Which, if any, of the social media plans should Foley pursue? Why?
I feel it would be beneficial for Foley to advertise on more than one social media platform in order to promote brand awareness through an integrated marketing communications plan. However, due to the costs of advertising through the suggested media Foley’s management would have to consider a rethink of UnME’s media plan for 2008. I would recommend cutting the budgets for traditional media such as television, print and radio by an average of 5% in order to fund a cross-media advertising campaign which incorporated two of the social media platforms outlined by the agency. This 5% estimate would cover the costs of two of the three social media plans outlined in the case and is quite conservative in comparison to measures taken by other companies such as such as Johnson and Johnson mentioned in the case.
There are benefits to each social media platform so further analysis will be needed to find which is best suited to Foley, taking into consideration the three main issues which Foley herself considered: Which media outlet would be most receptive to her brand story and discussions about the story? Which programs would most seamlessly integrate and support her existing media plan? And most importantly which would have the most positive impact on sales?
Zwinktopia: The main benefit of using the Zwinktopia plan is that its target market (13-24 year old girls) is very closely matched with that of UnME jeans. Similarly one of the site’s main focuses, fashion, makes it a seemingly perfect fit with the UnME Jeans brand. The site is also receptive to the UnME Jeans brand story in that in that a rejection of conformity and peer pressure is promoted in the virtual world as users may be encouraged to try new fashion products with their digital avatar before actually making the physical purchase. (Barnes, 2007)
Foley wondered whether each social media plan would be in keeping with her current plan to “obtain media placements that were consistent with and supported her stylish, cutting edge, and socially conscious fashion brand” I believe Zwinktopia as an advertising medium would be very much in keeping with Foley’s current plan as she can be confident that she is targeting her customer segment in the same way that television ads during Gossip Girl and American Idol or radio ads on top 40 radio stations target a very specific market. Similarly in this case, Zwinktopia’s very specific user demographic of 13-24 year old girls offers an already segmented target market.
Foley’s main concern when choosing a marketing plan was its impact on sales. It may be difficult to generate sales as a direct result of advertising on Zwinktopia due to its largely unproven success rate (at the time the case was written). Apart from 50 cent’s G UNIT clothing line no company has really used Zwinktopia for a marketing campaign. It would therefore be very difficult to carry out significant market research and could prove very risky to deploy an unproven advertising medium at an entry cost of $200,000.
Facebook: The figures associated with Facebook are simply too strong for any company engaging in social media marketing to ignore. Almost 15,000,000 unique visitors in May 2007 and year over year growth of 85% (Steenburgh, Avery 2007) coupled with the user demographic of high school and college students makes it a very inviting platform for Foley to consider. The interactive, friendly and accessible nature of Facebook would mean the brand story of UnME jeans would be well received on the site. Again, Foley’s desire for her chosen social media platform to integrate and support her current media plan would be met if she were to choose Facebook.
The case outlines the different types of advertising available on Facebook allow for targeting of specific customers based on gender, geography, age and interests. Also, Tim O’Reilly of O’Reilly media outlines in the case that the effectiveness of web 2.0 increases with the amount of people who use it through an “architecture of participation”. Facebook’s huge and growing community and high level of interactivity therefore represents a perfect platform to promote the UnME brand.
YouTube: YouTube is a new and innovative platform for companies to target their consumers. The unique method of interaction would offer Foley the opportunity to run a new campaign which is keeping in line her current plan in that techniques which were previously unique to television advertising could now be used to target to consumers at a much lower price. However Foley should be careful when considering this specific marketing plan outlined by the agency.
She needs to consider whether the competition is in keeping with her brand image. While UnME Jeans tries to promote uniqueness and a rejection of conformity this competition may send out the message that certain people’s ideas of uniqueness are better and more fashionable than others. Foley may run the risk of alienating a section of her consumer base by promoting this competition. While YouTube should be considered as a viable platform of social media advertising for UnME Jeans, this specific campaign is unsuitable as it may prove damaging to the brand.
I strongly believe that more than one of the campaigns outlined should be utilized in the interest of creating an integrated marketing communications campaign. Foley should consider running similar, related ads across Zwinktopia and Facebook. When calculating the success of these ads Foley should consider Zwinktopia as a way of promoting brand awareness, interest and interaction while advertising on Facebook should be seen as the best way to impact on sales.
How should Foley measure the results of her social media plans? Which media metrics are best and least suited for a Web 2.0 world?
Online advertising has brought about a new level of measurability which was previously unavailable to marketers. Frequency and reach of an online advertising campaign can be measured through metrics such as clickthroughs and sales conversions. Ads can also be more cost effective online by paying in a system of cost per mille (CPM). While these metrics can also be applied to a social media campaign and may be useful in one sense they may not be truly effective in measuring the success of a social media campaign as they do not take into account the true level of interactivity that a brand has achieved with its consumers, which should be the main purpose of social media advertising. Tuten (2008 pp.159 -167) outlines six steps for marketers to consider when measuring the effectiveness of a social media campaign:
1)Review the objectives set for the campaign
2)Map the components of social media strategy set for the campaign
3)Determine criteria and tools used to assess the level of achievement of the objectives
4)Establish benchmarks with which accomplishments can be compared
5)Propose changes going forward following analysis of campaign effectiveness
6)Keep measuring
As outlined in the case Foley will find it difficult to convince management to fund social media campaigns due to their relatively low level of accountability and measurability. Foley should apply this framework to her chosen social media campaigns and outline the results when seeking funding or qualifying spending. While all steps should be followed I feel that steps 1, 4 and 5 should receive special focus as they are most relevant in Foley’s case. Foley first needs to consider whether objectives set for her current media plan can be applied to her social media plans.
Foley’s first objective with her social media campaigns should be to increase brand awareness and interaction within her target market, this in turn should bring about an increase in traffic to the UnME Jeans website which is measurable through a change in the number of unique visitors to the site following the campaign’s introduction as well as calculating clickthrough traffic as a direct result of the campaign. Once these measurements have been calculated and analysed Foley should emphasize to management and stakeholders the cost effectiveness of this achievement in comparing annual spend for social media campaigns (Facebook and Zwinktopia advertising space would equate to an initial $800,000 which is lower than UnME Jeans’ annual spending on any of the traditional media forms).
In considering step 4 and establishing benchmarks Foley can look at other brands which already have a presence on Facebook and compare, for example, how many fans a competitor’s brand page has and how this affected website traffic and return on sales. The page with the highest number of fans may not necessarily be the most successful in terms of generating a return on investment. It is important to compare how well the page interacts with these fans. Setting benchmarks on Zwinktopia will be much more difficult for Foley due to the fact that there is only one other brand currently running a marketing campaign on the site.
Foley should study the success of this brand but should also consider the effectiveness of brands which have run marketing campaigns in other virtual worlds such as Second Life. Step 5 may be of most importance to Foley when approaching management and stakeholders. As social media marketing is still in its infancy, marketers will need to show than they can be dynamic and change their campaigns to better suit a web 2.0 world. Foley should be prepared to alter her campaigns following consumer feedback and paying particular attention to user generated content.
