Soldier For Women

Insight

A spate of eve-teasing and rape incidents had shattered the nation. Women had lost faith in men and men were losing respect. Few bad apples had maligned the image of all men. The marketing challenge was to resurrect the male image in such a volatile and sensitive period.

Sexual harassment is an endemic problem in India. Women are taught from childhood to avoid late nights, not to go out alone and distrust strangers. Indian women feel threatened by men but also feel the most protected around them, when they are accompanied by their loved ones ie. brother/father/husband. Other men just didn’t inspire the same confidence, as Indian men would go to any lengths to protect their own; however they would not get involved and behave as bystanders when it came to other women. The Soldierly behaviour was limited to protecting their own, this needed to change.

It was time for someone to take up the challenge. Challenge to re-instil faith by showcasing the good and encouraging all to stand up together for HER and for the nation. The men, who do stand up for everything right, the ones who do make their little contributions every day in making this society worth living, were feeling outcast and in search of a voice who would speak their heart out.

Strategy

Based on the insight “Women feel safe and secured only with their loved ones”, the task for Gillette was to create an environment where men would show solidarity with women and women would feel safe and secure even in the absence of her near and dear ones.

Mediacom took a look at history and realised that whenever a nation is faced with any catastrophe, it is the soldiers who come in, with their inherent courage, discipline and conviction to win back trust and create balance.. Thus was born - Gillette Soldier For Women.

The agency leveraged real life 'Soldiers for Women' like the Ex-President of India and noted scientist Dr APJ Abdul Kalam along with India's most credible personalities, to launch a national campaign, inspiring men to take collective fighting action against eve-teasing. Men solemnised their support to protecting women by taking a pledge of “Don’t be a Bystander, Stand by her”.

Gillette stepped in to give the nation what it was starving for RESPECT and HOPE giving birth to a social initiative “Soldier For Women”.

Execution

The journey of the campaign from the intent of winning back the respect of men in women’s mind to celebrating hope was divided into 3 phases:

In Phase I, vignettes were encapsulated with celebs urging men to stand up and respect women by taking up the pledge.

In second phase, women were urged to share stories on how common men have made a difference by displaying soldier values. These inspiring stories ranging from daily experiences at bus stops and trains, to girls saved and rehabilitated from the flesh trade by brave and socially driven Samaritans were showcased on national TV.

Thus when these acts of bravery were shared across various media, it helped in not only reducing the negativity surrounding the persona of men, but also reassured the women that soldiers do exist in society and they outnumber the bad guys.

In final phase, top celebrities and eminent speakers participated in panel discussions hosted in a college campus. Also a culmination event was held where all celeb came together to celebrate HOPE

Gillette joined hands with NGOs –Akshara & Plan India to conduct workshops.

The brand released an open letter, authored by the Ex-President of India in the leading national newspaper. Contextual ads on Linkedin were aimed at recruiting soldiers by forming a group. It also devised a soldier parade on FB where 1.6 million people joined in just one month. #Soldierforwomen & #iStandup trended in every city and made it more interactive with the TA.

On International Women’s day, Gillette launched women mobile safety app which allows them to trigger instant alerts in emergency.

Results

• The campaign delivered 103 Index on Top of line sales and achieved the highest ever off take (122 Index) and overall Gillette share (122 Index)

• All Gillette key equities grew by +7 -10 %; Awareness was a record 34 % amongst rep (200 IYA)

• 12 Million men pledged to support women

• 300,000 stories of Men of Honour

• 3.4 million YouTube views

• $5m worth of free media

• #iStandUp trended no.1 worldwide

• #SoldierforWomen trended in every city

• Received 433 blogs with a reach of 34 million

• Gillette India is amongst Top 5 FMCG YouTube channels

• 25+ celebs supported the movement free of cost

BRAND:

Gillette

BRAND OWNER:

Procter & Gamble

REGION:

India

DATE:

2013

AGENCY:

MediaCom

Ben & Jerry's Sundae Sessions

Insight

“Ben and I built Ben & Jerry’s on the idea that business has a responsibility to the community and the environment,” Jerry Greenfield, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s.

Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream had cult status. The quality of ingredients, the combination of flavours and the irreverent names (Chunky Munky) made it unlike any other. At the very core of the brand was a social mission to give back to the community. Despite the genuine love people had for the brand, it was not without its challenges. Ben & Jerry’s was a premium product, priced higher than its competitors. Pricing wars at the freezer further exacerbated this price difference. With limited distribution, you would not find tubs of Ben & Jerry’s within every freezer.

Therefore whilst people always loved Ben & Jerry’s, it was becoming easier to forget what it was like to sit and eat a tub of the finest. Because of this challenge, the brand set aside $200,000 to increase sales by 23% with a very big caveat – the brand also wished to benefit the local community.

Strategy

The Sunday Session was a key part of Australian culture. The term ‘Sunday Session’ was coined by a young working professional when describing that ritualistic moment during the week: “you know, when you realise you only have a few more hours to properly relax, hang out with your mates and have a bit of fun before Monday rolls in again.”

This notion of making the most of the last few hours of the weekend linked perfectly to the brand.  A tub (or even scoop) of Ben & Jerry’s is not something people liked to rush, people wanted to spend time indulging in every mouthful.

So the brand saw a synergy between the Sunday Session and a Ben & Jerry’s Sundae.

Execution

The strategy and idea came to life through creating Ben & Jerry’s own branded event platform - The Ben & Jerry’s Sundae Session. 

The brand identified a series of key partners that it wanted to bring together - partners that understood the mission behind the strategy and understood that this was more than just selling ice-cream.

The first was a sponsorship of the Open Air Cinemas which provided an outdoor space to attract the target group through a series of movies to play after sunset. In keeping with the social mission, the brand then partnered with ‘Tunes For Change’ which gave it access to the best artists in Australia ensuring it provided live performances from the likes of The Cat Empire, Kate Miller-Heidke and Hungry Kids of Hungary amongst others.

An album featuring the artists who performed was later released by Ben & Jerry’s with all proceeds again going to charity.

Through an MTV partnership, the brand captured content from these Sundae Sessions and created branded vignettes that ran across MTV’s online and TV platforms bringing the events to life for a wider audience. 

The selected local charities including Animals Australia and Life Options were able to use the weekly Sundae Sessions events to chat to the crowds about what they did and how this community could help support the cause.

Results

Through the platform Ben & Jerry’s provided local charities, raised an additional $30k for Tunes For Change, Animals Australia and Life Options and generated $580,000 worth of PR.

93% of people recalled Ben & Jerry’s as the primary sponsor of Open Air Cinema (unprompted) and 65% were aware of the Ben & Jerry’s social mission at the Sundae Sessions and 68% are more positive towards the Ben & Jerry’s brand as a result of their experience.

With a budget of just $200,000, Ben & Jerry’s smashed sales goals by 347% across Sydney and Melbourne.
• Sydney: 321% (i.e. 23% goal to 74% increase)
• Melbourne: 374% (23% goal to 86% increase)
• (Brisbane increased substantially, however the client is unable to isolate how much is due to store expansions in this market)

This truly exceeded expectations particularly as this was the only activity running (there were no other changes to price, distribution or promotion during this period).

BRAND:

Ben and JerrysBen and Jerrys

BRAND OWNER:

Unilever

CATEGORY:

Food

REGION:

Australia

DATE:

October 2012 - April 2013

AGENCY:

Mindshare

Apple - iPhone 5s - The all-new iSight camera.

Apple - iPhone 5s - The new Touch ID fingerprint identity sensor

Apple - Introducing iPhone 5c - For the colorful.

“ جوال “ شركة اتصالات فلسطين تطلق علامتها الجديدة "جوال.كل يوم جديد” و المسروقة من شعار شركة مايندشير للميديا

mindshareworld.com/ 

Evian | Baby&Me

Robinson's | It's Good To Be A Dad

قصص الانتعاش - اقدم اعلان مصري لمشروب كوكاكولا

MINI Driving Dogs

Insight
Dogs are supposed to be man’s best friend. But if the New Zealand media was anything to go by, NZ dogs were far from friendly. Reporting of dog attacks had been on the rise, with children often the victims. This negative publicity wasn’t helping the dog adoption efforts of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), with interest in adoptions flat. Approaching the Christmas holiday season, a peak time for even more dogs to be abandoned, the SPCA needed help.

