Advertising Exercise - Social Media Platforms

From The Advertising Concept Book by Pete Barry. The exercise:

Social Media Platforms 

Pick three brands from the list and visit each Facebook page. Explore the content. How much of it is the same across each brand? What, if any, unique content is there?

Similarities

• Great, well-designed Facebook cover image
• Profile picture, usually features brand logo
• Videos, photos related to brand/product/service
• Share links from other sites featuring their brand (eg news articles)
• Posts commemorate world events, keeps updated with daily current affairs (eg anniversary of Nelson Mandela, New Year, Christmas)
• Features brand/product/service with exciting content that is popular with audience (eg MTV mentions hit TV show Teen Wolf, Red Bull shows videos of cars racing)
• Features new products (eg new Converse collection, upcoming Star Wars movie by Disney, new Galaxy phone by Samsung)
• Promotes offers (eg McDonald's Monopoly, Samsung $50 discount)
• Offers platform for customers to comment via Visitor's Posts (eg customer praising McDonald's staff, customer complaining about Oreo creme and asking Oreo to bring back the old creme, Starbucks customer enquiring why sugar-free caramel is no longer available online, Samsung customer asking if Samsung G8 will be released)
• Links to corporate website
• Good copywriting for every post!
• Tone sounds more informal, conversational, like talking to one's friend. (eg Red Bull: "Skillz", Starbucks: "Espresso + water + ice. #IcedAmericano ☕️😎☀️")
• Use of internet slang eg hashtags, emojis
• Lists upcoming events organised by brand (eg PlayStation Experience 2016, Red Bull Music Academy)

Unique Content

• Most of the Facebook pages are in English, but Coca-Cola has posts in different languages (eg English, Spanish, Thai)
• Tone and style differs across different brands/products/services. eg Converse is cool, Disney is more "childish", Oreo is more whimsical and fun
• Some brands have separate Facebook pages customised for different countries, in addition to a main international Facebook page (eg McDonald's Singapore, Samsung Singapore, Starbucks Singapore). These "localised" pages have more customised content, eg local promotions, photos of local celebrities at events.

Learning Points

• Have cohesive branding! (eg logo, cover image, colour palette, tone etc)
• Have more visuals! Photos, videos are more exciting than just text. (Every post is a photo/video, accompanied by copy, rather than just text alone.)
• Encourage interaction and sharing! (eg links, comments, Likes)
• Stay up-to-date! 
• Post content that audiences are interested in (eg reference to pop-culture, relate to their hobbies etc)
• Self-promote! (But not in an "in-your-face" "hard" sell way, but more subtle "soft" selling.)
• Give exclusive incentives and special offers! (eg discounts, games, special events)
• Be friendly! (You can be more informal and light-hearted on social media. Make the customers feel like you are their friend.)
• Inform customers! (eg tell them about new product releases, upcoming events)
• General and customised. (It may be a good idea for international brands to have a separate local page for each country, to make the content more relevant and relatable on a local level.)
• Social media marketing is all about the people

Advertising Exercises (The Advertising Concept Book, Pete Barry)

Advertising exercises from The Advertising Concept Book by Pete Barry

Hard Sell vs Soft Sell

Take a basic hard sell ad (eg a basic price-led ad) and "soften" it. Keep the offer in the ad, but create an idea that works as an integral part of the offer, not something that looks stuck onto it.

Single Minded Proposition

Turn on the TV, or grab a magazine or paper. Look at each ad and try to work out what each one is trying to say about the product. Is there one benefit being communicated? Are they saying too many things? In other words, identify the proposition. 

Target Audience

Watch TV ads, or look in a magazine or paper and try to work out whom each ad is directed at, or talking to. Try to be as specific as possible. In other words, identify the target.

Opposites

Think of something, anything, and do the opposite. Start with visuals, eg an egg. It's usually round, so make it square instead. Then turn it into an ad. Maybe a line for this example could be: Have genetically modified foods gone too far? (Not great. Think of some better examples...)

Print Campaign

Pick the product/service that you love the most. Create a print campaign for it. Then do the same for the product you hate the most.

Parodies and Spoofs

Think of five types of cliched advertising styles that have yet to be parodied. Do the same for genres of movies and TV shows. Keep the list for potential future campaign ideas.

Truisms

Write a list of ten truisms. Avoid famous quotes or cliches. Think about how each one can be used as a strategy for a particular product/service.

Exaggeration

Apply each stage of the exaggeration tool to a brand of really sharp kitchen knives. Start with ten working taglines that begin with "So sharp that..." Pick your favourite line/idea (the one that you can write lots of ads to). Then write a reduced, separate final tagline. Test the idea without a tag.

Ambient Marketing

Pick any five products/services and create as many original ambient ideas as you can. Try both types of ambient ideas (using traditional media in an innovative and interesting way eg colour-changing billboards, or creating a new medium eg using a bench as a poster), but try to avoid obvious charity organisations, or condom ads in toilets, etc.

Interactive Marketing

Choose an everyday object (eg a type of drink or article of clothing) and think of all the ways you can interact with it. Go through the five senses. Now apply this to a digital interactive experience (eg website or app) and see if any of the first ideas can work for a particular brand. 

