lokaverkefni til bs-prófs í viðskiptafræði the new age of marketing ritgerð... ·...
TRANSCRIPT
LokaverkefnitilBS-prófs
íviðskiptafræði
ThenewageofmarketingCreatingsuccessfulcampaignsusingsocialmedia
HeraSólveigÍvarsdóttir
LeiðbeinandiÞóraChristiansen,aðjúnktJúní2017
ThenewageofmarketingCreatingsuccessfulcampaignsusingsocialmedia
HeraSólveigÍvarsdóttir
LokaverkefnitilBS-prófsíviðskiptafræði
Leiðbeinandi:ÞóraChristiansen,aðjúnkt
Viðskiptafræðideild
FélagsvísindasviðHáskólaÍslands
Júní2017
Thenewageofmarketing
Ritgerðþessier12einingalokaverkefnitilBS-prófsvið
Viðskiptafræðideild,FélagsvísindasviðiHáskólaÍslands.
©2017HeraSólveigÍvarsdóttir
Ritgerðinamáekkiafritanemameðleyfihöfundar.
Prentun:Háskólaprent
Reykjavík,2017
Foreword
Thisthesisisa12ECTSunitfinalprojecttowardsaBSdegreeinBusinessAdministration
withanemphasisinMarketingandInternationalbusinessattheUniversityofIceland.
ItwascreatedundertheguidanceofÞóraChristiansen,adjunctlecturer,whomthe
authorwouldliketothankforawonderfulcooperation,bygivingvaluableguidanceand
beingagreathelpthroughoutthisprocess.
Theauthorwouldalsoliketothanktheintervieweesfortakingthetimetogivethe
interviewsthatthecaseswerebuiltonandallowingtheauthortogainaninsightinto
their company’s marketing strategies.Without their participation, this project would
nothavebecomeareality.Theauthorgivesthankstoherfatherforproofreadingthis
thesisandtobothherparentsforconstantlyaspiringhertodoherbestthroughoutthe
years.
Abstract
Marketing on social media has increased immensely over the past decade with the
introductionofsocialmediaandtheWeb2.0.Newways increatingcampaignssuited
forsocialmediaareconstantlybeingthoughtofandcompaniesarequicktoadaptusing
new popularmedia. But how are they choosing amedium for the campaigns?What
factors are taking into consideration when creating the content for the desired
medium?
Thisresearcher´sgoalwastoanswerthequestionofhowsuccessfulcampaignsthat
used social media as their main platform decided on the medium suitable for the
campaign and onwhat factors the decisionwas based on. A qualitativemethodwas
usedwhenconstructing this researchanddatacollected through four interviewswith
individualsrelatedtothecompanies’marketingcampaigns.
The research’s results indicate that when marketing on social media, companies
needtodecidewhotheconsumersare,whatcontentisfitforthoseconsumers,what
mediumismostaffectivetoreachthetargetmarketbasedondata,bequicktochange
thecampaign’scontentifneededandlistentofeedbackfromcustomers.Socialmedia
isarelativelynewmediuminrelationstomarketingandthereforethisthesisisthought
to be useful for companies when deciding what social medium is suited for their
campaigns.
TableofContents
1 Introduction.................................................................................................................8
2 Marketing......................................................................................................................92.1 Advertisements...............................................................................................................92.2 TheWeb2.0andWord-of-mouth..........................................................................102.3 Digitalmarketing........................................................................................................112.3.1 Internetmarketing............................................................................................................122.3.2 Viralmarketing...................................................................................................................132.3.3 Influencermarketing.......................................................................................................14
2.4 Segmentation................................................................................................................14
3 Media...........................................................................................................................163.1 Theintroductionofsocialmedia...........................................................................173.2 Socialmedia..................................................................................................................183.2.1 Socialmediamarketing..................................................................................................193.2.2 Thesocialmediamix........................................................................................................20
4 Researchmethod.....................................................................................................294.1 Datacollection.............................................................................................................294.2 Dataanalysis.................................................................................................................294.3 Thestudy’simplementation....................................................................................304.3.1 Theinterviewframework..............................................................................................304.3.2 Choosingtheinterviewees............................................................................................31
5 Results.........................................................................................................................325.1 Cases................................................................................................................................325.1.1 Íslandsbanki:Fakingadeath........................................................................................325.1.2 WOWair:CanyouflirtyourwaytoIceland?........................................................355.1.3 Tjarnargatan:Drivingundertheinfluenceofsmartphones...........................375.1.4 Domino’s:Qualityoverquantity.................................................................................39
5.2 Analysis..........................................................................................................................425.2.1 Theadvantages...................................................................................................................425.2.2 Thedisadvantages.............................................................................................................425.2.3 Thethreatsandopportunities.....................................................................................435.2.4 Thefourstepsofmarketingonsocialmedia........................................................445.2.5 Howsocialmediacampaignsdifferfromcampaignsonothermedia........45
6 Discussion..................................................................................................................476.1 Limitations....................................................................................................................496.2 Furtherresearch.........................................................................................................50
References.........................................................................................................................51
7 Appendix.....................................................................................................................557.1 Appendix1....................................................................................................................557.2 Appendix2....................................................................................................................56
7
Tableoffigures
Figure1:Theintersectionofmassmediaandpersonalmedia,creatingsocialmedia....17
Figure 2: The ratio of Icelanders, 18 years old and older, who use social media (89
prósentÍslendinganotaFacebook,2015)................................................................18
Figure3:DistributionofFacebookusersintheUSA(Statista,2016a).............................22
Figure4:DistributionofSnapchatusersintheUSA(Statista,2016b).............................24
Figure5:DistributionofTwitterusersintheUSA(Statista,2016c).................................26
Figure6:DistributionofTinderusersintheUSA(Statista,2015)....................................28
Figure7:ThefourC'sformarketingonsocialmedia.......................................................44
8
1 Introduction
Itissafetosaythatwiththeintroductionofsocialmedia,marketinghaschanged.Social
media is a fast growing and evolving environment with its users increasing daily.
Companies and brands have used this rapid growing environment as a tool in their
marketing strategies, creating a newworld with variousmarketing opportunities. An
increased supply of these new media for marketing strategies results in companies
havingtodecidewhichsocialmediumisbestsuitedfortheircampaigns.
Theuseof socialmedia inmarketing is relativelynewbut is increasing immensely.
The goal for this thesis is to look at how social media differ from campaigns in
traditionalmassmediaandwhatsocialmediumsuitsbest forcampaignswhentaking
thecampaign’sgoalsintoconsideration.Inrelationstothattheresearchquestionwas
created:
WhatcanbelearnedfromsuccessfulsocialmediacampaignsinIceland?
In this thesis, the author interviewed marketing representatives and owners of
companiesthathaveconductedsuccessfulcampaignsusingsocialmediaastheirmain
medium. The goalwas to find outwhat factors affect the choice of a socialmedium
used for a campaign. Companies are competing in finding newways tomarket their
productsonsocialmedia.Noteveryoneishoweveronsocialmediaandthereforeinthis
essayweshalllookathowmarketingdiffersonmediawhenmarketsegmentsaretaken
intoconsiderations.Thisthesisisthoughttobepracticalforcompanieswhendeciding
whatsocialmediumtouseforcampaignsinrelationstogoalsandtargetgroups.This thesis will start by explaining whatmarketing is and its main forms, with a
focusonadvertisements.Media is then introducedandanattentionbroughttosocial
mediawithanexaminationonfourpopularsocialmedia.Afterthatcomesachapteron
methodologythatdiscusseshowthedatawascollectedandanalyzed.Fourcaseswillbe
demonstrated that were created from interviews, with companies’ marketing
representativesandowners,whousethosefoursocialmediaformarketing.Lastlythe
resultswillbeexaminedanddiscussed.
9
2 Marketing
Whatismarketing?Themarketingconceptisinterpretedtodayas“theachievementsof
corporate goals through meeting and exceeding customer needs better than the
competition” (Fahy and Jobber, 2012, p. 5). The American marketing association
approved this definition of marketing in 2013: “Marketing is 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.”
(AmericanMarketingAssociation,2017).
It is important for an organization to decide how it is going to communicate its
marketingmessagetothemarketplace.Therearevarioustechniquesformarketersto
do so and they are called the promotionalmix. The promotionalmix is comprised of
seventechniques,whichareadvertising,salespromotion,publicity,sponsorship,direct
marketing,digitalmarketingandpersonalselling.Organizationsneedtoconsidereach
technique’sstrengthsandlimitationsandmusthavefiveconsiderations inmindwhen
making their decision. These five considerations will have a major impact when
choosingtherightpromotionalmix.Thefirstoneisresourceavailabilityandthecostof
promotionaltools,thesecondonebeingmarketsizeandconcentration,thethirdone
referring to the customer information needs, the fourth one is the product
characteristicsandthefifthonepushversuspullstrategy(FahyandJobber,2012).
2.1 AdvertisementsAsmentionedaboveadvertisingisoneofthetechniquesinthepromotionalmix.Itskey
benefitsarethatadvertisementsareconvenientforbuildingawarenessfortheyhavea
wide reach and can reach audiences quickly, a brand positioning concept can be
effectively communicated through advertising repetition and they can be used to aid
saleseffort.Thedisadvantagesarehoweverthattheyare impersonalandtheyhavea
limitedcapabilitytoclosesales(FahyandJobber,2012).
One view of advertisements is that they considered to be powerful enough to
encouragecustomerstobuyaproductorservicebymovingthemthroughfourstages.
10
Thestagesareawareness,interest,desireandaction,knownasAIDA.Thisisalsocalled
thestrongtheoryofadvertising(Rawal,2013).
To move a customer through all four stages it is important to choose the right
advertisement’s message. The advertising message translates an organization’s basic
value proposition into an advertising platform. The advertising message means the
words, symbols and illustrations that are meaningful to the target audience. When
sending out a message, the brand personality is generally the message the
advertisement seeks to convey (Laskey, Fox and Crask, 1995). When choosing the
message, especially for socialmedia, itmaybemoreefficient to create twodifferent
commercialswiththesamemessagebutsetupdifferently.ABtestingisamethodthat
compares two versions of contents together to determinewhich one performsmore
effectively.Inrelationstosocialmediamarketing,thisisusedwhentryingtoseewhat
contentreceivethehigherengagement(Optipedia,2017).
The main goal of advertisements is to have an impact on companies and their
customers to introduce and/or sell products. Their goal can also be to improve the
environment and draw attention to the community’s regulations and values.
Advertisements differ on whether their focus is on public safety or to mainly sell
products,buttheyallhaveincommontobringattentiontowhatisbeingadvertised.If
the potential customer becomes aware of the product being advertised, receives the
information that is shared and responds in accordance to the advertisement’s goals,
thenitissaidthatitserveditspurpose(BusinessDictionary,2017a).