As a long standing, but little known, supporter of the SPCA, MINI wanted to help make a difference and raise its own brand profile in the process. But where to start? To make a difference MINI first needed to understand the barriers the SPCA brand faced. SPCA research confirmed they were facing a perception problem: the single biggest barrier to adoptions was the perception that dogs from shelters had behavioural problems. People think because a dog’s in a shelter, it must be damaged goods.

DraftFCB was tasked with creating a campaign that would benefit both parties –specifically:

1. Increase the number of people with a positive perception of shelter dog behaviour
2. Increase awareness of MINI’s association with the SPCA by 10%
3. Leverage the campaign to double engagement with MINI brand on Facebook (from 5% to 10%)
Strategy
The insight was simple: these weren’t just dogs being asked to adopt - they were family members, and no one wants a new family member with behavioural problems. With media coverage of bad dog behaviour up nearly 50% over the last two years, it’s no wonder people were nervous.

This meant that MINI needed to convince people beyond all shadow of a doubt that shelter dogs don’t have behavioural issues and are just as trainable and intelligent as regular dogs. So DraftFCB’s strategy was to deliver an extreme, real life, display of SPCA’s dogs’ intelligence and trainability to prove they didn’t have behavioural issues. But how to do this in a way that also delivered MINI’s objectives?

The idea: Prove that SPCA dogs are smart by teaching them to drive a MINI – yes, starting the engine, releasing the brake, engaging the gear, hitting the accelerator, steering the wheels and then stopping the car again!

Sound unbelievable? The agency thought people would think the same. Dogs appear to drive cars in adverts and movies all the time so people would be naturally cynical if they just made some ads featuring driving dogs. To change perceptions they needed people tobelievewhat they were seeing. This meant that how the idea was delivered was just as important as the idea itself.

So the comms strategy was to use media to make people believe the unbelievable and to do this by staging one incredible, real life media event, told by the nation’s most credible influencer. The agency would then leverage this “can’t believe my eyes” moment, scooping people up in the anticipation beforehand and then making the event famous to change people’s perceptions.
Execution

First, the dogs. DraftFCB approached New Zealand’s #1 animal trainer and selected three SPCA shelter dogs: Monty, Porter and Ginny to undergo a world-first 8 week “doggy driving” training course. Then, the car. Hundreds of unique modifications were made to a MINI, incorporating feedback from training daily. Finally, the event itself. The agency convinced NZ’s leading news and current affairs TV show,Campbell Live, to act as hosts. First, they revealed the idea, showing training footage and instructing viewers to tune-in one week later to see the event: A world-first demonstration of shelter dogs driving a mini, broadcast live on national primetime TV!

Once this teaser show had aired, the agency used social media and PR to build anticipation and hype for the event. This targeted local and global news and social media influencers, knowing that any global coverage or endorsement would fuel more hype in New Zealand.

So people could invest in the event’s outcome, DraftFCB promoted and seeded over 800 pieces of content across 11 different digital and social platforms in just one week, wanting the nation engaged and excited! As the event neared, press, radio, TV and digital reminded people to tune-in.

Then on December 10, MINI staged SPCA Dogs actually driving on national TV.

Once the event was over, the content was seeded via video and social outreach ensured as many people as possible had the chance to see it for themselves.
Results

In just seven days, the event was not just famous, but world famous.

- Exposed to over one billion people worldwide
- News media coverage in over 70 countries
- Over 100 million reached on Twitter
- Over 10million YouTube views
- Trending everywhere from Twitter to Huffington Post to the BBC (where it was more popular than the royal baby news!)
- Support ranging from dog guru Cesar Milan to Snoop Dogg
- The dogs even got a segment on Letterman!

