Action Plan

List of Texts for Focus Group

Mentos and Carlsberg - Spoof Advertisements

The Sony Bravia - "Colour Like No Other"
Paint Explosion
Bouncy Balls
Playdough Rabbits

Dr Pepper - "Cherry Chocolate Rain"

Wilkinson Sword - "Fight For Kisses"

Dove
"Evolution"
"Onslaught"

Samsung - "Tricky"

Goodyear
"Waterbed"
"Bouncy Castle"

Lost
C4 Trailer
American Trailer

K-Fee

Types of Marketing Campaigns: Definitions

Viral Marketing

"A technique that uses pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness through self-replicating viral processes."

Basically, word-of-mouth discussion of a product or brand that creates a snowball effect;

"It is claimed that a satisfied customer tells an average of three people about a product or service he/she likes, and eleven people about a product or service which he/she did not like."

Effectively, viral marketing campaigns use and manipulate natural human behaviour to the institutions advantage. It also incorporates the idea that any publicity is good publicity.

Guerrilla Marketing

"An unconventional system of promotions on a very low budget, by relying on time, energy and imagination instead of big marketing budgets."

Stealth Marketing


Alternate Reality Game

Detailed Proposal

Detailed Proposal: Advertising

How successful are viral marketing techniques at creating interest and publicity for a product?

Teacher approval granted.

Principal Texts:

• Cloverfield (2008); film, teaser/viral marketing campaign, internet used heavily in promotion, 'drip-drip' of information
• 'Gorilla' - Cadbury's Dairy Milk (2007); widespread internet popularisation
• 28 Weeks Later (2007); film, viral advertising, stealth aspects, unusual campaign
• 'Subservient Chicken' - Burger King (2004); interactive viral marketing campaign, popular yet unsuccesful at promoting product
• The Blair Witch Project (1999); film, viral marketing campaign, internet used heavily in promotion
• Mentos (2007); consumer produced videos created more publicity than the company had themselves
• 'Colour Like No Other' - Sony Bravia (2007); extremely popular series of videos spread over the internet as well as being shown on TV
• 'Evolution' and 'Onslaught' - Dove (2008); widely spread viral videos, successful for contreversial subject matter

I chose this topic as it is both relevant in the industry at this time and relevant from a consumer perspective. It's also interesting to discover the lengths at which corporations now go to create hype for their product.

The audience for this study would be varied, reflecting each individual campaigns' target audience.

Media Theories;
Audience - how the audience reacts/their opinions to marketing campaigns.
Institution - institutional benefits of newer advertising techniques.
Forms and Conventions - to what extent do newer forms of advertising rely on 'breaking the mould'
Representations - how are institutions, and to a lesser degree products, portrayed in campaigns

Potential research sources (secondary);

• 'Connected Marketing: The Viral, Buzz and Word of Mouth Revolution' - Book; Justin Kirby and Paul Marsden
• 'Word of Mouth Advertising Online & Off: How to Spark Buzz, Excitement, and Free Publicity for Your Business or Organisation with Little or No Money' - Book; Lynn Thorne
• 'Guerrilla Marketing, 4th edition: Easy and Inexpensive Strategies for Making Big Profits from Your Small Business' - Book; Jay Conrad Levinson
• 'The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly' - Book; David Meerman Scott
• GoViral.com; website which covers viral marketing campaigns that are currently active
• YouTube; website used as a platform for various strategies, large contributor to 'word-of-mouth' spreading
• Hanso Foundation; website that took centrestage in the 'Lost' Alternate Reality Game

Potential research sources (primary);

• 'Dexter' Ad. Campaign experiment - active testing of a viral campaign with reactions recorded in the form of a questionnaire.
• Focus Group - collection of advertisements from both the internet and television shown to a focus group, reactions and opinions recorded
• Textual Analysis - analysis of a few campaigns including adverts/teaser/guerrilla/ARG examples

Initial Proposal

This initial proposal is for the topic area of Advertising.

The suggested focus is on alternative marketing campaigns that are being used more frequently today, such as viral/stealth/teaser campaigns.

My idea for a question involves the affect and success of these campaigns on consumers.

I chose this as it allows exploration into the overall effectiveness of this developement in the Advertising industry.

On a sliding scale of 1 to 5 I would give this proposal a 4.

Topic Area: Advertising

After reading through the topic sections in the pack I've decided that the area that I am most interested in researching is advertising; specifically focussing on newer forms of advertising including viral, stealth and teaser marketing campaigns.

This focus allows me to discuss modern forms of advertising/marketing which are prevalant at this time. There are many examples of this topic available to research and use as case studies, however I am unsure if it is a subject that has been widely discussed or researched previously. There is no information on it in the pack provided, so further research into the subject is needed in order to validate the relevance and value in researching this topic.

Following are some possible questions that I'll consider for my research focus:

• "How effective are alternate marketing campaigns at creating hype/interest for a product?"
• "How are the advancements in technology and consumer habits influencing the advertisement medium?"
• "In what ways are institutions using modern marketing campaigns to advertise their product?"
• "To what extent do viral/stealth/teaser advertising campaigns reduce institutions hold over consumer choice?"

Following is a collection of possible case studies for this topic:

• Cloverfield (2008); film, teaser/viral marketing campaign, internet used heavily in promotion, 'drip-drip' of information
• Year Zero - Nine Inch Nails (2008); album, alternate reality game, viral marketing campaign
• Gorilla - Cadbury's Dairy Milk (2007); widespread internet popularisation
• 28 Weeks Later (2007); film, viral advertising, stealth aspects, unusual campaign
• Omen (2006); teaser campaign (TV)
• Subservient Chicken - Burger King (2004); interactive viral marketing campaign, popular yet unsuccesful at promoting product
• The Blair Witch Project (1999); film, viral marketing campaign, internet used heavily in promotion