Abercrombie & Fitch (A&F) is an American retailer that focuses on upscale casual wear for young consumers, its headquarters are in New Albany, Ohio, a suburb of Columbus. The company operates two other offshoot brands: Abercrombie Kids & Hollister Co.  The company operates 1,049 stores across all four brands. (Wikipedia, 2017) Once known for its sexy ad campaigns, the company has toned down its imagery and no longer displays nearly nude models in their advertisements. According to Chairman Arthur Martinez, Abercrombie and Fitch is now targeting an older consumer, from ages 18–25. These changes provide the hopes that the audience will see the company is evolving along with its consumers, and boost sales. (Wikipedia, 2017) The field of digital content marketing is maturing, and companies need to make sure that their content campaigns and strategies are keeping up (James, 2017) and being published on time. Gone are the days of free publishing tools, paid third party platforms are paving the path for content publishing. Spredfast can assist many companies including Fortune 500 companies succeed with publishing their content, listening and responding. Thus making social media marketing, real, more human like receiving more engagement and having ads that stand out. Spredfast is a U.S.-based social marketing software company that provides community management, content management, social care, and social analytics tools to brands and agencies. Spredfast was able to assist with Abercrombie & Fitch with publishing and finding those crutial conversations online, and knowing exacting when to take a stab at a conversation, and know when to monitor it, chime in and provide customer support.  

Mushrooms Canada is a non-profit organization that represents its membership which include mushroom growers, processors and other allied industries. Mushrooms Canada works to advocate for food safety, good nutrition, and the proper care of Canadian mushrooms. (MushroomsCanada.ca, 2017) They do this through various methods that include attending trade shows such as the Gourmet Food & Wine Show in Toronto. They also maintain a strong presence on social media where they work to promote mushrooms to consumers.

It’s the season of giving. And with more than 85,000 registered charities in Canada, the competition for your discretionary dollar is heating up. For traditional non-profits like the United Way, dealing with dwindling donation dollars is compounded by the rise of online, crowd-sourced and increasinlgy niche charitable initiatives. How does one of Canada’s largest and oldest charities break through the clutter, especially during the prime giving season, to successfully engage local, distracted and digitally savvy donors? While bricks-and-motar organizations like the United Way certainly have their work cut out, the increasing use of social media and the resulting metrics are helping organizations focus their marketing efforts to maximize awareness, engagement and, ultimately, donations.

Search Engine Land defines social media marketing as referring “to the process of gaining traffic or attention through social media sites”. Marketing has changed dramatically as marketing strategies now incorporate social media platforms to help with marketing plans. In an article titled “Social Media marketing for Businesses” from WordStream, a plan is emphasized as the first step in creating a Social Media Marketing strategy. Asking questions such as: what are you hoping to achieve, who is your audience, what message are you trying to send and what are the best social media tools should be the first place to begin. WordStream also focuses on choosing the best social media platforms for your organization and the article offers suggestions for many platforms, including Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Reddit, and Location Based Media such as Yelp.

FIFA’s use of Social Media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube in the Marketing process and campaigns is very bold, organized methodical and innovative for a non-for-profit association. FIFA is a non-commercial, not-for-profit association that uses significant funds in developing the game of football/soccer around the world, organizing its own international competitions and drawing up regulations for association football/soccer. This legal status as a not-for-profit association has helped FIFA to develop into a multibillion dollar company. The current partners of FIFA listed for the 2018 FIFA World Cup RussiaTM are Adidas, Coca Cola, Hyundai, KIA, Qatar Airways, Wanda group, Gazprom and Visa. The current FIFA sponsors are Budweiser, Hisense, McDonalds, Vivo, HANDSHAKE FOR PEACE, FIFA FOOTBALL FOR HOPE, and FIFA.com. If you are interested in applying to be a sponsor for the next FIFA World CupTM in 2022, please click on the following link that will lead you to FIFA’s sales department email address. Become a sponsor email address (sales@fifa.org) The above listed companies dominate advertising boards, receive free tickets and have the privilege of inviting guests at special rates and have rights to use the World Cup Logo exclusively. FIFA is effectively using Digital Marketing to advertise and sell tickets for the future World Cup events, such as 2018 FIFA World Cup RussiaTM. FIFA fans can apply for 2018 FIFA World Cup RussiaTM tickets using the following link apply for tickets. Soccer fans can also check prices in US dollars by clicking check prices. Benefits to Partners FIFA’s Marketing platform reaches millions of people in over 200 countries worldwide this is done through the support of commercial affiliates providing vital services and product support for the entire event’s operations. The standard rights package includes: Use of Official Marks Exposure in and around stadiums, in all Official FIFA publications and on official website, http://www.fifa.com Acknowledge of sponsor support through an extensive FIFA World Cup sponsor recognition program Ambush Marketing protection Hospitality opportunities Advertising/promotional opportunities and preferential access to FIFA World Cup™ broadcast advertising Partners can also tailor their sponsorship according to their Marketing strategies and needs. They can individually use the official logo and create composite logos allowing them to be creative in their Marketing strategies. In order to watch the video, FIFA has granted permission via YouTube