Audience figures lifted a massive 50% for the live drive episode. DraftFCB smashed its objectives:

1. Changed perceptions by making people believe the unbelievable:
- People twice as likely to have overcome their perception barrier once they had seen the dogs driving
- 113% increase in number of people with a positive perception of shelter dog behaviour

2. Increased awareness of MINI’s association with SPCA:
- 40% increase (target 10%)

3. Beat Facebook engagement target for MINI brand by 1,700%
- Engagement rose from 5% to 27%
DATE:December - December 2012

H&M| David Beckham |Bodywear

Insight

H&M has gained a considerable market share in Shanghai and Beijing through an aggressive store expansion programme but today most consumers recognised H&M only as a trendy fashion brand. Consumers associate H&M with a high frequency of new clothing lines at a medium-grade price range.

David Beckham Bodywear was being introduced to the Chinese market. The range is high end and more exclusive than the standard H&M product ranges. The key challenge of this activity was to build this high-end brand image in terms of quality and pricing in the minds of consumers.

Strategy

David Beckham is a massive worldwide celebrity and heartthrob for many females around the world including China. In China the association of a foreign superstar celebrity to endorse products is even more unusual and has the potential to provide instant credibility for the brand and make a unique connection with the consumers. Getting up close and personal with David Beckham is the dream of many of his fans around the world. 

The strategy was to use H&M’s biggest asset - David Beckham - as the focal point of the activity. The agency wanted to leverage his personality and bring him to the centre of H&M’s world. What if Kinetic had the chance to make all of his Chinese fans dreams come true and allow them to have their photo taken with Beckham? Kinetic wanted people to become part of this story and create an emotional bond with them and so encouraged people to stand up and be counted by participating in an event. The OOH event was the vehicle to deploy a creative execution to make these dreams become a reality and social media was also used to expand the influence and build brand awareness fast.

Execution

High end premium shopping areas were selected in order to match the high-end brand positioning of David Beckham Bodywear.  Based on the insight that ladies purchase underwear for their lovers, the campaign was conducted near to the H&M store to help motivate purchase and drive the sales. A huge shopping bag, sized 5m(H) and 6m (W) was built and a half-naked Beckham was featured on the bag, large enough so that all the passersby would not miss it! One side of the bag showed a poster and another a Mega LED. The agency equipped the bag with a radar sensing system and HD camera. If consumers stood in the designated area, they would realise their dream of taking a group photo with David Beckham. The photo was instantly sent to them via email or MMS and consumers were encouraged to upload this photo to Weibo and @HMChina so that they could enter a lucky draw for a surprise gift.

Results

The campaign attracted a massive buzz in these retail shopping areas amongst passing traffic and onlookers. David Beckham Bodywear engaged with 4,999 people during the campaign period and 2,515 photos was generated and shared on Weibo. In addition to the buzz of the event, sales at the nearest H&M store doubled during the campaign period, far exceeding client expectations.

BRAND: David Beckham Bodywear
BRAND OWNER: H&M
CATEGORY: Retail
REGION: China
DATE: August - September 2012
AGENCIES: Kinetic, MEC
MEDIA CHANNEL: Digital,Events,Online,Out-of-Home

The Beetle Shark Cage |Volkswagen Beetle | USA

The Volkswagen Beetle is an iconic beacon for the VW brand, but over the years, it has increasingly been perceived as feminine. The cute, rounded design – not to mention the flower holder installed in the car – made it a “girl’s car”, and all the purchase data and conversation around it agreed. This was a problem for Volkswagen. Why? Because you might be able to sell a guy’s car to girls, but you can’t sell a girl’s car to guys. On its quest for unprecedented brand growth, Volkswagen needed men to love the Beetle.



All guys love to talk about their friends who do cool stuff. These are the guys who always have great stories and experiences. So Mediacom USA decided to make the Beetle “your cool friend” – the guy who does cool stuff you can only dream about. The agency used media to put Beetle in a place every guy wishes they could be (maybe once): swimming with sharks.



Insight
The Volkswagen Beetle is an iconic beacon for the VW brand, but over the years, it has increasingly been perceived as feminine. The cute, rounded design – not to mention the flower holder installed in the car – made it a “girl’s car”, and all the purchase data and conversation around it agreed. This was a problem for Volkswagen. Why? Because you might be able to sell a guy’s car to girls, but you can’t sell a girl’s car to guys.