2.2 TheWeb2.0andWord-of-mouthTheWeb2.0referstoanarticleTimO’ReillywrotewherehestatedWeb2.0refersto
developments in online technology that enable interactive capabilities in an
environmentcharacterizedbyusercontrol,freedomanddialogue(O’ReillyandBattelle,
2009).Theformerversion,theWeb1.0,wasasimpleone-waycommunicationbutthe
currentversion,theWeb2.0,allowsuserstointeractwiththesender,creatingatwo-
waycommunication.IntheWeb2.0environmentuserstrustotherusersasasourceof
knowledge. Even though many active contributors do not get paid salaries for their
contributions,theyreceiverecognitionandrespectfromotherusersandcreateword-
of-mouth.Word-of-mouth communication is information that is transmitted between
11
individuals.Ittendstobemorereliablethanmessagesfromformalmarketingchannels,
becausewe receive the information frompeopleweknowand trust.WOM is said to
influencetwothirdsofallsalesofconsumergoods.Withthe introductionoftheWeb
2.0andsocialmedia,wordofmouthtravelsquickandreviewsfromcustomersonline
are visible to all online users. Nowadays companies, restaurants and all types of
businessesstrivetoreceivegoodrecommendationsonmediasuchasTripAdvisorand
areable to receiveacertificatestating theirgoodrecommendations.Companies then
makethecertificatesvisibletothecustomers,whetheritisonlineorwithinthewallsof
thecompany,giving thecustomeracertainassuranceofquality (TutenandSolomon,
2015).
2.3 DigitalmarketingNew developments in the digitalmarket and in technology over the past years have
beenremarkable.Notonlyisthenumberofusersofsocialmediasitesrapidlygrowing
but also the sites themselves. Users now have, with the fast-growing technological
developments, high-speed access to multiple devices with an Internet connection,
meaningthattheycanbeonlinealmostwhereverandwhenevertheywant.Usersare
alsonowspendingalargeamountoftimeonline.Forthesereasonsmarketingonthis
mediaisquicklydeveloping(Barnes,2002).
Digital media has a couple of features that make it unique and have helped to
revolutionizemarketing communications andmade it into a powerfulmarketing tool.
The first feature is identification. Most websites or social media sites require
registration before becoming a user.When registering, the individual often creates a
profile by giving his or hers e-mail address, name and other information. This allows
digital media to identify their users. The next feature is being instantaneous. Today
mostportabledevicesareWi-Ficonnected,meaningthatwherevertheindividualgoes
while carrying forexamplea smartphoneora tablet, theycancommunicate instantly
and content can be updated or changed when necessary. The third feature is
interactivity.Whenevertheusersareconnectedtothe Internettheycanbeactiveon
theirprofileengaginginone-on-onecommunicationormany-to-manyconversationsas
for example on Twitter. The fourth feature is control. Digitalmedia gives the user a
largeamountofcontrolwheretheycandecidewhatinformationtheychoosetoshare,
12
onwhatmedium, if theuserwants to receive informationandcontroloverhowthey
express their opinions. The fifth and last feature is co-creation.With the interactive
environment that digital media has created, consumers now become a part of the
creationofmarketing strategies.Marketers and consumers combine their efforts and
co-createdigitalmarketing(FahyandJobber,2012).
Digital marketing can take various forms and they are internet marketing, search
advertising, e-mail marketing, social media marketing, viral marketing, mobile
marketing and interactive television marketing (Fahy and Jobber, 2012). Internet
marketing, socialmediamarketing and viralmarketing shall be examined in the next
chaptersastheyarethedigitalmarketingformsthatarerelevantinthisthesis.
2.3.1 Internetmarketing
Asmentionedabove, Internetmarketing isa formofdigitalmarketing. Ithasbecome
popular for users to use Internet sites to purchase products or services with the
development of digitalmedia, such as on thewebsiteAmazon.com. The Internet has
alsobecomeapowerfulmarketingcommunicational toolandcompaniesaretryingto
increasecustomerengagementthroughtheirwebsites.Onlinemarketinghasavariety
of forms such as display advertisements, rich media advertisements, e-mail
advertisements, search advertisements and online video advertisements. Display
advertisements refers to banner ads, richmedia to pop-upwebpage advertisements
andonlinevideoadvertisements to forexampleadvertisementsonYouTube. Internet
advertisingisworth$23billiondollarsintheUnitedStatesandintheUnitedKingdomit
comprisesover20%oftheadvertisementmarket(FahyandJobber,2012).
When comparing online advertising to othermedia, it has the advantage of being
relatively low cost, flexible as it can be a combination of video, text, audio and
animation and it can segment the market and target groups more effectively.
Measurementsofinternetmarketingcanbemadethroughclickrates,asinhowmany
peopleclickon theadvertisement,andconversionrates,as in thenumber registering
on awebsite. However, Internet advertisements such as banner ads seem not to be
workingasaffectivelyasbeforewiththeirestimatedclick-rateaslowas0.002percent.
Internetmarketingrequiresmarketerstobeinnovativeandtoconstantlyfindnewways
tograbpeople’sattentiononline(Chaffey,Ellis-Chadwick,MayerandJohnston,2009).
13
2.3.2 Viralmarketing
Viralmarketingisconsideredtheword-of-mouthpromotiononsocialmedia.Itisbased
on shares and call-to-action on social media where users are the ones who bring
awareness to thepostsor campaigns.Companies strive for their campaign to receive
viralmarketing by creating content that speaks to users and build amessage that is
engagingandpromoteaspectsofthecompanythatuserswanttosendonwards.This
callsforcreativitywhenmakingcampaignsandcommercialsandagreatunderstanding
ofthetargetgroup.Viralmarketingcanbelow-costtoproduceandishighlyeffective
becauseitissharedbetweenusersthatarefollowingeachotherandthereforeareless
likelytorejectcontentcomingfromtheminsteadofstraightfromacompany.Therefor
itpossessesthequalityofword-to-mouthpromotion(Leskovec,AdamicandHuberman,
2007).
2.3.2.1 Buzzmarketing
Buzz marketing is the most recent form of direct marketing. It is a viral marketing
techniquethatfocusesonword-of-mouthpromotionforacampaignoradvertisements,
whetheritisthroughverbaloronlinecommunication.Thefirststepinbuzzmarketingis
findingtheleaderswithinthetargetgroup,theoneswhoarelikelytostartatrendthat
otherswillfollowandtheonesthatarelikelytoadaptearlyon.Awarenessofthebrand
then passes on from the leaders to the followers, and therefore increases the brand
awareness. In many cases the leaders are celebrities or well-known individuals who
eitherdirectlyorindirectlypromotethebrand,eitherbyrecommendingitorsimplyby
wearingorusingtheproductorservice(KirbyandMarsden,2006).
Whenthetargetmarkethasbeenidentified,thenextstepischoosingthemessage
and themedium,whichbothmayvary.As for themessage, itmaybea video clip, a
photograph,ablogorane-mailandthemediaarefrequentlyonline,butmightalsobe
offlinesuchaspostersandflyers.Whenbuzzmarketingstartsonline,thereisnowayof
knowinghowfaritwillgoandhowmanypeopleitwillreach.Thelaststepisevaluating
theeffectivenessofthebuzzmarketing.Itisdifficultbecausemarketersmightbeable
to see howmany people for example viewed a video, but there is noway for them
knowingwhoviewedit(FahyandJobber,2012).
14
2.3.3 Influencermarketing
When influencer marketing is used then the focus is placed on the most influential
consumers inatargetmarketwiththepurposeofturningthemintobrandadvocates.
Therefore,aninfluencerisinspiredorhiredtobeanadvocateforabrandinsteadofthe
company marketing directly to a group of consumers. This type of marketing has
become increasingly popularwith the growing popularity of socialmedia. Influencers
tend to use their personal social media sites to promote the brand and therefore
speakingdirectlytotheirfollowers.Theinfluenceroftenchoosesabrandthatfitshisor
her image and thereforemost likely also speaks to his or hers customers (Kirby and
Marsden,2006).
Astudymadein2016indicatedthatintheUK,69%ofcompanymarketersand74%
ofagenciesarecurrentlyworkingwithcelebritiesintheircampaigns.Focusingonsocial
mediainfluencers,around28%ofcompanymarketerssaidtheyhadworkedwithonein
thepreviousyear.Whenaskedaboutupcomingcampaigns,43%ofcompanymarketers
said that socialmedia influencerswould be involved in their strategies. The research
also showed that Instagram is themost effective platform for engagements when it
comestoinfluencermarketing(MarketingCharts,2016).
2.4 SegmentationMarket segmentation is vital when companies are trying to fulfill their customer’s
needs. Market segmentation refers to the process of defining and subdividing
consumersorbusinesseswithinamarketintosegmentsbasedonsimilaritiesinneeds,
attitudesorbehaviorthatmarketingcanaddress(Wood’s,2013).Thus,segmentingthe
market allows a company to divide a diverse market into smaller groups that have
common features, which allows them to attend better to the needs of these groups
(Smith,1956).
Whensegmentingconsumermarkets, thegroupsmaybedivided into threemain
groups,behavioral,psychographicandprofile variables.Behavioral variablesmightbe
thoughtofastheultimatebasisforsegmentationwhereasthepurposeofsegmentation
is to identify differences in behavior that have an impact on themarketing decision.
Psychographicsegmentationbasesonthebeliefsthatpurchasingbehavior is linkedto
the consumer’s personality or lifestyle. Profile segmentation is based on grouping
15
people with similar values and interest together, for example people that value low
caloriesinfoodandthengroupingthembyage,wheretheyliveandetcetera(Fahyand
Jobber,2012).
Segmentationisvitalforstrategicmarketing.Itallowsthemarketerstounderstand
themarketthatthecompanyistargetingandcreatemarketingstrategiestoefficiently
servethatmarket(FahyandJobber,2012).Withagreaterunderstandingofthetarget
market, companies can for example choose amedium for their marketing strategies
thatsuitstheirtargetcustomergroup.
16
3 Media
Anotherstepinrelationstomarketingistochoosethemediawherethepublicationof
the advertisements will be made. The term media is the communication channels
through which news, entertainment, education, data, or promotional messages are
disseminated.Media includes every broadcasting and narrowcastingmedium such as
newspapers,magazines,TV, radio,billboards,directmail, telephone, fax,and internet
(Business Dictionary, 2017b). The variety of media now available for advertising has
increased immensely over the last decade, with the increasing popularity of social
mediaandhundredsoftelevisionchannelsandradiostations.Whenchoosingtheright
mediaforanadvertisementtwokeydecisionsmustbemade,thechoiceofmediaclass
andmediavehicle.Whereasmediaclassreferstochoosingforexampleeithertelevision
or press and themedia vehicle refers to choosing for example a particular television
channel(FahyandJobber,2012).
Social media is defined as the online means of communication, conveyance,
collaboration, and cultivation among interconnected and interdependent networks of
people, communities, and organizations enhanced by technological capabilities and
mobility.Socialnetworkingsites(SNS)aretheonlinehostsonsocialmediathatenable
sitememberstocreateandmaintainprofiles,connectwithothermemberswithsimilar
interests and participate using various services the site offers. SNS allow users to
developa social identitybyaddingpicturesoravatars to theirprofileaswellasbasic
information about themselves and making their profile their own, for example by
indicating their relationship status, mood and friend lists and to create statuses.
Connections are created with people that are either the users´ friends, followers or
fans, and they communicateand share content inwaysasdirectmessage,wall posts
andchatsoninstantmessaging.Directmessagingreferstoe-mailingbyusingthesocial
networkingsites,wallpostsarepoststotheusersprofilethatarevisibletoothersand
instant messaging or chats are two-way communications between users (Tuten and
Solomon,2014).
17
3.1 TheintroductionofsocialmediaMedia ranges from mass media to personal media. Mass media refers to one-way
communications that can reach numerous individuals while personalmedia refers to
channels capable of two-way communication on a small scale. Looking at those
definitions in terms of socialmedia, onemight see that it is amixture of these two
ranges,forsocialmediaallowsyoutoeitherhaveasimpletwo-waycommunicationor
communicatewithuptothousandsormillionsofothers(FahyandJobber,2012).
