Andres Teletransporter

Talk about alienating women...

The Joy Formidable at Notre Dame

About a month ago, the Welsh band "The Joy Formidable" performed on campus at Legends. I got the weekly email from Legends which mentioned somewhere within the email that the band was performing the next day and got super excited as I had already seen them live, while opening for Muse in Madrid. I told my friends how good they were and rallied a bunch of people who, although had never heard of them, took my word for it and got excited in turn.
Planning on getting there early to get a good spot in line, I was a bit worried when I realized I was running late and would only get there about 30 minutes before the concert started. When I got there, however, I was pleasantly surprised to see that I was third in line. There was no one there yet.

The opening band performed on a close to empty venue and though more people had arrived when the Joy Formidable came on stage, Legends was still noticeably empty. The opening band did a great job at warming out the crowd, but the Joy Formidable took it to another level. They absolutely rocked on stage and put the crowd into a frenzy, which is particularly hard to do when most people haven't heard you before and even harder to do when you have an almost empty venue. You had to give it to them, they're just that good.

So what happened then that caused such an amazing band to go unnoticed? Well, lets look at the media strategy taken and how it measures in terms of engagement:

Media Strategy: email sent by Legends of Notre Dame to Notre Dame students. Subject line: "If you could go anywhere, anywhere... Go to Legends". Sent on wednesday Apr. 10, show was Apr. 11.

Matching: GOOD Only ND students received the email and since this was the target audience, this criteria was successfully met.
Monopolization: NONE. The email sent was an advertisement for Legends, containing an ad for this band and several others. The media strategy failed completely in this criteria. 
Moment: NO. The email was sent one day before the concert. As an email, it doesn't ensure capturing people's attention at their decisional moment. If people opened the email and saw it before they had plans for the next day, moment was good. However, if they either didn't open the email until after the concert or if they already had plans, moment was not good. When I spoke to my friends however, no one had seen the email.
Mind-set: MAYBE. The email had references to other indie bands (if you know anything about indie bands, you know that one of the reasons they're indie is because few people know of them) and one of their most famous songs. People could've gone online to look for the song but I wonder how many did it.

With an empty venue to such a good performance as proof of failed advertising, I see questions arising within my mind. However, for the purposes of this blog, I think the most important take-away of this case study is that advertising exclusively through email is dangerous. Based on the responses of most of my friends who came because of my involvement but who said that they hadn't even see the email, I can safely conclude that we rarely pay attention anymore to weekly emails or newsletters and advertising solely through email can result in failing the most important step of advertising: getting people to see it.

"So, some smartphones are smarter than other smartphones...?"

This is an advertisement for the Samsung Galaxy S4 phone. The ad depicts a graduation party at which all of the teenagers have Galaxy phones and their parents have iPhones. Samsung tries to get this simple message across: the Galaxy is the hipper phone. The ad is effective because it accomplishes that message in a way that's less about how bad the iPhone is and more about the cool features the Galaxy offers. One grad shows off a few of the capabilities the Galaxy has that the iPhone doesn't, such as touch-free phone answering.

The campaign doesn't just target youths, however. Samsung is smart not to isolate older smartphone users, as another commercial shows a middle-aged parent at the graduation ceremony taking photos on her Galaxy and showing off other innovative features. A twenty-something in the row behind is in awe of the technology this women is using and she's flattered that someone so young thinks she's cool. Here it is:

Nokia Lumia

I recently saw the new Nokia Lumia ad on television. It was really funny. It was set at a wedding where half of the people used iPhones and the other Samsung phones. They get into a fight about who has the better phone. The tagline line though is really weak, basically saying that the Nokia Lumia (a Windows phone) was not one of those other phones. It basically is trying to sell the Nokia based on the idea that its not a top selling phone. I see how it could appeal to those that want to be different, but the message is kind of weak and makes the Nokia seem like less of a phone.

Really Mountain Dew?

