Author: Marketing Journo

These are the 10 Best Burger King Marketing Campaigns of 2018 (So far)

These are the 10 Best Burger King Marketing Campaigns of 2018 (So far)

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These are the 10 Best Burger King Marketing Campaigns of 2018 (So far)

The marketing campaigns of Burger King have always been a delight. Hence, it is business as usual so far in the year 2018 for the fast food restaurant’s marketing and communications wing. Plentiful campaigns, which are buzzworthy, are being rendered from its various locations across the globe.

The social media presence of the Burger King’s Global Chief Marketing Officer, Fer Machado and the mentions, pertaining to the campaigns, in popular online media like Adweek and The Drum prompted me to list down BK’s 10 best marketing campaigns of 2018 so far. So, in this article, I present my list in no particular order.

1. A wrap to transmogrify a bus into a fire truck:

Agency: &Partner

&Partner, an advertising agency from Copenhagen, wrapped the right side of a bus to transmogrify the transit vehicle into a Burger King-branded fire truck. The meaty idea, inspired by the iconic fire trucks in New York, is the agency’s entry in an outdoor advertising competition in Denmark. In the contest, each participating agency was asked to select its client and come up with an idea to advertise the chosen brand with a bus. The concept bolstered the focus of the fast food chain on flame grilling.

2. Free WhoppHER for every Saudi woman behind the wheel:

Agency: Grabarz & Partners

To celebrate women driving in Saudi Arabia, post the lifting of the decade-old controversial ban on the same, Burger King offered free Whopper sandwich to every women passing through its drive-thru restaurants in the country. The quick service restaurant chain set the ball rolling for the campaign from June 24th through July 24th.

Click here to watch the campaign video!

3. A parabolic solar cooker to sear a burger:

Agency: Memac Ogilvy

Burger King’s Kuwait operation and Memac Ogilvy together devised and executed an idea to cook up Whopper using the heat produced by parabolic solar cookers, which mobilize direct sunrays to generate the heat. In Kuwait, when the temperature reaches 122 Fahrenheit, BK prepares this Sun-Flamed Grilled Whopper. This offering is available only at select locations in Kuwait (provided when the temperature favours).

4. A Good Samaritan Day video presenting a good-natured stunt:

Agency: David the Agency

For this year’s Good Samaritan Day, Burger King treated everyone with a good-natured film. In the video, you see a car fire on the side of a highway. Alongside the car is a guy who appears to look up to travellers vrooming past him to lend him a hand. People who pull over to assist the guy are in for a surprise when Burger King’s advertising mascot, flame grilling Whopper, welcomes them. What appeared as an engine fire are actually the flames from the grill. The Samaritans are then offered Burgers and iconic Burger King Crowns.

5. Whopper Neutrality stunt to explain the potential effects of Net Neutrality:

Agency: David

Burger King got behind the topic, Net Neutrality to explain it to not just a handful of its store customers but in fact to possibly every internet user with one of its brilliant in-store stunt. At one of BK’s outlet, if customers were to get served their Whoppers quick then they had to pay the QSR more than the actual price of the food offering. What if they don’t? The answer is simple. Even if the Whopper is ready, the customers had to wait pointlessly for a certain amount of time to collect it.

The expansion which the Burger King had displayed for MBPS over the pricing board (i.e., from “megabits per second” to “making burgers per second”), to be showcased to the customers, was also innovative. Hidden cameras placed in the store captured the goings-on inside the store and varied emotions of the customers in focus and rendered an edutainment.

6. An ‘explainer’ video on ‘Pink Tax’:

Agency: DAVID the Agency (Miami)

This is yet another instance of the fast food chain getting behind a topic concerning the public. The topic in this campaign is ‘Pink Tax’, a price, which refers to the products made for women like razors, shampoo and conditioner, that is significantly higher than the cost of the male equivalents of those products. In a film released by Burger King, one can see female customers charged $3.09 for “Chick Fries”. Whereas, “Chicken Fries” being charged at $1.69. Wherein, the only difference between the two food items is the box in which they are served i.e. “Chicken Fries” in a yellow box and “Chick Fires” in a pink box. Like Whopper Neutrality, the goal of this campaign as well is to render an infotainment around the focal topic and to convey the stand of Burger King on the same.

Watch the ‘Chick Tax’ spot by clicking here!

7. Gift Whoppers or Oreo shake to ease co-workers stuck at office in summer:

Agency: Buzzman

Burger King Belgium and the agency Buzzman collaborated and yielded the summer special digital campaign, ‘Whopper Out of Office’ that kick-started on July 3rd. In which, the fans, enjoying their summer vacation in a remote destination, were given an innovative option to taunt and then pacify their fellow coworkers stuck at office by treating them with eatables. All they have to do is provide their destination, duration of their journey and a description in the website setup for the campaign. So, when a person contacts them, he/she will receive an automatically generated email along with a gift voucher for a Whopper or an Oreo shake and their individually tailored message for him/her.

Click here and have a look at the campaign video!

8. Summer pairing of Burger King and Budweiser – A paragon of Collaboration Marketing:

Agency: David and MullenLowe

The pairing of the US brigades of Burger King and Budweiser is what I call as a perfect example of Collaboration Marketing. Targeting the summer season, the partnership, in addition to yielding the limited-edition burger ‘American Brewhouse King Sandwich’, revived the American beer maker’s iconic campaign, ‘Whassup’. To top it all, the BK’s mascot, holding a set of the new burger in his hand, “spoke” in the spot. The ad was meant for supporting the revitalized campaign.

9. King Popcorn campaign to hack Whopper into the movies:

Agency: McCann Lima

As soon as the prohibition in the Peruvian Law on taking outside food to the theatres was ceased, movie halls started letting consumers enter their premises with foods ‘similar’ to those sold in the cinema’s concession stands. Burger King Peru and McCann Lima sensed a marketing opportunity, seized the situation and ended up with the King Popcorn campaign. Wherein, the fast feeder, located in food courts close to the movie theatres, packed a popcorn tub with a Whopper at the bottom, a French Fries pack above it and a tray containing a handful of popcorns at the top. The outward appearance of this food item named King Popcorn resembled the snack sold in the theatres. Thereby, it facilitated the hacking of the Whopper and French fries inside the movie. This innovative move by Burger King increased its sales by 40% in the activation period and put the brand in the consumer spotlight.

10. Incendiary print and outdoor ads for a recruitment campaign in Germany:

Agency: Grabarz & Partner Werbeagentur GmbH

For the Burger King Recruitment campaign in Germany, the fast food chain in the country and Grabarz & Partner came up with a series of incendiary, eye-catching print and outdoor ads. The ads depicting real-life events had the text, ‘LOVE FIRE? CONTACT US’ accompanied by the web address, ‘bk-careers.com’, catch phrase, ‘FLAME GRILLING SINCE 1954’ and the Burger King logo.

Conclusion:

Even though I consider the aforementioned campaigns as best of Burger King in 2018 so far, I can’t resist myself in admiring the other efforts of the restaurant like Burger King China’s celebration of International Women’s Day 2018 and Burger King Romania’s “Whopper No Show” campaign. Also, it sounds appealing when coming across tweets from BK’s Global CMO that gives a glimpse of the interiors of the fast feeder’s outlets of different countries. Overall, I find the collective marketing and communications efforts of the QSR chain to be lively!

Having documented a list of best Burger King marketing campaigns of 2018 so far, I now eagerly look forward to what the chain has in store for the remaining months of this year.

Amazing ads that helped ‘Tamizh Padam 2’ get massive pre-release buzz

Amazing ads that helped ‘Tamizh Padam 2’ get massive pre-release buzz

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Amazing ads that helped ‘Tamizh Padam 2‘ get massive pre-release buzz

“Coming up with the right titles and honing the creative”

This was Fox Home Entertainment’s game plan to pull off its amazing Blu-ray stunt at Walmart for Deadpool 2.

Likewise, to promote Tamizh Padam 2 (a sequel to the 2010 Tamil Parody film, Thamizh Padam), the below note appears to be the game plan of its makers.

“Picking up movies (or) news that made headlines and honing the creative”

To turn the film, Thamizh Padam into a franchise, Y Not Studios and Director C. S. Amudhan (Director of Thamizh Padam and Tamizh Padam 2) have pulled out all the stops.

The sequel’s large-scale promotion commenced with a bold and a wacky poster. Since then, each step in the movie’s marketing drive has been simple yet effective. At the same time, all seem to appear cost-effective (or at least so, when compared to the prevailing regional movie promotions).

Here’s a rundown of the amusing ads, which Y Not Studios rolled out in the lead-up to the release of Tamizh Padam 2.

First, here’s one of the early poster, advertising the initial release date of Tamizh Padam 2, in theaters… and Tamil Rockers. Wherein, Tamil Rockers was mentioned as the movie’s ‘Official Piracy Partner’. Actor Siddharth tweeted out the poster first from his Twitter handle.

On the eve of Women’s Day (2018), Actor Madhavan shared a ‘soup song’ for women (part of the film) in Twitter.

Then, in May, Director Venkat Prabhu shared the ‘official first look’ of the film’s press release. The note briefed the ‘reasons’ behind the delay in the release of the movie.

On May 31st, Tamizh Padam 2 teaser dropped. All along, every single announcement above the movie triggered a significant online conversation. To top it all, the teaser kicked up the already prevailing excitement.

Following the viral photo showing a group of leaders including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and American President Trump, C. S. Amudhan tweeted a still featuring actors Shiva, Iswarya Menon and few others on June 12th.

Soon after the release of Tik Tik Tik (advertised as India’s first space adventure), a poster – featuring actors Shiva, Iswarya Menon and Sathish – was released on June 24th. All three in casuals, wearing space helmets and playing cards in space (Supposedly!). The poster carried an announcement about the release of a full video song on June 26th.

As a follow-up to the announcement, on June 26th, the video song titled, Naan Yaarum Illa got released. The song was sensational and raised further expectations over the movie.

To announce the ‘U’ rating, obtained by Tamizh Padam 2 from censor board, the makers shared the following ad

And finally, as a countdown to the movie’s release, a series of posters popped up in the social media of Y Not Studios.

‘Timely ones’ like…

‘Even more timely ones’ (within a matter of hours) like…

The social media presence of Tamizh Padam 2‘s cast and crew (especially the ones of director, producer and production house) has been crucial… crucial in pumping up the excitement towards the movie. The weird tone of the movie did translate well in their social media. But, in taking the franchise forward, it is ideal to complement it with an exclusive social media account. Such an account for the franchise can come in handy in mobilizing the fans in an even better way.

(Photo Courtesy: Y Not Studios)

Here’s how Brands are making the most of Experiential Events!

Here’s how Brands are making the most of Experiential Events!

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Find your target audience. Know what they expect from you. Create and offer them a unique experience around their expectation. Thereby, make them feel moved by your approach.

When you do all the above, you may earn not alone customers but their loyalty too.

This has been the beauty of Experiential Marketing.

But, your marketing efforts need not stop with providing just an experience. There are opportunities for you to make the most of such occasions.

So, in this article, let me explain on how brands are using experiential events to the best advantage.

Effective Email Marketing Drive as a follow-up to GlassBarge:

Corning Incorporated (an American multinational technology company) started as Brooklyn Flint Glass Works in 1868. It founded Corning Museum of Glass (CMoG, a museum in Corning, New York) in 1951. To mark the journey of Corning Inc., Corning Museum of Glass is presenting GlassBarge (a canal barge furnished with CMoG’s all-electric glass making equipment). The canal barge travels for four months to various shore sides of New York. Wherein, it does a free glassblowing demonstration in each port city. People can view schedules and reserve seating for the shows in Eventbrite (U.S.-based event management and ticketing website).

CMoG collected the list of GlassBarge visitors who reserved advance tickets via Eventbrite. It sent them a thank you email and invited them to the museum by providing a discount on entrance fee. The emails saw a 50 percent open rate. This open rate is double the average open rate as per MailChimp.

This case conveys on how a notable event can transform to an effective email marketing drive.

Event as a channel to know the fans:

RQ, a marketing agency partnered Pizza Hut with Getty Images (American stock photo agency) at South by Southwest, 2018. Wherein, Pizza Hut served Pizza at the lounge outside the photo studio of Getty Images. In the event, the American restaurant chain interacted with the customers. Whereby, Pizza Hut got to know a group of fans which it manages to use for influencer campaigns.

This instance lets us know on how a brand used an event as a channel to interact with its customers. And, got to know their viewpoints on the brand. To top it all, the company identified its brand advocates and is leveraging them.

Conclusion:

The scenarios have shown the options for brands to make the most of experiential events. One in the form of using the data obtained from live events for email marketing. And, other in the form of getting to know a brand’s fans to later tap into them for influencer campaigns. Thereby, the strategies illustrate on how far the experiential marketing can be beneficial.

Alive Humans’ body spaces for Advertising: 3 Weird but Interesting Strategies

Alive Humans’ body spaces for Advertising: 3 Weird but Interesting Strategies

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Of late, I have been trying to dig deep into the concept of Guerrilla Marketing. While trying to do so, I came across the terminology, Forehead Advertising. As the name suggests, the advertising is carried out on a person’s forehead… of course after obtaining consent from the concerned person.

A prominent case study of forehead advertising occurred way back in April 2004. To publicize tC coupe, a new model of the now defunct Scion (a discontinued brand of Toyota), Cunning, a London-based firm conducted an event. The event took place in Times Square. Wherein, 40 young adults, employed by the firm, participated to advertise tC. Cunning made the participants wear one or more of the below messages as temporary tattoos in their foreheads

  1. tC (Coupe’s model name)
  2. $16,465 (Price of the car)
  3. Scion (Company’s name)

Each enlistee got paid $11 per hour. The event ran from 10 A.M – 1 P.M on the day when Toyota launched tC at New York Auto Show.

Much like the above forehead advert, there is this weird “billboard” drive of Air New Zealand in 2009. The airline recruited 30 people. It made them shave their heads. And, stick the below message over their bald heads as temporary tattoos for 2 weeks

“Need A Change? Head Down to New Zealand. www.airnewzealand.com.”

Air New Zealand labelled the advertisements as “cranial billboards”. In return, the temps received either of the below options

  1. A round-trip ticket to New Zealand (Cost of the ticket was about $1,200)
  2. Cash reward of $777 (The cash amount was an indirect reference to Boeing 777, a model in Air New Zealand’s fleet)

Likewise, FeelUnique.com, an online beauty store conducted a marketing drive in 2009. The company hired 10 men and women, in a random manner, from 6,000 who applied for the campaign online. The store made them apply the store’s web address as temporary tattoos on the eyelids. And, asked them to wink at strangers. FeelUnique.com paid them 100 pounds.

The London-based firm, Mischief ran the campaign. As per Mischief, the drive generated significant referral traffic to FeelUnique.com… as a result of articles about the campaign which appeared in various media.

Conclusion:

In the past, tattoo-related ads weren’t confined to the heads and eyelids alone. They have extended even to the rounded bellies of pregnant women. But, not all such strategies have turned out into a win-win like the above mentioned three cases. Hence, the instances serve as ideal case studies of how brands leveraged alive humans’ body spaces… for advertising.

Sources:

  1. SELLING SCIONS WITH FOREHEAD ADS
  2. The Body as Billboard: Your Ad Here
4 Guerrilla Marketing Campaigns of popular movies you love!

4 Guerrilla Marketing Campaigns of popular movies you love!

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Collage
A collage of stills from Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Ant-Man, IT and Deadpool

This happened a week ago.

IT looked much like how the savage beast thrust the doors of a cargo hold in the climax of The Lost World: Jurassic Park.

IT prompted many among the passersby to double-check on what they saw.

IT made the commuters click photos and share them on social media.

Thereby, IT spurred a series of conversations from netizens… and a sequence of interpretations from media houses.

IT…IT…IT…IT…What was IT?

IT was a giant replica of a dinosaur breaking out of a container on a boat, which floated on River Thames in London.

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Giant replica of T-Rex on River Thames in London

IT appeared like the ‘recreation’ of the below scene from Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.

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This event, presumed to be a stunt for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, is unusual… unusual in the case of movie marketing. By that means, it serves as an ideal example of Guerrilla Marketing.

This occurrence made me recall few Guerrilla Marketing campaigns… campaigns implemented for certain movies. In this article, I present them to you.

‘Ant-sized’ bill boards for Ant-Man:

ant-man
A still from Ant-Man

It was way back in 2015. Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero, Ant-Man was about to launch his first feature film. By then, Mr. Glasses (an Australian experiential marketing agency) pitched in to promote Ant-Man among the Australian audience.

For promotion, they launched a ‘miniature campaign’. As part of the campaign, they created 200 mini billboards. In other words, they shrunk traditional billboards… like how Ant-Man contracted in size in the film.

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A mini billboard created for the ‘miniature campaign’

The boards contained the name of the movie, production house and the movie’s release date. The boards were then placed in areas where they could garner much audience attention. They got placed across Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

This promotional activity created a sensation. The campaign got mentioned in a handful of world renowned newspapers and magazines. As a result of the surge in the popularity of the drive, Marvel booked mini billboards worldwide.

The campaign done on a budget of $22K yielded the well-set launch pad for the movie, Ant-Man.

‘Scary’ drive for IT:

Rothman-IT
A still from IT

In 2017, Village Roadshow deployed a weird drive to promote the horror flick, IT. This promotion is yet another brain child of Mr. Glasses.

The campaign included two activities. First was to create hand painted murals. The agency made street artists to create murals depicting their versions of Pennywise. They did so as they had restrictions in using the imageries of the clown that appears in the movie. The artists splashed their artworks on the walls of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. The drawings contained texts such as ‘YOU’LL FLOAT TOO‘, movie name, release date and the hashtag, ‘#ITMOVIE‘.

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A hand painted mural

And, second was to tie red balloons to storm water drains. Alongside the drains was the message, ‘IT IS CLOSER THAN YOU THINK. #ITMOVIE IN CINEMAS SEPTEMBER 7.‘.

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Balloons tied to storm water drains alongside which is the message, ‘IT IS CLOSER THAN YOU THINK. #ITMOVIE IN CINEMAS SEPTEMBER 7.‘

This marketing by the agency went viral globally.

The red balloon has been prominent not only in the movie, IT but also in its marketing as mentioned above.

Both activities sound striking despite the very tight budget (as mentioned in the website of Mr. Glasses) of the client.

Blu-ray packaging stunt for Deadpool:

Deadpool-2-poster
A still from Deadpool 2

Among the many innovative marketing of Deadpool 2 is this one, which happened in Walmart. It was business as usual for Deadpool. Once again, he broke the fourth wall and got into the act of the movie’s marketing.

People were in for a surprise to see Deadpool taking over the endcap of Blu-ray movies of which he is not a part of. Some of the movies that Deadpool took over are Predator, The Terminator and Logan. In specific, the packaging stunt involved movies affiliated with Fox Home Entertainment. And, those which were iconic to a degree and had a noticeable art.

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Deadpool taking over the endcap of Blu-ray movies in a Walmart store

The stunt appeared as bizarre and witty as the nature of Deapool. Fox Home Entertainment‘s in-house team along with Neuron Syndicate (Los Angeles based advertising agency) pulled off the stunt.

Conclusion:

All the above mentioned advertisements got placed in unusual and unexpected locations. And, the methods used by them were unconventional. Also, the strategies should be the first or the only ad executions of this kind (or should be so for a period of time). Thereby, they serve as perfect illustrations of Guerrilla Marketing.

What other movie marketing tactics you sense to fit the bill? Let me know in the comments!

(Photo Courtesy: Universal Pictures, Marvel Studios,
Warner Bros. Pictures and Adweek)
Brand Activation: ‘Show Us Your Package’ campaign of ‘Deadpool’ and ‘Trolli’

Brand Activation: ‘Show Us Your Package’ campaign of ‘Deadpool’ and ‘Trolli’

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Deadpool 2, a sequel to the 2016 film Deadpool, opens on May 18th, 2018. As the date is nearing, like other superhero flicks, marketing for Deadpool 2 are at full throttle. But, what makes the promotions of Deadpool 2 sound unique is the aspect of quirkiness. In fact, this has been nature of the Deadpool franchise’s marketing. Of late, Deadpool partnered with the confectionery brand, Trolli for a crossover campaign… a campaign to make the new line of snacks, Sour Brite Tiny Hands active.

It all started with the Deadpool’s ‘Tiny Tease’, SOMETHING TINY IS COMING in Trolli Candy’s social media. The tease contained the date, 5.7.18.

On May 7th, Trolli Candy asked people to show off their package of Trolli on two giant billboards, with Deadpool, in Times Square. In parallel, Trolli’s Twitter account encouraged people to strike a pose in Times Square.

A chance to be on the big screen in Times Square, by showing a package, made people to care about the event and strike a pose. Also, the event included a sweepstakes and photo contest.

On May 8th, a video showcasing the snacks along with Deadpool was put up in Deadpool’s social media.

On May 9th, a video, which briefed on the event, was released in social media.

The website, www.weirdlyawesome.com contains few photos from the activation event. One could either swipe right or left, on the package pics, to give either thumbs up or down.

Also, Trolli encouraged netizens to flaunt a package for the cam and share the pic on Instagram or Twitter. To enter for a chance to win a VIP Deadpool Experience, Trolli asked them to tag ‘@trolli_usa‘ and use ‘#PackagePose‘.

Social media of Trolli kept the conversations, about the campaign, go through in online. They did so by sharing select photos from the event and certain photos put up by fans in social media. Thereby, Trolli identified and celebrated milestones of its campaign, which created news.

This unconventional and unpredictable campaign complemented the anti-mainstream natures of Deadpool and Trolli. The campaign was more impactful, as it drew in more audience, and related to what both the brands are.

The idea of creating Tiny Hands finds its reference from a scene of Deadpool. Wherein, Deadpool equates his then small hands to a KFC Spork.

Conclusion:

The campaign increased customer’s awareness about and engagement with Trolli‘s Tiny Hands. In other words, the campaign ‘activated’ the new product. Foremost, it created an emotional connection between the brands and their customers… an emotional connection where customers will remember the experience and the brands longer.

Photo Courtesy: Marvel Entertainment and Trolli
3 Key Marketing Takeaways from Mr.Chandramouli’s Audio Launch and its preludes

3 Key Marketing Takeaways from Mr.Chandramouli’s Audio Launch and its preludes

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Mr.Chandramouli movie poster (Image Source: BOFTA Media Works India Pvt Ltd and Creative Entertainers Production)

On 25th April 2018, I attended the audio launch of the movie, Mr.Chandramouli at Sathyam Cinemas in Chennai. It was my first visit to an event of this kind. The producers of the movie, Mr. Dhananjayan G, Mr. S. Vikram Kumar and Mrs. Lalitha Dhananjayan had rendered a grand and a colorful event. As a marketing enthusiast, I found a lot of takeaways from the event and its preludes. In this article, I share my observations.

1. Leveraging technology to boost attendance to the event:

I found an invite from the website, Behindwoods, which it had posted in its social media. Invite was for the audio launch of the movie, Mr.Chandramouli. The invite encouraged people to send their name to the Whatsapp mobile number present in it. After sending the message, the sender received a message with two entry passes to the event.

I find this approach to be an effective one in reaching out to the potential attendees of an event. Also, it appeared to be less invasive. Yet another point to note here is that the invite isn’t limited to certain audience as it is shared in social media.

2. Choosing contents appropriate to the event:

In an event, it is important to choose contents that aligns with your target audience. The producers of Mr.Chandramouli had chosen contents for the event by keeping in mind its target audience.

Attendees of the event got a chance to take a look at the trailer of the movie. A couple of video songs from Mr.Chandramouli were also showcased. And, the makers had got speakers for the event… speakers who are well known in the industry and who have experiences to share to the audience.

3. Engaging audience who have missed the event:

Makers of the movie, ensured that people who couldn’t attend the event also felt engaged. So, certain sessions of the event were live streamed in social media. Also, the trailer was shared in social media later in the evening.

Conclusion:

The above mentioned approaches seem to be in practice for a while. Since, this is my first visit to an event of this scale, I have documented my observations. And, as a fan of movie marketing, I look forward to more of innovative ideas enhancing the regional movie audio launch events.

Now, let me know your perceptions about the event in the comments!

What YouTube Marketing Lessons can one learn from ‘DC’ and ‘Marvel’

What YouTube Marketing Lessons can one learn from ‘DC’ and ‘Marvel’

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A collage featuring photos from ‘Justice League’ (Above) and ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ (Below) (Image Source: DC Entertainment and Marvel Studios)

Of late, in 2018, I could see a considerable number of deliberations going around in online, in favor of video when it comes to online contents. YouTube seems to be the go-to video platform for certain brands especially in cases where the brands target a younger audience. Also, YouTube seems to have a leg up on other video-viewing platforms as it has a more established ad monetization system.

So, when I was casually going through some write-ups in the online space concerning YouTube Marketing and assimilating ideas as mentioned above, a thought just did spark my mind. The thought is on the similarities that exist between the working of ‘DC Entertainment’ and ‘Marvel Studios’ in rendering superhero movies and the usage of YouTube as a marketing platform by brands. You will get to know more about my underlying thoughts as we deep dive further into the article. Now, let us start taking a look at my thoughts one-by-one.

Focus on creating video series to cultivate viewership:

‘DC Entertainment’ and ‘Marvel Studios’ have been producing series of super hero films based on characters that appear in their respective publications. The efforts of these two production companies are keeping their audiences engaged over a period of time.

Likewise, brands like ‘Refinery29’ (An American digital media and entertainment company focusing on young women) are creating a series of videos, relevant to their business, in their YouTube channels. In the second half of 2017, ‘Refinery29’ created a series of videos with the goal of cultivating a regular viewership.

Explain dense topics in serialized videos:

‘DC Entertainment’ and ‘Marvel Studios’ unite their respective superheroes and render ‘Justice League’ movie and ‘Avengers’ movie series respectively. At the same time, they are also making movies that are exclusively centered on a particular superhero character. In such movies, they depict the backstory of the superhero. Thereby, they lay a firm foundation around a character among the audience. While watching ‘Justice League’ movie and ‘Avengers’ movie series, this approach helps the audience… helps in understanding on ‘why’ and ‘how’ the superheroes gathered together and what makes them special as an individual.

In the similar way, when a brand has got to explain dense topics to its audience, it can explain them in serialized videos. ‘Financial Times’ has created a series of videos to explain dense topics like blockchain or Cryptocurrencies. As per the report of Digiday, it seems like the videos explaining dense topics are driving a high click-through rate.

Also, serialized videos ensure that your audience comes in contact with your brand on various occasions. This is what ‘Financial Times’ estimates, which is, its readers come in contact with the brand between six and eight times before subscribing to it.

Split up video contents into verticals to target more specific audience:

There are some movies of DC and Marvel that had or seem to be having sequels. In this case, the fans of such movies will feel excited when announcements on those movies pop up in media. They get driven in a state of ecstasy to catch with those movies soon after their theatrical release. Here, one could see the audience getting consolidated under the umbrella of a particular superhero character.

In the same way, you could split up your video contents into verticals in your YouTube channel. Thereby, you could hope to target a specific audience more. ‘Financial Times’ has its video contents split into various verticals such as ‘FT Life’ and ‘FT Transact’, in its official YouTube channel. The videos in ‘FT Life’ provide coverage on arts, style, travel and food and drink .Whereas, the videos in ‘FT Transact’ focuses on the future of finance.

Deliver a subject in multiple formats:

In spite of producing live-action films, DC and Marvel produce animated films too. Wherein, most of them are released direct-to-video. The companies sense an opportunity in showcasing their contents in multiple formats and they deliver the same.

In a like manner, a subject could be delivered in a range of videos like short explainer videos, news-related quick videos and longer mini-documentaries. Going by the ‘Digiday’ article, ‘The Financial Times is splitting up videos into verticals’, I affirm that ‘Financial Times’ had leveraged these video formats in an effective manner in covering the 2017 French and U.K. Elections.

Leverage YouTube End screens to cross promote your contents:

Recently, when I went to watch ‘Black Panther’ in theatre, trailers of ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ and ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’ were screened. This practice of promoting the upcoming Marvel movies by showcasing their trailers to the audience who have come to the theatre to watch ‘Black Panther’ is what I term a simple illustration of the marketing technique, ‘Cross Promotion’.

Similarly, you could leverage options like YouTube End screens to cross promote your website to your YouTube audience. Thereby, you enable a gateway for your YouTube audience to help you grow your referral traffic to your site via the video-viewing platform. Also, you could point your viewers to other videos, playlists or channels on YouTube and introduce call for subscriptions to your YouTube channel.

To promote their superheroes, ‘DC Entertainment’ and ‘Marvel Studios’ seem to be spending a lot of time, money and effort. Likewise, to reach one’s business goal, one has to invest a considerable amount of time, money and effort based on the scale of the business.

I hope you found the ideas, which have been mentioned above, to be useful. Let me know your thoughts on my opinions!

Learn these 5 Essential Blogging Tips from ‘behind the scenes’ of Stephen Hawking’s International Bestseller

Learn these 5 Essential Blogging Tips from ‘behind the scenes’ of Stephen Hawking’s International Bestseller

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'A Brief History of Time' book's cover
Stephen Hawking’s international bestseller, ‘A Brief History of Time’ (Image Source: The Rare Book Sleuth)

This week, I completed reading the book, ‘My Brief History’ written by Stephen Hawking. I find the memoir to be interesting and identify a lot of takeaways from its chapters. As a blogger too, I am able to relate with some key points about Blogging with the aspects mentioned in a chapter. The chapter is on Stephen Hawking’s international bestseller, ‘A Brief History of Time’.

In this write-up, I am sharing my correlations with you.

1. Purpose of writing a blog post:

Stephen Hawking had two main intentions behind writing ‘A Brief History of Time’. One was to explain on how he felt on the evolution of the understanding by humans about the universe. Other was to explain on how humans might get near in finding a complete theory… a theory describing universe and its aspects.

Next, he was clear-cut for whom he is writing the book for, as he wanted to make the book to reach as many people as possible.

Also, he was particular on the feel that the book has to offer its readers. He had been very impressed by Jacob Bronowski’s TV series, ‘The Ascent of Man’. The series had given him a feeling of achievement in the evolution of human race over years. Likewise, he wanted to convey a feeling on the progress of humans in getting to know the system of the universe. In the book, he felt that he shouldn’t explain unfamiliar concepts that weren’t essential to what he has got to say. All he felt was only to mention them and not discuss them in detail. But, despite certain ideas being difficult, he explained as he considered them essential. He decided to describe his ideas with the help of familiar analogies and a few diagrams. In this way, he hoped that most readers would feel elated on the notable progress in physics in last fifty years from then.

Here, Stephen Hawking’s purpose on writing ‘A Brief History of Time’ looks so convincing. In the same way, before starting to write a blog post, you have to ensure the following which Stephen did for his book

  • Why are you writing the blog post?
  • Who will be its target audience?
  • What information should you be avoiding in it?
  • How should you be providing information in it?
  • What will your audience gain from it?

2. Keep writing as simple as possible:

Stephen Hawking had chosen to have his book published by a publisher named, ‘Bantam Books’. One of their editors, Peter Guzzardi made him to rewrite the book so that it appeals to non-scientists too. Each time he sent Peter a rewritten chapter, Peter sent back objections and questions. Stephen felt that the activity seemed prolonging. But, at the end of the activity, he felt that the book was much better than what he had expected.

In a like manner, try to keep your writing as simple as possible in your blog post for it to reach a large audience.

3. Prefer brief to short titles:

Stephen Hawking’s original title for the book was ‘From the Big Bang Black Holes: A Short History of Time’. But, it was Guzzardi who changed the title to ‘A Brief History of Time’. Stephen Hawking considered this change as a stroke of genius. He felt that the title change would have contributed to the book’s success. Post which, there seem to be a lot of books like ‘A Brief History of Thyme’, imitating the title.

All these sum up the importance of writing catchy and brief headlines. Bloggers can make use of CoSchedule’s free Headline Analyzer to write such headlines.

4. Review the post before publishing it:

When the book was nearing publication, a scientist who was about to review it found in its advance copy a lot of errors… errors in the labels of the photographs and diagrams. Hence, ‘Bantam Books’ had to recall and scrap the entire printing. Following which, in an intense way, they spent three weeks to correct and recheck the entire book.

This situation summarizes on how crucial is a review before a book’s publication. Lesson learnt from the situation applies before a blog post publish as well.

You can review your content in two ways. First, read aloud the content that you have written to identify the mistakes in it. Second, provide your content to your family members or friends and get a review done.

