Farewell? NOT!

I really hope this is not going to be the final entry for this blog. Before starting to write this blog, I already forgot the good old days writing blogs when I was still in Junior High school. Life is getting busier as we grow up, blogs become something like "luxury". 

I was writing blogs for leisure purpose, also to express my feelings as well. 

After writing this blog for this course, I think my purpose changes a bit. It's wrong to say we do this because we are actually required to work on the blog. Because we have fun to and it is a very interesting new way to share your thoughts and gain knowledge from others through commenting each other blogs. 

So far, I have written about how Facebook works, marketing campaign, hyperlinks, collaboration, social media and travel and some thoughts.

I was always interested in the new media, especially in the social media field. Not because of academic reasons but out of interest too. I keep reading different researches about the usage of social media and of course I explore a bit myself as well ;) Writing this blog gives me a pretty good reason to continue doing the researches, what is most important is I can share my thoughts and conclusions. The best part of this blog community is my schoolmates are sort of  forced to look at my post entries and "absorb" the knowledge :P 

I am really grateful to work on this blog, I do have a much better concept about writing for new media and fun too! 

If I have to choose one post that I think it's the best, I would choose http://en4166jen.blogspot.hk/2012/10/chapter-41-online-collaboration-projects.html
http://en4166jen.blogspot.hk/2012/10/chapter-42-online-collaboration.html

They are actually one post but breaks into two parts, the reasons why this is chosen because it is more meaningful! To me and to the rest of the world that we have to stop hate! To use social media in a good way. It also includes a lot of referencing to YouTube clips and website, including the pledge part. 
So I hope all of you enjoy this post as much as I do!

Here are some of the comments I posted on others' blogshttp://en4166clare.blogspot.hk/2012/10/lol.html#comment-form
http://toy4media.blogspot.hk/2012/09/we-can-do-something-more-meaningful.html#comment-form
http://en4166tiffany.blogspot.hk/2012/09/my-digital-life-and-more.html#comment-form
http://jessicatse.blogspot.hk/2012/09/my-digital-life.html#comment-form
http://livinginnewmediaera.blogspot.hk/2012/09/urban-dictionary-collaborative.html#comment-form

this is not a farewell! Be prepare for a comeback!;)

See you all soon :D

Jennie   

Read More

The Finale - Social Media and Casinos

This is the last post but there will be some new posts after this. Believe it or not, this is not the end but another beginning of a blog with some exciting content!! I was thinking to end this blog before but now I am quite sure I will continue. This blogging experience became an interesting way of sharing thoughts and life. So stay tuned, I will still see you guys! :)

Remember I talked about the Macao trip? I went there for a vacation :D
There are some photos taken during the journey :D

So the main point wasn't about showing the photos. But actually when I was in Macao, I was surrounded by a lot of casinos. Which is also related to Social Media! I was shocked about how they promote their casinos by using social media. 

We are going to take a look at some the casinos social media pages. 

First take a look at the pages of Sands Cotai central and Venetian Macao

What is the first thing you found out? 

YES the number of likes of Venetian Macao is ten times more than that of Sands Cotai Central. That reminds me of the French beauty brand L'Oreal, many mistaken that the brand is part of a bigger beauty group but the truth is L'Oreal is the big beauty group that includes renowned beauty brands like Shu Uemura, Biotherm and Giorgio Armani.

Let me also provide some background information about the casinos. Las Vegas Sands group is from the United States and started its business in Las Vegas while the group first put The Venetian in Macao. Las Vegas Sands was trying its luck in Macao, later Sands casino is built too. About a year ago, Sands Cotai Central was opened in Macao. The social media page of Sands Macao is not as developed as the Venetian one. 

You can also compare with the pages for the casinos in Las Vegas: 

Venetian Las Vegas

Las Vegas Sands

Surprisingly, even the facebook page for Las Vegas Sands has way less likes than The Venetian. 

I was thinking why would a group promote its brands more than its group alone?

