Like most people my age, I spend a decent amount of my time scrolling and interacting with others through social media. My platforms of choice are Snapchat and Instagram, in that order. On average, I spend about two hours on Snapchat and an hour on Instagram a day. This time does not take into account the time I have spent on these apps since entering quarantine. From my time within these apps, I have noticed a few trends that seem to be popular among users.

First, younger users tend to find long messages way to inconvenient and become ignored. A rule I learned in MC 2010, the class on news writing, is that 25 words is the max amount of words for a title, any more than that and people become overwhelmed. I used to think that rule could be applied to print advertising. Now I believe the shorter the better.

When I am using social media and happen across an ad, I find that I am more likely to read it and pay attention to it, if the message is short and to the point. I think the max amount of words younger generations will pay attention to is 15. It does not sound like much, and that is because it is not. With technology at our fingertips, we have developed shorter attention spans.

Second, people who use these platforms do not appreciate ads, especially ads that look like ads. It becomes annoying when you are trying to relax, scrolling through your Instagram feed, and you are hit with an obvious ad. It’s frustrating to go from being entertained, to once again having an ad unexpectedly pop up within your feed. Sure, you can scroll past them, but most times being forced to see an advertisement leaves a sour taste in your mouth.

As an interesting way to combat this problem, Instagram has incorporated their ads to look like other content being posted on the cite. It makes distinguishing ads from other content a little harder, but it also makes enjoying the ad a little more fun. For example, when Amazon released its super bowl ad starring Ellen, they released the ad on Instagram. While scrolling through my feed, I noticed it was a video, but it took longer than normal for me to realize that it was an ad. I was not even mad that I watched the ad because it did not ruin my experience like ads usually did on Instagram.

Speaking of ads that ruin an experience, there are two types of ads that can ruin anyone’s day the second they are noticed: ads that you are forced to watch and ads that look very fake.

Youth’s of today are so used to technology and what it can do. We are a smart generation, so when things look fake, we really do not like it. We are not asking for over the top ads with everything but the kitchen sink, we are simply looking for quality. We want things that are pretty to look at, things that inspire us, things that make us want to discuss them for days to come. It becomes really frustrating when it feels like I have to look at an ad that was made by a high school student who had a budget of ten dollars and their iPhone. Even if the ad is simple, it should at least look like it was the creators most important job.

Finally, the most frustrating thing about ads is being forced to sit through ads. In the past, the only platform that made you sit through an ad was YouTube. Now, Snapchat has implemented ads that you cannot skip. To be fair, Snapchat only shows ads when you browse people’s stories and most times you are allowed to skip them. But, every so often there is an ad that you are forced to sit through. Don’t get me wrong, the ads are relatively short, about five seconds, but being forced to sit through any ad is really frustrating. It’s like when you are a kid and you decide to do a chore and, on your way, to do that chore someone tells you to do said chore and now you want to do anything but that chore. Except, you are being forced to watch a very boring ad, and more times than not, you never finish whatever you were watching just so you can avoid the ad.

I think key points to learn from social media is that ads cannot have a lot of copy, they need to look natural within their setting, they need to have great execution, and nobody should be forced to look at the ad.

Morgan Palmer

Prof. Goodwin

MC 3031

31 March 2019

Coke launched its “Share a Coke campaign during the summer of 2014. The campaign sparked such a great reaction from people across the world, leading Coke to make the campaign an annual thing, while also making it bigger and better than the year before. In my opinion, they really hit the mark with their 2018 “Share a Coke.”

One of the main differences between this version of “Share a Coke” and any other version is that it was created based off of the reactions from consumers the summer before. With the 2017 release of the campaign, the use of a new hashtag, #shareacoke, lead to the company realizing that people did not just care about being able to find their names on the bottle of a coke label, but also loved sharing the memories it brought them. Seeing this reaction, Coke decided to make the names on their plastic bottles removable stickers so that people could bring their name with them wherever they went. What made the campaign even more unique from the previous summers was an added contest. Once a consumer removed their sticker from their bottle, they could scan or input a code into the Share a Coke website for a chance to win a prize. Prizes ranged from receiving a free coke to winning tickets to an amusement park or even baseball games.

Another new feature Coke released on the Share a Coke website was the ability to order personalized bottles and social postcards that could be shared with family and friends. The personalized bottles allowed for up to two lines of personalized text. This new feature could be used to personalize things for weddings, birthday presents, Christmas presents, or just the occasional, “I’m thinking about you,” present. Speaking from personal experience, I find this feature to be very successful as my uncle, who lives on the other side of the country, has been able to share Coke bottles personalized with the LSU Tiger logo, making a great impact in my day.

One of the more unique ways Coke tied into the idea of memories being just as important as the drink was the use of the Coke chair, which was released in Los Angeles and in the Coke Factory Headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. This chair also served as a functional vending machine that only dispensed drinks when two people sat on the chair at the same time. The drinks that were dispended were personalized and once the participants received their drinks, their pictures would be taken so they could remember the moment forever.

