Natural Events: Part Two

In my previous blog I discussed the the affect of digital medias power on natural sudden disaster events and how these can be effective to gain aid from the public. Carrying on from those unprovoked events that charities have to plead for the nations help onto marketing of charities who put on events to fund raise for ongoing disasters like illnesses and poverty.

These disasters are ones that constantly need to be fund raised for as these illnesses and poverty are growing and are ongoing issues in the world we live in today. To keep the public, and I hate to say it, interested in helping them out, these charities have to create events that attract the public’s attention in order to do so. These events are often first marketed online either in the charities social media of celebrity endorsement, through their social media. This way it reaches out to a large section of the nation and makes the charity have a ‘human face’ to it.

One if the most successful ways of marketing these charity events is through video and online streaming. Many charity’s have taken to Youtube to show the public what fun and exciting events they can host to raise money for serious charities dealing with serious issues.

Cancer Research UK: Race For Life

This video is a fun, upbeat and exciting way to get females around the nation to get involved and prepared for their annual Race For Life. This charity focus on a common, but very serious and life threatening disease but takes a fun and upbeat approach to their campaigns and events to draw the public into helping. With the slogan ‘kicking cancers butt’ it gives a sense of achievement to those donating, volunteering and those taking part in the events themselves. This video also includes the “#” which also spreads the charities awareness throughout social media when the public are using it.

ALS: Ice Bucket Challenge

*wipes tears*

This video is a perfect example of a serious cause having a humorous take onto its event but then reminding the public of WHY its being done and HOW your money helps. But, this is an interesting one. The ice bucket challenge wasn’t one organised by a charity but one which was done by an individual and has gone viral through nearly all the social media platforms which encourages millions of us worldwide to take part in. This hilarious challenge made entertaining viewing for us over a month long period. It was also massive success as it raised over $100m for the charity. This challenge was also taken on by 100’s of celebrities which increased the awareness as well as the involvement.

From these charitable events for such serious causes it is obvious that by taken a fun and outgoing approach to such serious issues is one which works with the public. These methods, all applied to social media are ways which are changing the marketing of events for the better.

REFERENCES

CARBAJAL, A., 2014. ALS ICE BUCKET CHALLENGE – UNCENSORED & SEXY?. [online video]. 18 August. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h07OT8p8Oik [Accessed 28 April 2015].

CANCER RESEARCH UK RACE FOR LIFE., 2015. #ThisGirlCan. [online video]. 25 February. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydSBteBSyFM [Accessed 28 April 2015].

Natural Events: Part One

Not all events are planned and not all are celebratory, some are in fact disastrous and heartbreaking, killing thousands, ruining lives. You are probably thinking, what on EARTH is she talking about?! Well, what I’m talking about is events that cannot be planned nor prevented. These being natural disasters, outbreaks of disease and crippling poverty which strike the world and create unkindly events in there own sense. Now, I’m not saying these events need to be marketed, no. I’m going to evaluate the power of digital media which gets the world, us, to donate, volunteer and make a difference to battle the effects of these awful disasters.

With all major disasters there is many large charities which are there to help the victims involved, as well as charities that are there for ongoing disasters, such as illnesses and poverty. But their funds and resources are limited and are always needing the public’s help to carry on there fantastic work.

Above are just some charities which work closely with digital media with their campaign work. These charitable actions are all targeting different ‘events’ you might say and in different ways.

Sudden Disasters

Sudden disasters are those of ones which happens usually due to no cause and large devastation occurs. For example, the Nepal Earthquake which has taken place the other day. For these disasters, charities have to make there efforts to reach the public immediately and forcefully. These disasters usually need a lot of aid and the only way to get it is through the public’s generosity. Targeting facebook, twitter and their own websites charities have got the correct way to garb the public’s eye. With smartphones being glued to our hands and the scratching need to check our social media every five minutes it would be hard to miss a such big news, and with the national news often promoting these charities on social media it is a genius way to gain the nations help.

With the charities doing as much as they can to generate their appeal it sometimes isn’t enough and when a disaster as large as the earthquake in Nepal, facebook took it into their own hands to raise awareness of the sheer amount of charitable funds that was needed. They added an option onto every users homepage to ask them to donate in this disaster, which gave them a quick, simple way to make a difference.

These steps done by the charities and social network sites to encourage aid from the public are all new methods used compared to the more traditional television adverts, posters and charity donation envelops through the post, but are ones which are probably most effective and appealing with our ‘social’ generation.