Figure1 is intendedto illustratehowsocialmedia isamixtureofbothmassmedia
andpersonalmedia.
Figure1:Theintersectionofmassmediaandpersonalmedia,creatingsocialmedia.
Developmentinthetechnologicalenvironmenthasbeenquicklygrowing,especially
in cellular andother smartdevices.Constant growth in cellulardevicesparticularly in
theenlargementofscreensoffersgreatopportunitiesforadvertisements.Largescreens
offer many opportunities when it comes to sharing advertisements with consumers.
SincethereleaseoftheIpadin2010,themarketfortabletsquicklygrows(Kastrenakes,
2015).Most portable devices are connected to the Internet and follow their owners
mostof the time.Thisallowsadvertisers tocreatenewandcreativeways toconnect
moreeasilywithcustomersanywhereandatany time.Theuseofapps (applications)
has increased fast in accordancewith this technological development (Statista, n.d.).
Oneofthebenefitsofadvertisingthroughappsisthateverymessagecanbeupdated
fast and the new and improved ones immediately become visible for the customer
(Árnason,2014).
18
3.2 SocialmediaSocialmediausehasbeengrowingforthepastdecadewiththeintroductionsofvarious
media. It is not only a platform for entertainment and communication but also a
platformforopportunities.
ThefollowingpictureshowsaresearchperformedbyGallupillustratingtheratioof
Icelanders, 18 years old and older, who use Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter,
LinkedInandTinder.
Figure 2: The ratio of Icelanders, 18 years old and older,who use socialmedia (89 prósent Íslendinga nota
Facebook,2015).
Theresearchshowedthatintheyear2015,89%ofallIcelandershaveanaccounton
Facebook, whereas 74% use their account daily or more often and 45% consider
Facebook to be an important medium. Snapchat comes in second, with 46% of all
Icelanders as users, thereof 31% use it daily or more often and 13% of those
interviewees felt that Snapchat was an important medium. The third most popular
socialmediamediuminIcelandisInstagram.Intotal31%ofIcelandersuseInstagram,
thereof14%useitdailyormoreoften.Twitterisinfourthplace,16%ofIcelandersuse
19
it,thereof5%dailybutonly3%consideritanimportantmedium.Tindercomesinlast,
with5%ofallIcelandersasusers(89prósentÍslendinganotaFacebook,2015).
Social media has an advantage over other media where the communications
overthemediumarereciprocal.Consumersexpresstheirexperienceoftheproductor
serviceandthencompaniescanusethis informationtoanalyzeconsumerbehavior. It
can be difficult for companies to figure out what products or services will become
popular or not, so negative review can overthrow an expensive campaign. Great
developmentsinsmartdevices,socialmediaandtheInternethasleadagreatamount
of companies tomove their advertisements online. A researchmadeby Capacent on
marketing directors from the year 2013 shows how the Internet has constantly been
growing as an advertising medium. About 75% of marketing directors that were
interviewedsaidthattheywouldusetheInternetmoreinadvertisingcampaignsinthe
year 2013, and mainly focus on social media. Around half of them said that the
expensesthatwillbeusedforonlineadvertisementswouldbecut fromfundsusually
spent on advertisements for print (Gunnarsson, 2013). Developments in the
technological industry over the past few years have had an immense impact on the
advertising industry. Companies and advertisement agencies are focusing more on
onlineadvertisingandadvertisementsareevolvingfrombeingone-sidedinformational
media to creating a mutual relationship between advertisers and consumers. This
increasing focus on digital media must have a negative effect on other media and
according to a research made by Capacent from the year 2014 it is television
advertisementsthatwillbemostaffected(Gunnarsson,2014).
3.2.1 SocialmediamarketingSocialmediaisoneofthefastestgrowingindustriesontheInternetwithmediasuchas
social networking sites, video and image sharingwebsites andblogs andmicro-blogs.
Socialmediamarketing is theuseofsocialmedia forcommunicationswithcustomers
and engaging with them online. Blogs have been popularly used for companies to
engage with stakeholders and they are also great for companies when sharing
informationandcontentswithcustomersandreader.Blogscanalsobeusedtoinform
readersofnewupdates,eventsandthecompany’sefforts(FahyandJobber,2012).
20
Social media has become a popular medium in marketing over the past decade.
SocialmediasiteslikeFacebookhavemadeitpossibletonarrowdownthetargetgroup
andsegmentthemarketasnarrowlyasacompanywishesintermsofage,relationship
status, location, interests, education and so on. Twitter and Instagram have also
developed similar strategieswhen it comes to targeting specific groups.Manybrands
were quick to adapt their marketing for social media and became active on social
networkingsiteswithmixedresults.Therearesomekeyconsiderationstohaveinmind
when marketing on social media. The first issue is control. Consumers are actively
posting videos, comments and tweets about their experiencesof a brand thatmakes
socialmedia co-created. The control ofwhat is posted and said about a brand is no
longersolelyinthehandsofthebrandmanager.Thesecondissueistheimportanceof
engagement. With social media’s increasing popularity in brand marketing it is
important that advertisements and campaigns are creative, innovative and catch the
attentionoftheaudience.Theyneedtospeaktothetargetaudienceandcallfortheir
engagement. The last issue is trust and authenticity. Those issues are important to
ensureconsumerparticipation(FahyandJobber,2012).
With the introduction of various social media, opportunities in the marketing
environmenthavebecomegreater.Sincetherevolutionof theWeb it issaid that the
directionoffocushasshiftedfromtheproductsandservicestocontexts,contentand
user experience. Seth Godin, an American entrepreneur said that “Marketing is no
longeraboutthestuffthatyoumakebutthestoriesthatyoutell”andScottCook,co-
founderofIntuitalsosaid:“Abrandisnolongerwhatwetelltheconsumeritis–itis
whatconsumerstelleachotheritis”(Storesund,2016,para.2).
3.2.2 Thesocialmediamix
Before companies start using socialmedia as part of theirmarketing strategies, they
need to evaluate what medium is best fitted for them. Each social medium has a
different purpose and reaches customers in different ways. If viewed simply from a
technological perspective, each media’s characteristics, the rules, platforms and
functionalityvaries.Marketersneedtoconsiderthefactofhowlonginformationlives
orappearsonthemediumforexampletweetsonTwitterquicklyget lost inthegreat
informationflowtheTwitterenvironmentoffers.Theyalsoneedtoconsiderthedepth
21
oftheinformationthatistherichnessofthecontent.Facebookisamediumthatallows
people to come together in one place where they can share a large amount of rich
informationinvolvingatopic(WeinbergandPehlivan,2011).
Companies arenotonlyusing socialmedia formarketingnowadaysbut alsoas an
important tool for managing and engaging with their customers. Social media offers
opportunitiesforquickandefficientcontactwithcustomersthatcanbeagreataddition
tothecompany’scustomerservice(Smith,FischerandYongjian,2012).
3.2.2.1 Facebook
Facebookisbyfarthemostpopularsocialnetworkingsitetodayandithasafarlarger
audience than older media. Why is Facebook a great place for marketing? When
creating a profile on Facebook people give away a large amount of personal details
about themselves, such as age, relationship status, education andplaceof residence.
Users then like pages that they are interested in following, connectwith other users
with similar profiles as them and join groups with similar interests. Facebook then
receivesallthisinformationthatwasvoluntarilygivenawaybytheusers(Kim,2017).
Facebook possesses a competitive environment that is changing fast. Companies
needtocreatematerialforthemediumthatcatchestheaudience’seyewhenscrolling
throughabusynewsfeed.Theyneedtobecarefulofnotcopyingmaterial fromother
media,suchastheirwebsites,ratherbecreativeandcreatematerialsthataresuitable
foreachmedium.WhenmarketingonFacebook,companiesshouldoffertheir“friends”
or followers special offers just for being their friends. That encourages new and
potential customers to like your page and then constantly being reminded of your
productsorservices(TreadawayandSmith,2012).
22
Figure3:DistributionofFacebookusersintheUSA(Statista,2016a).
FigurethreeshowstheagedistributionofFacebookusersintheUnitedStatesasof
December 2016. It indicates that itsmain users are people from the age of 25 to 34
yearsold.Facebookthoughhasareachineachoftheagegroupsandtherefore,when
used for marketing, it offers a great opportunity when targeting most of these age
groups(Facebook,2017).
Facebookoffersmanytoolsandplatformstoreachcustomers,suchasevents,ads,
applications and pages. Each of these platforms contains an analytics system, called
Insights, that allows the company to easily receive updates on activity levels and
demographics (Treadaway and Smith, 2012). Facebook Insights gives companies the
opportunity to seewhichpostshave themost engagement,when their followers are
mostactive,howmuchnegative feedbackthecompany is receivingandhowwell the
customer service is going. Companies can use this information to better their page,
marketingandoverallservicethattheirpageisproviding(Kim,2017).
In 2013 Facebook partnered upwith data companies such as Epsilon, Acxiom and
Datalogix.Thesecompanieshaveaccesstoan immenseamountofdatatranscriptions
eachyearandbyformingthesepartnershipsFacebookgaineda largeamountofdata
about theirusers.Thisdata informationmade iteasier forcompanieswhowanted to
23
marketon Facebook to target theirdesired customergroup (Allen, 2013). Companies
can now target users based on their purchasing behavior and further subcategorize
them based on buyer profiles, such as clothing, food and drinks and further on.
CompaniescanalsousedatabuiltonthelifeeventsinformationthatFacebookhas.For
example, a jewelry company can choose to targetpeople that arenewlyweds,within
oneyearforexample,andthereforewillsooncelebratetheironeyearanniversary(Kim,
2017).
Facebook also has a custom audience tool that allows companies to target their
existingcustomersmoreeffectivelyandhopefullyincreaselifetimecustomervalueand
loyalty.Thiscanalsobeusedtheotherwayaround,whereacompanycanexcludetheir
existing customers from the campaign, so they are not bothered by a flow of
advertisementsfromthecompany(Kim,2017).
Nowin2017thereareover1,86billionmonthlyactiveFacebookusers,whichmakes
a17percentincreaseyearoveryear,withhalftheEarth’sinternetpopulationbeingon
Facebook(Facebook,2017).PeoplecreateanonlinepersonaonFacebookandaddhuge
amountofpersonaldataonline.ThisgivesFacebookaccesstobehavioral,preferences
anddemographicaldataforbillionsofpeople.Withthisknowledge,Facebookandother
individualsthathaveaccesstothisinformationareabletobuildmodelsthatcanpredict
allkindsofhiddenattributesforitsusersthattheymaynotevenrealizethattheyare
sharing(Golbeck,2013).
If a company is trying to expand their customer group they can choose to target
lookalike audience as Facebook calls this specific tool. Facebook then analyses the
company’sfollowersfanpagesandconnectswithpeoplethatlikesimilarpagesasyour
customers, therefore creating a customer base that is a lookalike to your own (Kim,
2017).
Whether marketing on Facebook or any other social medium it is important to
chooseonethatsuitesyouraudience.Facebookisthemostpopularsocialmediumand
possessagreatamountofdataabouttheusers.ByusingFacebookinsightsanditsdata,
a company can analyze how its campaign went and effectively target its desired
audience.
