Kudos from Katherine

To follow up on my last blog post, I wanted to mention that I came across an article from Mashable that somewhat changed my opinion on Snapchat as a marketing tool. The evidence presented in the article suggests that Snapchat isn't just a fad but rather a social marketing medium with untapped potential. It'll be interesting to see if more brands will choose to incorporate Snapchat into their social strategies. Also, props to Gen Y for using the app for creativity rather than for sexting. There's hope for the future.

Moving along, when it comes to social, some brands just get it. And lucky for us consumers, these successful cyber socialites are not few and far between. Brands everywhere are making us smile, laugh, ponder, and converse. As an advertiser, I've studied many social media success stories. The following, however, are brands that I've personally interacted with that I feel deserve to be commended for their social efforts.

Burberry

Ladies and gentlemen, love notes are making a comeback. Rather than relying on sex appeal to advertise its lipstick line, Burberry teamed up with Google to develop an interactive campaign that would create an emotional and meaningful experience for the user. When I was in Cannes this past summer, I had the opportunity to try it out. Using the Burberry Kisses photo booth at Google Beach I was able to write a letter, seal it with a virtual kiss, and send it to someone back home. The campaign created a unique and touching way to get consumers to interact with the Burberry brand. Muah!

Google Beach in Cannes, France

WestJet Airlines

If you have to ask your friends/followers to like/retweet your posts, you're doing it wrong. When scrolling through your own newsfeed, you'd never see one of your friends say "Like my picture if..." (and if you do, then you need to seriously reevaluate your criteria for Facebook friend acceptance). Social media posts that come with instructions are just obnoxious, so when consumers come across a brand that utilizes this tactic, they're automatically like #swerve. WestJet, on the contrary, is a brand that understands that shares/likes/retweets must be EARNED.

"WestJet Christmas Miracle: real-time giving" received over 35 million views. For a solid week, I couldn't get on Facebook without seeing someone share it. The video went viral, because it involved a clever concept and provoked a warm, fuzzy feeling among its viewers. And who doesn't love that feeling around the holidays?

Pauley's Original Crepe Bar

If you're not an Athens resident, you've probably never heard of Pauley's. Pauley's is my go-to place for crepes, wine, and girl time. If you are an Athens resident and you've never heard of Pauley's...what are you doing? #Icanteven. Pauley's has been able to gain 2,000+ followers on Twitter partly because it does an excellent job of monitoring its social mentions.

@kmkrajec @morganmahoney @SavvyKoe @alliemerd Hope y'all are having fun! Let us know how it goes :)
— Pauley's Crepe Bar (@Pauleys) August 29, 2013

I'm not exactly sure what motivated me to refer to my friends as "my babies", but that's beside the point. I didn't tweet at Pauley's or include them in a hashtag, but they still saw my post and responded. I've been following them on Twitter ever since.

Don't Ask Why. Ask Y.

In true Generation Y fashion, I decided to write a blog post totally dedicated to talking about myself. But to be totally honest, brands embarking on the social media journey should pay attention. Gen Y's were the early adopters of social technology, and I would dare to say that they are still the front-runners of this marketing revolution. It's true, we love to talk about ourselves. But if brands are smart, they'll listen.

What Social Media Means to Millenials

- Everything. We are the sharers (or braggers, depending on how you look at it). We crave attention and therefore want EVERY aspect of our lives on display. Facebook shows who we hang out with and where we go, Twitter shows our thoughts, LinkedIn shows our credentials, Pinterest shows our style (or what it would be if we could afford it), and our blogs are left to fill in the gaps (because each of us believes our life experiences should be published).

-We value thoughtful humor. Twitter wit earns you major cred.

- Snapchat was cool at first, because it made it acceptable to share pics that aren't actually worth sharing. Selfie Sunday! But then we realized that that meant other people would be sharing pics that aren't actually worth sharing. Thanks for the 10 second picture of your Chick-fil-A sandwich...