Finally, Coke also released their television ads which focused on teens and young adults, their target audience, making bonds through sharing a Coke. Their videos mostly featured people at parties, creating memories by sharing a coke. One video in particular showed a man and presumably his son on a train, sitting in silence. When the son reaches for the coke, the father takes the coke away from him and shows him a label that reads, “friends.” The son does something on his phone, and a message pops up on the father’s phone that reads, “friend request accepted.” Then the son enjoys the drink. This video portrays a very cute and memorable moment between father and son.

I find that this ad campaign is a very successful one. Not only is it one of the most talked about and anticipated campaigns, it also does what it sets out to do. Personally, I have many memories of my mom, brother, and sister constantly sticking the removable stickers wherever they could the entire summer of 2018. I find that this campaign doesn’t have a shelf life since everyone loves to make memories, and many people do make memories with the shareable cokes.

Examples from the campaign:

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE Integrated marketing- Dove- My Beauty my Say For Dove’s my beauty my say, dove recruited thousands of people around the globe to describe how people were defined by their looks. Dove then used real women in interview format talking about how the world defined them. One person interviewed was a boxer who was told she was to pretty to fight. The goal of the campaign was to unite woman of all different backgrounds with the same goal of defying beauty stereotypes. Dove compiled these interviews to create a tv ad. After the ad launched, the hashtag, #mybeautymysay became popular across all social media with different women and even some men sharing how they were defined by their looks. Dove then posted a tweet that read, “Dear media, when you focus on an athlete’s looks, you don’t see her at all.” This tweet pushed the campaign even further. I think it would be cool to add a guerrilla ad to bus stations that showed the reflection of the person at the bus station, just as they are, with words like “beautiful,” or, “you are beautiful,” or even the campaign hashtag to carry on the trend of accepting that no matter what you are beautiful.

I’m sorry, the only way I could upload my ad was to take a screenshot of it.

Before watching this ted talk, I was aware that in social situations, if I felt uncomfortable, I would sit closed off, legs crossed, arms held in, making myself as small as possible. I also knew that when it comes to presenting front of people I tend to do the same thing. I cross my arms over my body, shoulders slightly slumped, and never making eye contact. In these moments I always felt powerless to the situation and people around me. I am also aware that when I do feel comfortable, I do become more open and feel like I have power. From this talk, I think I need to be more aware of my body language, because it does impact me so much. I need to learn to keep my shoulders strong, posture open, and even stronger eye contact. I am a firm believer in the power stance because I know it works but I never practice it myself, even though I know I should. I know I have power, but I let my body influence the amount of power I feel I have control of, and that needs to change.

Strategy is how you want to execute your concept
Concept is what you want to emphasize or show about your product.

Strategy for Hydro Flask:
The brand likes to focus on unique and relaxing experiences, heating and cooling technology, and their durabilty. The feel of the brand is a boho calming vibe, so I think it best to use lifestyle advertising, slice of life, and maybe demonstrations, but steer clear of humor, as that does not seem to fit the brand.

In terms of concepts, I think focusing on a family on a camping trip sharing drinks around a fireplace would be a cute and unique way to show the relaxing atmosphere of the brand.
Another concept would be to show a group of people or a couple on a hike and they are cold, but the drink in their cup is very hot or vice versa with the people being very hot and their drink being cold.

The brand also loves to focus on nature so just showcasing someone on some kind of outdoor adventure using a bottle would be cool.

Integrated marketing- Old Spice

For Old Spice’s “Smell Like a Man” campaign, Old Spice released a commercial and within one day the ad became very popular.

Later, Old Spice brought their campaign to social media by letting customers submit questions to the “Old Spice Guy.”

Over two thousand responses and 48 hours later, two hundred response videos were posted to Youtube, creating more buzz for Old Spice.

To keep the buzz going, Old Spice could have taken the question and responses and made new commercials or it could have been cool to make a commercial using a celebrity, like Ellen, talking about how great the Old Spice campaign was.

Over the last few days I decided I would collect secrets from different people. The first thing I noticed when I would ask people to share a secret was that everyone would say, “Secret? I don’t have secrets, I’m an open book.” It was once i clarafied my question that a conversation would begin.

My question: “Would you share a secret with me?”

My question clarified: “Would you share a cute secret you kept as a child, or you do something you hate because someone you love, loves it.”

Once I clarified my question, every person I asked would smile in contemplation, remembering the things they did as a child or did for the people they loved.

