Baby, Baby, Baby

I may have come down with Beiber Fever yet again over the past few days. My Twitter feed has been dominated with Justin Beiber RT'ing hundreds of fans and their excitement regarding the release of his latest single, Boyfriend. Now I adore JB but I normally don't get caught up in the hype of music releases, I listen to the radio and that's how I hear new music. But from the hashtag trends of #20days counting down to the last #48hours I was hooked. I looked up the 15 seconds of the song he leaked on Ellen, I joined in the countdown. The hype around this release was massive, and that's just on Twitter alone. There was a worldwide trend just about everyday, counting down from #20days. Today alone I saw from #12hours all the way down to #2minutes trending just waiting for iTunes to release Boyfriend. I also saw iTunes trending when there was a slight delay with the release. The power of Beliebers. 
I swear this blog has a point apart from Justin Beiber, and that point is hype. 
I get caught up in just about everything, regardless of what it is. My friend Marie & I lined up for the iPhone 4 outside Optus in the city all because of hype. We were walking home from Uni, saw 4 people lining up and we just couldn't stop staring. We got ourselves so hyped up that we could be lining up for the iPhone that we went home, prepared ourselves, and we're in the top 20 of people lining up. Hype.
My sister bought JB's latest single as soon as she got home, just so we could listen and join in on the hype. 
Basically, if something has a clever marketing campaign or simply gets enough hype I'll be first in line for it. I don't know if that is a good or bad thing. Have you ever been caught up in the hype of something?

How not to blog & addictions revisited

I've done the one thing I swore I would never do, neglect my blog, after finishing the course that started it all. It took a shameful amount of time trying to log back into my blogspot account this evening which is never a good sign. But despite neglecting this blog I have actually maintained my love (or as my friend's describe it, addiction) to all things social media related. 
Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, Klout, Google+, Instagram, Pinterest, you name it, I have an account. Personally, I find Twitter to be my most used tool on a daily basis, from being the first thing I check in the morning to the last thing I do before I go to sleep. Obsessive, yes. But it does come with its rewards, last Thursday I RT'd (retweeted) a tweet from MenzFruChocs, and because I was one of the first 10 they are sending me a free pack of mini Fru Chocs! My other love would have to be Instagram. I simply adore looking at gorgeous photos taken all over the world right in the palm of my hand. This month I'm also participating in #marchphotoaday. Quite self explanatory, every day is a different photo based on a particular theme. It is quite broad terms, like 5pm, breakfast, kitchen sink, window, fork, neighbour. But the thing I find most fascinating is the different images people take for each day. It has been quite successful, every day I've received at least one like on my latest photo, often from other participants from all over the globe. 
So I promise to try to blog on a more frequent basis, I swear I think of potential blog posts all the time, I just never get around to actually writing & posting them. 

The End of #brands2

With Uni results being released yesterday I have officially completed my Marketing degree and can look forward to 2 years of part-time study focused on Accounting whilst working full-time as an undergraduate Accountant.
Management of Brands would have to be one of my favourite subjects ever, not only did I get to use Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Foursquare but I got to call it homework. The ultimate dream! Just quietly I also did quite well grade-wise which is a bonus. It was because of this course I began my blog focusing on marketing communications and social media. Now I'm heading into the field of Accounting it seems pointless continuing a Marketing blog but I honestly have really come to enjoy blogging. It looks easy but it is so hard to produce a worthwhile post and when it is well received it makes all the staring at a blinking cursor worth it.
So for the time being I will continue blogging and hopefully at a semi-reasonable frequency.