Charity’s mentioned:

Oxfam: http://www.oxfam.org.uk/

Save the Children: http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/

Water Aid: http://www.wateraid.org/uk

BBC Children in Need: https://www.bbcchildreninneed.co.uk/herohub

Red Nose Day: http://www.rednoseday.com/

Cancer Research UK: http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/

Feedback

With social media and digital marketing providing to be phenomenon for businesses it also a platform on which consumers can freely comment on these marketing campaigns and the companies goods. This can go either way for a business. Here are three events which have experienced both:

London Marathon

https://www.facebook.com/londonmarathon?fref=ts

The London Marathon have a Facebook page which  explains what they are about, a non-profit  organisation, and post images of the race, the events following up, competitions and questions to the partakers to see what the gained from their experience. This is a generally quite a successful social media page for the event as it 108k likes and is often mentioned by their sponsor, Virgin, and different celebrities.

This event gets a lot of feedback through social media and the majority of it is positive. With comments posted on their page such as:

Comments like these help the event grow and encouraging positivist vibes around it. This makes potential attendees believe that this is a well respected event which would be honorable to be a part of. But these comments can be counteracted when negative comments are posted, like this:

Even though there is a positive start to this comment it gets more degrading to the event stating that they are over charging. This is bad news to the organisers as they state that they are an “non-profit organisation”.

Celtic Connections

https://www.facebook.com/CelticConnections?fref=ts

Celtic Connections have also got a successful facebook page with 26k likes and an overall rating of the event on the site being 4 and a half stars. This page is used by the event for promotion in general, to congratulate winners, share performers success and to get the buzz prior to the event itself. For this social media site, unlike many other comments, are all mainly positive. That was until I saw a section that you can rate the event. This was the results:

Still nothing too drastic compared to some reviews on other events but this can still affect the marketing seeing that some are extremely positive, which will encourage attendees, but also discourage that there is quite a few disapproving of it.

 Wicked

https://twitter.com/WickedUK

Wicked, the broadway show have many different social media marketing platforms but one of the ones that is the most successful is their twitter account. 69.7k followers it has attracted customers from all over the world. Their twitter just now is promoting their show as it moves to Aberdeen, and in the past has promoted other locations,staff changes and their success. Since being on twitter it has harder for potential consumers to see any comments, but they can still be found by clicking on their post to see who has replied:

his image shows one positive comment out of thousands. After going through their twitter for what seemed like ages, I was unable to find any negative messages about their show.

From these examples it shows that these social media platforms for marketing can make or break a business. These comments that are put out there by the company can be seen by anyone, but so can the response from the public. This is a territory that business need to constantly monitor to make sure that the bad reviews are responded too efficiently so it doesn’t put other consumers off their goods.

REFERENCES

CELTIC CONNECTIONS., 2015. reviews. . various 2015. Available from: https://www.facebook.com/CelticConnections?sk=reviews [Accessed 24 April 2015].

LONDON MARATHON., 2015. Posts to page. . various 2015. Available from: https://www.facebook.com/londonmarathon?fref=ts [Accessed 24 April 2015].

WICKED., 2015. Tweets. [twitter]. Various 2015. Available from: https://twitter.com/WickedUK [Accessed 24 April 2015].

T in the Park Success

Social Media Platforms for Events: Part Two

Following on from part one, I am going to discuss the effects of the social media marketing with the visual based social media. With images being more eye catching than lengthy attempts to gain public interest, this image social media is one which has lead to the success to a few social media sites, companies and normal people like me and you.

 Instagram

With 300 million active users Instagram is the leading image social media site to date. First starting off with an easy to access iOS app for Apple devices it is now available on other devices, such as android, and even is available online on a desktop. Instagram provides a simple way for users to share moments in the form of a photograph or image with caption to their followers. The ‘#’ is also incorporated into this social media platform too. The Instagram craze has lead to the success to many companies and individuals and is a platform often used by many event companies to promote their event.

This way is effective to gain the attention of your consumers as its a quick flash of an image which draws their attention into the caption, which usually will have relevant marketing information. With instagram now introducing videos this is also another effective way for events organisers to stream their event or teasers of their event to their customers. This will give a buzz to the audience and get them talking about it. This is also an effective way to raise the companies profile by giving it a more real feel about them, and getting people involved.

Did you know that more people own a phone than toothbrush? Even though this is a sad thing to hear, it is music to online marketer ears. And with it reported that more and more under 30 year olds are becoming addicted to being online and using social media this is a marketing gold mine. With a mobile device nearly always being attached to our generations hands, mostly being a smart phone which has access to the easy to use apps, it is the best marketing innovation out there. With these apps which are usually free to download to smartphones so accessible, it is a growing trend for companies to create their own apps. Even though it might be harder to promote than using their social media it is a way to show status and even though it doesn’t mean success it looks like it to consumers.