-If you can incorporate 90's nostalgia into your social strategy, you're golden.

That outfit, tho.

-Work hard, play hard is our mantra. But placing a high value on our work-life balance by no means makes us lazy. Traditionally, the amount of time you put into something has been thought to be equivalent to the amount of effort you put into it, but Gen Y's have perfected the art of multitasking. We can deposit a check, order a pizza, email a potential client, RSVP to an event, watch ESPN highlights, and blog about it all while sitting in Kinkos straight flippin copies. If we can finish a day's worth of work in half the day, why wouldn't we expect some free time?

-If your website isn't mobile compatible, it doesn't exist in our eyes.

-We are connected to multiple social channels at once, so we don't have patience for time wasted. If you can get your message across in a 6 second Vine, go for it. Don't write an entire article when a BuzzFeed list will suffice. Lists are more approachable than paragraphs anyway, ya feel me? Speaking of patience, ain't nobody got time for your GIF to load.

-Male or female, we love a good Mean Girls reference. #fetch #shedoesntevengohere #allcarbdiet #youcantsitwithus #grool #onwednesdayswewearpink #imamouseduh #october3rd #yougoGlennCoco

Advertising is No Longer Just for the Advertisers

Before I begin, here is Justin Bieber's new music video. I promise it's relevant. And yes, "'i' before 'e' except after 'c'" does apply when spelling his name...that's one rule he's managed to follow...

"Oh, no, no. Oh, no, no. She's confident." Try creeped out. Now historically when there has been conflict between advertisers and the public, it's been because advertisers have employed the Justin Bieber way of thinking: If I follow them, show up everywhere they go, and force them to listen to me, it'll really win them over! The history of advertising is chock full of instances where consumers have ignored advertisers and then advertisers have in turn found new (and usually more obnoxious) ways to reach them.

Some argue that the rise of social media has brought peace, because consumers are, more or less, able to choose which brands they receive messages from. However, as an advertiser myself, I fear that the emergence of social media has merely ended trench warfare in favor of nuclear warfare. The conflict is still there, and now the damage potential is much greater.

"Any advert in a public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours. It's yours to take, re-arrange, and re-use. You can do whatever you like with it. Asking for permission is like asking to keep a rock someone just threw at your head. You owe the companies nothing. Less than nothing, you especially don't owe them any courtesy. They owe you. They have re-arranged the world to put themselves in front of you. They never asked for your permission, don't even start asking for theirs."

 -Banksy

If Banksy's quote is the battle cry, then social media is the ammo in this war of the words. Too many brands are spending millions of dollars on their campaigns, logos, reputations, etc. only to be Kanye West'd by members of the public who are out to steal their thunder.

It's all fun and Games until someone loses a buy...

McDonald's is an Olympic sponsor, and for the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games McDonald's created an interactive campaign for users to send well-wishes to the athletes. Cheers to Sochi

However, many people have been condemning the sponsors of this year's Games for not boycotting the event due to the Russian government's social policies, and they have gone to great lengths to sabotage the campaigns of every Olympic sponsor. In a classic case of hashtag hijacking, LGBT activists have used McDonald's' official Olympic Games hashtag, #CheersToSochi, to voice their political opinions and attack the associated brands.

And here's a handy list of the international Sochi sponsors. These are the companies to avoid. #CheersToSochi pic.twitter.com/Tbt3JwwKET
— Anything But Coke (@AnythingButCoke) January 28, 2014

Not only are the hashtags not being linked with the campaign, but people are using them to wreck the reputation of the companies that created them. The world of advertising has never seen something like this, at least not of this magnitude, because this kind of assembly was never possible before social media. These Games are not about going for the gold. They're about going for the jugular.

