Week 2 Response - Dana Jackson

This week, our class leader choose the brand 5 Gum to discuss on our blogs. 

She poses the following questions below in regards to the brand's un-spoken "truth or dare" challenge that has not attracted much media attention or had any real advertising done around it.

Q. What strategies could 5 gum use to help get their campaign gain more attention? ( i.e., more brand recognition and awareness) What social media platforms would work best to promote this campaign?   Use information gained through this week's readings, or personal knowledge that you may have used on the job in regards to social media strategy. 

A. From what I have been able to learn about the campaign, I believe that Facebook, Twitter  and Instagram would be the most appropriate platforms to engage users with this campaign. The campaign focuses around the wrapping on an individual piece of gum offering a truth or dare to consumers. I can totally imagine a campaign where users are challenged to take pictures of themselves carrying out the dares: Instagram. Or tweeting about their truths: Twitter. Facebook would be used to just promote the challenge in general and highlight the best truths/tweets and dares/Instagram posts to garner more attention for the overall campaign. 
       To gain more attention to the brand, the company needs to generate more buzz around this campaign. They can do this by utilizing these three social platforms together to reach consumers were they are already active. According to our text, "the best way to think about social media is not in terms of the different technologies and tools but, rather, how those technologies and tools allow you to communicate directly with your buyers in places they are congregated in right now" (Scott, 2013). Using all three platforms will reach users of different types and interests but ultimately makes sense for the kind of campaign that this is. Instagram utilizes pictures, where Twitter is verbal. Dares = action. Truths = verbal. It makes sense to break it down this way and use a hashtag like #5GumDare or #5GumTruth for each platform. But then, use a fan Facebook page to highlight some of the dares and truths that get the most attention and do daily shout outs to consumers who are participating. 

Q.Name an example of another brand that you are familiar with that has had a great marketing idea, but failed to fully implement it successfully. Or, what you think could have been done better in a campaign to make it even more successful. 

A: I did some research on marketing campaigns that flopped, and I actually came across this article by CNBC that list the top 10 advertisement fails of the decade. Feel free to check out their top picks, and comment below to let me know if you agree! http://www.cnbc.com/id/41624240/page/1

       I want to focus on #2 - LifeLock, a identity theft protection company that had so much belief behind their product, they decided to advertise using the CEO's real security number on all major billboards and TV commercials - basically asking for criminals to attempt identity fraud on the CEO. A number of thieves not only took the dare, but were actually successful at their attempt! Two reported cases spoke of a man who took out a $500 loan in the CEO's name, and another man who used the CEO's information to open up an AT&T account. The CEO had no idea anything was going on until collection agencies started calling him - talk about a little too much steam in one company's engine! 

       The first mistake here was advertising the CEO's personal social security number on national television - no matter how confident you are in your brand, you should never be cocky to the point that you dig yourself in a ditch, the way LifeLock did. The second mistake, is not knowing your product well enough and accidentally make false guarantees. Perhaps the brand really did believe that they had the most fool-proof security program; but they obviously didn't spend enough time understanding all of the risks associated with making these guarantees and they just looked silly and un-credible for this huge slip up. 

References:

Scott, D. M. (2013). The new rules of marketing & PR: how to use social media, online video, mobile applications, blogs, news releases, & viral marketing to reach buyers directly (4th ed.). Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons.