Social Media- A New Age Of Extremes....

During the 1990’s, when the Internet hit the interest of western mainstream society, the invention of the new media medium has made distances shorter and the world through global connectivity even smaller. The Internet opened up the possibility to consumers to freely and interactively engage with new forms of the social media medium. A two-way communication process platform was born with the modern technological era that now allowed the consumer to gain and share first-hand information, but also to have more control over the communication process itself. With the fast transformation to interactive technological forms of new media, the traditional forms of old media are currently challenged to keep up with its consumer’s engaging interests.  It seems to be the case that consumers are driven away by social media and spend therefore more time to gather and share information through participating with an interactive media component. That changes have been determined by the advances of new technology and remarkably let to dramatic growth of communication, connectivity and consumerism.

Taking this into account, the proliferation of the Social media and the ease of sharing information online have greatly enhanced the power of media and the advertising industry. Since the consumers are spending much time with certain tools of social media, it has become pretty clear to the advertising industry to quickly establish a leading voice in that powerful market. By doing so, the average American is now exposed to around 3000 advertisements each day and an enormous percentage of that is determined by the invention and constant operation of social media as a new great platform of collaboration, based on two-way communication.

Today’s possibility to surf online and not to come across any form of advertisement is very rare.  For example, even though Facebook (or any other social network) is originally meant to communicate, entertain and connect with people all around the world, it will still remain as a strong standpoint for advertisers to create bespoken brand recognisable adverts. This could be based on a book review from a friend, or a Youtube link featuring the new launched advertising campaign for Nike running shoes, but also a Facebook branded fan page would do the job.  Therefore, social media advertising has not just changed in its sense of cultural belonging, but also transformed the idea of a more expressive way to communicate with its audience. The switch leaves now the consumer behind with less cognition and more sensory orientated heuristics about product and brand recognition.

Huge advantages have been increased for the advertising industry, as they can now reach more closely targeted consumers online, but also they can easily review how consumers feel about promoted product output. Therefore, traceability and predictability, through user-generated media content is easier in order to trace back and also to improve in weaker and critical reviewed areas of the product or service.  As for traditional forms of advertising, it can be more difficult to target the main consumer and it does not always allow to fully engage with its time-consuming and expensive media output. However, it is argued that traditional advertising is more trust worthier from the consumers standpoint, since it is not anonymous and therefore carries a degree of media controlled authority, which also can be seen from a two-sided standpoint.

In consideration to this, gone are the days when power rested in the hands of a few content creators and media distributors. Gone are also the days, when marketers controlled the communication and path between advertisement and consumer.  Today’s model requires a collaborative, collective, customized and shared relationship between consumer and creator. As in today’s world in which the consumer is the creator, consumer and distributor of content.  As this new model of collaborating fears to many advertising marketers, most of them remain still quite, as in not taking advantage of that new model. However, this modern model has a massive impact on enthusiastic social media consumers.

The whole transformation from traditional media to social media advertising is not just a breathtaking step for the industry itself, but also the consumer has to learn to accept its new way of communicating something called ‘persuasive message’ their way. What no one really seems to understand is, that since we adopt our lives on that capitalistic approach, it also has effects on the consumers behaviour experience. Arguably, communication will sooner or later increase more through a vehicle driven by social media instruments. As social media also stands for interactively exchanging ‘infotainment’ online, interactivity might interact the process of persuasion and control and the consumer no longer knows who really is sitting behind a product review, the company promoting themselves as reviewer or just a harmless person providing an insight about a current bought product. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOHN LENNON

Today would have been the 70^th birthday of the famed Beatles star, John Lennon. Imagine how he would have been celebrating his big birthday?  Or what kind of music projects he would fall into now? I don’t know what event is more implausible, his 70^th birthday or the 30^th anniversary where he got gunned down?

Even though, I am from a totally different generation, I have realised what massive impact he had on the music industry. Arguably, John Lennon and his fellow members the Beatles shaped the way music is created today.

With the death of John Lennon, I don’t think there could have been a much more iconic piece of art created by the star photographer Annie Leibovitz. Nothing has been to extreme for her to picture something in the right moment.  Her aim was to immortalise the deep love John and his wife Yoko Ono share for one another.  It not just became a memorial to John Lennon, but also of the vulnerability of human passion.  Just simply WOW......

IKEA is trying the interactive path with its consumers: ‘You Will Always Find Me At The Kitchen At Parties…’ remade by UK group Man Like Me.

The ‘Mother’ agency located in London town are really knowing what there up to. A new 90-second advertising campaign will be launched during Saturday night ‘s X Factor ad breaks on ITV channel. The campaign features a brand new release of Jona Lewie’s hit in 1980, called ‘You’ll Always Find Me At The Kitchen At Parties.’ The up-coming UK band will perform throughout the ad, while dancing through four different designed IKEA kitchen parties surrounded by glamorous people.