An events company who did this was T in the Park. Their app was available for a small fee but it was hugely taken aboard for the customers as it gave information about the festival and it gave an element of surprise as attendees of the event got updates about shows etc. on the days of the festival. I personally bought the app when I attended the festival and I felt it was an amazing way to feel involved, know my information about everything that was happening and it made me talk about the festive afterwards about it’s success.

REFERENCES

KEENAN, J., 2015. Social Media – Who, Why & How? Part One. [lecture notes]. Digital Media Practices and Platforms. The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen Business School, room 224, 27 March.

PEDERSEN, S., 2015. Motivations for Using Social Media Part 1. [lecture notes]. Digital Media Practices and Platforms. The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen Business School, room 224, 20 February.

STATISTA., 2015. Leading social networks worldwide as of March 2015, ranked by number of active users (in millions). [online]. USA: Statista Inc. Available from: http://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/ [Accessed 23 April 2015].

Online Streaming

https://www.youtube.com/

The world has been taken over by cat videos, epic fails and various entertaining challenge videos, but how has this epidemic happened? Well, with the creation of YouTube in 2005 it introduced the population to a whole new universe of entertainment and opportunities. This site gave users a chance to upload their own videos and watch other members. Today YouTube has over 1 billion users and over 300 hours of video footage is uploaded to YouTube every minute. With this major success many businesses have taken to YouTube to market their products, especially event organisers.

This video is an example of how event companies can use YouTube and other online streaming sites to market their experience. The Fringe Festival does this very well by uploading videos about shows, new additions to the festival and even videos on how to get involved and volunteer at the festival itself. This success is shown by the subscribers on their channel, the followers on their social media and the sheer mass of people that turn up to the festival every year.

For organisers to successfully market online it takes a lot of time and thought. Even though it is a free way of publish the media it could be costly making the videos themselves. Iv’e put together a small step by step guide to which I feel is the best way to market your event through online streaming.

1. Dressing Room

• Making sure you have a decent quality camera and editing equipment/software is key. No one likes to see poor quality and badly put together film.
• ALWAYS make a plan. Decide whether your videos are going to be information about your event, a video to hype up the event, footage to include the people who couldn’t attend, if you are going to have a dedicated series or even interviews. If you are brave, what about all of them? The attention span of online views is less than a gold fish so make the plan eye catching!

2. Lights, Camera, Action

• Location of where you film is very important, and it all depends on what you video is about. Make sure there is a clear link, you don’t want to confuse viewers.
• Who features in the film has to be relevant and make sure there is a clear script or idea what is going to be said. Organisers, feedback from attendees and celebrities who are in connection with the event is always an idea.

3. That’s a Wrap

• After the masterpiece has been planned, filmed, edited and publish that isn’t your work done. Sharing the video on all the social media websites connected with your orgnaisation so it reaches all the followers and the wider public.
• After these efforts the outcome of creating a buzz for the experience and gaining new customers should be one of an achievable one.

Another example of an events company who have done this is the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, 2014 who kept up a good streak of videos to build a buzz for the public. The video below is one of many and shows the success of the games as a whole and the video series. It demonstrates the steps above to create a successful video marketing campaign and how it all came together, giving a sense of inclusion and memorabilia to attendees and the company.

REFERENCES

COMMONWEALTH GAMES., 2014. Best Games Ever -2014. [online video]. 5 August. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N67X8moAZis [Accessed 20 April 2015].

EDINBURGH FESTIVAL FRINGE., 2015. Get ready for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe!. [online video]. 10 February. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbT2gpN3KMQ [Accessed 20 April 2015].

YOUTUBE., 2015. Statistics. [online]. London: YouTube. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/yt/press/en-GB/statistics.html [Accessed 20 April 2015].

London Fashion Week and Digital Media

Social Media Platforms for Events: Part One

Please Watch

With the international phenomenon of social media is is the perfect, free way of getting an event noticed, reviewed and communicated. It’s being used internally and externally in companies and is the main aspect in digital marketing (Keenan, 2015). With areas of consumer discussions, direct promotions, hashtags and visual marketing all being covered by this blast of social connectivity it is one that has been taken on my most companies worldwide.

 Lets start with Facebook 

over 500,000 million people are signed up to use  facebook and it is currently the biggest platform of social  media. Facebook allows people to do a number of things which would help a company in it’s marketing. Sharing moments, other peoples posts and photos is one way of sharing what you yourself is doing but also what other people are doing. By the public sharing a personal view or a post that the company have shared it will get the brand aware and the news spread. All their friends and friends of friends (depending on their privacy setting) will be able to view their share and the ‘word of mouth’ marketing technique will soon appear, and as seen in the video more people trust what users say rather than advertisements.

Another area that can be explored on facebook is creating and joining events. This is fantastic tool which is used by many events companies which can make the public aware of their event, feel included and an area in where they can keep updated. You can also see who is attending and if the numbers are high, it will show a sense of a popular, well know event.

Twitter

With 289,000,000 active users on twitter today and 135,000 new users everyday twitter is a close runner up to facebook (Twitter, 2015). With twitter it allows users to share their opinions via a ‘tweet’ in 140 characters or less. This can be through a message or media and it reaches out the the followers that twitter account has. Like facebook these can be shared by ‘retweeting’. Twitter is a very active platform for digital marketing as it reaches out to thousands. An event can make an account and then gain their followers by direct marketing or through other social media. This way they can promote their event, get market research, gather feedback, customer communication and gain brand awareness.

Another way the event can become know on twitter is by companies using the hashtag. By ‘hashtagging’ certain words or phrases it becomes searchable by the public and they can stumble across your account. This hashtag system also gives a sense of community as people at event will often be encouraged to hashtag something at the event itself. This giving a good feel to the experience and sharing the experience to others.

The # is not only used in Twitter but many other social media sites now. Facebook have introduced it and is used in the same sense as twitter is. Instagram and Pinterest also include it in their sites, but their main body of interest is their digital media. This is an ever growing social media area and one which will discussed in more depth in Social Media Platforms: Part Two as well as social media mobile phone apps.

Social Media Sites Mentioned:

• https://www.facebook.com/?_rdr
• https://twitter.com/?lang=en-gb
• https://uk.pinterest.com/
• https://instagram.com/

REFERENCES

KEENAN, J., 2015. Social Media – Who, Why & How? Part One. [lecture notes]. Digital Media Practices and Platforms. The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen Business School, room 224, 27 March.

PEDERSEN, S., 2015. Motivations for Using Social Media Part 1. [lecture notes]. Digital Media Practices and Platforms. The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen Business School, room 224, 20 February.

ROSE, K., 2015. UK Social Media Statistics 2015. [online]. 6 January 2015. Available from: http://www.rosemcgrory.co.uk/blog/ [Accessed 14 April 2015].

SBRTECHNOLOGIES BISWAJIT SINGH, 2013. Social Media Marketing — How it Affects Your Business. 17 September. Available from:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDA864UskXc [Accessed 14 April 2015].

TWITTER, HUFFINGTON POST, EMARKETER., 2015. Twitter Statistics. [online]. Statistic Brain. Available from: http://www.statisticbrain.com/twitter-statistics/ [Accessed 14 April 2015].

Online Ticket Sales

http://www.internetlivestats.com/internet-users/

Think of all the large scale events you have been to. Now ask yourself where did you buy the tickets for these events. Would I be right in saying online? The majority of any tickets sold for major and mega events and even some minor, are all sold online and this method is one which is a quick and simple transaction for everyone involved. Fill in you name, address, email and your payment details, boom you’ve got yourself a ticket. With nearly all events promoting their ticket sales online through third party companies and only a minority being able to be purchased either over the phone or box office is this really the best option out there?

Advantages

• SIMPLE AND QUICK. As I mentioned above it is unbelievably simple to buy tickets online for an event. Pop in your contact details and payment details and you are sorted. Access to these sites are always simple too and with the payment often going through paypal you don’t even have to fill out your card details. Confirmation gets sent to your email and the tickets will arrive a few weeks before the event, what Ticketmaster do, or even with some companies, like Resident Advisor, are sent straight to your phone in a E-Ticket format.
• SECURE. When going with an official events link direct to the site they are selling tickets it will be trusted. This means not only secure payment, confirmation and confidentiality but that you have secured your place at that event. This is sometimes the only way you can secure your ticket before they sell out, but it also means if they are selling in a box office or that the door, that you have the advantage of defiantly getting a space/seat etc.