If anyone have any thoughts, please let me know by posting your response at the comments area? :D 

Read More

Chapter 4.2: Online Collaboration Projects - mean stinks

Coming next, you will see the video for a campaign called "mean stinks" by Leo Burnett Worldwide (The company that work on this campaign for P&G)
Watch it carefully and get some ideas of what the campaign is about :D

In this case, the campaign work so well in changing life and branding of P&G of course. P&G has been accusing for all the inhumane animal testing in the last decade. This time the campaign brings some positive pulses to the brand! 

Besides, girls start to confess their wrong doings on the website and find the people they have bullied in the past and apologize to them on Facebook. 

Bullying problems has been serious in the states for many years, a lot of kids suffer from the bully and many cause them to commit suicide. To be honest, even I have never bully anyone but I didn't stop them from happening in the past. Later, I realize, not stopping is actually helping the bullies to continue. This campaign is going to help to stop the bully, stop the gossips. Sufferer can feel better when the bullyer apologize to them! Bullyers can feel less guilty by letting go their feelings and apologize to the sufferers. 

You can look at this video! It is a collage of some of the students posting on mean stinks website! And it really tear me up! Even bullying problems may not be that serious in Hong Kong here! I hope everyone can make a difference and not being mean to others! :D

 

The good thing for P&G is they didn't stop the campaign after the success of boosting sales. They said "We won't stop until we finished what we started" They continued the campaign to help the community!
Here's a video from last week! The new ambassador for mean stinks - teen pop singer Demi Lovato

I really love the idea of collaboration projects!! Sometimes it can be really meaningful and help make a difference. I like it when it is entertaining, maybe a funny video or so but most importantly we can work together to help make a change in a world that we share! :D Be Nice!

Lastly, I would like you all to listen to a song by Rise Against. It is called make it stop and it's about ending bullying! 

Have a refreshing day and new blog posts are coming soon!

Jennie <3 

Read More

Chapter 4.1: Online Collaboration Projects

Dear all, Sorry It has been awhile after the last post! I wanted to share something else after this post! Something during the long break! ;) So stay tuned for it! 

For the sad tragedy of last week, once again I wish all the passed away rest in peace and all the injured get well soon.

Back to our topic! This week I am going to show you some examples of collaborative project! In Chapter 4.1 I am going to show you the "it gets better" project

I once found this out project because one of my favorite pop singers Adam Lambert posted on his twitter. It was this video below of him talking about the project and how we can help make a difference by joining this campaign. The campaign is about helping to fight against any bullying to LGBT kids, and what we do can help to prevent the suicide of LGBT kids because of the bullying from other people. To help make a difference, support them to be proud of their identity and be who they are!

I was touched by the video at the moment, even I am not part of the LGBT
(If all of you don't know already, it represents Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) group

I was thinking even I cannot do a lot for the community, because it all started in America and I was in Hong Kong, which is quite far to reach. But why not? Why not just try to join the campaign? I started sharing about the project and post them on facebook and twitter. Ask all of friends to join the project and ask them to spread the words as well.

The project is very effective, more people joining the project. Not only the general public but also some famous public figure like President Obama, Hilary Clinton. Designer Michael Kors, speakers from The World Bank and United States Senate.

People start posting their thoughts and video response to the website, the videos are grouped into lists for the same category just like the photos below.

The benefit for collaboration work is everyone gets involved and are willing to share their work to everyone, it helps spread the words and get more people involved in the end. Online collaboration project works very well for global issues because internet has no boundaries, you don't need to travel to another country to share the news. For instance, you can post your thoughts and videos on this blog and share to everyone in the rest of the world. No cost, no time difference, this is also the most beneficial point of using the new media.

I hope this is not a long post for all of you, and if you have time and interested to get involved, do your pledge on www.itgetsbetter.org 

Most Importantly, Be PROUD of who you are! After all no one should judge you!
Cheers
Jennie

Read More

Day of mourning

Today, 04.10.2012 is the day of mourning for Hong Kong
Let us pray for the injured and may the dead rest in peace.

Read More

Chapter 3.2: "Video goes viral" Cadbury's Gorilla & Analysis

Welcome back, Still talking about viral videos!
Before we start, let's look at the photos below and refresh our memory of the videos!!