5. Choose apt Social Media channel to distribute blog posts:

As Stephen Hawking wanted to take the book to a large audience, he opted for ‘Bantam Books’ who could help him in doing so. Also, he was so specific that he would want to create a book that would sell in airport book stores. ‘Bantam Books’ had not specialized on publishing science books till then. But, their books seemed to be available in a wide manner in airport book stores.

This scenario implies the significance of opting apt channel to distribute content. Likewise, it’s essential for bloggers to opt an apt social media channel (E.g. Facebook, Twitter etc.,) to promote blog posts.

Before starting to write your next blog post, think on the above mentioned Stephen Hawking’s efforts… efforts in bringing out his book and making it as an international bestseller. Then, try panning out your blogging efforts in the same way. Stephen Hawking’s efforts and spirit behind, may inspire and be followed in blog posts.

What Black Panther teaches about ‘Grassroots Marketing on Social Media’

What Black Panther teaches about ‘Grassroots Marketing on Social Media’

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Black Panther Portrait
Image Source: Marvel Studios

Recently, I happened to read the article, ‘Grassroots Marketing in the Age of Social Media’. I could relate many aspects in it with Marvel Studios’ marketing efforts for ‘Black Panther’. So, I have come up with this article by jotting down my observations. Now, let us take a look at the efforts and the corresponding takeaways:

1. Understand your audience:

In Grassroots Marketing, it is of primary importance to understand your audience.

On the day of Black Panther‘s release, ‘Captain Marvel‘ star Brie Larson tweeted as below

This tweet based on the theme, ‘Pay it forward‘ did sound striking. Thereby, it generated a considerable number of comments, retweets and likes.

To come up with a campaign and result as mentioned above, you have to understand your audience.

Takeaways:

To understand your audience,

i) Know whether your audiences are available in social media

ii) In case, if they are, know which platforms (g.: Facebook, Twitter etc.,) they are using and are active on

iii) Know the person who can spur a grassroots marketing campaign for your product or service

(Here, the person could be a celebrity or an influencer)

iv) Engage your audience, using the person, in a way that relates to your product or service

2. Mobilize your audience:

When you have a considerable audience, you need to engage them via various activities. In other words, you need to mobilize your audience. Marvel Studios knows this.

Before the release of ‘Black Panther’, Twitter and Marvel hosted a live-stream Q&A with the cast and crew of the movie. To make fans join the conversation, Twitter provided the hashtag, ‘#BlackPantherLive’.

And, Tumblr conducted its first-ever video ‘AnswerTime’ with the cast of ‘Black Panther’.

Besides, Marvel is encouraging fans to submit their Black Panther arts to it in social media. It is offering them the hashtag, ‘#BlackPantherFanArt’ to share their artworks. This campaign of Marvel has been receiving a lot of submissions. The arts are being shared in the official social media pages of ‘Black Panther’ by crediting the fans.

Also, Marvel is making fans to share the photos of them dressed up in Wakanda-esque costumes. For this campaign, it provides them the hashtag, ‘#WakandaStyle’. Marvel posted few of such photos in the social media channels of ‘Black Panther’.

Takeaways:

To mobilize the considerable number of audience that you have,

i) Conduct light-hearted events related to your business in popular social networks (g. Facebook, Twitter)

ii) Encourage them to involve in the events by providing customized hashtags

iii) Leverage video features of popular social media to showcase events like Q&A sessions… sessions about your product or service

3. Encourage your audience to speak out about your product or service:

Another important Grassroots Marketing approach is to encourage your audience to speak out… speak out about your product or service.

Marvel created customized Twitter Emojis for certain ‘Black Panther‘ characters… for characters like ‘Black Panther‘, ‘Nakia‘, ‘Kill Monger‘, ‘Shuri‘, and ‘Okoye‘. And, it encouraged the fans of ‘Black Panther’ to tweet the name of their favorite character from the movie… name preceded by a hashtag.

Also, the fans were asked to share their favourite track on Black Panther album.

And, Marvel prompted the fans to take part in a sweepstakes contest. It encouraged them to share their favourite Black Panther memory or their personal photo using the hashtag, ‘#Marvel10YearSweepstakes’. Here, Marvel advertised that the fans might get a chance to win a trip to ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ premiere.

Takeaways:

To encourage your audience to speak out about your product or service,

i) Conduct contests with announcements about a chance to win prizes

ii) Make them speak out about product or service as part of the contests

iii) Start simple conversations as Marvel did of fans’ favorite character and track

With these grassroots efforts on social media, Marvel has generated a buzz for its movie. In turn, this has helped in upping the Black Panther‘s prospects at box-office in a notable manner.

So, tailor the campaigns of Marvel for ‘Black Panther‘ to suit your product or service needs. And, enhance your business prospects.

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