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram are all free platforms in which business’ can promote themselves and engage with your audiences. Especially if your audiences is part of the millennials. Poo~Pourri, the brand that has designed a spray to eliminate odor while doing your business, and aims to target woman mid 20s to late 50’s and has managed create buzz with thier hilirous videos and get  heads turning with  its first ever social media marketing campaign “Girls Don’t Poop”. Poo_Pourri knows they’re target audience is a large portion of the millennial generation those born  between the early 80s and early 2000s, Millennials live life online. Also known as Generation Y or Generation Me, this is a group that has become defined by the digital world and has prompted the huge cultural shift towards capturing every moment on camera phones. Poo-Pourri social media objectives where ; Create Media Buzz Gain Users Trust Build Brand Loyalty

In this day and age, most people are glued to their mobile device and information gets thrown at us from left, right and centre. So when a brand is competing for attention, especially through social media, they need to be eye-catching, useful and trustworthy – and maybe a bit humorous.

Traditional marketing isn’t what it used to be.  Most people are no longer as susceptible to, or trusting of what they’re being sold.  According to a recent study, 84% of Millenials do not trust or like traditional advertising.  Yet, everywhere you look, almost any and every little available space tends to be plastered with an advertisement of some kind.   So how do you break through this resistance and connect with your target market in an authentic and lasting way?  Ipsy has found a way. Ipsy is a personalized makeup subscription service available online that sends users monthly bags filled with different and personalized cosmetic products.  Here’s more about what it is and how it started: “Michelle Phan has inspired countless women around the world through her beauty video tutorials on YouTube. Every day, the question Michelle gets asked the most is: “What are the right products for me?”  With infinite beauty product combinations in the marketplace, choosing the best items for your needs can be a challenge! That was why Michelle created ipsy. Michelle and her team of stylists have selected products they love, for you to try.  Each month, subscribers will receive a beautiful Glam Bag with deluxe samples and full-sized beauty products. Members can watch and play along with the stylists with the same products that they are using.” 

I am one of those people who is fascinated by branding and marketing. Who brands are, why they are who they are, how they share and connect with their targeted audiences… why did that ad campaign work? How did that company figure to target that audience in that way? And of course, why is some marketing such a failure? In my love for branding and marketing mixed with my passion for social media, I came across Gary Vaynerchuk years ago (if you don’t know him, Gary is “…one of the most sought after public speakers alive today. He is a venture capitalist, 4-time New York Times bestselling author, and an early investor in companies such as Twitter, Tumblr, Venmo and Uber. Gary has been named to bothCrain’s and Fortune’s 40 Under 40 lists.” (GaryVaynerchuk.com, 2017)) I follow Gary on social media, and was excited to see he was part of a series Apple is releasing on iTunes, Planet of the Apps. This show “…a sort of hybrid of The Voice and Shark Tank lets app developers make their pitch to four potential celeb mentors: Gwyneth Paltrow, Jessica Alba, Gary Vaynerchuk, and Will.i.am who then help coach their mentees through developing their pitches and courting venture capitalists for investments.” (Howard, 2017) One of the most successful pitches on Planet of the Apps was Dote. Dote dons itself a mobile mall in your pocket (Dote, 2017). “The app curates products from over 130 stores, including Sephora, Forever21, and Urban Outfitters, in one place. All you need to do is enter your credit card once, and you can buy a product with a single tap, without wasting time shopping on individual store websites.” (Buxton, 2017) Dote also landed a 5 million dollar investment from VC’s from a pitch on Planet of the Apps, “one of the largest ever doled out on a TV series.” (Vogue, 2017)

Nowadays social media marketing has become incredibly important for businesses all sizes. One reason behind marketers’ attention to social media is technology: new platforms, networks and apps. Another reason are people, who use social media to create, publish and share content. The same people are consumers, who share their thoughts about their experiences and are looking for new ones. So what does the future hold for the world of social media?

