

 

Pinterest inspiration folders:

Fans are also able to create fan-art and send it to Lu, who shares it on her Tumblr page (a creative blogging platform) and Deviantart profile (art creation and sharing community). She not only re-blogs these pieces, but also compliments fans on their artwork. These content communities  help co-create value with fans in two ways: They can gain supplementary information to the story from the author. In additional, they can share their own art-work and interact with an artist they value. In turn, Marie Lu gains additional ways to promote her books series and find out what interests fans.

Tumblr page:

  

This brings me to the end of this post. Are you fans of any book series that rely on social media to bring the reading experience to life for you?

Key points to take away from this post:

• Social media can augment products, particularly books, by providing a platform for co-creating value between customers and producers.
• Games and content communities provide interaction for non-interactive products like books.
• Both games and content communities can help to bring stories to life for books. This co-creates value with young generations, who seek a higher level of engagement in their entertainment.

How to be 'social' on social media with Oreo's campaigns and strategies.

Welcome to post #3! I have focused this week's post on Oreo, the famous cookie brand. Why? The first reason is because I'm a foodie...The second reason is because Oreo is a company that has, in recent years, been successful in developing and using social media strategies and campaigns. I'll give a brief introduction of the company before we look at how they've succeeded in using social media to acquire their target customers.

Oreo: The Social Media Powerhouse

Oreo is a popular brand of US chocolate and crème biscuits owned by Kraft in Australia and Nabisco in the US. They have been known for their Twist, Lick and Dunk tagline which has been used in many advertising campaigns throughout the years. In recent times, the company has  also been known for its successful use of social media. For a fast moving consumer good, they have acquired an extremely large fan base across their various social media accounts...

• On Facebook, they have 34 million fans.
• On Twitter, they have over 164,000 followers
• On Youtube, they have over 24,000 subscribers

So how has Oreo done this?

The simple answer is that Oreo is knowledgeable about being 'social' on social media.

How to be 'Social' on social media

According to Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein in their article, 'Users of the World, unite! The Challenges and Opportunities of Social Media,' there are some guidelines that individuals and companies need to consider when they create social media strategies or campaigns. Marketers must be: active, interesting and not overtly professional in their management of social media channels. This has been demonstrated by Oreo in their social media strategies and campaigns. We will now have a closer look at how they have done this...

Being Active

On Facebook and Twitter, Oreo makes a post every 1-4 days, which means that they frequently interact with their followers. In addition to this, they make timely posts relevant to current events that their audiences can relate to. For example, when the lights went out at the Superbowl (the largest sporting event in America), Oreo made a comical tweet about the blackout within 10-15 minutes of the event occurring. This not only surprised fans, but gave them something to laugh at and share while they waited for the lights to be fixed in the stadium. This sort of idea has been referred to by the Wall Street Journal as 'Newjacking' - taking an item of news and turning it into a marketing tool to gain attention from customers as well as the media.

I believe this has been a great move by Oreo because these events were going to create a media buzz anyway; Oreo just took the excitement and channeled it into their products through social media. By  creating a tweet about the event, they showed an understanding of their customers' experiences and moved past the rigid structure of planned advertising, to interact with individuals about an event.

Another timely post that Oreo made was in reply to Kitkat's Twitter challenge. Two days after viewing a fan's tweet that mentioned both Kitkat and Oreo, Kitkat challenged Oreo to a tic-tac-toe game for the twitter fans' affection. Unlike their competitor, Oreo only took a few hours to come up with a clever reply that beat Kitkat at their own game.

By being active and playful, Oreo was able to make their brand appear more personable. Through interacting with customers and competitors in a timely manner, they showed a genuine interest in their fans and the activities they engaged with. This has led to a more effective way of marketing to customers, who are moving further away from direct advertising.



Be Interesting

Aside from being active, Oreo has also developed interesting ways to interact with customers about their products. Rather than post status updates about their cookies being a fun treat, they have demonstrated what it means to be 'fun' through their social media channels. They have done this by paying close attention to their customers and making content relevant to them. For example, YOLO has been a slang term that has developed in recent years on social media channels. Used predominantly by the younger generation, it stands for the phrase 'You Only Live Once'...Oreo, however, used this to create a new phrase: 'You Obviously Love Oreos.' This Facebook post was popular because it was humourous, fun and showed relevance to their younger audiences.

Upon hearing about how some customers preferred cookie to crème, Oreo cleverly turned the conversation into a campaign called 'Cookies v. crème.' They created a mini 4 part Youtube series, showing interesting individuals (physicists, designers, inventors etc.)  using elaborate methods to get rid of the crème in their Oreo cookies. These videos showed creative ways to play with, and eat, Oreos, rather than deliver a direct advertisement for the biscuit. As a result, these videos became popular on Youtube.

In my opinion, this is another reason why Oreo has been successful on social media. They don't dictate the content on their social media pages and expect customers to like it; they create content that speaks to their customers' interests. By listening to their audiences, they have posted content that responds to those topics. Customers like the brand and follow them willingly because they are interested in Oreo's YouTube videos and Facebook graphics. By interacting with customers, rather than advertising directly to them, Oreo has succeeded to gain many followers, and consequently, customers.

Avoiding overt professionalism

Finally, Oreo allows for interaction and feedback from customers. While channels are monitored, memes and other comical (but non-offensive) comments are left up on their Facebook and Twitter pages. This creates a sense of authenticity on their profiles - Oreo doesn't seek total authority and professionalism on their social media channels; instead, they blend in with their users and encourage user-generated content...

This is seen particularly in their latest 'Wonderfilled' campaign, where they have not only recorded an Oreo anthem with various celebrities, they have also encouraged Youtube artists to record covers of the song and featured this on their Youtube channel and website.