24
3.2.2.2 Snapchat
Snapchat’spopularityisgrowing,especiallyamongstyoungadults.85%ofyoungadults,
fromtheageof18to24yearsold in Icelandusethemediumanda largepartof the
group use it often a day (89 prósent Íslendinga nota Facebook, 2015). Snapchat is a
relativelynewmediumonsocialmediathatfocusesonintimacybetweenyouandyour
followers.Theapplicationdeletesallcontentbydefaultthatissharedin10secondsor
less after the recipient opens it (Kotfila, 2014). Snapchat requires the content that is
shared,toberecordedatthesametimeorrelativelyclosetothetimethatitisshared.
WhenfocusingonSnapchatformarketinguse,thematerialisthoughttobemoreabout
“sharingthemoment”andcreatingacreativeandfunmaterialforthisshorttime.The
application possesses a direct communication where the audience is known and
specific.Snapchatgivesthesendercontroloverwhotheirviewersare,bychoosingto
whomtheso-calledsnapissenttoandnotifyingthesenderofwhoviewedhisorhers
snaps.Theuserscannotsavevideosthataresent,howevertheycantakescreen-shots
of the pictures, but if they do so then the sender is notified. The only record of a
Snapchat´sinteractiontoviewersisthelistofviewerstheuserspossessesafterasnapis
sent(Anderson,2015).
Figure4:DistributionofSnapchatusersintheUSA(Statista,2016b).
25
FigurefourshowstheagedistributionofSnapchat’susersintheUnitedStatesasof
February2016.Itindicatesthatitsmainusersarepeoplefromtheageof18to24years
old,butalsohavingarelativelyhighreachtouserswithintheagegroupsfrom13to34
yearsold(Statista,2016b).
Whenmarketing on Snapchat, companies tend to follow three steps, first to offer
specialdiscounts for followers, second to launchproductsand third touse influencer
marketing.Offeringspecialdiscounts,alsocalledpromocodes,encouragesfollowersto
buyyourproduct,alsomakingthemfeelspecial,becausethisspecialofferiscreatedfor
themforfollowingyourcompany’saccount.CompaniesalsouseSnapchattogiveaway
a glimpse of their new products. This creates an excitement about the company’s
productsandcreatesanengagementbetweenthecompanyandtheirfollowers,where
they feel as they are valuable to the company and it creates a deeper customer
relationship. Influencer marketing has become increasingly used for marketing on
Snapchat.Bypartneringupwithinfluencers,thennotonlywillthesnapsbeviewedon
the company’s account but as well on the influencer’s personal account. This brings
awarenesstothecompany’sproductorservicebutaswellcanincreasethenumberof
thecompany’s followersgreatly.Companieshavealsodonethisbyhaving influencers
“takeover”theirSnapchataccountsforacertainperiodoftimeandpostsnapsontheir
behalf,forexampleforaneventheldbythecompany(Siu,2017).
Snapchat is rapidly growing as a social medium and is now in second place in
popularity,rankinginafterFacebook.Snapchatallowscompaniestobemoreintimate,
be innovative and create a fun environment for the followers. Snapchats does not
possessthefeatureofeffectivelymeasuringengagement,whichisagreatdisadvantage
whenitcomestomarketingonthismedium.
3.2.2.3 Twitter
Twitterisoneofthemostpopularsocialmediasitesandisthemostpopularmicroblog
site in the world. One of Twitter’s greatest features for organizations is the quick
communicationwithcustomers,andmightbethemosteffectiveword-of-mouthsocial
media available. Themediumgeneratesbuzzquickly through re-tweets and favorings
26
on a post. Twitter differs from othermedia as themaximum length of a post is 140
charactersandtheyareautomaticallysetpublic(Thomases,2010).
Twitterallowscompaniestoaddthefeatureoffavoring,otherknownasliking,and
followingusersbasedonhashtags.Whenfavoringorfollowingauser,theuserreceives
a notification and therefore the company often grabs the user´s attention. When a
company creates a Twitter account it is important that it stays active. Twitter has a
different environment than Facebook and other popularmedia. On Twitter, you can
post often and be as active as you want, whereas on Facebook companies must be
awareofnotbeingtooactive,asusersmayfeeloverwhelmedwithinformation.Tobe
anactiveTwitteruser,acompanyneedstorespondtotheirfollowers,sowhenauser
tagsyourcompany inapost, it isvital thatthecompanyrespondstothetweet,orat
leasttosomeofthem.Thatgivestheuserafeelingofintimacyandgivesthecompanya
morehumanatmosphere(Resnick,2015).
Figure5:DistributionofTwitterusersintheUSA(Statista,2016c).
Figure five shows the agedistributionof Twitter’s users in theUnited States as of
December2016.Theagedistributionisrelativelyeventhroughouttheagegroups,but
thehighestfortheageof25to34yearsoldand lowestamongstpeople65yearsold
andolder(Statista,2016c).
27
The most successful people and brands that use Twitter are those who think of
Twitter not as a broadcastmedium, rather an ongoing, open and thought-provoking
conversation. Most Twitter users are not afraid to speak their minds and therefore
Twitter can be a useful tool for companies to monitor how their reputation is
(Thomases,2010).
Twitterallowsbusinessestoexpandtheirbrandandpromotetheirbusiness.Itisone
of the largest and most effective social media when it comes to creating buzz
marketing.TrendsbecomepopularonTwitterandthencreateagreatopportunityfor
companies to takepart in the conversationandhopefully gain recognitionwithusers
and directing them to their pages. Twitter is a medium where companies can be
spontaneous and not dwell on what their message will contain, rather to be clever,
funnyandonpoint(Thomases,2010).
Twitter’smainusersworldwideareestimatedtobe39%18to24yearolds,20%25
to34yearolds,16,5%35to44yearolds,nearly15%45to54yearoldsandabout9,5%
55yearoldsandhigher.So,whencompaniesareestimatingwhethertouseTwitterasa
partof theirmedia theyneed tomake thatdecisionwith theusers age inmind, and
whotheyplantotarget(Thomases,2010).
3.2.2.4 Tinder
Tinder is a mobile dating app that was launched in September 2012. It´s use grew
rapidly and as of late 2014 its users, using the appmonthly, where estimated to be
around50million.Tinder isa location-basedapp,meaningthat itusestheuser´sGPS
locationwhilelookingforpotentialmatches.Itallowsuserstoswipeleftorright,leftif
notinterestedintheotheruserandrighttoshowinterest.Matchesarecreatedifboth
users swipe right oneachother’s profiles and thenproviding the choiceof starting a
directconversation(James,2015).
Whencreatingaprofile,userscaneitherconnectthroughtheirFacebookaccountor
through theire-mail account. Theuser cancreateadescriptionabouthim-orherself
containing240characters.Eachusercancustomizetheirpotentialmatchesbychoosing
the desired age, gender and proximity to the other users. Tinder creates a certain
assuranceforauthenticitywhenusersconnectthroughtheirFacebookaccount,asthen
theusersageandfirstnameautomaticallytransfertotheirTinderprofile(James,2015).
28
Figure6:DistributionofTinderusersintheUSA(Statista,2015).
FiguresixshowstheagedistributionofTinder’susersintheUnitedStatesasofthe
2ndquarter2015. It indicatesthat itsmainusersarepeoplefromtheageof25to34
yearsold,butalsohavinga relativelyhighreachwithin theagegroups from16to34
yearsold(Statista,2015).
Tinder is a relatively new social medium and has not been used for a marketing
purpose for a long period of time. It is similar to Snapchat where there is not a
possibilityofmakingaconnectionwithuserswhohavenotmatchedwithyouraccount.
There is only anoptionofdirectmessaging. Tinder is nevertheless a funandexciting
medium thatmight have a great potential inmarketing, if thought out carefully and
creatively.
This chapter’s goalwas to identify Facebook’s, Snapchat’s, Twitter’s and Tinder’s
maincharacteristics.Itisimportantforcompaniesthataimtousesocialmediaasapart
oftheirmarketingcampaignstocarefullyevaluatethemediumtheyareconsideringto
use.Companieshavetoconsiderwhatmediathetargetmarketfortheircampaignuses,
wheretheircontentwill thrivethemostand if themedium issuitable for theirbrand
image.
29
4 Researchmethod
This research was conducted to gain an insight into the marketing strategies of
successfulcampaignshereinIcelandthatusedsocialmediaastheirmainmedium.The
goalwastoanalyzehowmarketingonsocialmediaisdifferentfrommarketingonother
media and how companies are to choose what medium is best suited for their
campaigns.Thisthesissoughttoanswertheresearchquestion:
WhatcanbelearnedfromsuccessfulsocialmediacampaignsinIceland?
Aqualitativemethodwas used in this research to gain a deeper understanding of
opinions, motivation and experiences. Qualitative research often recounts who said
what to whom and why and offers no statistical data. The method can give an
understandingofwhychoicesweremadeandwhatwastheunderlyingmotivationfor
thedecision.Qualitativeresearchinvolvesbothdatacollectionanddataanalysis.Data
collectioncanbemadethroughvarioustechniques,forexamplethroughinterviews,the
collection of written resources and with focus groups (Bryman and Bell, 2011). Data
analysisisconductedsimultaneouslywhenthedatacollectiontakesplace(Straussand
Corbin,1998).
4.1 DatacollectionThedatawascollectedthroughfourinterviews.Alistofquestionsfortheinterviewwas
senttotheintervieweesviae-mailpriortotheinterview.Theinterviewswererecorded
ontheauthor’scellphoneandwerelaterlistenedtowhenwritingthecases.
The interviewsweresemi-structuredanddiffered in length,being from22minutes
to 59minutes long. Semi-structured interviews are open and allow new ideas to be
broughtupduringtheinterviewinrelationstowhattheintervieweeanswers.Theyare
flexiblebutstillbaseontheinterview’sframework.Inthebeginningofeachinterview,
theintervieweewasmadeclearofthesubjectfortheprojectanditspurposeandwhyit
wasbeingrecorded,afterhavingagreedtoit.
4.2 DataanalysisThedataanalysisbeganaftertheinterviewshadbeenconducted.Theauthorbeganby
writing the content of each of the recordings in the order that the interviewees
answeredthequestions.Thenthecontentoftheinterviewswasre-organized,creating
30
asimilaritybetweenthemandthestructureofthisassignment.Thecontentwasthen
structuredascaseswithsimilaritieswithineachother.
4.3 Thestudy’simplementationThe idea for this researchbegan in thesummerof2016,whentheauthorwas taking
social media classes at Stanford Univeristy where a sudden interest for social media
marketing arose. The author wrote a short essay about successful social media
campaigns in theUSA in relation toemotional factors. In the fall of 2016, theauthor
metwiththeinstructorforthisresearchandafterthatbeganexploringwhatcampaigns
in Iceland used social media as their main medium and had become successful.
Companies thatuseddifferentsocialmediaas theirmainplatformfor theircampaign
werechosensoananalysiscouldbemadeonhowtheychosethemediumandonwhat
thecompaniesbasedtheirdecision.Theauthorcontactedthepeoplethatwerebehind
thecampaignschosenforthisresearchanddatesfortheinterviewtotakeplacewere
decidedviae-mail.Theinterviewstookplacefromthe29thofMarchtothe12thofApril
2017.Thedataanalysiswasconductedalongsidetheinterviewsaswellasthewritingof
otherchaptersofthisresearch.
4.3.1 Theinterviewframework
Alistofinterviewquestionswascreated,thenreviewedandapprovedbytheinstructor.