Over the last few years Social Media has changed not only the world, but also the world of marketing.  The benefits that social media provides business owners include: Increase brand Awareness, Legitimizing their Brand, Increasing sales, Improve Customer Service and Distributing Content to engage customers  The following video explains some of these as well as includes additional benefits.

Modern Marketing has been a staple of doing business since the second world war. As social media has evolved, businesses have had to evolve with it to better market themselves. But what if your business is social media? Does that change your marketing plan? How can a social company thrive in the vast online marketplace? Maz Dela Cerna hails from Brisbane, Australia and is the founder of thefitnessfreedomflow.com. She is a blogger, vlogger, social media expert, and the face of her brand. She has created a social following through her personal progress in weight loss, health, travel and lifestyle. Maz has turned a passion for health and wellbeing, along with her passion for travel, into a successful online brand. She writes from the heart and puts her experiences out there with a genuine interest in helping others. It is obvious in her communications with her followers and her ever growing online presence.

Budget Marine is the Caribbean’s leading marine chandlery with retail locations throughout the Caribbean.  Budget Marine embraced the use of Facebook early on, and continues to use it to advantage today. Currently, Budget Marine uses FaceBook, Instagram and Youtube to connect with customers.  These platforms are backed by the company’s website and augmented with newsletters and sales promotions sent directly to customers via email. According to Nicole Corvellec, Budget Marine’s Marketing Manager, “Not only is using Facebook much cheaper than individual local ads but it’s also more effective as we don’t need to look at what they read [i.e. print media] and which publication would get the majority of readers – it goes directly to their phone. On the facebook page you will also see “offers” which enables us to put all the offers from all the locations in one spot so people can easily see what the specials are.”

One might say “marketing is primarily a creative thinking position”, I would have to agree, marketing is filled with many tools, concepts and strategies, but generating ideas and creating content is mainly the foundation to great marketing. To some, marketing is complex and difficult. To others, marketing is exciting and comes naturally. Marketing is a whole different world for many people, and is composed of a large list of diverse strategies that continue to grow with the assistance of technology. Social media marketing has become a hot topic and tool in the business world, it is known as one of the most used forms of marketing today. Social media marketing is not relatively new, but for some organizations they are just recently experimenting and utilizing it now. With over an estimated 2.3 billion active social media users in the world, it is becoming clearer that social media marketing is essential for any organization.

Over the past few weeks, I have shared how start-up Flashstock has benefitted from social media to stay engaged with customers, employees, and even improve product development and operations which all contribute to driving business performance across the company. Our marketing team has focused its efforts on using social media as it’s the main platform because of the relative ease of use, low cost, and data-rich insight. Start-ups find social media marketing really efficient. At the beginning, most brands are looking to just create community and brand awareness. With existing networks built into Facebook and Instagram, for example, and almost 2.5 billion active monthly users combined, gives marketers unprecedented access to consumers and data. The platforms are free to join and provide simple to use interfaces that don’t take as much effort as a website to manage. With all of these active users, marketers also get great access to data that tells them everything they need about their target audience.    

Airlines are leading brands in their own right on social media. They work really hard to develop high quality campaigns and a strong presence on social media, and it results in excellent outcomes. Airlines have performed particularly well in the latest Travel Social Media Benchmark results and dominate the Facebook, Twitter and Instagram league tables, helped, in part, by their global customer base. However, brands are also benefiting from a rising interest in the aviation industry and capitalize on this growing trend with behind-the-scenes content and information – from aircraft unveiling to flight schedules and trackers. Growing international airline Emirates is one of the travel industry’s fastest growing social media brands in the world serving thousands of passengers every day, according to the latest Travel Social Media Benchmark results from talkwalker analytics.  