On its quest for unprecedented brand growth, Volkswagen needed men to love the Beetle. The brand had ‘manned up’ the car with a redesign that made the new Beetle faster, stronger, and sleeker. But while the new model may have had the right style for male buyers, the perception about the brand hadn’t changed. For the launch of the new sporty Beetle, Mediacom USA needed to develop a communications platform that would lure men back and convince them that this Beetle was for them.

Strategy
All guys love to talk about their friends who do cool stuff. These are the guys who always have great stories and experiences. So the agency decided to make the Beetle “your cool friend” – the guy who does cool stuff you can only dream about. Mediacom USA used media to put Beetle in a place every guy wishes they could be (maybe once): swimming with sharks.

The Discovery Channel hosts “Shark Week” – an annual week-long series of television programming devoted entirely to sharks. Shark Week has become a cultural phenomenon and delivers guys to the network in big numbers. With the 25th anniversary of the event falling in 2012, this was expected to be the most compelling Shark Week ever.

Working with Discovery, Volkswagen engineers, and a shark photographer and his team, Mediacom USA created a fully operational underwater Beetle – a “Shark Observation Cage”. This wasn’t just a cage, but a perfect replica of the iconic car. The submersible vehicle had a structure made of tubular aluminium, a set of 19-inch Tornado alloy wheels and the Beetle’s iconic headlights. And it was equipped with a full air system and turbo packs that allowed it to drive underwater.

To drive home the impressive feat, the agency produced a compelling series of mini-episodes that chronicled the process – from design to construction to finally dropping into shark-infested waters. So in other words, the Beetle literally swam with sharks! And seeing the Beetle actually drive on the ocean floor as sharks swirled above was a spectacular sight – your ‘cool friend’ indeed.

Execution
The on-air series was created not only to showcase the spectacular footage of the Beetle underwater, but also to fully highlight this incredible engineering accomplishment. The frame and design was unmistakably Beetle, down to the last detail. The cage was only a quarter-inch off in spots from the original Beetle design, and the side-view mirrors even contained the warning that “Sharks in mirror are closer than they appear”. 

The three mini-episodes aired during Shark Week programming on both TV and online, and Mediacom created teaser content for VW’s social properties to extend outside of the one week on-air event. But they didn’t stop there: VW had 100% share-of-voice on the Shark Week landing page, with high impact placements throughout Discovery’s online properties. VW also blanketed the Shark Week digital experience with brand messaging around all touch-points. 

As engaged viewers watched the Beetle’s journey to the bottom of the ocean unfold, they could check out exclusive bonus Beetle Shark Cage content on a tablet co-viewing app. And to drive viewership and strengthen the connection between VW and Shark Week, Mediacom collaborated on promotional assets that included VW tagged tune-ins, out-of-home executions and print ads.

To build buzz before the programme aired, the Beetle Shark Cage was showcased at a dealer event and the Shark Week premiere party. The PR push was successful; the Beetle Shark Cage became a hotly anticipated pop culture event, with significant coverage ranging fromThe New York TimesandAdvertising Ageto prominent design, entertainment and automobile publications.

Results
In only one world can a beetle take on a shark…and win! Brand recall, likeability and brand opinion scores all SHOT past competitive benchmarks.

Average digital engagement on the Shark Week site was 28.5 minutes, with five million views overall. The VW playlist had 350,000 views with a 65% completion rate, and over 1.8 million Facebook posts were generated about the Beetle Shark Cage!

Most importantly, Volkswagen saw an immediate and significant impact on sales: Beetle sales topped 3,000 units in August – the highest monthly total of the year!

Who was driving this jump? It was all about the guys – the percentage of sales from male buyers DOUBLED, jumping from 20% to an astonishing 40% almost overnight!




BRAND:  Volkswagen Beetle

BRAND OWNER:  Volkswagen Group

CATEGORY:  Automotive

REGION:  United States

DATE:  May - August 2012

AGENCY:  MediaCom

MEDIA CHANNEL:  Experiential,Events,Online,TV

Tim Tam Orchard

Challenge

The relationship between chocolate biscuit brand Tim Tam and consumers was changing. It was continually on special at retailers, the buy-one-get-one-free variety. Its ‘magic’ relegated to 30 second TV spots. That special place that Tim Tam held with consumers needed to be rekindled.Tim Tam was becoming what it always was, just a biscuit. It faced the challenge of increasing engagement and sales and wanted a campaign designed as a celebration of the love and happiness that Tim Tams created amongst Australians. The brand wished to achieve this through social media to grow sales by 23%.

