Facebook vs LinkedIn

Facebook and LinkedIn offer many benefits to users. Since they are two different platforms in terms of their usage and content I try to get the most from them both.

Source: www.smartbrand.es

Facebook is the tool that has facilitated the communication process and I have stronger connections with people there. This is a result of Facebook being a social network platform that encourages people to share more about their personal stories or lifestyles. I believe that is the case with almost all users. Besides that, Facebook has made group meeting arrangement and other communication-related tasks much easier.

On the other hand, LinkedIn is very useful to me because it is a professional network and provides the user with many professional-oriented opportunities. Through the use of LinkedIn and by looking at my connection’s examples, I learned how to better present my CV. Second, there is a great platform to track different companies that are of interest to me and get exposed to job opportunities.

Third, I can join many forums where different topics are discussed and I can become part of them. What is interesting about these forums is that the topics are up-to-date and the members there are professionals from different areas who share real life experience from their businesses. Thus they add more value to the discussion.

Last but not least, what I like about LinkedIn is that many of my connections there share very interesting business, finance, marketing, politics etc. related articles that they do not share on Facebook for example.

Overall, depending on the purpose both Facebook and LinkedIn are valuable to me. What about you? Which online platform offers you the most valuable features?

Celebrity Advertising: past issue or existing trend?

As a mentioned in my last post, this time I would write about celebrity advertising and what is the trend recently related to this issue. One question that is somehow inspired by the recent advertisements is related to the importance of celebrities’ presence in advertisements. Has this importance diminished or is it still on the same level?

My purpose here is not to give a definite answer and I believe that there might not be statistics that support certain conclusions about this topic. I will give some examples and raise some questions in the end, because I believe that it is an interesting topic based on which can be elaborated further discussion.

So far, among the most viral ads for 2014 are videos that human empowerment. This is not the case only with ads that depict social causes or similar issues. Budweiser is an example of a company that relies on the power of horses and dogs to make their ads more appealing. Probably you remember their famous Super Bowl ad “Puppy Love.”

In addition, some of the most successful and viral ads for 2013 feature non-celebrities. I can mention here Evian’s “Baby& me” ad that currently has more than 73 million views. 

Dove is also focusing more on real life issues in their advertising campaigns. This is the case with “Dove Real Beauty Sketches” or “Selfie.” However, there are companies that still rely heavily on celebrity advertising. For example, H&M has recently used two celebrities in its advertising campaigns. The first one is David Beckham as a representative of the Autumn male clothing collection and the other one is Miranda Kerr who is the representative face of H&M’s spring collection.

Source: H&M Twitter profile

While H&M is using this strategy, many other fashion companies especially through the use of social media strategies are trying to encourage user generated content. Companies like Coach are using the power of colorful pictures to make their customers attached to their brand.

Source: "Coach admires the view from above" article

So, my question is: are these recent trends an indicator that celebrity advertising will lose the power it has previously when companies used them even as brand advocates? Will the increased use of social media strategies and the empowerment of user-generated content affect the effectiveness of celebrity advertising? You can share your opinion below. Let me know what you think. J

Human empowerment

Age, happiness, determination were at the heart of this week’s top ads as voted on AdWeek. What is common about these ads is the focus on real life stories and challenges that key protagonists face is their day-to-day lives. Part of the list is “Dear Future Mom”, a beautiful ad to which I dedicated a post last week.

Another ad you probably had the chance to see in social media platforms this week is an inspiring video by Walmart. 'Work Is a Beautiful Thing: Meet Patrick” shows the story of a brave young man that does not give up despite the challenges he faces in life. He beautifully describes struggle and his reaction to them this way: “my whole life people have been telling me that I have a learning disability. I guess they are right, because I never learn how to give up.”

Source: Save the Children UK, official Facebook page

Another thoughtful ad was introduced this week“StephenHawking: I’m giving my voice” by Save the Children UK. This TV ad was launched as part of #SaveSyriasChildren campaign and is an appeal to everyone to contribute for the big cause of helping children in Syria.

Last, but not least “Love Later Life,” an ad by Age UK. This foundation is UK’s largest charity and is devoted to helping people that have challenges in making the most in their later life. Every word said in this ad is a word of wisdom that delivers and strong message “No one can predict what is lying in front, with a future more challenging than ever before, so enjoy the adventure”   

To conclude, I would like to present some questions that are inspired by these ads and some other recent ones. Lately, I have seen many ads that are non-celebrity oriented. And, I do not refer only to ads that promote social causes, but also to ads from big, successful companies like Coke, Schwarzkopf, Budweiser etc. Could this be a sign that companies are shifting towards a different approach with advertising? Is the importance of celebrity advertising diminishing? I will try to give answer to those questions in my next post. J

Dark humor or...?

So far my posts spotted good, interesting, funny and successful ads that have generally created positive buzz. Well, this time I decided to write about an interesting (in its way) advertising campaign. These series of ads will make you wonder “what were these people thinking?” And, by “these people” I refer to both the advertising agency in charge and the company itself that agreed to represent its brand this way.

Source: Burlington France, Facebok page

Burlington Industries is a Greensboro, N.C.-based textile manufacturer that licenses Burlington Socks to legwear maker Kayser-Roth for the U.S. market. In October, they released three promotional ads which were created by the French advertising company Pain Surprises.

Among the three ads, the one titled “Burlington: Can you sock me?” draw more attention. The video features a 7-8 year-old boy who asks his mother “can you sock me?” Many online magazines referred to it as “Disgusting Ad Jokes About Incest, Child Abuse” or “Apparently, Some People Think Child Abuse Jokes Will Sell Socks.”

One of the representatives of Pain Surprises said on an interview that “the ads were created to be spread virally.” The ads did not reach that level of viral success; however the company certainly managed to create some negative buzz via this campaign. AdWeek dedicated a whole article to this campaign under the title “Is This Obscure European Sock Company the World's Worst Advertiser?”

Surprised enough? Oh wait, there is more. The other ad does not fall behind. It features a dying old man in a hospital bed. When the young man (most probably his grandson) ask him if he is going to die, the old man starts weeping. Then, the young man notices the nice socks his grandpa's is wearing. So, he decides to stop grandpa's agony by pulling the plug. Unfortunately, the video is no longer available. Probably, due to the "appropriate" content the company decided to remove it from all online platforms. 

Below you can find the third ad. How far can your imagination go? Well, be prepared, it will exceed your expectations of “a painful surprise.”

So, after watching them you can probably answer my question. Is there anything good about these ads? 

#DearFutureMum

“Saatchi Turns an Email Into a Beautiful Ad for World Down Syndrome Day” was the headline of an article I read on Adweek two days ago. So, I became curious and as I always do, I scrolled down to watch the video without paying much attention to the article’s content. 

After two minutes and 30 seconds (the length of the video) I realized I was in tears. I shared the video on my blog that day and I thought I should dedicate today’s post to this ad, since “beautiful” is too simple a word to describe this video.  I believe it is overwhelming and most importantly sends a powerful message.

Source: CoorDown Official Facebook page 

The agency Saatchi & Saatchi came up with the idea for the video after they were contacted by CoorDown, an association representing people with Down Syndrome in Italy. On February, CoorDown received an email from a mother-to-be who had found out that her baby had this syndrome and shared her fear about the future life of her child.

The video replies to this mother and other mums who continuously ask themselves the same question “What kind of life will my child have?”  The message: Your child will be able to do many things, integrate in the society, and most importantly, he/she will be happy.  

In such cases, when advertising focuses on sensitive causes and delivers powerful messages like this one, it has the power to do something different. It can motivate people and encourage them to think positively. 

Saatchi & Saatchi has cooperated with CoorDown for three years in a row. Click here to go to CoorDown YouTube channel and watch the ads from the previous years. 

Facebook advertises its value

It seems like Facebook, the platform that developed significantly in a short period of time does not have to spend time and money to advertise its services. And that it true! Having more than 1.3 billion active users that perform daily activities on this platform, Facebook does not really have to struggle to attract users, thus they do very little in promoting the site.

However, just to remind us about the idea behind Facebook, the company assigned Wieden + Kennedy to create their latest ad campaign. The campaign consists of three short videos that highlight different lifestyles and how you can achieve things through posting on your Facebook profile.

In one of the videos, “Couch Skis,” the protagonists are a group of young people that get together and experiment couch skiing. On an article on mashable.com they describe this movement as a graduation of Facebook “from chairs to couches.”

On the sequence “Tango”, a benefit from this social platform becomes the center of the video. You want to learn something new? Your Facebook friends can you help you find the right place.

The content of “Runner” is not that different. Striving to motivate yourself and finally take the initiative to implement your plan? The community of friends online is there to give you the inspiration you need.

A common characteristic of the three ads: storytelling without many words. All the videos conclude with the 'like' sign.The message being delivered: Facebook makes good moments in life possible, in just a few clicks. 

February, you got it right

This past month we have seen a variety of advertisements. Besides some of the most impressive heartwarming and bloody Valentine ’s Day ads, this February served a variety of other ads that went viral: hot and cold ones, crazy and funny ones.

One of those was Neuro Sleep TV ad that gained a lot of popularity. Funny, hot and provocative moments delivered by Neil Patrick Harris (the guy that never fails to make you laugh) who sings throughout the whole video to seduce sleep Neuro Sleep drink.

A cute and funny ad was launched by Three, a British mobile network. #SingitKitty campaign features Jolie riding her bicycle and her cat, who sing along to Starship’s 1985 rock song “We Built This City”. The ad become viral mainly in UK. So far it has reached more than 4 million views on YouTube.

Source: Three

Coke also made a good appearance on the social media with two interesting ads about which you can read in an earlier post of mine.

Last, but not least, “Would you help a freezing child?” This is my favorite ad of this month. It is a heartwarming video filmed out in the cold in Norway.  The idea was implemented by SOS Children's Villages charity that placed the 11-year-old boy Johannes on a bench in a bus stop in Oslo. The experiment, designed to see the reaction of strangers to toward the little boy who was not wearing a jacket, was part of the campaign to collect warm winter clothes to be sent to children in Syria. The reactions of people are quite impressive. You can learn more about the campaign by clicking here.

Online data management is easy

Hello friends J

This time I will describe an online niche social network and some of its characteristics, so I hope you will find it useful. Diigo, which stands for “Digest of Internet Information, Groups and Other stuff,” is basically a tool that offers a variety of features that facilitate personal knowledge management. It also has the characteristics of a research tool and knowledge-sharing community. 

Initially, the site was launched as an online bookmarking site, now you can use Diigo.com to: store links, pages, notes, etc. in the Diigo library, highlight text on webpages, add comments to highlights, add sticky notes, save bookmarks and organize them via tags, and also share annotations and bookmarks with the people you want.

Currently, they have 7 million registered users and still counting. The data shows that the site has 183,612 daily visitors and 501,884 page viewers daily. The site can be accessed anywhere; however the majority of their users are located in India, USA and United Kingdom. While the main language used is English, their service is also available in French, German, Chinese and a few other languages.

Source:diigo.com

But how do they generate profit? Diigo.com currently operates on a freemium model, allowing unrestricted bookmarking while charging for the ability to maintain unlimited page caches and screen shots.

The site is very useful especially to people who collect and use a lot of online information. Users have the opportunity to choose between keeping the information personal and making it available to a selected group of people. Among the various features this site offers, I consider Diingo Educator as very helpful. It is like a platform where the teacher creates an account and the students are added to the group. So, everybody can share their research or annotated bookmarks with the classmates. It also works well in case of small group projects.  I think the site is helpful to anyone. 

The only problem is that the services they provide might be a little similar to some other sites; however they constantly launch a new feature or service in order to differentiate and make the user’s experience more satisfactory.