Marketing Challenges: iPad Mini

Today Apple held yet another keynote adress for its new line of products. The sleek and thin iMac was introduced fallowed by the revealing of a new 13-inch Macbook Pro with Retina Display, and 2 new iPads.

What struck my attention was the iPad mini. the iPad mini is Apple's new 7.9-inch screen tablet that features a 1024 x 768 pixel resolution and the Apple A5 chip. It can connect via wifi and is compatible with LTE wireless.

Before when Apple just had the iPad it was competing with several other big companies in the Tablet market, but now Apple has moved themselves into a different area. The iPad mini will be for people who want a smaller more portable device than the iPad, but also want the power of a tablet. They will be competing with the new 7-inch Nexus tablet made by Google and Amazons new Kindles.

What does this mean for Apple? What challenges will they face with their competition? Lastly what does this mean for companies with products like the iPad mini?

All information taken from: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/gadgetbox/apple-unveils-ipad-mini-new-ipad-new-imac-13-inch-1C6630274

Virality: A Science or luck?

Virality seems to be the word on everyone's mind and the goal of every marketing and ad department.

Since the creation of social media, the holy grial, so to say, has been creating the most popular and most viewed advertising. Just as the medical term "Viral", in marketing, being viral or virality is the spreading of information from person to person. Unlike the sickness however, you actually want to infect everyone with your marketing genius.

How do you create such a massive marketing infection? Over time, many marketers and self proclaimed advertising profits have conjured up ways to achieve this marketing super-stardom. Some have been successful, as other have not. (see examples below) These campaigns have included every tip and trick from contest incentives to catchy jingles to dancing animals and talking babies. But not all of these maneuvers work for everyone.

 Dollar Shave Club viral video success.

PSP's racy subway advertising fail. 

So, is virality a science or luck?

While working on creating my own viral video and covering related material in numerous marketing classes, I became curious about Virality myself. I researched blogs, websites, social media sites, and of course, youtube. After this laborious effort of trolling the internet, I finally found the answer.

Virality, while not quite a science, does have a pretty effective recipe and if followed, will increase a campaign's chances at reaching the viral level.


Viral Marketing
Time: < 60 seconds
Yields: Millions

1 C.        Effective Content
2 C.        Sharing
1 Pinch     Accessibility
1/3 C.      Strong Branding
1 Tsp.      Humor
1 Stick     User-Generated Content


Mix together, cross your fingers, and share with anyone and everyone. 

Now, while this recipe may change and serving sizes may be altered, the basics are still the same. Viral marketing must have interesting and useful content. Without a concrete back bone, the rest of your campaign will fall apart. There is, however, one exception and one only to this rule: humor. What viewers love more than things that they can actually apply in real life is a good piece of comedic advertising. Comedy is a balance though, so be careful. It can elevate a brand or it could ruin it.

The next key element in becoming viral is sharing. Although this may seem like a no-brainer, sharing is usually the biggest obstacle when achieving virality. You have to put yourself in the shoes of the consumer and think - what will not only grab their attention, but what will make your advertising so interesting to them that they want, no NEED, to share it with everyone they know. Knowing your targeted audience and how to reach them is the key to success here.

Last, but certainly not least is user-generated content. Referred to as UCG in the internet world,  user-generated content is, well, exactly what is sounds like: content created by users. This is important when creating viral marketing because the more active a user can be in a campaign, the more interest is drawn and the likelihood of them sharing your advertising significantly increases. Forums, photo contents, Twitter contests, Facebook likes, and blogs just like this are superb examples that will engage your audience and send your advertising to the top, or, well, pretty close.

So next time you or your company wants to create the next best viral thing on the internet, try this recipe and pray to the marketing gods and maybe, just maybe, you'll be among the few to achieve internet marketing greatness. 

2nd Down and Tweet to Go!

 Since the advent of social media, there has been no shortage of celebrities and other famous people getting involved. Their troves of loyal fans elevate them up the social media ladder and bring them closer to the level reached only by the likes of Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber. These followers are not always the greatest thing though, especially in times of crisis.

Monday, September 24^th is a day will live in infamy. The Green Bay Packers lost their game to the Seattle Seahawks by intercepting a pass and preventing a touchdown, or so it seemed. The referee’s, unable to correctly interpret the play awarded the Seahawks a game winning touchdown and in turn, set the “Twittersphere” ablaze.

Almost instantly, viewers of the game as well as players began to voice their opinions. TJ Lang, the Packers’ offensive lineman took to the 140 character social media site in a way that created one of the most viral post of the night. His wrap up of the game was, “Got f*cked by the refs.. Embarrassing. Thanks nfl.” The post, less then 24hours later had received 67.4k retweets and 16.7k favorites as those around the country shared his same thoughts. There in lies the problem though.