Markets are conversations. Trade routes pave the storylines. Across the millennia in between, the human voice is the music we have always listened for, and still best understand. — The Cluetrain Manifesto, 1999 In 2014, Sephora, a world leader in beauty retail, joined the 6 percent of brands on SnapChat, blasting their followers with special deals on new beauty products. In 2015, the beauty powerhouse teamed up with women’s lifestyle publisher, POPSUGAR, to do what no makeup brand had done before: attach a mobile shopping function to customers viewing fleeting photos in Emoticode, an app similar to Snapchat. On June 6, 2016, Sephora was the big winner for small-screen commerce on mobile devices at the Internet Retailer Excellence Awards, dubbed “Digital Innovation”. In M. Penn’s University of Waterloo SMBP case study, Sephora – A Pretty Digital Face,  the author explained the essence of digital innovation behind Sephora’s award: how smartphones and tablets contributed half of Sephora’s digital traffic, and how Sephora was one of the first to launch Apple’s expedited mobile checkout platform, Apple Pay, as a payment option in Sephora’s apps and in-store. For years, the retailer had tested beacons, small sensors that track consumers’ smartphones and send personalized messages in its stores A year later, on June 6, 2017, Sephora’s Senior VP of Digital Marketing, Mary Beth Laughton, gave the keynote address at the same Internet Retailer Excellence Awards. Laughton offered insights as to how Sephora, by partnering first with Kik Messenger in Spring 2016, and then Facebook Messenger six months later, introduced its chatbot messaging apps to leverage the power of smartphone mobile by delivering an immersive retail experience that goes beyond mobile commerce and empowers shoppers to learn, be inspired and play through the power of chat. Why the move to chatbots? According to Brian Honigman, a content marketing consultant and the CEO of Honigman Media, a consultancy focused on helping marketers and entrepreneurs see results with content marketing and social media, chatbot apps are mobile’s sleeping giant because they also embrace the power of platforms. That is why the original iPhone succeeded. It was not based on product alone but also leveraged the power of the app-store ecosystem. Messaging apps provide the perfect ecosystem for the next generation of applications. It only makes sense that a chatbot, whose ancestor was exclusively used for communication, and which was dubbed by Steve Jobs in the iPhone keynote as an “internet communicator,” would… Read more »

The way television works have changed drastically over the past years, starting from cutting cords to video on demand which lacks commercial interruption, fundamentally shifting how we watch our favourite shows. However, one of the biggest changes that happened in the past few years has been binge-watching of shows and movies. A few years ago, “Bing-watching” wasn’t a thing but now it has become a way of life and marathon watching has become a nationwide obsession. One particular company that hones in on such a movement is Netflix. Founded by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph on August 29th, 1997, in Scotts Valley California, Netflix became an American entertainment company that specialised in providing streaming media and video-on-demand online and DVD by mail. In 2013, Netflix expanded into film and television production, as well as online distribution.

Marketing is the study and management of exchange relationships.[1][2] The American Marketing Association has defined marketing as “the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.” Marketing is used to create, keep and satisfy the customer. As such, all commercial enterprises generally employ specific marketing strategies to assist in the management and growth of their business activities. There are numerous marketing orientations for a given organization to follow, focus upon the product, or the sales, or look to customer demand as the catalyst for any strategy. Marketing itself may become a driver for the whole enterprise itself, or an ancillary component to the business. How has social media (SM) affected the “Mad Men” world of marketing practices? What are the benefits an organization can achieve through social media marketing? We are studying the Deluxe Entertainment organization which provides “Services allied to motion pictures”.  Its mandate is transform creative content for fulfillment to delivery endpoints. This descriptor doesn’t sound very sexy here, but the Deluxe motion picture service to Hollywood, Netflix and other broadcasters, and every conceivable high end creative organization and individual film maker is actually very exciting. Deluxe seems a good place to examine SM because Deluxe is very much immersed in the SM process. Content is defined as  “a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.” Is Deluxe creating and sharing online content that is valuable to its potential customers and so building continuing product reputation or is Deluxe simply promoting their service? Progressive SM theory proposes that good social media content is shared by others and contributes to a continuing social media conversation. The best content stimulates discussion that enables people who are interested in you to see what others think about you and how you respond to them. Good content marketing isn’t just about creating content — it is also about using the content to create customer and stakeholder engagement. Here is the company profile. The Deluxe company SM profile   describes Deluxe Entertainment Services Group Inc. as a global leader in digital services and technology solutions for content creation and delivery. There has been a long relationship with Hollywood studios, independent filmmakers, TV networks, online content producers, brands,… Read more »