I don't really want to analyze this commercial.  I'm only posting it because I think within the next few days Pepsico will try their best to take it down and it might be one of the worst advertising decisions ever made.  On a brighter note, I'm pretty sure Pepsico will be looking for some fresh marketing talent shortly.

Warby Parker Class Trip and Social Media

Today is our last day of classes, and reflecting back on my first year of business school, I can wholeheartedly admit that I have had some pretty dynamic marketing experiences in the classroom.

So far my favorite class has been Advertising Management and my reasons for liking this class really lie with the strength of our in-class discussion.   I think that the opportunity to talk about and discuss ads are a really important component of the creative process and can really speak to a deeper understanding of what these ads really mean.  Furthermore, I think the ability to add an academic understanding to these ads-- specifically what the ad means, and a point-of-parity/point-of-differentiation can really help viewers understand how the ad speaks to certain parts of the consumer demographic.

For example, the discussion in which we talked about social media and the implications of a Facebook, Twitter and Instagram strategy were really important.  At work, and specifically within the investment banking/finance industry, many companies view a social media strategy, and platforms such as Facebook and Twitter as risky.  These companies feel that they cannot control aspects of the conversation that take place between users of their products and services.  What these companies fail to understand is that Facebook and Twitter conversations should not be monitored, but can be used to glean insights about what the public is saying about the brand, and later use that information to make key insights and recommendations.  

That said, when completing our LiveCase on the Warby Parker Class Trip, and looking deeper into why the company uses social media to demonstrate its positioning as a point-of-difference, I think this aspect speaks directly to the Warby Parker demographic. This demographic believes heavily in an alternative lifestyle and other aspects that make it different from other target groups. What's more, the Warby Parker Class Trip campaign also features regular people (in terms of the people in their target cities) who are also Warby Parker enthusiasts and have a strong understanding of the Warby Parker brand.  I think that the Warby Parker Class Trip campaign makes a strong case for the importance of a social media/digital marketing strategy and how it can really be used to demonstrate an understanding of brand's target through unique and non-traditional platforms.

Tough Mudder

This past weekend I completed my first Tough Mudder.  If you haven’t heard of a Tough Mudder, check this out: http://toughmudder.com/video/.  It’s basically a half marathon through the mud, with the occasional wall to climb, ice bath to jump in, or wires to electrocute you.  The event was insanely popular and crowded; I never knew so many people enjoyed pain.  Unlike most races, time didn't matter at all and the goal was just to complete the course.   Teamwork and camaraderie were placed above individual accomplishments and I am proud that all eight members of my team crossed the finish line.  Beyond enjoying the event, I was very impressed with their advertising.  I first found out about Tough Mudder because some friends of mine participated in Toronto and proceeded to plaster their Facebook walls with awesome photos.  That got me interested enough to check out the website and see if any events would be in my area.  When a classmate said they were putting a team together to travel to Ohio for the Mansfield event, I was all in. 

My Digital Badge

Tough Mudder has grown tremendously in the past couple of years, with the bulk of their advertising coming via sharing of photos on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.  It has to be a very budget friendly advertising plan.  They are really good at it.  To start with, the event is hard so people want to share the fact that they did it.  Secondly, the photos that you get are awesome and people want to share them.  In fact, all eight of my teammates currently have a Tough Mudder photo as their cover shot on Facebook.  They also sent me a free digital badge as soon as I completed the race, allowing me to claim it and share it on whatever sites I chose.  They highly encouraged me to make it my profile picture on Facebook  but I managed to resist that and just shared it on my wall.  My friends all “liked” my photos and maybe one day they’ll compete in a Tough Mudder of their own.  By creating something that people are proud to share about, Tough Mudder has been able to really utilize online channels to grow their brand.

My Team - and also my Facebook cover photo
(Those orange headbands aren't for sale, you have to finish a Tough Mudder to get one ...  you know you want one)