Games

Pick a brand (or start with a market, if it's easier) that has yet to produce a gaming experience, and create ideas for one. Maybe produce it too. (Either way, it could become a stand-out piece in your portfolio.)

App

Create an app for a brand that's never been done before. Really.

QR Code

Create an original, compelling QR code concept for a brand of your choice. (Creatively, think beyond the design-focused, "executional" use of QR codes like unusual positioning/placement, or photographic mosaic montages, unless it's relevant to the brand or concept like the My Toys campaign that used QR codes made from Lego bricks.)

Augmented Reality (AR)

Create a mobile (phone/tablet) AR concept for any brand.

Call-To-Actions (CTAs)

Instructional copy should be good copy too. Go online or browse an interactive manual. Pick out CTAs, eg banners and websites are the best bet. (Most use the standard 'Learn more.') Now try rewriting each CTA in a way that's more interesting and/or relates to the idea.

Social Co-Creation

Choose a brand and then think of an engaging co-creation idea that the brand "starts" and the consumer(s) has to "finish". For the same product, think of a new idea that the consumer "starts" and the brand has to "finish". Compare each approach to see which is the most original, creative and compelling.

Social Media Platforms

Pick three brands from the list below and visit each Facebook page. Explore the content. How much of it is the same across each brand? What, if any, unique content is there?

World's Top 10 Most "Liked" Brand Pages on Facebook

1. Coca-Cola
2. Converse
3. Disney
4. McDonald's
5. MTV
6. Oreo
7. PlayStation
8. Red Bull
9. Samsung
10. Starbucks

Snapchat Campaign

Create an idea (for three different brands) to appear on Snapchat that utilises its content-lifespan (1-10s for a Snap; up to 24 hours for a Story) in a unique way.

Traditional to New Media

Pick a classic print/TV ad campaign. Revisit and extend the idea behind it using new media (i.e. digital and social tools). To help, visit Google's projectbrief.com for examples of iconic ads that were re-imagined for the web.

Integrated Campaign

Pick a current TV show or podcast (comedy, drama, reality, documentary, chat, news, entertainment etc) and create an integrated campaign that keeps the consumer aware and engaged.

Typography

Famous people are like brands. We get a feeling as soon as we hear a name: a definite, unique picture. Think of ten famous people (dead or alive), and pick a typeface that expresses each persona. Restrictions: black, roman (upright) type only; UPPERCASE, lower case, or upper and lower.

Redesigning Old Ads

Give an ageing ad a face lift. Find a headline and visual print that has a great concept, but looks dated. (Hint: go through some 1980s awards annuals.) Now re-direct the ad, changing the layout, hierarchy, type, colour palette etc, as necessary. (If the visual is from a specific photo shoot, either Photoshop/Illustrate a new visual, or insert a similar stock image.)

Common Typefaces

Here are some well-designed, generally well-respected typefaces (recommended by The Advertising Concept Book by Pete Barry):

Sans-Serif

1. Helvetica
2. Univers
3. Scala Sans
4. Futura
5. Interstate

Semi-Serifs/Slab-Serifs

1. Bodoni
2. Rockwell
3. Clarendon
4. Agfa Rotis Semi

Serifs

1. Garamond
2. Janson MT
3. Minion
4. Caslon
5. Century Schoolbook

"Brand First"

"In his insightful article, "Are You Brand-First?" Nick Shore argues that in business, a well-defined brand is everything: "...if you systematically dismantled the entire operation of Coca-Cola Co. and left them with only their brand name, management could rebuild the company within five years. Remove the brand name, and the enterprise would likewise die within five years... That's the mark of a brand-first enterprise. More than a framework for marketing and communications efforts, the brand is the emotional source of the organisation itself... In the brand-first enterprise, everything about the company is derived from an emotional blueprint, a central organising principle, a compelling essence... Disney calls it Magic." He later points out that if you were to ask 25 employees to articulate their company's brand in five words, and the total list is more than 10 words, then the brand's emotional blueprint is not established."

- The Advertising Concept Book, Pete Barry

Competitive Marketing

Competitive Marketing Strategy
Compares one brand/product to its competition.

eg Coke vs Pepsi

eg Mcdonald's vs Burger King

Creative Advertisement Examples

Don't underestimate the power of words (copywriting)

"Everywhere URL", Land Rover, Y&R South Africa.
Source: http://adsoftheworld.com/media/print/land_rover_everywhere_url.

Simple can be stunning

“Blood”, American Red Cross, Uber Agency (UK).
Source: http://www.adforum.com/creative-work/ad/player/12657937/blood/american-red-cross. 

Clever symbolism

"Infinity", BIC, TBWA Hunt Lascaris, South Africa.
Source: https://adsoftheworld.com/media/print/bic_infinity.

Imply

Play with the medium

"Sheet", Tabasco, Marketway/Publicis, Cyprus.
Source: http://adsoftheworld.com/media/print/tabasco_sheet

Visual metaphors

"Stairs", Sydney Aquarium, M&C Saatchi Sydney.
Source: https://www.coloribus.com/adsarchive/prints/sydney-aquarium-stairs-3987305/

Turn a negative into a positive