Thequestionswereforthemostpartthesameforalltheinterviews,exceptfortheone
with Domino’s. The questions were the same for the three other interviews, and
createdwithonemediumandone campaign as themain focus. The authorhowever
consideredDomino’s tobeactiveand successfulonmore thanonemediumandwas
curious as towhy theydecided to close a fewof their socialmedia accounts. All the
interviewshad the same themeandgoal, findingouthow the companies choose the
socialmedia for their campaigns, if they believe them to be effective, looking at the
media advantages anddisadvantages andwhat the companies have learnedby using
socialmediaintheirmarketingstrategies.
31
4.3.2 Choosingtheinterviewees
TheauthorhadbeenworkingfortheMarketingassociationofIceland,ÍMARK,andhad
attendedlecturesheldbyalloftheinterviewees.Theintervieweesgavepresentations
about their successful campaigns on these differentmedia and the author contacted
themshortlyafter.
Theintervieweeswerethreemaleandonefemalewhoallhaditincommontobea
part of or in charge of marketing for each company. The author contacted the
interviewees via e-mail. The author introduced herself in the e-mail, described the
purpose of the research, its main goals and ending the e-mail asking whether the
personwaswillingtomeettheauthorforaninterview.Afterreceivingaconfirmation
fromtheindividuals,adatewassetandtheauthorsentthemthequestionnaire.
Threeofthefourinterviewswereconductedattheinterviewees’officebutonewas
held inanofficeat theUniversityof Iceland.Each interviewwentwellwitha friendly
atmosphereandpleasantnessgoverningtheroom.
32
5 Results
5.1 CasesThe cases in this chapter are based on interviews with individuals in charge of or
involvedwiththecompany’smarketing. Ineachcasethe firm isbriefly introduced,as
well as the campaign in focus, its themeandgoal. Thenademonstration ismadeon
how the socialmediawas selected and how itwas used for the campaign. Finally, a
clarificationwillbemadeonwhatthecompanieslearnedfromthecampaignandfrom
usingsocialmedia.
5.1.1 Íslandsbanki:FakingadeathChoosing Facebook as the main medium: Íslandsbanki was selected because of its
successfuluseofFacebookasthemainmediumfortheReykjavikmarathoncampaignin
2016.
ÍslandsbankiisoneofthelargestbanksinIceland.Sincetheyear1997ithasbeena
sponsorforthemarathoninReykjavík,whichisthemostpopularmarathoninIceland
(Íslandsbanki,2017). For thepast coupleofyears, Íslandsbanki’smarathoncampaigns
havefeatured localcelebritiespreparingfortherun.Thesecampaignsstarted in2013
wherethe“Marathonman”wasPéturJóhann,aknowncomedianinIceland.Thenext
coupleofyearsthetrendcontinued,whereasin2014itfeaturedSkálmöld,anIcelandic
rockband, in2015 featuredthemarathonmotheranddaughterand finally in2016 it
featuredValdimar,anIcelandicsinger/songwriter.
These campaigns differ from the bank’s normal campaigns where the bank is not
trying to sell any products or services and therefore Íslandsbanki does not need to
feature it in the campaigns. These campaigns are only intended as a project for the
community,andasfarastheintervieweeisawareof,thelargesthereinIceland.Since
thecampaignsstartedin1997morethan500millionIcelandicKronahavebeenraised.
The marathon man for the 2016 campaign was, as mentioned above, Valdimar
Guðmundsson.Thecampaignconsistedofhimtrainingtotakepartinthe10kilometers
runintheReykjavíkmarathon.Themaingoalsforthe2016campaignweretoincrease
registrationsforthe10kilometermarathonandtoraisemoremoneyforcharities.The
amount raised in 2014 for charities reached an all-time high, but in 2015 both the
33
amountofmoneyraisedandtheregistrationsfortherundecreased.Thefocuswasset
on the 10 kilometers run insteadof other distances becausemost people start there
whengoing into running.Thedecrease in registrations for the10kilometers runmay
notbea surpriseas sporteventsallover thecountryhave increased immenselyover
thepastyears.
The target groups for this campaignwere separated into two, basedon the goals.
Thetargetgroupforthe10kilometersrunwaspeoplefromtheageof18to55years
old who lived in the capital area. The target group for raising more money for the
charitieswaseveryoneolderthan18yearsoldthatusedsocialmediaregularly.
TheideaandthemessageforthiscampaigncamefromaninterviewValdimargave
on the television showKastljósearlier thatyear,wherehedescribedadreamhehad
dreamtabouthimsuffocating,andlatervoicedhisfearforhishealth,beingoverweight.
Thiscampaigntouchedpeople.Theonlythingthatwasnottrueintheaboutcampaign
wasthatValdimardidnotdie.PeopleweregladtoseeabelovedIcelandicsingerthat
hadhealthproblemstrytochangehislifestyleforthebetter.Peopleconnectwithreal
storiesandexperiencesandthatiswhythesecampaignsgetpeopletotalkandreceive
PR. People are excited to seehow the transformation is going and curious about the
developments.
A20 secondTelevisioncommercialwasairedadvertising thememorial concert for
Valdimar Guðmundsson, in the beginning of the summer 2016, straight after the
Eurovisionsongcontest.Thecommercialleftviewersinshockwonderingifthiswastrue
or not.While the commercialwasbeingbroadcasted Íslandsbankiwaspreparedwith
people on Twitter ready to declare that Valdimar was not dead. The TV commercial
endedwithalinktoanonlinesite,wherepeoplecouldseetheendofthecommercial,
withValdimarwakingupfromadream.Thetwolatercommercialswerebroadcastedin
thenexttwodays,butneveragainthefirstonewhereValdimardied.ThosethreeTV
commercialsweretheonlyTVcommercialsshowninthiscampaign.
Using these three 90 second commercials, which were all together around 90
second, was to get people’s attention and move them online, where the campaign
wouldlatertakeplace.Facebookwaschosentobethemainmediumforthiscampaign,
basedon the target groups andbecauseof itswide reach in Iceland. The campaign’s
34
content was modified frequently. By using Facebook analytics Íslandsbanki could
monitorhoweachpostaffectedregistrationsforthemarathonandthenmodifiedthe
content in relations to this information. In the beginning of the campaign those
observationswereaccuratebutasthecampaigncontinueditwasnotclearwhetherthe
PR that it had gained was affecting registrations or if it was the content posted on
Facebook.AlsobyusingFacebookpeoplecouldshare,likeandcreatebuzzaroundthe
campaignandreceivenewupdates.
The 2016’s marathon campaign turned out to be Íslandsbanki’s most successful
campaign for the marathon since the beginning. The money amount raised for the
charitieshadneverbeengreater,raising97millionIcelandicKronaandtheregistration
forthe10kilometersrunincreasedsincetheyearbefore.Inadditiontothosegoalsthe
registrationforboththehalfandthewholemarathonhadneverbeengreater.
FacebookandothersocialmediahavechangedthewayÍslandsbankimarketsitself.
Whenusingsocialmediainmarketingagreaterpressureiscreatedtokeepthecontent
up to date and always improving and modifying it. The company receives instant
feedbackfromcustomersanditcreatesatwo-waydialoguebetweenthecustomerand
thecompany.Ifthecompanyreceivesagoodrecommendationfromcustomersthrough
socialmedia,itcanspreadquicklyandthevalueofthewordofmouthcanbeinvaluable
forthecompany.
ThebenefitsofusingFacebookasthemainmediumforacampaignisthatone
canseehoweffectivelythecontentisreachingtheconsumer.Itispossibletonoticethe
interactions and to control who see the posts. Compared to other media such as
advertisementsintelevisionoronprint,usingFacebookislessexpensive,segmentation
becomesmoreeffectiveandupdatesandimprovementsareeasier.
ThedisadvantagesofusingFacebookasthemainmediumforcampaigns in Iceland
arepartlybasedonhowsmallourpopulationis.Companiesareabletosegmentmore
effectivelyinothermorepopulatedcountries
Íslandsbanki also uses social media for other campaigns and overall in their
marketingstrategies.Themarketersbelievethatsocialmediahaschangedmarketingin
a good way and should make advertising more efficient if and only if segmentation
analysisiscorrectlydone.Theirgoalistoimprovetheirtwo-waycommunicationwith
35
customers through social media. Íslandsbanki believes that with the decrease in the
numberofbranchesalloverthecountryitisvitaltoimprovetheirmediaandgivethe
bestservicepossible.
Íslandsbanki iscurrentlynot lookingatnewsocialmediafor itsmarketing, itrather
wants to focus on using their current socialmedia better andmore efficiently. They
want their media to work as their branches. So that when a customer enters
Íslandsbanki’smedia they canaseasily findwhat theyare looking foras if theywere
beingassistedatabranch.
5.1.2 WOWair:CanyouflirtyourwaytoIceland?IntroducingnewflightstoCanadabyusingTinder:WOWairwasselectedbecauseofits
successfuluseofTinderasthemainmediumwhenintroducinganewroute,Canada.
WOWairisanIcelandiclow-fareairlinethatwasfoundedin2011.Itstatesitselfas
offeringthecheapestflightstoandfromIceland,providingamemorableserviceallthe
way.Itbasesitsmarketingstrategiesonbeinginnovative,tryingnewandexcitingways
inmarketingandattractingPR(WOW,2017).
WOWairintroducedCanadaasanewdestinationinOctober2016.Theirmarketing
teamdecidedtotrysomethingnew,andbecamethefirstairlinetomarketitselfonthe
datingappTinder.ItannouncedthatitwouldbeactiveonTinderonitsTwitteraccount,
tweeting:“We'reonTindergivingawaytickets!SwipinginCanadarightnow.Almostgot
sweptawaybyyoursmoothlines....".Assoonastheannouncementwasmade,media
allovertheworldstartedwritingaboutthecampaign,creatinggreatPR.WOWairused
a Tinder pro account that made it possible to decide your location wherever in the
world, and they chose Canada, Toronto andMontreal. The planwas to get potential
customer to“flirt”with theairline inhope towin tickets to Iceland,asking: “Canyou
flirtyourwaytoIceland?”.
WOWairdownloadedanappthat“swiped”right for them,making iteasier toget
more matches. It ended up with over 15.000 matches in Toronto and over 8.000
matches in Montreal. WOW air usually work with a low budget in their marketing
campaignsandthiscampaigncostcomparativelyalmostnothing.Thetargetgroupfor
this campaignwasWOW’susual targetmarket, youngadults from18yearsold to30
36
yearsold.Thosearetheirmaincustomersandaswellaspeoplewhousesocialmedia
themost.
Forthiscampaign,WOWairusedcrosspromotion.Theyusedalltheirsocialmedia,
withfocusonTinderbutaswellonSnapchat,Twitter,FacebookandInstagram.When
askedwhytheychoseTinderastheirmainmediumforthiscampaign,theysaidthatthe
app possessed all the characteristics that aligned with WOW air’s main marketing
strategies, being new and fun. Some people within the marketing team raised their
concerns over this decision,whether itwas too cheesy and cheap, but in the end, it
turnedoutgreatbeingconsideredinnovativeandnewsworthy.
