DECODED BUT INTEGRATED

image: New York decoded                 

An invitation to an online scavenger hunt to find almost 350 pages advertised in different locations from New York to 13 eminent cities world-wide to launch an autobiography of Jay-Z titled “Decoded”; and to increase their significance and worth of the usage in Microsoft search engine Bing by attracting the younger audience.

 So tell me, what better way than partnering with Jay-Z to reach that type of audience. I personally enjoyed watching this clip of the analytic's of the Decoded Jay-Z campaign and the impact it had on old school advertising and social media. It gives the finest description of Trans-media storytelling, now I’m sure you wondering what the hell is trans-media, well… I did. Trans-media storytelling is a way of allowing a single story or angle to be told through a shared experience via multiple social media platforms which includes non-digital technology.

Bing reached to a mass audience by making use of newspapers, radio, TV commercials, and magazines; this means that they didn't exclude those who didn't have devices that make use of social media right?. Even though traditional advertising is expensive, I tend to believe that it allows you to build relationships with external stakeholders or clients such as Gucci and broadcasting companies.

Bing created an unforgettable experience by taking their audience through locations based on Jay-Z‘s life story where they would get to take pictures next to the advertised pages and post on different social media channels. Now to make it more interesting Bing ensured that this online game would ignite a competitive edge for the fans, so Bing would post clues of where the displayed pages might be on twitter, Facebook and on radio.

image: advertised pages

 Now take into consideration that these pages were not just advertised on billboards, they were advertised in swimming pools, restaurant plates, pizza boxes, cars, and Gucci designed jackets with the pages printed inside the jacket which gives a twist to traditional advertising. People who were unable to reach the located cities, they could make use of Bing maps to collect all the pages and make an online version of the book from the snip shots they took through Bing maps then win prizes.

Traditional advertising sparks the need from individuals to research more about the news they see on TV or hear on radio, and in this case  what I do to stay updated is to check on twitter and if what I see intrigues me, I share it among my friends. Bing understood what their targeted audience wanted and it enabled them to deliver the relevant message to their audience which enhanced audience’s experience and made use of USP.

To see the results of the award winning campaign check out this video and see that traditional advertising integrated with social media can make a difference.

  

                                          YouTube video :Case study on the analytic's of Decoded Campaign

Bloggers! #MeetSouthAfrica

image: Mzansigirl 

Are you searching for your next dream destination?,the iambassador #MeetSouthAfrica campaign should be of interest to you because unlike looking at different websites for people’s reviews on those locations you would like to visit; why not stay in touch with the #MeetSouthAfrica campaign for more insight.

The iambassador #MeetSouthAfrica campaign is based on creating awareness of South Africa and to encourage others who are prospective travelers that have the interest in visiting SA, through the use of the most popular social media channels such as YouTube, Google +, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest and Vine.

The partnership between South African Tourism and Cape TownTourism along with iambassador and Indaba began a project in 2013 to establish a historical travel blogger campaign by having 15 international travel bloggers to embark on a journey to explore different regions within South Africa which included Cape town, Johannesburg, Garden Route, Eastern Cape, West Coast, Northern Cape, Mpumalanga, Free State and reaching their final destination which was Durban.

Talk about the ideal opportunity to travel around the country with all of your expenses paid for, and as for myself the only provinces I've been to is Mpumalanga, Gauteng, and Limpopo; so just imagine the exciting experiences these bloggers had.

image: 15 travel bloggers

Want to a be travel bloggers?, here is a quick description of the job. Travel bloggers basically share various types of multimedia information/content based on their thoughts, experiences, and destinations on their professional blogs. This allows the campaign to reach their targeted audience, produce relevant or interesting content, to increase the social media engagement, to have online ambassadors, creating exposure and personal views to make it more authentic.

The impact on social media:

·         3.3 million Twitter accounts were reached.

·         1059 photos taken were posted on Instagram based on their experiences.

·         77.8 million Opportunities of twitter engagement.

·         31 500 single photos posted were viewed on Facebook by individuals who were not even the targeted audience.

·         And +60 000 viewers on YouTube

image:Graffiti

My thoughts, the best social media campaigns make use of their visual aids which is of interest to the targeted audience, and what follows is allowing your audience to engage or participate in the campaign which makes them feel like they are a part of the marketing/advertising team. Now let’s be honest, social media generated campaigns are the most cost effective campaigns even for a non-profit organisation, but most of the time audiences, like myself always want to be awarded for the time we take to share content, like videos or make videos of ourselves  and to advertise something on their social media platforms. So if I was part of the marketing team, I would look at what angle of publicity would I provide to my targeted audience?