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Author: dannyosullivanblog
Future Trends in Social Media Marketing
New Channels
One of the most popular up and coming trends in social media marketing is ‘new channels’. The already lucrative social media platforms are branching out with new apps to go along with their current platform. Take Facebook for example, Facebook branched out by removing the messaging service from the original app, and created its very own app known as ‘Messenger’. This then lead to all of its original users having to download the brand new app to acquire the full Facebook experience. Facebook’s new channels continued to expand with Mark Zuckerberg & CO deciding to purchase other prosperous apps such as Instagram and Whatsapp. When Facebook bought photo-sharing startup Instagram in 2012 for $1 billion, most analysts thought Mark Zuckerberg had made a colossal mistake. At the time, Instagram had only 13 employees and had never turned a profit. It only had 30 million users — an insignificant amount compared to the Facebook’s hundreds of millions of users at the time. Today, Instagram has 400 million users and the largest stockpile of photos in the world. Hubspot claims that;
“Today, your audience may still be there, but there are many other places as well. You must know your audience and you must focus on your efforts on the networks that are most relevant for them.”
Video
Instagram was one of the first totally visually focused social networks, at first it was almost all pictures. Its massive success served as a spark for the rest of the industry. Quickly other social networks started leaning away from text into images, and that trend continued to evolve towards video. We all now have mobile phones in our pockets comparable to high end computer models with strong wifi and cellular networks. This makes hosting, sharing, and serving video a fast, enjoyable experience. The people of social media want video, and it is appearing more and more often in our social media feeds each day, and it is only expected to grow. In a mobile-first culture, video is our main consumption. In 2017 90% of all content shared by users on social media is video. Brands who are not yet using video as part of their social media strategy need to start. The way we consume video is changing. According to Sean O’Neal from Adaptly mobile, video is the number one fastest growing ad format in the world. By 2020 video will make up 80% of all online consumer internet traffic and will eventually be the closest you get to a face to face conversation with your audience.
Chatbots will make customer service faster
Chatbots are no longer the robotic, clunky machines they once were. They are bots that are able to provide an instant connection with customers from all over the world – solving customer issues and even ordering pizza. This year we have seen many brands are testing chatbots with varying degrees of success. According to Gartner, 20% of business content could be machine-generated by 2018. If machines can be taught to create stories that are genuine and relatable, the advertising and marketing potential is certainly worth investigating.
Ephemeral content will provide the best engagement rate
Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook stories have led to the popularity of ephemeral content. Most ephemeral content is shared for up to 24 hours and then disappears forever. Brands are now creating content for their social channels as well as having a separate strategy for their ephemeral content marketing. Ephemeral content allows you to be more authentic, we are seeing many brands using their Instagram profile for their best, high-quality content and stories for more real-time content. Because of the nature of stories content is lost within hours, making your followers take fast action and marketers gain from it.
Rise of augmented reality
The use of Augmented Reality on mobile devices provides an opening and engaging way for marketers to reach their target audience – it’s quick, easy and very interactive. This year Apple announced the launch of iPhone 8 and iPhone X which provides users with new augmented reality experiences. Therefore its likely more social channels will plan on introducing new ways of integrating AR into their platforms. We have already seen Snapchat roll out a new AR feature allowing users to their Bitmoji and project themselves or images into the real world through the app’s camera. Recommendation: If you are planning on using AR make sure it adds value for the user and is shareable. Don’t use AR for sake of it. It’s important to consider how your strategy fits in and what these new features and tools might facilitate in time.
Irish Brands On Pinterest
Ryanair
Ryanair is an Irish low-cost airline founded in 1984, headquartered in Swords, Dublin, Ireland.
The Ryanair Pinterest account, has various boards for their users to browse through, such as ‘Ten things under a tenner’, ‘Quirky Holidays’, ‘Trusted tips’, ‘Foodie’, ‘Family Adventures’, ‘Adventure & Experience’ and ‘Staff Picks’. There is plenty to view for Ryanair’s Pinterest followers, all board categories are are based around the same thing; Holidays. Ryanair have based their boards around their customers. Interesting boards will provide interest in customers to aid with purchasing flights from Ryanair to destinations advertised across their Pinterest account along with activities and locations to visit. For example, in the ‘Family Adventure’ board, there are pictures displaying sunny beaches, elegant scenery and gleeful families enjoying their holidays. Ryanairs Pinterest account is a little on the unknown side, the account only has a total of 79 followers. As well as not having a larger following, although the boards are interesting and smart categories, each board only has between seven and nine photos in total. The account is clearly not active enough so i would recommend for Ryanair to advertise their Pinterest account across the rest of their more successful social media accounts and then to start uploading regularly to keep a hold of new followers gained. I feel this would improve Ryanairs social media presence and ultimately alter their business for the better in terms of sales. All of Ryanairs photos pinned on Pinterest are from their very own site here!
Bulmers Irish Cider (Magners)
Bulmers Irish Cider, branded as Magners Irish Cider outside of The Republic Of Ireland, is a brand of Cider produced in County Tipperary in Ireland by the C&C Group. The product range includes the cider varieties such as; Original, Light, Pear and Berry.