Insight

Tim Tam realised it needed to convey to people that it was not just a product. Tim Tam was a feeling. It needed to rekindle the truly, madly feeling of Tim Tam by getting it out of supermarkets and into consumer lives.

Solution

In response to Tim Tam’s Facebook post, a fan ‘wished’ that Tim Tam grew on trees. There was a seed of an idea in this and the brand came up with Tim Tam Orchard. It built this orchard in the biggest square in Sydney - Martin Place with thousands of Tim Tam’s just waiting to be picked in an embodiment of the truly, madly Tim Tam feeling. It released a series of posts on Facebook detailing a mysterious event to be held at Martin Place on 2nd May 2012.

The brand also wanted the Tim Tam Facebook community to share the experience with their friends. So it asked them if they would like to be in the new Tim Tam ad. The brand had an idea to capture the spirit of the Tim Tam Orchard by making TV ads, hundreds and hundreds of them so that people could share the day with their friends.

On the day of the orchard launch, the brand didn’t sample Tim Tam’s to Sydneysiders, people picked them from trees - 110,000 of them. It drove attendance on the day with geo-targeted Facebook and Google ads, coupled with social media check-ins through Facebook. The brand used Sydney DJs to direct audiences to Martin Place on the event day.

Attendees generated high volumes of UGC and shared the experience with their social networks. The brand sent  influential bloggers to the Tim Tam Orchard event to tweet and post content.

Results

The campaign culminated in 1,570 TVCs made on the day that captured the Truly, Madly, feeling of the Tim Tam Orchard. The other 1,569 were personalised TVCs created for the fans who stuck up their hand to be in the TV commercial (from the search and social ads) who supplied their details so Tim Tam could personalise the ads. They were then able to view and share their TVC from Tim Tam’s YouTube channel - generating over 475,000 views on YouTube with an average time spent of 6 minutes.

Most importantly the brand managed a 23% baseline sales uplift over the campaign period, with a national penetration gain from 19% to 21. There were 4,500,000+ PR impressions. An additional 60,000 Facebook fans signed up over the campaign.

BRAND:

Tim Tam

BRAND OWNER:

Arnotts

CATEGORY:

Food

REGION:

Australia

DATE:

February - May 2012

AGENCY:

MEC

MEDIA CHANNEL:

Ambient,Branded Content,Experiential,Digital,Events,Online,Out-of-Home,PR,Print,TV

World awaits English speakers

EF (Education First), is an international organisation committed to breaking down barriers of language, culture and geography through the highest quality of educational experiences. EF’s English language program was promoted in 2012 with a print advertising campaign focused on children’s English programs in China, Russia and Indonesia, with children leaping and dancing through barriers between postage stamps. 

The adult campaign focuses similarly on bodies in motion, conveying Education First’s mission to help people move forward with confidence, both in their education and careers. OOH installations will go up in several prominent urban locations, including Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Where the children’s campaign focuses on broadening geographical horizons for kids through the English language, the adult campaign uses the image of business people in acrobatic motion and exploding chalk around them to demonstrate the endless opportunities that the English language provides for upward mobility in the workplace.

Research conducted by Education First shows that businessmen and women outside the U.S. who can speak English earn an average salary of 30-50% more than those who don’t speak the language. With this in mind, the new campaign centers on taking control of your career, with headlines like “Go be your boss’s boss,” “Go from rut to rocket” and “Be your own secret weapon.”

Credits

The EF Barriers campaign was developed at The Martin Agency, Richmond, by chief creative officer Joe Alexander, creative director Brian Williams, copywriter Jeanette Tyson, art director Mark Brye, account director Ian Davidson, account executive Jacki Juenger and project manager Emily Masters.
Photography for the children’s campaign was Allen Birnbach. Photography for the adults campaign was Daniel Pothecary. Digital imaging was done at Smoke & Mirrors.