Clearly, the ad’s aim is to promote IKEA’s kitchen as a social place for people, no matter what age. It is the fun experience for everyone and a great hub for all parties. Also, it seems that the ad could be experienced as a music clip, fully promoted by IKEA.

For me, the super interesting bit of the campaign starts with the fact, that on Youtube (where it will also be shown) the viewer can interactively experience the ad, but will also be able to roll over items featured in the video clip, which will link the viewer by clicking on them onto the IKEA online shop website. It is a smart idea, especially as this will leave the consumer with a different shopping experience behind.

Here is the Youtube video-clip:

‘Birds Flying High’ Virgin Airline Atlantic launches new advert campaign and strives to evoke James Bond theme.

Richard Branson the owner of the ‘glamorous’ airline Virgin Atlantic goes public with a new US $9.5 million first ever-global cinema and TV advert campaign, to strengthen its recovery from the current recession. The 90 second clip, throws the tagline across the Atlantic, ‘Your airline's either got it or it hasn't", supported is the main tag message with the cultic soundtrack ‘Feeling Good’ by Devon trio.

By watching the clip, the advert will guide the audience into a surreal and metaphorical world, where the viewer can experience how glamorous and special ‘it’ could feel to fly ‘high’ with Virgin Atlantic. The ad does remind the younger targeted audience of a ‘sexy’ music video and its iconic image is well featured by showcasing the unique, young and sexy cabin crews serving style.

It is a pleasure to watch, but still lets wait for the actual experience!

Have a look yourself and ‘feel good’ by watching the clip...

“What happens in Vegas, stays on Facebook”-According to Erik Qualman

I am currently pretty excited about a book called ‘Socialnomics’, written by Erik Qualman in 2009. This book might be interesting for people who are highly impressed by the quick transformation of ‘social media’ and the current impact it has on the economy, society and ‘old media’. Furthermore, it also gives a great and quick insight for people who are stuck with old marketing and media strategies.

The term ‘socialnomics’ is discussed into 260 pages and is filled with case studies to make the current transformation more engaging for the reader on how to approach to its content and of course to develop knowledge with an updated and smart ‘social networking’ marketing strategic background.

Qualman in his piece, mirrors the abnormal and fast growing decade we currently experience from the ‘old media’ into the kind of never-ending transformation of ‘new media revolutionaries’, also known as social media; or talking after Qualman’s vocabulary-'the world of ‘socialnomics’'.

He briefly discusses how the economy and society has changed through the innovation of social media. Moreover, he stresses the fact how the central ‘word of mouth’ channel of communication between social roles, consumerism, marketing strategies and lifestyle has declined ever since. Bearing this in mind, the reaction to that is, that society and the economy is striving ( if not already) to become more reliant on a future of communicating through the new information age, or ‘world of mouth’.

The great part about the book is, that he used various ‘real life examples’ (as I mentioned above) how ‘new media’ revolutionaries, helped companies to approach to its consumers by getting in touch and familiar with diverse forms of feedback, e.g. through blogging or by sharing content in forums and review pages. Taking this into account, the ridiculous advantage is, that most companies can improve their image and product/service by engaging direct with the consumer through the ‘new media medium’.

Personally, I don’t want to get too much into detail, as the topic of ‘social media’ and the transformation between ‘old and new media’ is endless, and probably for the next years the constant quick transformation will remain the same. I believe that sooner or later, we will talk about ‘new media vs. new media’ and the ‘old media’ will disappear from our surface in some way.

Last but not least, I would recommend the book to anyone who is not much familiar with social media at this stage, but don’t think this book will teach you how to improve your business itself. There is always some sort of creativity and interest needed in order to catch a consumer’s attention in the viral world of ‘socialnomics’.

Settling Back Into Reality....

After nearly a four-month thrilling summer break, it is quite exciting settling back into a normal daily routine. However, experiencing the ‘superficial’ celebrity culture in Hollywood, helping my partner to market his photography business and gaining work experience at a retail fashion company, helped me to kind of step up in terms of a life experience. 

At the moment, I a feel a bit overwhelmed with the fact that I actually graduate quite soon with a BA degree in Media, Communications and Cultural studies at Newcastle University next year. However, I am excited of hopefully closing that chapter of being a student and getting more proactive with the 'reality' of becoming a professional in the preferred sector in the advertising world. This year is quite serious, as it is my final year and I have to hand in a dissertation, which counts a fourth of my degree.  

In the near future, I will submit many short articles about the progress of my dissertation, but also about my constant interest in the ever-changing world of the media.

I hope by writing a blog, that it will help me to accompany the media world from a critical point of view, but also to enhance my writing style.