The Bulmers Ireland Pinterest account has a small selection of boards to view, for instance ‘Bulmers’, ‘Bulmers Original Irish Cider’, ‘Bulmers Light’, ‘Bulmers Pear’, ‘Bulmers Berry’and ‘Bulmers Portfolio’. The ‘Bulmers’ board possesses eleven photos pinned whilst one other contains two photos pinned, with the remaining boards only having one photo pinned. That is rather disappointing (for all thirty six of their followers) for their small fan base on Pinterest. Bulmers get most of their photos pinned on Pinterest from their own personal site. Some of the photos on the Bulmers Ireland account are quite appropriate for the page. The photos are well taken and represent a fun night out for a drink with friends and/or family. I would recommend for Bulmers Ireland, if they want to progress with their Pinterest account, and turn it into a more successful, popular page, the first step they should go about is being more active. Once they’ve come up with a page strategy, Bulmers should then go about making their presence on Pinterest known across multiple social media platforms to gain attention and followers from avid customers of their products.
Aer Lingus
Aer Lingus is the flag carrier airline of Ireland and the second largest airline in Ireland.
The Aer Lingus Pinterest account is the most popular of the three Irish pinterest accounts. The Aer Lingus accounts boasts a much bigger 508 followers compared to the other two. The account has a whopping fourteen boards with many photos pinned in the vast majority of the boards. The boards vary from ‘Destinations’, ‘Rugby’, ‘Split, Croatia’, ‘City Break Inspiration’, ‘Business Class’, ‘Romantic Escapes’, ‘In-Flight Entertainment’, ‘San Francisco’, ‘Vintage Poster Art’, ‘Toronto’, ‘Cara Magazine’, ‘Lolar – our first aircraft’, ‘Miami’ and ‘Berlin’. The Aer Lingus pinterest account has plenty of content on their page along with a generous following compared to such others. Aer Lingus gathers content for pinterest across various websites and of course their own perosnal website. Each board is full of content avid followers would enjoy, people who love to travel have endless content to satisfy their browse on the account as it gives them plenty of options in terms of multiple travel destinations and enjoyable activities to do whilst you travel. The photos pinned are elegant and aesthetically pleasing, which gets the viewers wanting to travel! But of course, their is always room for improvement, if Aer Lingus want to push on, they can advertise their pinterest account across social media to improve thier following, thus allowing their business to grow that little bit faster!
Video Marketing
Great Irish Example of marketing:
Coca-Cola Christmas Truck
I have chosen the coca cola Christmas as my example for Irish marketing. The coca-cola Christmas truck video advert is a great example as it is a timeless advert that appears late November annually and is seen by many as the first sign that Christmas is coming! It is seen as a timeless classic, as well as being a festive sensation across the nation. It gathers a lot of attention across the public and multiple social media platforms and is talked about by countless people every year. It further extends coca cola’s massive brand, and is always seen in a positive note due to it’s festive friendly advert. Coca Cola have stated that
“Many fans have told us that our Holidays are coming advert is what they consider to be the first sign of Christmas, and that the festive season wouldn’t be the same without our iconic Coca Cola Christmas trucks.”
The Coca Cola Christmas truck has been around since 1995, an impressive 22 years of annual advertising, which never gets old, proving Coca Cola out did themselves with this iconic piece of advertising.
Click here, to view this iconic festive advert!
Cannes Lions Winner:
Health & Wellness Grand Prix – Meet Graham
Cyber Grand Prix – Meet Graham
(2 Grand Prix)
I have chosen ‘Meet Graham’ as my choice for Cannes Lions winners.
Meet Graham; ”the only person designed to survive on our roads.”
My reasoning for choosing Graham as my choice for Cannes Lions winners, is because of how fascinating this concept of the human body is of how it should evolve if a human being was to survive a low impact car crash. Graham is part interactive sculpture and part educational. The concept for Grahams body design was created over the course of several months by a trauma surgeon (Christian Kenfield), a road safety engineer (Dr. David Logan) and a world renowned artist Patricia Piccinini. With the assistance of decades of road safety data, medical research and creativity, this discovered evolution backed up by evidence. Key weaknesses in the human body were identified and then modified, to create such a unique concept.
Graham was then introduced to influences in arts, science and government. Within 24 hours, Graham was discussed and debated globally in the road safety conversation. Graham was created simply as a part of an Australian road safety campaign, little did they know, he would become part of pop culture, love him or hate him, you couldn’t ignore him. Graham become a global phenomenon over night. The point of creating Graham wasn’t to try and change human evolution by any means, but more importantly to impact future drivers. Graham acts as a reality check for us all about our vulnerability on the roads, and its important we realize that.
Graham became known worldwide in the matter of no time, he is now part of the school curriculum. After Graham was introduced, he was the number one trending topic on the likes of Facebook, Twitter and other social medias. ‘Meet Graham’ received over 33 million campaign views in 24 hours, 10 million website visits in 5 days and 1.2 billion impressions in the first week. In May 2017, Graham joined the world health organization as their international face of road safety to remind all of us of our vulnerability on the road.
Meet Graham, as well as being an advert, also has a more detailed structure of this body concept on the ‘Meet Graham’ website. The website gives extensive details on Graham, you can view his body in 360 degree view and view and learn of the structure of individual body parts such as the newly developed skull and how it protects the brain, the enhanced facial structure, as well as neck, spine, ribcage and much more. The creators of ‘Meet Graham’ have stated that he is;
“A catalyst for conversation and ultimately an educational tool, Graham shows us what we might look like if we were built to survive on our roads. He’s a reminder of just how vulnerable our bodies really are when speed and impact forces as low as 30km/h are at play.”
Click here, to view Graham for yourself!
Social Media Marketing Blog 