On a less sensitive note, a new coffee shop called Dumb Starbucks recently opened in L.A. While the shop does serve beverages, it positions itself as a satirical work of art that is protected by parody law. The purpose behind the shop's opening is still unknown, but the significance of the event lies in the amount of buzz that it has generated. Five or six years ago, the shop probably would have made it to the local news, but it never would have been gained this much attention. During the morning of February 10th, @dumbstarbucks had 5,000 followers. 24 hours later, the parody shop is up to 12.8K followers. Social media has given average Joes (Haha get it? Like a cup of Joe?) the ability to communicate their message to mass audiences.

Advertising is no longer just for the advertisers.

The Replay

Super Bowl XLVIII TV Commercials: The Good, The Bad, & The Awkward

• The Good: Budweiser's "Puppy Love"

• This commercial had everything you could ever wish for in an ad: puppies, friendship, and Don Jeanes. 

• The Bad: T-Mobile's "Kill Your Contract" 

• Not to be confused with the "No Contract" ads from T-Mobile (which were actually clever), the "Kill Your Contract" commercial was, dare I say it, more mind-numbing than the game. We're already in a food coma from the copious amounts of party appetizers we've consumed. There's no need to spend millions of dollars to put us to sleep. No creativity, no imagery, no wit. It made T-Mobile come across as a brand that's lazy and careless with their media dollars. Kill your contract? More like kill your reputation. RIP

• The Awkward: Dannon Oikos' "The Spill" 

• Oikos, I don't know what direction you're going here, but as Joey Gladstone would say, "cut, it, out!" Somehow Dannon Oikos managed to make a yogurt ad starring the cast of Full House more sexual than a GoDaddy ad. Honestly, I don't know what was more awkward: Bob Saget in a commercial involving implied sexual favors or Audi's Doberhuahua. Yikes!

Super (Boring) Bowl

In addition to the TV commercials, this year's Super Bowl saw an incredible jump in social media usage. As much as I'd like to say that it was due to an increase in the popularity of online interactivity, I think it'd be foolish to not attribute some of the usage to the fact that people were simply bored out of their brains (in case anyone needs an indicator of just how boring the game was, Rugrats in Paris was trending on Twitter...). However, it's safe to say that the TV commercials also had something to do with the increase in social activity. The following infographic by Friend2Friend illustrates the increase in hashtag usage during the Super Bowl over recent years.

Brands are People Too

In addition to some brands using their TV commercials to drive people to their social platforms, many were engaging in friendly online verbal sparring in order to further promote their message. As long as everyone plays nice, this is an effective method of gaining popularity, because it gives brands a more authentic presence which generally makes them more trusted and likable. 

Battle of the Brands: The Right to Wear Wings

The Contenders:

• Volkswagen
• Victoria's Secret
• Red Bull

Round 1:

• Victoria's Secret starts with a jab: 

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Thanks, @VW. #SB48 pic.twitter.com/GtVkQo1sqm
— Victoria's Secret (@VictoriasSecret) February 3, 2014

• Volkswagen takes a swing:

Hey @VictoriasSecret, if we get our #wings every time a #VW hits 100k miles, how do you get yours? http://t.co/mZyFpZBdKk
— Volkswagen USA (@VW) February 3, 2014

• Victoria's Secret blocks:

Nice try. It's our secret ;) RT @VW: Hey @VictoriasSecret, if we get our #wings every time a #VW hits 100k miles, how do you get yours?
— Victoria's Secret (@VictoriasSecret) February 3, 2014

Round 2:

• Red Bull throws the first punch:

You don’t have to wait 100,000 miles to get wings. #givesyouwings
— Red Bull (@redbull) February 3, 2014

• Volkswagen follows with a combination: gives you wings, gives you rainbows

Hey @RedBull, how many cans until rainbows? #givesyouwings #givesyourainbows http://t.co/WMi9iFNTBN pic.twitter.com/HYzUmN5Rmj
— Volkswagen USA (@VW) February 3, 2014

Brands that are clever even when they are just winging it (pardon the pun, I couldn't help myself) are incredibly impressive and very fun to follow.