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Saying Goodbye to Vine: 5 Times Marketers got it Right

Twitter announced last week that it will be shutting down its much loved 6 second video app Vine over the coming months. Vine was purchased by the company back in 2012 for a reported $30 million.
The shock announcement, which sent fans into a frenzy, also came in the wake of the news that Twitter is cutting its workforce by 9%. Twitter has not given a reason for the job cuts, however the company has reportedly been struggling to find a new buyer, leading to speculation of a possible company revamp in order to attract potential investors.

Despite no longer being able to use the mobile app, both Twitter and Vine have released a statement assuring fans that existing content will not be removed from the website. “We’ll be keeping the website online because we think it’s important to still be able to watch all the incredible Vines that have been made. “You will be notified before we make any changes to the app or website.”

Whilst Vine was well known for showcasing upcoming stars and comical content, the app also managed to attract the attention of some of the biggest brands in the world, with companies such as Sony and Adidas quickly realising the apps marketing potential.

With this is mind, we take a look back at some of the best marketing vines created in the last 4 years:

 

1.Oreo

Views/loops:243,236

https://vine.co/v/Mhln0j7IHJH

 

2.Dunkin Donuts

Views/Loops:29,643

https://vine.co/v/Mu3PQBPLdXe

 

3.The White House

Views/Loops:3,106,705

https://vine.co/v/O9TEhID2O2U

 

4.Smart Car

Views/Loops: 9,421

https://vine.co/v/O0MHinm6OL1

 

5.Marmite

Views/Loops: 1,056,024

https://vine.co/v/im3PDpevE0n

 

Marketing aside, here are the most popular vines:

 

1.A football fan captures the moment a bomb can be heard going off from inside the stadium during the November Paris attacks.

Views/loops:715,565,925

https://vine.co/v/iBb2x00UVlv

 

2. Leonardo Dicaprio pulls a funny face as Lady Gaga walks past at the Golden Globes.

Views/Loops:114,584,845

https://vine.co/v/iMAHYTw00bH

3. A little boy gets a surprise when a rotating foam stick picks him up.

Views/Loops: 95,820,686

https://vine.co/v/e6nLQQuYJPn

 

4. A toddler pretends to be excited about his avocado present.

Views/Loops:119,339,261

https://vine.co/v/ewJP7Mh0A1V

 

5. A dog pretends to be a human.

Views/Loops:24,282,342

https://vine.co/v/b623zdwVuJB

 

 

 

 

Technology shifts and their impact on content marketers

technology
 

 

 

 

 

 

With technology continually evolving, content marketers need to ensure that they stay on top of the trends and technologies that will influence their audiences and marketing channels going forward. With this in mind, we take a look at some of the emerging technologies that are shaping the world of marketing this year. Is your business on top of them?

Social purchasing

Social purchasing has been a growing trend over the last few years. It involves consumers being able to purchase products and services direct from an organisation’s social media channel, rather than their website.

Facebook have lead the way with social purchasing, through their Facebook ads, but other social media channels, such as Pinterest, with their buyable pins (where consumers are able to buy products straight from the network without leaving the page) have supported them. According to a study by Deloitte, 47% of millennials say their purchases are influenced by social media, indicating social purchasing opportunities are only going to increase. Businesses that have to-date ignored social media marketing, could be missing out on a trick!

As you might expect, social media is the most popular marketing channel for marketers looking to share content and build an audience. With the rise of social purchasing, it does raise the interesting question of is this the beginning of the end for the traditional business website?

Live streaming

Streaming live video has become a growing trend, with apps like Meerkat, Twitch and Periscope appearing more frequently on our smart phones. Even mainstream social apps like Facebook have adopted their own live streaming features, and users are beginning to demand new ‘in-the-moment’ content, rather than pre-scheduled.

This could put a heavy burden on businesses large and small. Even large organisations, like Red Bull and Home Depot in the States, who rely heavily on video content to engage with their consumers, will be challenged to come up with genuinely engaging ‘in-the-moment’ content. It will be particularly interesting to see how video leader, YouTube, will respond to the growing trend, with their platform currently set up to deliver pre-recorded rather than live video.

Live streaming also offers opportunities for SMEs looking for closer engagement with their target audiences. It is important that marketers in smaller businesses don’t discount this exciting medium. It is not all about the big brands!

Mobile usage

Mobile messaging apps are beginning to transform the way consumers interact with brands, and Facebook is once again at the forefront of this trend. In March 2015, Facebook announced their partnership with Dutch airline KLM, giving KLM passengers the ability to access booking confirmations and boarding passes via their smartphone.