Some of the secrets I received:

• When I was younger, I was sitting in the middle of a yurt, eating ice cream. While I was eating my ice cream, I lightly touched the pole in the middle of the yurt. After a few minutes, one of the guides told us not to touch the pole because the people believed you would get seven years of bad luck if you touched it. Everyone began laughing, but not me. I didn’t tell anyone, but I don’t have the bad luck anymore.
• When I was in daycare, I wanted to play at the play dough table but there were no chairs. My little brain thought the best thing to do was to take a handful of play dough. The whole day I held it in my hand. When I left to go to dancing, I didn’t know what to do so I just took it with me. When I got home, I thought I was a criminal for stealing the play dough and through it under the bed. Several years later, my mom found it under my bed, and laughed when I told her what happened.
• When I was younger, my older brother and his friend had left to go to a party. A few hours later, my brother drunkenly called me to unlock the window in the second floor bathroom so they could sneak in. I didn’t know his friend was with him, and he was kind of cute, and I was standing their in my pjs watching them climb through the window. I helped them to his room, and helped them make places for them to sleep. As I was going back to bed, my brother sat on my bed and drunkenly said, “you are the best sister ever, i love you so much.” He kissed my forehead and then left. The next morning, they both got in trouble with my mom but neither one of them told her I helped them sneak in.
• For about two weeks in the third grade I would take money from my mom’s purse while she was in the shower. I would use the money to buy candy.
• Senior year of high school. my friends and I accidentally started a tradition of putting our used utensils in the locker of this kid we didn’t really like. He never used it. By the end of the year, there were so many spoons and forks, we could barely open the locker door without them all spilling out.
• My elementary school was built like a long hallway, with classrooms on each side of the hallway. In the middle of summer, my friend and I were riding our bikes and we saw that the doors to the school were opened. We assumed the school was empty so we rode our bikes from one end of the school to the other. It wasn’t until the first day of school that a janitor confronted me and told me he saw us riding our bikes. I never told my parents.
• My freshman year of high school, as my friend and I were parking, two of our friends drove up to us and told us to skip school with them. We looked at each other and decided to go. We drove to our friends house and each of us took a turn calling the school and pretended to be the other’s parent so we wouldn’t get into trouble. I don’t know if my mom knows or not.
• Sometimes I tell my mom “I’m sorry,” even when I am not sorry.
• When I was younger, I took my brother’s fish out of the tank to take it on a walk. Once I realized he died, I just put him back. My brother cried for a whole day and I never told him it was me.
• While I was at work, I made a batch of coffee but it was too weak for me so I put more coffee grinds in the machine and just used the weak coffee instead of water. Apparently you aren’t supposed to do that. My boss sent out an email a week later asking who did it and I just pretended it wasn’t me.
• For my accounting class, we were required to print all of the notes and bring them to class. My teacher would send several chapters out at once and while I was at work I decided to print them out. I printed over 50 pages of notes in color. After my boss received the bill for the printer, he asked who was printing in so much color. I didn’t say anything and now there are restrictions on color printing.
• I have this one coworker who I can’t stand. When he left for vacation, he asked if I could cat sit for him, and I did. While cat sitting, I invited all of my coworkers to party at his house. We drank his alcohol and one friend even spent the night. My coworker never found out.
• As a kid, I used to be afraid of closed doors. I thought if a door closed and I opened it I would be teleported to a different place, like “Monsters Inc.” It was the worst in the bathroom, I was scared I’d be teleported with only my pjs. I’m fine now.
• Over the summer, I went on a study abroad trip. It was the first time I was away from my boyfriend and I learned that he was controlling and that I didn’t really love him. I decided I would break up with him after I got back from my trip. During my studies I started liking another guy and kissed him before breaking up with my boyfriend. Is that considered cheating?

You can learn a lot about someone when asking them for details of their lives they might have never shared with anyone. What I have found about sharing secrets is that it starts a conversation. After asking people their secret, they began reminiscing about things they have done in the past, smiling, laughing, and usually remembering more secrets, moments of embarrassment, stupidity, and love.

Trends are never concrete, they come and they go. But, trends also last forever, resurfacing after decades of being gone. A trend that became popular around the 1990s was the use of Scrunchies. Scrunchies are ponytails covered in different fabrics to add a little sass when wearing your hair up.

As time passed, the scrunchy began to disappear. It wasn’t until the 2010s that scrunchies made an amazing return to society. Though the idea of the scrunchy didn’t change, they did evolve. Soon, we were seeing scrunchies with bows, ribbons, sequins and so much more.

Even though the trend hit the usual time mark to begin their decent out of the lime light, the scrunchy grew bigger. The scrunchy became a staple. There became a trend of having a scrunchy that could match any outfit for any occasion. They became fancier, they became cuter, they had a variety of sizes.

The scrunchy trend is still at an incline, though it now represents so much more than just a hair accessory. Due to Millennials and Gen-Z’s excessive use of social media, the Vsco girl was born. The Vsco girl is a girl who dresses with over-sized t-shirts, chunky shoes, a hydro flask, and the staple scrunchy.

The Vsco girl trend has given a new life to the scrunchy, meaning it should not disappear for a long time. I find this is great news, as scrunchy are indeed the best accessory to wear in your hair, or on your wrist.