The Customer is the Key

At university my degree entailed a heavy amount of theoretical standpoints about advertising, the media, and cultural consumption. From the dated Marxist notion of capitalism to postmodern notions of psychoanalysis and emotion, these theories have played a huge part in my understanding and analysis of our contemporary consumer culture.
The consumer is increasingly becoming the most powerful figure in the world of integrated communications. I like to think of the consumer as the Queen on a chessboard - the most influential piece, threatening the decisions and moves of the others. If advertisers make a wrong move then the game could be over.

The key is understanding the customer's journey in order to deliver a more targeted and relevant delivery. With the visually saturated world that the digital phenomenon has evoked, simply creating eye-catching ads on any platform particularly online is not enough to keep consumers engaged. Creative brand experiences should be implemented after the first point of contact with an ad in order to support the communication strategy. One element I believe to be key in fulfilling this role is blurring the boundary between fantasy and reality. Creating an experience which takes the fantasy concept from the TV or online and making it a physical experience in the everyday life of consumers. In addition, consumers should be given a motive to interact and engage with brands to create an emotional and personal drive. The Nike Human Race (North vs South) is a great example of this .

It is important to keep the consumer engaged at every point if contact with a brand to build a strong connection and to facilitate a conversation between individual consumers and consumer clusters who share the same values, ideas and beliefs.

'Twinfomercials' a twitteriffic idea?

Like with any new advance or feature in the digital world Twitter has attracted mass debate. Even more so now with its introduction of advertising. Since its launch in 2006 Twitter has yet to real in any profit, but the time has come for Twitter to raise its bar. Competition in a sea of hungry social media has meant that Twitter needs to generate money to add more features and keep it as a main player in social media.

My initial reaction was quite neutral if I'm honest, I don't really see what major harm ads on Twitter will do. There are a number of formats for advertising on Twitter which vary in levels of intrusiveness. Some examples include the following:

Sponsored Tweets - Tweets would appear in your stream with a text-based ad and link.
On-Page ads - areas on the Twitter home page to place spot ads (a web page or banner ad)
Mobile ads - adding a small sponsored ad to the end of a mobile twitter text.

Obviously if Twitter users have opted to receive mobile Twitter texts then they should have the right to choose whether they receive ad-free texts, but the problem with this is surely the majority of people will opt out of Twiiter texts with ads. Undoubtedly then Twitter will have to make ads on its homepage and stream feed compulsory if brands are to witness ROI from their ads placed within Twitter.

However I am struggling to understand how ads for brands and businesses will work effectively as surely such brands will have to have a large fan/follower base for users to actually see their ad. Will this method only target consumers who are loyal to the brand and a follower of them on Twitter? What about targeting new consumers? I think if the new strategy is to work then Twitter should use its homepage to leverage brand Tweets and ads, but this still fails to overcome users who are constantly logged in to their twitter account and do not need to navigate through the Twitter homepage.

Due to Twitters informative and snappy nature I do believe that branded Tweets and ads could definitely add value to businesses and brands but do not believe that Twitter ads will be a long term strategy for brands and advertisers. As more brands warm to the use of Twitter as a marketing strategy in a shift towards going digital, I can see competition for placing ads on Twitter increasing in the near future. I hope that Twitter doesn't become too corporate and greedy. Twitter should remember its growth to success in its early days: the public! Don't forget your grass roots Twitter!

Forsquare? Not another social network...

I recently became aware of a social media network 'Foursquare' which enables users to 'follow' celebrities in the same way Twitter allows people to 'follow' business, people, industries rather than actually becoming a 'friend' on a network such as Facebook.

My initial reaction was are we not already a culture obsessed with celebrities? There appears to be a growing fascination with the lives of others especially celebrities and consequently how celebrities are managing and manipulating how the public see them. The media is a feeding ground for the narcissism of celebs and this new social network facilitates a growing frenzy of celebrity culture and obsession.

However, the idea is that Foursquare also acts as a recommendation tool for celebrities who can leave posts about restaurants, bars, places of interest, and venues in their city sparked a thougt about its potential. In this respect I can see how Foursquare may become hot property for brands who are looking for celebrity endorsement. If brands and businesses alike want to increase their profile then all they need to do is compromise a way of integrating their name and/or recommendation into a chosen celebrity's status post. However whether or not celebs would do this for a minimal fee would need to be negotiated, as ultimately what would the celebrity actually gain from this?
I do think however it is a new area which should be explored by brands and advertisers, but effectiveness will ultimately depend upon the growth of fans using the site.

Although I do believe we are a culture indulged by the movements of the celebrity, I cant say for certain how well Foursquare will evolve. If I'm not uploading photos and updating my status on Facebook, I'm scanning all the latest tweets or checking my hotmail, or uni email, or reading/writing a blog. So with all these online touchpoints many people are already devoted to, the idea of yet another social media network seems a little unnecessary.

Virtual Reality or just Reality?

I have never really thought to deeply about the role that virtual reality plays in creating ones identity, however since deciding to write an assignment on the subject for my Media Studies course at Uni, have begun to consider the 'reality' of virtual reality.
Take a look at Xbox's 'Project Natal'
This is the first games console which has both face and voice recognition enabling the user to create a virtual self. You can connect with friends using the device in a completely different location and you can interact with them through your TV screen. What's more impressive is your movements are picked up by infrared sensors enabling the first free from controller gaming experience.

To me this is extraordinary. We are entering a world where our reality is becoming virtual as we can co-exist in such computerised games while playing them in the real space of our homes. Project Natal reaches far beyond the interactivity characteristic of the noughties. Not only are gamers becoming part of the experience, but their whole body is immersed in the virtual-ness of the TV screen giving them total empowerment.

My criticism of this technological movement is that the westernised world is fast becoming totally dependent upon the fantasy of the virtual. People become so entangled in their online persona and gaming avatar that when faced with the reality of what would appear in contrast, a mundane life, they are suffering from what has now been diagnosed as 'Post Avatar Depression'.
I was shocked to recently find out that there are actually people suffering from this after watching James Cameron's 'Avatar', as they see their own life as inferior in comparison to the world of Pandora featured in Avatar. In a sense the 3D glasses cinema-goers put on to watch the film, transports viewers to the fantasy world where they feel so close to reality, that when the film ends and they remove the glasses they are faced with a not so exciting world.

With technology continually progressing and people increasingly subjecting themselves to the virtual world, how long will it be before we are all living our lives through a virtual platform?
In this sense, we are living in a hyperreality where the boundaries of the real and the imaginary are blurring to almost become a reality.