Yes! It's the viral marketing campaign by Cadbury's Gorilla. Let's look at the video now and also the numbers related to this marketing campaign!

• The 90-second advertisement  
• 500,000 page views in YouTube for the first week 
• Shown in 850 cinemas across Canada in November 2007
• 70 Facebook groups appreciating the ad have been set up
• Cadbury reported that sales of Dairy Milk had increased 9% from the same period in 2006

The numbers speak for themselves, the marketing campaign was very successful. But when we compare with the Burger King Freakout campaign, it was not as remarkable as the Burger King's one in terms of the boosting of sales. Why?

In terms of advertising strategies, we can analyse both of the advertisements in different aspects. 

The first one is whether the advertisement is attractive? The Burger King advertisement makes use of the hidden cameras and show the angers of customers, in this way audience find it hilarious and interesting for looking into others' reaction. However for the Cadbury's Gorilla, it makes use of the intertextuality elements. The Gorilla in Cadbury's advertisement is the main character from the Planet of the Apes (2001 film). It is more remarkable to the audience as most of them have seen the movie before. So that makes it more interesting to watch the advertisement, Gorilla in the advertisement is cool and funny, unlike the one in Planet of the Apes which is fierce and horrible. This makes it interesting for the audience to share on Facebook and makes it viral in the end. 

The second aspect is the recall of the brand name, for burger king one, the words "Whooper" and "Burger King" are always mentioned in the advertisement. Hence, the recall of the brand - Burger King is quite well done for this advertisement. 

While for the Cadbury's one, you can only see the brand name from the start and till the end of the advertisement. Most people only recall the Gorilla and its relations with the 2001 movie Planet of the Apes. When audience cannot recall the brand, no matter how good the call to action part is done, this can hardly push the audience to purchase the product. This is one of the reasons why Cadbury's advertisement is not too successful for boosting the sales. 

The last aspect is comparison with other brands. For Whooper Freakout two, Whooper burger is replaced by its competitors Wendy's and McDonald's burgers. But people refuse to have other brands instead of Whooper burgers. This makes Whooper more stands out for its importance to the audience. For Cadbury's one, no comparison with other brands, no mentioning of the brand throughout the advertisement either. 

Of course, this is only a very general analysis by observation, a detailed analysis included statistics, recorded reaction of audience and other analysis. 

I hope this gives you a brief idea of how viral marketing works nowadays! 

Thanks for reading! See you next time 

Jennie <3

Read More

Chapter 3.1: "Video goes viral" - Burger King Marketing Campaigns

(Disclaimer) Many people asked if the chapters are separated topics. To make it clear, for example, chapter 2.1 and 2.2 are of the same topic. Frankly speaking, for online communication, long posts do not work well. That is why I deliberately cut them into several posts. So feel free to read all the posts of one topic or just choose the one you are interested in. 

This week, we are going to talk about some videos that go viral in human history. During the class, I have shown a video about the Whooper Freakout but I do not have much time to explain the whole campaign in front of the class.
This is actually a marketing campaign of Burger King during 2007 - 2009. It may seems a bit outdated to talk about it in 2012 but it's not. The marketing campaign was very successful in terms of brand building, numerous promotions and the boost in sales. 

According to Advertising Age, The campaign website, WhopperFreakout.com, got 250,000 unique visitors in December 2007. Consumer-generated YouTube imitations were numerous. More important, the work also drove double-digit sales for the Whopper sandwich.

It works so well, not only people shared the above video crazily. People also created their own parodies responding to the Whooper Freakout commercial.
Generated numerous media attention, Burger King was trying to prove people do not realize how much they like something unless it is taken away from them.
It worked so well, the sales of Whooper raised but even so the campaign was not over.

In 2009, after the Whooper Freakout Campaign is ended. The new campaign called the Whopper Sacrifice - Would you delete ten friends for a Whooper?
This seems very controversial but new, Facebook is part of the campaign as well this time. People are all trying to delete their friends before others delete them. Ten friends for a burger, it was equally successful! Check the case study of the video below!

I will continue to talk about other examples for viral marketing :D

stay tuned and I will see you guys next time!

Jennie <3

Read More