Brandsneed tobe carefulofwhether theirmarketingwill hurt their image,as the
intervieweementionedthatIcelandairwouldnotgoonTinder,asithasdifferentgoals
andstrategies in theirmarketing.ThemajorbenefitofusingTinder is that it isanew
wayforacompanytomarketitself.Itisexcitingforcustomerstogettoknowandtalk
tocompaniesdirectlyonaninformalmedium.Itmakesthecompanyfeelmorehuman
intheeyesofthecustomer.ThedisadvantageofusingTinderisthateverythingmustbe
sentdirectlytooneperson.ItdoesnotpossessthequalitiesthatFacebook,Snapchator
Instagramhave,whereyoucanreacheverysingleoneofyourfollowerswithapostora
story.
Thiscampaign’ssuccesswasdifficulttomeasure.WOWairmeasured it inmatches
andhowmanypeople sent themamessageonTinder.Themain indicatorof success
was the PR and advertisement value equivalency, meaning the measurement of the
benefittoWOWairfrommediacoverageofaPRcampaign.ThiscampaignforWOWair
costthemonlytheTinderproaccountthatwas$9.99dollarspermonthindirectcost,
plus the use of their own human resources in marketing. The total matches were
around30.000andabout60%ofthematchessentWOWairamessagethroughTinder.
WOWairbelievesthatsocialmediahascompletelychangedthewaybrandsmarket
themselves,inagoodway.Socialmediahasmadeitpossibleforcompaniestomarket
themselvesatarelatively lowcost,comparedtousingoldermediaasprint,radioand
televisionadvertisements.
WOWair learned a great deal from this campaign. It taught them to take risks in
choosingnewmediaforcampaigns, iftheybelievethemediumtobeincorrelationto
37
their brand image, act more human, be where the people are, be clever, funny,
innovativeandtakechances.WhenaskedifWOWairisconsideringorforeseesusinga
newsocialmediumintheirmarketingstrategiesinthenearfuture,WOWmentionedan
applicationnamedMusical.ly.Itisoneofthemostpopularappsforyoungadultstoday
andWOWairiscurrentlytryingitoutandmayuseitforfuturecampaigns.
5.1.3 Tjarnargatan:DrivingundertheinfluenceofsmartphonesChoosing Snapchat as the main medium: Tjarnargatan was selected because of its
successful useof Snapchat as themainmedium for the campaign “HöldumFókus” in
2016.
Höldum fókus is a campaign created by a media production company named
Tjarnargatan. The campaign was made in collaboration with Síminn and
Samgöngustofan. Höldum fókus is a brand owned by Tjarnargatan and they create a
campaignforthebrandeachyearwithnewcollaborators.
The campaign’s main goal is to raise awareness of the risk of using smartphones
whiledrivingor“Drivingundertheinfluenceofsmartphones”.Thecampaignconsisted
offourpopularIcelandicinfluencersonSnapchatwhofakedacaraccidentwhileusing
the medium. They posted the accident on their own Snapchat account without any
explanationorwarningthatthiswasanadvertisement.Theirfollowerssawtheaccident
live and were left in shock whether it was real or not. In the end the influencers
announcedontheirSnapchat that thepurpose for thoseSnapchatswastoencourage
peoplenottousethemediumwhiledriving.
Thetargetgroupfor thiscampaignwaspeople fromtheageof17to35yearsold.
The reasonwhySnapchatwaschosenas theplatform for this campaignwasbecause
whiledriving, youngadults,whowere the targetgroup for this campaign,mainlyuse
thismedium if theyareusing theircellphones. Itwas thought tobemostaffective to
usethemedium,thetargetgroupwouldmostlikelybeusingwhiledriving,tocreatea
likely scenario. Snapchat has, according to Gallup, become the second largest social
mediumandisproportionallygrowingthemostamongstyoungadults.
By using Snapchat, a certain momentum was created and only the influencer’s
followerscouldseethecampaign,ortheaccidenthappening.Thiscampaignwasbased
on emotionallymoving people rather than encouraging them to share and therefore
38
Snapchatwas a convenientmedium.One of the disadvantages of using Snapchat for
thiscampaignisthattheonlypeoplethatcouldseeit,atthebeginning,werethosewho
were following the influencers. When using Snapchat for an advertisement purpose
thenit isdifficulttomonitorthecampaign’sreach,fortheonlydatathat isathandis
theviewsoftheSnapchatsoneachinfluencersaccount.Itisalsonotknowniftheviews
ontheinfluencers’accountsarecomingfromthesamefollowers,whereastheviewers
mayoverlap.
StraightafterthecampaignwaslaunchedpeoplestartedtalkingaboutitonTwitter
and soon the press contacted Tjarnargatan. The campaignwas covered in all the top
newsmedia in Iceland and received great coverage. Though Snapchat was themain
medium,thecampaignwasuploadedtoYouTubeso itwouldbeaccessibletoawider
audienceand fora longerperiod, foraSnapchat isonlyviewable for24hours.When
askedwhytheybelievethatthiscampaignreceivedsomuchcoverage,theybelievethe
reason to be that it was made with the society’s best interest at mind and in the
purpose of hoping to improve people’s behavior while driving. People tend to share
posts and news more when they are related to helping others, not just an
advertisement.
Tjarnargatan believe that the benefits of using social media, versus television
advertisements for example, can be that instead of using most of the campaign’s
budget to create one great television advertisement, you can use social media for
creatingmanysmallerwavesofinformationthatarecall-to-actionandhopefullycreate
buzz.Whenusingsocialmedia,youhavemoreroomtobecreativeandyoucanmonitor
thecampaign’ssuccessalmostimmediately.Socialmediacreatesaninstantinformation
flowandthereforewhenpublishingcontentforacampaignonsocialmediayoucanuse
ABtestingandseebylookingattheengagementswhatcontentsuitstheaudiencebest.
Advertisements in general have changedwith the introduction of socialmedia. They
havemovedfrombeingaglorified,Hollywood-storytellingtowardscontainingasincere
andcleavermessage.Socialmediaadvertisementsmaynotbeof thesamequalityas
televisioncommercialsbuttheymaybemoreaffectiveandbetterimplemented.
ThiscampaignshowedthatitispossibletouseSnapchattocreatesomethingclever
witha lowpublication costand receivegreat viral coverage. Facebookand Instagram
39
havenowmadeitmoredifficulttogetviralcoveragewithoutpayingforitandtherefore
Snapchatisstillagreatmediumifusedcorrectly.
WhenaskedaboutthefutureopportunitiesforsocialmediamarketingTjarnargatan
believe that VR360 and mini apps could become great. But whatever the next big
medium will be, the same principles will still apply. Companies and brands need to
tackle eachmedium and figure out which suits them best. The content needs to be
clever andnot contain toomuchof an advertisingmessage. Theyneed tobe true to
themselvesandcreatecontentinaccordancewiththat.
5.1.4 Domino’s:QualityoverquantityChoosingtherightmediathatfitsthebrandimage:Domino’swasselectedbecauseof
itssuccessfuluseofsocialmediathroughouttheyearsinmarketingonline.
Domino’shasagreatbrandvaluehereinIcelandandisverywelllikedamongmost
people. Socialmedia haveplayed a large role in theirmarketing strategies for a long
timenow,orsincetheirpopularitystartedrisinghereinIceland.
SocialmediaplaysalargeroleinDomino’s’marketing,whereeachdaytheylookat
theirmarketingandtrytocreategoodcontenttoputontheirsocialmediaeventhough
there is no campaign in action. Domino’s chooses quality over quantity in their
marketingstrategiesonsocialmediatheyratherpostafewthingswithagoodquality
thanpumpingoutlowqualitycontent.Thereisagreatawarenessofthebrandherein
Iceland so there is no need for the brand to focus on building brand awareness.
Domino’sbelieve thatpeople goon socialmedia to relax and look for entertainment
andtherefore theywant to focusoncreatingcontent thatmovespeople, rather than
contentthatblendsinwiththeoverflowofadvertisementsonline.
Domino’sinIcelandusesFacebookandTwitterintheiroverallmarketing.Domino’s
chosethemfor their featuresandqualities.ThebenefitsofTwitterare thatusersare
spontaneous and not too serious and for Facebook it is the largest socialmedium, a
goodplacetoadvertisebecauseofitswidereach.OnbothofthesemediaDomino’sis
able to connect with customers and take part in various conversations. When using
thesetwomedia,customersconnectwiththecompanyinamorepersonalsense.They
are great for customer service,where if customers have a problem they can connect
withthecompanythroughthesemediabysendingaphotooftheproductoramessage
40
andthecompanycanrespondquickly.Twitterdoesnotofferthepossibilitytoadvertise
onthemediuminIcelandyet,butDomino’sisnotsurethattheywouldchoosetodoso
if itwereanoption. They seeTwitter asmoreof aplacewhere the company canbe
wittyandhumanandtheytendtoallowthemselvesmoreonthatmediumcomparedto
Facebook,asitisadifferentenvironment.Bothofthesemedia,andmostsocialmedia,
requirealmost24/7monitoring,becausesocialmedia isarapidevolvingenvironment
andacomplaintpostedonsocialmediacansnowballintoacrisisforthecompanyina
short amount of time. Therefore it is vital for companies to answer complaints or
commentsquicklyandbeactive.
Domino’swasactiveonSnapchatandInstagramwheretheyusedthemasapartof
theirsocialmediauntiltwoyearsagowhentheydecidedtoclosetheiraccounts.They
feltas theywerebecoming too similar toother companies thatwereactiveon those
mediainIcelandanddecidedtoclosetheiraccounts.Theywanttoshedalightonthe
fact that companies should not be on media that do not suit them well. Domino’s
however did not stop using those media all together, but started using influencer
marketing. They partnered up with a few influencers and the deal was that if the
influencerswereorderingapizzaandshowingitontheirmedia,thenthepizzawould
havetobefromDomino’s.Influencermarketinghasincreasedimmenselyoverthelast
yearandsincethenDomino’shasdecreaseditsuseofthattypeofmarketing,asthey
wanttomaintaintheiruniqueness.
WhenDomino’s ismonitoringacampaign’s success throughsocialmedia, then the
technique depends onwhat the campaign’s goalwas. If the goalwas for example to
increase sales on a product, then they monitor how many people clicked on the
advertisementandendedupbuyingtheproduct.Theyusedthistechniqueforexample
with their Christmas desert.Domino’s only advertised the dessert on socialmedia so
theycoulddirectlylinkthesalestomarketingthroughtheirsocialmedia.Ifthegoalwas
ontheotherhandtoincreasebrandawarenessthentheymeasuretheamountoflikes
andsharesontheirposts.
Domino’s performs a targetmarket analysis before each of their campaigns. Their
productmakes their targetgroupwide, for itappeals to somany.After theyperform
thisanalysisthentheychoosemediatopublishthecampaignon.Domino’sdividestheir
41
agegroupsintopeoplefromtheageof18-25,26-35,36-55andthen55yearsoldand
older.Whenfocusingontheoldergroupstheytendtotaketheircampaignstoprintand
radio.Theycloselyconsiderwhatmediumsuitseachagegroupandmakethatdecision
inalliancewiththeiragency.Thosedecisionsarebasedonstatisticalinformationabout
what medium each age group uses the most. For example, when advertising their
“Tuesday offer” they focus on young adults when selecting a target to reach on
Facebookandtheyfocusedonolderadultswhenmarketingtheirmoreadvancedpizzas
withhigherquality ingredient thatareabitmoreexpensive.Domino’salsouses their
targetmarketanalysiswhentheyonlywanttoreachpeopleincertainareasofIceland,
for example if an offer is available in Akureyri they do not want their customers in
Reykjavíktobebotheredbythatoffer,andthereforemakeitonlyvisibletopeoplethat
theofferisrelevantto,usingdemographicalsegmentation.