Brands becoming more Digital Consumer packaged goods companies have started to spend more for digital and social media to better meet changing needs of their consumers who are increasingly looking for education and inspiration on-line. Digital and social media helps companies to craft a more personalized and better targeted message to their consumers and, as such, often achieve higher ROI vs. traditional TV media based on one-size-fits-all approach. Parmalat Canada views Social Media marketing as an essential tool in brand building and promotional plans for its flagship brands President, Galbani, Black Diamond, Balderson and Astro. These brands have on-going digital presence at major social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. The company seems to having embraced Social Media practices that require more message customization, more personal approach to consumers and faster response time vs. some traditional marketing media like TV and print.

According to the Instant Pot website, this “intelligent multi-cooker, [is] capable of completely replacing [a] pressure cooker, slow cooker, rice cooker/porridge maker, sauté/browning pan, steamer, yogurt maker and stockpot warmer.” Currently one of Amazon’s best selling items, Instant Pot has a huge online fan base. With an official community site on Facebook boasting more than 434K members and a number of satellite communities (e.g. Instant Pot Recipes with 122K members and Instant Pot Cooks with 60K members), the Instant Pot is an internet sensation. That said, it may be surprising to find out that Instant Pot is not a brand new product . According to Grace Hwang Lynch in her article Not Just a Crock: The Viral Word-Of-Mouth Success of Instant Pot,  the electric pressure cooker “has been around since 2010, but really became the buzz during the last six months of 2016.” Let’s take a look at the clever social media strategy that created all that buzz.

Victoria’s Secret is a brand known around the world for it’s glamours images of it’s elusive Angels creating a goal that many aspire to.  In the fast paced world of today the excitement of receiving their catalogue in the mail has been replaced by a few easy clicks to  order a little piece of the magic.  Though this provides quick and easy access to the customer,  the company has been faced with the question of how to reinvent that same excitement in today’s world?  Enter social media.    

As one filters through the literature on social media marketing, it becomes glaringly obvious that the rift between digital and traditional marketing has undergone some reverse tectonic movement. No one in any respectable marketing position will make the faux pas of comparing Facebook ads with print ads (unless they intend to elicit judgmental stares). Digital marketing in all its strategic glory is here to stay for the overnight cross continental long-haul.

Synchronized swimming is a relatively small sport when comparing it to sports like hockey, soccer, speed swimming, and gymnastics.  Synchro’s numbers in Ontario, in Canada and in the world are a mere fraction of those of the larger, more popular sports.  So how does a small club, in such a small sport get noticed? For the Waterloo Regional Synchronized Swim Club, located in Elmira, Ontario, the answer came to them this past summer.  While most club’s take a break from everything for a few months in the summer, the Waterloo Synchro Club aimed to increase the club’s profile not only in the Waterloo Region, but across all 7 continents. Erika Lindner, president of the local club, noted that at the beginning of summer 2016 “our follower numbers on Instagram and Facebook were low, and limited to current and past swimmers and their families”.  In the pool, the local club is top dog, having earned the Provincial title of top club in the Province for 7 of the last 10 years.  “We’ve always been trend setters and now that our club was on social media we wanted to set ourselves apart from others in this arena too”.

If you’re like me, it’s hard to scroll through your Facebook feed without having a video from Tasty pop up. Launched in December of 2015, this Buzzfeed-owned online food channel is garnering attention from across demographics. Tasty’s videos demonstrate how easy it can be to create mouthwatering food.  Through simple marketing, Tasty has managed to attract consumer interest by creating a winning formula of customer engagement. Tasty has capitalized on the fact that people are looking to be able to make delicious food without having to watch a long step-by-step video, or follow a deeply detailed recipe. By promoting trendy videos across multiple social media channels, Tasty has managed to ingrain itself into social media culture across the globe.