The practice of carrying out transactions through messaging apps is already expanding in China, where consumers are moving rapidly towards mobile purchasing, and away from online purchasing. The rapid rise of mobile purchasing will force businesses that offer an online-only service to adapt and evolve.

The dramatic growth of mobile usage and the rise of the smartphone is heralding the slow demise of traditional PCs and computers. For a long time, laptops and desktops were the preferred choice of consumers for researching and purchasing, but now the tables have turned. With the advent of 4G and Wi-Fi becoming ever more ubiquitous, amongst us in shops, cafes, restaurants and even banks, smartphones are becoming our primary means of running our lives. From a content marketers perspective, ensuring your content can be easily accessed on a mobile device is now a must.

If you are involved in content marketing and aren’t considering the impact of these and other technological developments on your strategy, you’ll be missing out on some very exciting opportunities.

An insight into Britain’s coolest brand

Last month, CoolBrands released a list of what they described as an electric collection of some of the coolest brands in Britain.  Since 2001, CoolBrands have been canvasing the opinions of consumers and industry insiders about the coolest products, places and people in the UK; ranking brands on their originality, authenticity, desirability, uniqueness, style and innovation.
CoolBrands, with the help of 3,000 voters and their expert panel, crowned tech giant Apple as the winner, beating car maker Aston Martin to the top spot for the first time in six years.  Unlike previous years, almost half of the list is made up of technology and media brands, with a record number of online brands featured in the top 20.

“It is interesting that in this age of austerity, our perception of cool has increasingly shifted from aspirational, luxury brands to free or more affordable brands that provide us with pleasure,” said Stephen Cheliotis, chairman of the CoolBrands expert council.

So what makes Apple a cool brand? How can we learn from this organisation and how have they been responsible for the shift in consumer behaviour and what we consider as ‘cool’?

January 1977, Apple’s advisor Mike Markkula, assembled a 3-point marketing philosophy. After thirty-five years, this philosophy remains

  1. Empathy – We will truly understand their (customer) needs better than any other company.
  2. Focus – In order to do a good job of the things we decide to do, we must eliminate all of the unimportant opportunities.
  3. Impute – People DO judge a book by its cover. We may have the best product, the highest quality, the most useful software, etc.; if we present them in a slipshod manner, they will be perceived as slipshod; if we present them in a creative, professional manner, we will impute the desired qualities.

Apple is aware that customers may be limited to thinking only in terms of what they know, instead of what is possible. Apple thinks about the customer experience more deeply than the customer could. For any product that Apple creates, the people who create it have to want it themselves.  The engineers make them for themselves and the end product has to be something that they personally couldn’t live without.

Apple understands that whatever product they create, their consumer may need hand holding.  When you go into an Apple store and are greeted by one of the sales staff, you’re not asked, “How can I help you?” Instead they ask, “What would you like to do today?” They go straight to the heart of the consumer’s question, a question that’s always related to what they want to do with the technology, not about the technology itself.

 While beautiful design is a critical component of any product Apple makes, but if it is not easy to use, it is considered worthless to the consumer. As technology has become more intricate and users want more features, the task of keeping things simple is sometimes difficult. It’s often rare to find a company creating something where ease of use is more important than the product itself. Apple makes this a critical goal when creating anything for the market.

The replication of these core values in your organisation may seem daunting. Apple are a global corporation, renowned for delivering great software, industrial design and powerful content; such as apps and services. However, knowing your consumer, developing your product and providing great service are all key factors any business of any size can implement.  By sticking to their core values and devising a business model that creates ongoing customer value, Apple has been able to directly influence what we as a society consider ‘cool’. Importantly, aspirationally, Apple’s products are attainable for most aspects of society. 55% of the UK population are now predicted to own and use a Smartphone, what percentage of the population own an Aston Martin?

The full list of this year’s Top 20 ‘coolest’ brands is below:

  1. Apple
  2. YouTube
  3. Aston Martin
  4. Twitter
  5. Google
  6. BBC iPlayer
  7. Glastonbury
  8. Virgin Atlantic
  9. Bang & Olufsen
  10. Liberty
  11. Sony
  12. Bose
  13. Haagen-Dazs
  14. Selfridges
  15. Ben & Jerry’s
  16. Mercedes-Benz
  17. Vogue
  18. Skype
  19. Nike
  20. Nikon

Who’s on your list for 2013?