By encouraging user-generated content on their social media sites, Oreo have involved their customers with their brand. This is more appealing to customers who desire a higher level of interactivity and personalization in their activities today. So this brings me to the end of my post on how to be 'social' on social media from a business perspective...please look to my key points below for a summary of this post...And please let me know, what else you think Oreo is doing right on social media. Have I missed anything? Leave a comment if you can, thanks!

Key points to take away from this post:

• Being successful on social media isn't just about selecting the right medium, it's also about knowing how to be 'social' on these channels.
• It's important to be active on social media - this means posting consistently and being timely and topical when new events occur. Companies that respond to the environment around them and to their customers are able to appear more spontaneous and personable. This gives them greater potential to attract customers who are moving further away from direct advertising towards interactive co-created content.
• Companies also need to be interesting. It's not enough to just post messages about the brand and their products. They must use social media to show their brand personality. Furthermore, companies must also listen to what their target audiences want and use this to create content. This means companies need to conduct research and a gain a strong understanding of their audiences and how they use social media.
• Finally, companies should avoid being overly professional or controlling. Social media marketing is about connecting with customers, so companies should encourage positive user-generated activities. While they must screen out any potentially offensive materials, they don't need to rectify every unpopular comment they make or every meme that appears on their page...companies should aim for a balance between being professional and interacting with customers on their level.

Co-creation of value in the Game of Thrones Social Media Campaign

Anyone a fan of Games of Thrones? And did you know that social media played a large role in its advertising strategy for season 1? As I mentioned in my introduction, I love pop culture and entertainment. So today's blog post will be looking at how HBO used social media to co-create value with Game of Thrones fans and propel the success of the television show.

An Introduction

Game of Thrones is a TV show based on George RR Martin's high fantasy book series, A Song of Fire and Ice. As with most book to film/TV transitions, there were worries that the Game of Thrones series would be a huge flop - the books' highly enthusiastic followers were either going to love or reject the outcome and the general public might consider it too geeky or cheesy to follow. So HBO needed to reach out to its strong existing fan base and secure the attention of other potential audiences. To do this, they used a social media campaign.

The Social Media Campaign

Co-creation of Value with existing fans

1) HBO began their campaign a year before the show to target loyal fans of the series.

• They rolled out trailers online on: the HBO website and HBO Youtube channels.
• HBO then launched an official production blog 'The Making of Game of Thrones' for fans
• They also launched a twitter profile @gameofthrones, where fans could provide advice, feedback or comments on the production of the series.

In my opinion, HBO's use of social media to integrate fans' opinions about the series was a really smart move because it allowed the show to be co-produced with its consumers. This co-created value between the two parties: HBO was able to develop a more successful adaption of the series through using their audiences' knowledge. They were also able to attract more viewers as fans began spreading word of mouth to others. On the other hand, these social media channels increased value for fans of the series because they were able to shape the entertainment they wanted to watch. If you've ever read any of Vargo and Lusch's articles about Service Dominant Logic, this is the perfect example of co-created value, where both parties benefit from interaction through social media. Now onto the second stage of HBO's campaign...

Creating an experience for fans

2) Prior to the premier, HBO started launching official social media pages on Facebook etc.

• Here, they launched the Maester’s Path, a game that took place both online and offline. Fans collected weekly  Facebook clues to complete challenges in the real world. 
• Clues were linked to food truck stunts. Fans who collected clues would be able to meet at events and taste cuisine from Westeros, the land in which the series takes place.
• At WonderCon 2011, fans could also take pictures with an exact replica of the Iron Throne. These were featured on the official Facebook page in real time and created a media buzz.

I thought this was interesting because they immersed fans in a real-life experience of the world from the TV show, using social media as a platform to do this. If you remember Phillip Kotler's product theory, companies should differentiate products and services by adding value to them and shifting them up the levels from product to experience. I think this would be easy for products and services with retail outlets because companies can create a shopping experience for consumers using music, retail personnel and store presentation...but how would you do this for something like a TV show (as a product)? Social media has played a key role in developing experiences for consumers and more importantly, these experiences are co-created. Companies have instant feedback as to whether or not they are doing a good job, or a poor one! In this case, HBO was definitely not providing a poor experience for viewers

Interaction between audience and TV station

3) After the premiere, HBO engaged fans through a number of social media channels.  Finally, they launched 'The Battle for the Iron Throne' Facebook game to conclude the campaign. The results were pretty strong: The Game of Thrones Facebook page grew to 150K connections even before the show aired and the premiere generated an audience of 2.2MM viewers, which meant the series was immediately renewed for a second season.

Social media has been a great way to connect fans to each other and to HBO, even after this campaign. I remember the second last episode in the most recent season where a traumatic event occurred in the series - my Facebook newsfeed was SPAMMED with people expressing their devastation. There were statuses, memes and photos, which generated more hype as people commented and interacted with one another over their grief. I heard people even wrote on the HBO Facebook profile begging them not to slaughter off anymore people....

So if you're a fan of the series and you know which episode I'm talking about did you take to social media to share your angst? And did you experience any of this social media campaign as it was rolled out? Do you think they could have done anything better, or is this a good campaign by your standards? Leave a comment and let me know! Also, look below for some key points to take away.

Key points to take away from this post:

• Co-creation of value benefits both the company and the consumer in marketing, so it's a good idea for to initiate co-production or creation practices over social media platforms.
• Social media can help create both online and offline experiences, particularly for intangible products, such as TV shows, films, holidays...Worth leveraging in these industries!
• If used strategically, social media can co-create value, shape experiences and generate interaction with consumers, which can lead to more effective marketing and communications.