In their social media marketing, they tend to perform AB testing to see which
contentraisesmoreawareness.WhenaskedwhatDomino’sbelievestobethelargest
benefit with using social media for marketing the answer was that it is how many
people you can reachwith less amount of funding thanwhen using othermedia for
marketing.Companiesareabletoseedirectlywhatcontentspeaksmosttoconsumers
andwhatleadstosalesandawareness,theresultsareconcreteanddirectlyvisibleto
thecompany.
Socialmedia has taught Domino’s a lot in relations tomarketing. They are better
connected to customers, it has taught them to use the brand in a different way, be
morehumanandhavemorefun.Whensomethinggoeswronginacampaigntheycan
fixitquickerthanonothermediaandtheyperceivethattobeahugebenefit.
Their most successful social media campaign would be #HeForShe, which was
createdinapartnershipwithUNwomen.Atfirstitwasjustonsocialmedia,butlaterit
went on to be shown on television. They received enormous feedback, and it raised
greatawareness.Theybelievethatthereasonbehindthecampaignssuccess isthat it
movedpeopleandithadanimportantmessage,toraiseawarenessofuglycomments
maderegardingwomen.UNwomeninIcelandsaythatthiscampaignistheirbestone
yet.
42
Domino’sisalwaysstrivingtobeaheadofnewdevelopmentsinmarketinginregards
tosocialmedia.Theyuseexperiencesfromoutletslocatedinotherpartsoftheworld,
mainlytheUS,andusetheirbestpractices.Otherandnewservicesarebeingofferedin
theUSsuchasorderingthroughvoicecontrol,whichwouldbehardtoadaptforIceland
sinceourlanguageisnotspokenbymanyandfewsoftwareprogramsunderstandour
language. They strive to be innovative and keep up with new developments and
perceivethemselvestobeluckytobeabletobuyequipmentfromtheirownoutletsall
over theworld. Theymight look at an app calledMusic.ly for theirmarketing in the
future,asitspopularityisgrowing,butthatmightjustbeatrendthatwillfade.Asfor
nowtheywillfocusonimprovingtheservicesthattheyarecurrentlyoffering.
5.2 AnalysisIn this chapter the advantages, disadvantages, opportunities and threats associated
withmarketingonsocialmediaareidentified.Ademonstrationofwhatthecasesabove
had incommonwill thenbeconductedand lastlyacomparisonwillbemadeonhow
socialmediamarketingdiffersfrommarketingonothermedia.
5.2.1 TheadvantagesTheadvantagesofusingsocialmediaforcompaniesinmarketingarethatsocialmedia
brings the customers together in one place. Assembling the customers allows the
companytogatherinformationaboutthem,monitorandadaptitsservicesorproducts
to their needs (Mazurek, 2009).When looking at the cases each of the socialmedia
offered a different advantage. Facebook’s main advantages lie in its reach and
segmentation ability, Snapchat’s in an intimate environment allowing a creative
storytelling, Twitter’s in theabilityof creatinga conversationand its creationofbuzz
marketingandTinder’sinbeingnewandexciting.
5.2.2 Thedisadvantages
The disadvantages are however that companies can lose control over the
communications into the hands of the customer (Mazurek, 2009). Socialmedia is an
openenvironmentthatallowscustomerstoopenlystatetheiropinions.Itcanbecrucial
foracompany’ssurvivalinthemarketplacetoreceivegoodrecommendationsfromthe
customersandifanegativeconversationaboutthecompanystartsspreadingonsocial
43
media,thenthere isnowayofknowingof itsreach. Inrelationstothecases,eachof
the social media possessed its disadvantages. Facebook in terms of that Iceland is a
smallcountryandthereforecompaniescannotsegmentgroupsasefficientlyasinother
countries.SnapchatandTinderhadthesamedisadvantagethatwaslimitationsinterms
ofinformationalflow.ForSnapchatonlytheindividual’sfollowerscouldseethecontent
and for Tinder everything had to be sent through direct messages. Twitters main
disadvantagesarethelimitationsincharactersforthemessagethatisbeingposted.
5.2.3 ThethreatsandopportunitiesThe threats that face the company when marketing on social media can be to
underestimate the media. The companies can release too much information or give
awaytoomuchoftheircontrolandthereforeloseitspowertothecustomers(Mazurek,
2009).
The opportunities a company gains when using social media are for example the
connection the media offers between companies and customers. The possibility of
efficientsegmentationofthemarketisalsoagreatopportunityforthecompanies.Both
opportunities give the companies a chance to create a deeper relationshipwithboth
existingandpotentialnewcustomers.
44
5.2.4 Thefourstepsofmarketingonsocialmedia
Whenlookingatthesecasesinrelationstoeachother,thereisavisiblesimilarityinall
ofthecompanies’strategieswhenchoosingasocialmediumformarketing.Theauthor
created amodel to describe the factors that need to be taken into consideration or
steps that the companies followed when choosing the medium. This model will be
called“Thefourstepsformarketingonsocialmedia:ThefourC’s”.
Fourstepsformarketingonsocialmedia
ThefourC’s
Figure7:ThefourC'sformarketingonsocialmedia
Thefirststepisdecidingthegroupthatthecompanyisfocusingonforthecampaign,
who is the targetmarket? After deciding the targetmarket then the companymust
figureouthowtheyaregoingtoreachthetargetgroup.Theyhavetochooseamessage
thatspeakstothetargetcustomersandcreatecontentforthecampaign.Thenextstep
istofigureouthowtoconnectwiththetargetmarket.Thecompanyneedstodosoby
lookingatthedata,toseeonwhatsocialmediumtheagegroupthattheyaretargeting
isactiveon.Italsoneedstotakeintoconsiderationwhatmediumisbestsuitedfortheir
Feedback
Consumer
Content
Connect
Change
45
message,whereasforexampleonTwitterthemessageislimitedto140characters.The
last step is change, analyzing howwell the content reached your target market and
whether it was effective in relations to the campaign’s goals, for example leading to
awarenessorincreasinginsales.Thecompanyneeds, inaccordancewiththeanalysis’
results,tomodifyandchangethecontentuntilthecompany’sgoalsaremet.
Social media is a two-way conversation and therefore companies need to take
advantageofthefactthattheyhaveadirectconnectionwiththeircustomersanduse
thefeedbacktomodifytheircampaignsonsocialmediathroughouteverystageofthis
model.
5.2.5 Howsocialmediacampaignsdifferfromcampaignsonothermedia
Asaresult,thecompaniesdemonstratedacleardifferencewhenitcomestomarketing
onsocialmediaversusonothermedia.
Thefirstdifferentiationistheopportunitythatsocialmediaoffers insegmentation.
Socialmediaallowsmarketerstonarrowdowntheirtargetmarketimmenselyandasa
resultmaking their campaignsmore specific and customizedwith the targetmarkets
needsinmind.
Marketingonsocialmediaisrelativelylowincostcomparedtomarketingonother
media.Thisallowsthemarketersforexampletocreatemorematerialonsocialmedia
for the same cost or perhaps lower than the cost of producing one television
commercial.
Socialmediaisatwo-waycommunicationaltoolthatallowscustomerstotakepartin
campaigns.Companiescanbecomemoreconnectedwiththeircustomersanditcreates
opportunities for them to create a deeper relationshipwith the customers.On social
mediacompaniesreceivefeedbackquickerthaneverbeforewhenusingothermedia.
Thisallowscompaniestoadapttheircampaignsinaccordancetothefeedbackreceived
and create better andmore affective campaignswith the customers´ needs inmind.
Companies can use AB testing which helps them customize and quickly see what
contentismorerelevanttothetargetgroup.
46
Withsocialmediaprovidingatwo-waycommunicationitalsocreatesgreatpressure
forthemarketers.Itrequiresmarketerstobequicktomodifyandimprovecontentthat
isnotreceivinggoodfeedback.Socialmediacancreateviralmarketing,bothgoodand
bad, and thereforemarketing representatives need to be quick to answer complaint
becauseabadreviewcanquicklyreceivegreatviralcoverage.
Socialmediaoffersanenvironmentthatallowscompaniestotakemorechancesand
givesthemanopportunitytocreateinnovative,funandclevercampaigns.Ifacompany
isoneofthefirstonestouseanewmediumfortheirmarketingstrategiesitcanreceive
greatPR,forexamplewhenWOWairwasthefirstairlinetomarketonTinder.
Companiesneedtochooseasocialmediathatsuitsthemarketingmessageandbase
thatdecisiononacomparisonof thecharacteristicseachmediumprovides.However,
whatever socialmedia a company chooses to use for theirmarketing strategies they
alwaysneedtobetruetotheirbrandimageandcreateaclearmessage.
Whenmarketingonbothsocialmediaandothermediasuchastelevision, radioor
print,thegoalsarestillthesame.Eachmediagoalistocreatecontentthatmovesthe
customerthroughfourstagescalledAIDAthatisawareness,interest,desireandaction
and create a content that delivers the marketing message efficiently to the target
market.
47
6 Discussion
This research was conducted for the purpose of identifying what the marketing
managers, of companies that created successful socialmedia campaigns, foundmost
relevant when choosing the right medium. Social media was the platform for this
research, lookingatcampaigns thatbecamesuccessfulusingdifferent socialmediaas
themainmediumforthecampaign.Foursocialmediawhereintroducedbasedonthe
campaignschosenfor this research.ThemediawereFacebook,Snapchat,Twitterand
Tinder.Thegoalwastoseekananswertotheresearchquestionby interviewing four
individualswhowereinchargeofortookpartinthecompanies’marketingcampaigns.
WhatcanbelearnedfromsuccessfulsocialmediacampaignsinIceland?
Theresultsindicatethatwhenmarketingonsocialmedia,companiesneedtodecide
whotheconsumersare,whatcontentwillbesuitedforthoseconsumers,whatmedium
is most affective to reach the target market based on data, change the content if
neededandlistentofeedbackfromcustomers.
The factors that seem to be most relevant when choosing what social media to
market on are who the target market is, what the campaigns goal is and what the
marketingmessageis.
Age appears to be the largest factor when choosing a socialmedia for the target
market. Facebook reachesmost age groups, Twitter has a wide range as well, while
SnapchatandTindermostlyreachyoungadults.Overallsocialmediaseemstosuitwell
whenthemarketingmessageisintendedtoreachpeopleundertheageof55yearsold.
Marketsegmentationhasproventobeavitalfactorwhencompaniesaretryingtofulfill
theircustomer’sneed(Wood’s,2013).Thereforeitdoesnotcomeasasurprisethatit
turned out to be one of the most relevant factor when choosing a social media to
marketon.
Socialmediaandothermediamarketingpossessthesamegoals, tocreatecontent
that moves the customer through four stages. That is to create awareness, interest,
desireandactionofwhatthecompanyisoffering.
The campaigns goals were for themost part to drive people to engage or create
awareness. Therefore, the campaigns had to receive attention from a wide range of
48
people. Íslandsbanki did so by using first a shocking television ad and then moving
viewerstothesocialmediumthathasthewidestreachinIceland,Facebook.WOWair
didsobyusinganunusualsocialmediumfortheirmarketing,beingthefirstairlineto
useTinderastheirmainmedium,andinreturnreceivinggreatPR.Tjarnargatanwanted
toraiseawarenessofthedangerofusingcellphoneswhiledriving.Therefore,theyused
Snapchat, which is the socialmedia that ismainly being used by young adultswhen
using theircellphoneswhiledriving.Domino’s raisesawarenessof theircampaignsby
eachtimecarefullydecidingwhatsocialmediaisbestsuited.