Zara Hype

After a month long break, this blog post is dedicated to the recently renovated Burnside Village. Although impressive I was most looking forward to the opening of Spanish chain, Zara. For months throughout the renovations I had heard numerous bits of information from it being the largest Zara store in the Southern hemisphere as well as being modelled off Zara's New York store. Fashionistas around Adelaide having been eagerly awaiting the opening and for those who adore the store were not disappointed. 
Thursday morning I arrived at Zara bright and early hoping I wasn't going to spend hours lining up to get inside. Although the store was quite busy and only lineups were for the women's changerooms. 
The thing I found most interesting, from a Marketing student's perspective, was the lack of traditional advertising. The hype surrounding the opening of Zara was word-of-mouth and discussion in social media between consumers. No fancy print campaigns or television commercials. I don't know whether it actually worked for Zara considering they may have wanted even more people coming through the doors. I know I will absolutely be back, on quite a regular basis I assume. 
I simply had to visit Zara on the very first day, and of course purchase something! It all comes down to the hype. I've had at least a dozen conversations about Zara with people and being able to say I visited the very first morning. 
So do yourself a favour, visit Zara, and don't walk out empty handed. 

Share A Coke with Cass

I've been wanting to write a blog about the latest Coke campaign for quite some time. It all began when my Facebook News Feed was littered with pictures of people's Coke bottles, and who they were sharing a Coke with. I was confused and couldn't seem to find any information about a new campaign anywhere. A few weeks later I came across Coca-Cola Australia's Facebook page, and the whole Share A Coke campaign became a whole lot clearer to me. 

When I discovered that Cass would be featured on a Coke bottle I've made it my mission to find it. I don't even drink Coke, I prefer Diet Coke, but I've found myself buying Coke bottles just to see what name I can get. Our fridge contains the following bottles; belonging to my Dad, Rob, my sister, Rebecca, and me. My Mum has the less common name of Antonietta so she misses out until we can buy her a bottle saying 'Mum.'

You want to buy a bottle of Coke, but what if your name isn't one of the 150 selected? Well, don't fear you can attend your local Westfield and create your own custom can! What a fabulous idea for people who have less common names. Not only that but I recommend paying a visit to the Coca-Cola Australia Facebook page. Here you can share a virtual can of Coke with friends and listen to the songs corresponding to each of the 150 names. I spent a good part of this morning selecting a different name and listening to the different songs.

Coke is one of the biggest brands in the world so why do they still find the need to create such campaigns as this? The answer is quite simple, they aren't really advertising to gain more market share, almost everybody recognises Coke, and a majority of the population drink it. I believe its a way of getting people to talk even more about Coke and therefore people aren't talking about the competitors. People are absolutely talking more about Coke, whether people love it or hate it I think depends on whether they can find a bottle with their name on it. What do you think of Coke's latest campaign and would you specially buy a bottle if it had your name on it?

GASP and those emails...

For a blog with a focus on social media & marketing communications I simply must post about the topic dominating social media and news programs all over Australia today, GASP & those emails.
If you haven't seen or heard about GASP today (it would be hard to ignore) here is the full story according to the Herald Sun.
A customer complains about poor service, company responds, emails go viral and become a worldwide trending topic on Twitter.
I'm not a PR expert in the slightest but even I can see GASP didn't hande this well at all. In current economic circumstances retail stores are suffering and this type of customer service will not entice anyone into stores. I can understand that it would be frustrating for salespeople with a continual stream of customers and no sales. However, as a customer trying on clothing is part of the shopping experience & in no way should a sale be forced. In fact the more a salesperson forces a sale the more likely I am to simply walk away.
So in a he said/she said saga we may never know the truth of what happened. What we do know is that GASP have done horrific damage to their brand. They are persistant and are unlikely to apologise, normally a brave action. However in the face of such public negative comments it seems like a truly stupid decision.
What do you think of GASP's actions?

Two and a Half Men & Foursquare

Whilst I was watching Two and a Half Men last night I noticed Ashton's laptop case covered in stickers. The foursquare logo really stood out, perhaps because I'm a daily foursquare user. Foursquare mentioned this fact on Instagram making me wonder whether it was simple a coincidence or planned. Ashton is a foursquare user...
For such a highly hyped television show recently it makes sense to have a subtle bit of advertising with such a large audience watching.
What do you think? Planned or coincidence?

EDIT: It turns out that Ashton actually has a personal financial stake in each of these digital companies. CBS wasn't too happy about him using these stickers as essentially a free promotional platform. However, it doesn't really compare to the behaviour of Charlie Sheen on set.