Hitchcock as a movie marketing

Hitchcock wasn’t only a master of moviemaking, he was pioneer of movie marketing. Psycho was a low budget film ($800K) that could have easily tanked.

When Hitchcock finished the movie, the studio refused to premiere it. Which forced him to come up with his own marketing strategy. He filmed this message to moviehouse managers across the country to show them how to “sell” Psycho, which (brilliantly) advised them to forbid anyone entrance after the movie started. This resulted in long lines of ticket-holders outside theaters and drive-ins, jittery with anticipation, which translated into great WOM, much harder to achieve when social media required social contact. Psycho became one of the hit movies of 1960 and was nominated for an Oscar.

Social platform

Businesses today are starting to understand the value of social media for marketing and are turning their attention to integrating these various platforms into their strategy. Marketing plans that continue to solely focus on traditional methods and do not include social strategies are archaic and ineffective in today's social world. However, with multiple social platforms to choose from, it can be difficult to understand how to manage each account.
When managing multiple social media accounts, it's important to understand that not all platforms were created equal. Each platform (though there are some similarities) functions independently with its own unique qualities. As a result, social media managers must treat each platform as such. Let's take a closer look at the best ways to integrate the most popular social networks that businesses use today.

Facebook

With more than 1 billion active users, it's a no-brainer that businesses should have a Facebook presence, but keep in mind that Facebook is about more than just the number of "likes" a company has. Facebook is a great way to build brand persona and awareness through updates, contests, and sharing videos or pictures. It's a place to showcase a company's culture and vision, so be cognizant of the content posted on a business page. Businesses should also take advantage of the location information users provide in their profiles, allowing for targeted advertising based on city and the option to offer deals through Facebook Places when a users "checks in" to a particular business or location.

Twitter

Twitter began as a way to quickly share "what's happening." Now with more than 170 million active users, the microsite has evolved into a successful marketing tool when used strategically. Twitter is a free way to monitor conversations happening about your brand as they are happening. This allows businesses to extend their customer service efforts, as they can detect problems early and act timely, rectifying brewing situations before they can spill over. Twitter is also a great place to find hot leads, as people constantly tweet about things they need or want. Reach out to those who are at the point of decision making and introduce them to your product or service. And because many users follow their favorite brands and businesses, Twitter is a great platform to share deals and discounts or announce sales and new products.

LinkedIn

Last year, 10 million to 15 million users per quarter joined LinkedIn. Known as the social network for professionals, LinkedIn has plenty of benefits for business. At the basis of a successful business, there are employees that keep the wheels turning and business moving forward. LinkedIn is the preferred platform to recruit top-level employees. Employers can search for candidates based on job requirements, as users publicly offer their resumes and skill sets. LinkedIn Groups is also a great place for a business to grow its network while building rapport through offering advice or helpful content.

Google+

With more than 100 million active users, Google+ is a huge success compared to its predecessor, Google Buzz. One of the biggest benefits of Google+ for businesses is improved results in Google Search, increasing your visibility and helping customers find your business faster. The +1 button also increases the chance of this visibility, as the more +1s a link has, the more attention it gets in search results. Additionally, Google+ Circles create more personal relationships with consumers, even allowing businesses to have live video chat sessions with their audience through Hangouts.

Pinterest

Hailed as the "the fastest growing social site" ever, Pinterest is a great place for businesses to focus some of their social media efforts. Consumers love pictures, especially when they are looking to purchase a product or service. But beyond posting pictures of products to drive sales, Pinterest is also the platform to build your brand and showcase your mission. Dedicate a board to the company culture or lifestyle, and pin content that shows the company's unique personality. Pinterest also drives traffic to your site, so make sure you are detailed in the description and include a link back to your site.

Because social media is an essential part of successful marketing today, marketing, community, and social media managers must be well versed in the social media platforms most used. Effectively using social media begins with proper education of the platform, as each of the ones above has the potential to be a valuable asset, not only in the success of a social media plan, but also in the success of the business overall.

Chewing Gum Ads

 

70’s and 80’s USSR commercials