Disadvantages

• MAJORITY/ALL SOLD ONLINE. What if you didn’t have access to the internet? With 13% of the UK not having access to the internet this would be an issue to those individuals. They would either have to approach someone or pay for internet usage, which also might be a issue, to purchase these tickets. This can demotivate them in attending due to the hassle. With some tickets being available online and the rest in a box office, this could also be an issue to potential attendees as they might not be in proximity to purchase them.
• FALSE WEBSITES. With the increasing amount of fake profiles, false websites and scamming systems out there it is sometimes hard to differentiate between which ticket sites are real and which ones have been created by scammers. Make sure when purchasing tickets its always by approved sites, these are usually the ones promoted by the event itself. With sites such as Gumtree and Ebay out there it is often that they are targeted by ticket misuse but this cannot be controlled by the event itself and they are not entitled to refund the victims of these scams. (Pendersen, 2015)
• BOOKING FEES. When purchasing a ticket for an event online nearly every time you will have to pay a booking. This can either be down to the event using third party sites like Ticketmaster or just for the fact it’s being done in advance online. This may give the attendee reassurance that they have got their ticket, but when purchasing it face to face they would not have to pay this fee (Bachelor, 2014).

Ticket Websites Mentioned:

• http://www.residentadvisor.net/
• http://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/
• http://www.gumtree.com/
• http://www.ebay.co.uk/

REFERENCES

BACHELOR, L., 2014. Online ticket companies face scrutiny over booking and delivery fees. [online]. London: Guardian News. Available from: http://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/jul/13/online-ticket-firms-booking-delivery-fees-which [Accessed 13 April 2015].

RD MEDIA., 2015. Ticketmaster. [online]. Netherlands: RD-Media. Available from: http://rd-media.org/extensions/ticketmaster/product/7.html [Accessed 13 April 2015].

PEDERSEN, S., 2015. Identity Online, BS1288. Identity Online. Digital Media Practices and Platforms. The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen Business School, room 224, 13 March.

Market Research

Market research is the process in gathering information on consumers wants, needs and preferences. This process determines the product/service/experience that a company will sell. This process can be timely but it is crucial for a businesses survival as it targets the market for exactly what it wants. There are two types of market research, Primary and Secondary.

Primary Research

This is research that is brand new and the business conducts it themselves. This can be through questionnaires, surveys and interviews (Business Case Studies, 2015). Some online examples would be using surveys on social media, via email and through other sites such as Survey Monkey (https://www.surveymonkey.com/). This research is valuable and companies can distribute it to a large audience and get first hand research.

 Secondary Research

Also known as ‘desk research’, it is based on information that is already available. This can be information such as reports or any types, online surveys that have been done already, financial information, library documents and many more resources (Business Case Studies, 2015). For online desk market research there are sources through gathering information over competitors companies through their online reports, social media reviews and their own social media pages.

Event Online Market Research

With 3 billion people (Stats from: http://www.internetlivestats.com/internet-users/) in the world having regular access to the internet events marketers have the perfect opportunity to gather their research. As the events industry being a people orientated one and one that relies solely on the attendees experience for a selling point it is vital that they find out what the public want from their events. Some ways the events marketers can do this:

Online Surveys:

By conducting online surveys and questionnaires event agencies can see exactly who is interested in their events. These can be done through many different platforms. Using companies who publish the survey for them, directly emailing existing customers to see what they want and using social media platforms to reach out to the public with surveys that have been created internally.

Direct Communication:

Using emails, social media and approaching other companies to actually asking a direct question to the wider public would be an effective way to receive information on what the public exactly want. When this information is gathered, the comments which are similar would provide the company with the type of event which is most demanded, and as i mentioned before this is crucial as it is an experience based market.

Internet Search Engines:

Just by simply typing in your event or a competitors event it will produce many different websites which can be timely to explore but can give an organisation first hand information. Whether this is review blogs about their own event or competitors, social media reviews or financial information about competitors it gives information on how to improve and target more effectively.

From these methods event companies can and have been able to tailor their events to provide the best experience as possible to their target market. With this being said, consideration always has to be paid to those not online so other market research would have to be put into place to make sure all the market is covered to get the best results.

REFERENCES

BUSINESS CASE STUDIES., 2015. Market Research and Consumer Protection. [online]. England: Business Case Studies LLP. Available from: http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/food-standards-agency/market-research-and-consumer-protection/primary-and-secondary-research.html#axzz3YiKe7OCD [Accessed 12 April 2015].

INC. STAFF., 2011. Conducting Online Market Research: Tips and Tools. [online]. USA: Inc. Available from: http://www.inc.com/guides/biz_online/online-market-research.html [Accessed 12 April 2015].

Sharma, H., 2007. Market Research in Event Planning. [online]. Event Education. Available from: http://www.eventeducation.com/event-analysis.php [Accessed 12 April 2015].