Professional athletes reflect the teams and the league they play for. They are employees and needless to say, their employees (and their followers) do pay attention to what they say. This means that there are lessons to be learned from actions like these for the rest of us.

1.     Think before you Tweet: No matter how angry, upset, heartbroken, excited, or emotional you are, think before you act. Once content lives on the internet, it stays on the internet.

2.    Don’t insult your employer: There is no positive thing which will come out of saying your employer sucks. Not even if they switched from the comfy, high quality toilet paper to the horrible cheap kind, insulting them on a social network only makes you look bad.

3.    Do it in private: If you really need to use Social Media to spread your angry rants, make your profile private. That way people won’t be easily able to see how much you hate Roger Goodell, a random politician, or your freshman year Data professor.

4.    When in doubt, yell it out(loud): If you really aren’t sure if you should post something to your public account, just ask yourself “would I be comfortable saying this out loud in a room with my boss or prospective employer?”

Professional football players and those alike have made the mistakes already and will suffer a marginal fine because of it. Would you really want to risk losing your job though? I can bet you don’t make nearly as much as they do to be so cavalier with your words.

The Art of Being Clever

The Art of being Clever...
and my thoughts about tapping into your inner child to grab people's attention. 

As an advertising photographer I've learned many things. I've learned that the right lighting can make even the most beautiful person look awful. I've learned that cats can be extremely temperamental and will very rarely ever truly cooperate. I've learned to expect the unexpected because everything that can go wrong, will go wrong. And, finally, I've learned that sometimes you have to step back and realize that the best form of advertising can be by making the reader/viewer smile... or by making their day just a little bit better. 

Don't get me wrong, shameless self promotion definitely has its place, as does spamming advertisements and viral marketing. But, personally, I don't always think it's the tried and true ways that are the best. Sometimes you have to think more outside of the box.

Let me give you an example... and you can take it or leave it.

 -the image to the left is from a blog called Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh. I found this blog about two years ago when I first arrived at college. The blog has quite the following, and images like this have been turned into T-shirts or used as an internet meme. 

This style of drawing, which is reminiscent of paint attracts a person to the blog. The blog itself uses these images to support what she is saying and to help with the humor aspect of the blog. 

Now, using humor is an obvious tactic- it makes people laugh, it makes people feel good, and because they feel good, they tend to stay on the page and read more, or come back to it to feel that feeling again.

I'll give you another example...

The image on the right is from a blog called Cat Versus Human. It is another humor blog, but also another wildly successful one. While Hyperbole and a Half does stories and adds images to illustrate certain aspects, Cat Versus Human uses a comic-book like format to tell the story. It's clever, humorous, and people enjoy reading it because it makes them feel good. Both of these blogs have products and market them to their readers, but it's not obnoxious. It's thrown in casually, or sometimes it's not even mentioned. 

Stemming off of that thought brings me to my next. Maybe these blogs are so successful because they don't market themselves to fit some kind of niche. They communicate their messages in a clever way. Both blogs choose to illustrate their concepts in a way that's easily understandable and that most can enjoy without much effort. And... you know... maybe that's best!

Now for my last example... I promise this post will be over soon.

Look! I made this! It's beautiful right? I thought so too...

Not really. This advertisement is mine, I'm not lying about that, but its by far not the best advertisement I've ever seen. My point that I'm trying to make though is that you probably stopped to look at it and read it. Why? Because it looks like it was drawn by an elementary school student, and you probably questioned what was happening.

This advertisement turned out to be quite effective. People looked at it with confusion, but it sparked an interest in what the event was and it got more people to attend the event that we expected. 

So finally... my point. Yay!

Being traditional and following what has worked in the past when it comes to marketing is admirable, but maybe its more effective to push boundaries. 

Making a connection with your consumer in a way that is understandable and makes them feel like they can relate may in fact be better. Why? Well look at the examples I showed. Both are humor blogs, yes, and neither of them are companies, which is true, but they are popular. People purchase the T-shirts and the books because they like the blog. And, if you look carefully, they do advertise on their blogs. But, first, they make that emotional connection with the reader and draw them in.

Do I think companies could follow in that example?...well maybe. Maybe it would be hard for a company blog to appeal to a consumer. Maybe they can't draw like a child to advertise. Maybe it would be an awful idea and I'm completely wrong.

But also, maybe I'm not. Maybe being clever and innovative is what is required to have a higher following/ consumer base. A company is nothing without its consumers, so why not appeal to them and step down to their level? Make them like you. Be clever. The worse that can happen is you learn what not to do. I mean, you only live once, right? 

#YOLO