The campaigns received a large amount of shares, call-to-action and buzz, and
thereforemovedcustomersthroughtheactionandintereststage.Thecompanieswere
abletocreatecampaignsthatspoketotheaudiencewithgreatmaterialandinfluential
spokespersons. Companies strive to receive viral marketing for their campaigns. It is
consideredtobethebestword-ofmouthpromotiononsocialmediaanditisoneofthe
factors thatmadethecampaigns,demonstratedearlier in this thesis, successful (Fahy
andJobber,2012).
Theresultsofthecampaignsshowedthatdesirewascreated.Íslandsbankicreateda
desireforpeopletotakepartinthemarathon,Domino’sbyremindingcustomersofits
delicious menu, WOW air by creating a desire for travellers to flight to Iceland and
Canada and Tjarnargatan a desire for young adults to stop using smartphones while
driving.
Twoof the four campaigns demonstrated in this thesis used influencermarketing,
both Íslandsbanki and Tjarnargatan. They however used different approaches,
Tjarnargatan used the influencers’ personal profiles to publish their campaign while
Íslandsbankiusedtheirownprofile.Bothofthecompaniesusedindividualsthatspoke
to their target market. Tjarnargatan chose celebrities that had many followers, who
youngadultslookuptoandwerelikelytolistento.Íslandsbankichoseanindividualthat
did not fit the runner stereotype but instead chose someone who was changing his
lifestyleandencouragingpeople inall shapesand sizes to takepart in themarathon.
Companiesthereforeneedtochoosehowtheywillusetheirinfluencers,iftheywilluse
their personal profiles or let them use the companies’ profiles instead. Both ways
49
appeartoworkeffectivelyandthusthecompanyhastodecidewhatwaytheybelieve
willbebettersuitedfortheircampaign.
Theresultsindicatedthatthecompaniesseeacleardifferenceinmarketingonsocial
media versus on othermedia. Socialmedia offers greater opportunities inmarketing
segmentation and is relatively lower in cost. It is a two-way communicational tool
whereas other media is one-way. Two-way communication allows companies to
connectmorewithcustomers,createadeeperrelationshipandoffersquickerfeedback.
It also creates greater pressure than marketing on other media, for it requires
marketers to be quick to respond to customer feedback or complaints. Socialmedia
gives companies a chance to be innovative and create a clever message in a new
environment.Ifcompanieswanttosucceedinmarketingonsocialmediathenitisvital
for them to choose a social media that suits the marketing message and the brand
image.
Thecompaniescarefullydecidewhatsocialmediatousebycomparingeachmedia’s
characteristics to themarketingmessage. Facebook isoverall the strongest candidate
for whatever type of message, for its wide reach and various opportunities to
communicate tousers. Twitter is considereda strong candidatewhen themessage is
informalanditsgoalistocreateaconversation,Snapchatwhenthemessageispersonal
and there is a desire to tell a story and Tinder when the marketing message is
unconventionalandfun.
6.1 LimitationsThemain limitation in this thesis is that only one companywas interviewed for each
socialmedium. To gain a deeper understanding ofwhether each of the socialmedia
demonstrated in this thesis creates a successful campaign when following the
company’s strategies, then more interviews have to be constructed and analyzed.
Therefore,thisthesisonlyprovidesanindicationofwhatisvitalforcompaniestohave
inmindbeforechoosingasocialmediumfortheirmarketingstrategies.
50
6.2 FurtherresearchSocialmedia is still relativelynew in relations tomarketing.Companiescangain from
furtherresearches inthis fieldthat ishowtheycan improvetheirmarketingonsocial
media and effectively choose a socialmedium suitable for their campaigns. Itwill be
interestingtoseehowtheevolvementofsocialmediawillaffectmarketinginthenear
futureandwhetheranewmediumwillsoongovernthesocialmediamarket.
51
References
89prósentÍslendinganotaFacebook.(2015,25thofMay).DV.Retrievedfromhttp://www.dv.is/frettir/2015/5/30/89-prosent-islendinga-nota-facebook/
Allen,K.(2013).AQuickGuidetoEachofFacebook’sPartnerCategories.Retrievedfrom
https://adespresso.com/academy/blog/facebook-partner-categories-guide/
AmericanMarketingAssociation.(2017).DefinitionofMarketing.Retrievedfromhttps://www.ama.org/AboutAMA/Pages/Definition-of-Marketing.aspx
Anderson,K.E.(2015).Gettingacquaintedwithsocialnetworksandapps:Snapchatand
theriseofephemeralcommunication.LibraryHiTechNews,32(10),6-10.
Árnason,S.(2014).AuglýsingamiðlaráÍslandi:Standastafræniroghefðbundnirauglýsingamiðlarjafnfætisííslenskumarkaðsstarfiþegarkemuraðskilvirkniskilaboðaogmarktækni?(UnpublishedBS-thesis).HáskólinnáBifröst,BusinessAdministration.
Barnes,S. J. (2002).Wirelessdigitaladvertising:natureand implications. International
journalofadvertising,21(3),399-420.Bryman,A.,&Bell,E.(2011).Businessresearchmethods(3rded.).Oxford:Oxford
UniversityPress.BusinessDictionary.(2017a).Advertisement(ad).Retrievedfrom
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/advertisement-ad.html
BusinessDictionary.(2017b).Media.Retrievedfromhttp://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/media.html
Chaffey, D., Ellis-Chadwick, F., Mayer, R., & Johnston, K. (2009). Internet marketing:
strategy,implementationandpractice.PearsonEducation.Facebook.(2017).Stats.Retrievedfromhttps://newsroom.fb.com/company-info/
Fahy,J.,&Jobber,D.(2012).Foundationofmarketing(4thed.).UnitedKingdom:
McGraw-Hill.
Golbeck,J.(2013).Yoursocialmedia"likes"exposemorethanyouthink.Retrievedfromhttps://www.ted.com/talks/jennifer_golbeck_the_curly_fry_conundrum_why_social_media_likes_say_more_than_you_might_think
52
Gunnarsson,G.R.(2013,1stofMarch).Könnunmeðalmarkaðsstjóra.Retrievedfromhttp://imark.is/library/Glaerur/Capacent_IMARKkynning2013.pdf
Gunnarsson,G.R.(2014,21stofFebruary).Rannsóknmeðalmarkaðsstjóra.Retrieved
fromhttp://www.ru.is/media/skjol/Imark-kynning-2014.pdf
Íslandsbanki.(2017).Samfélagslegábyrgð.Retrievedfromhttps://www.islandsbanki.is/um-islandsbanka/samfelagsleg-abyrgd/reykjavikurmarathon/
James,J.L.(2015).Mobiledatinginthedigitalage:Computer-mediatedcommunication
andrelationshipbuildingonTinder(MasterofArts).TexasStateUniversity.
Kastrenakes,J.(2015).TheiPad's5thanniversary:atimelineofApple'scategory-definingtablet.Retrievedfromhttp://www.theverge.com/2015/4/3/8339599/apple-ipad-five-years-old-timeline-photos-videoshttp://www.theverge.com/2015/4/3/8339599/apple-ipad-five-years-old-timeline-photos-videos
Kim,L.(2017).5ridiculouslypowerfulFacebookadtargetingstrategies.Retrievedfrom
http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2015/01/28/facebook-ad-targeting
Kirby,J.,&Marsden,P.(2006).Connectedmarketing:Theviral,buzzandwordofmouthrevolution.Oxford:Elsevier.
Kotfila,C.(2014).Thismessagewillself-destruct:Thegrowingroleofobscurityandself-
destructingdataindigitalcommunication.BulletinoftheAssociationforInformationScienceandTechnology,40(2),12-16.
Laskey, H. A., Fox, R. J., & Crask,M. R. (1995). The relationship between advertising
message strategy and television commercial effectiveness. Journal of advertisingresearch,35(2),31-40.
Leskovec,J.,Adamic,L.A.,&Huberman,B.A.(2007).Thedynamicsofviralmarketing.
ACMTransactionsontheWeb(TWEB),1(1),5.
MarketingCharts.(2016).Socialmediastarsbecomingmoreinfluentialincelebritymarketing.Retrievedfromhttp://www.marketingcharts.com/online/social-media-stars-becoming-more-influential-in-celebrity-marketing-68938/
Mazurek,G.(2009).Web2.0implicationonmarketing.OrganizacijoVadyba:Sisteminiai
tyrimai,51,69-82.
53
Optipedia.(2017).A/Btesting.Retrievedfromhttps://www.optimizely.com/ab-testing/O’Reilly, T.,&Battelle, J. (2009).WebSquared:Web2.0 five yearsonRetrieved from
https://assets.en.oreilly.com/1/event/28/web2009_websquared-whitepaper.pdf Rawal, P. (2013). AIDA Marketing Communication Model: Stimulating a purchase
decision in the minds of the consumers through a linear progression of steps.InternationalJournalofMultidisciplinaryresearchinsocial&managementsciences,1(1),37-44.
Resnick,N.(2015).4KeystoMarketingonTwitter.Retrievedfrom
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/246325Siu,E.(2017).3WaystoUseSnapchatforMarketing.Retrievedfrom
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/289286Smith, W. R. (1956). Product differentiation and market segmentation as alternative
marketingstrategies.TheJournalofMarketing,3-8.Smith,A.N.,Fischer,E.,&Yongjian,C.(2012).Howdoesbrand-relateduser-generated
contentdifferacrossYouTube,Facebook,andTwitter?JournalofInteractivemarketing,26,102-113.
Statista.(n.d.).CumulativenumberofappsdownloadedfromtheAppleAppStorefrom
June2008toOctober2014(inbillions).Retrievedfromhttp://www.statista.com/statistics/263794/number-of-downloads-from-the-apple-app-store/
Statista.(2015).DistributionofTinderusersworldwideasof2ndquarter2015,byage
group.Retrievedfromhttps://www.statista.com/statistics/426066/tinder-age-distribution/
Statista.(2016a).DistributionofFacebookusersintheUnitedStatesasofDecember
2016,byagegroup.Retrievedfromhttps://www.statista.com/statistics/187549/facebook-distribution-of-users-age-group-usa/
Statista.(2016b).DistributionofSnapchatusersintheUnitedStatesasofFebruary
2016,byage.Retrievedfromhttps://www.statista.com/statistics/326452/snapchat-age-group-usa/
54
Statista.(2016c).NumberofTwitterusersintheUnitedStatesasofFebruary2016,byagegroup(inmillions).Retrievedfromhttps://www.statista.com/statistics/398152/us-twitter-user-age-groups/
Storesund,J.(2016).Competitivemarketingadvantagebyco-creationofvalueon
Snapchat:Part2howshouldmarketersadapt?Retrievedfromhttp://www.brandba.se/blog/2016/2/24/competitive-marketing-advantage-by-co-creation-of-value-on-snapchat-part-2-how-should-marketers-adapt
Strauss,A.,&Corbin,J.(1998).Basicsofqualitativeresearch:Techniquesand
proceduresfordevelopinggroundedtheory(2nded.).ThousandOaks:Sage.
Thomases,H.(2010).TwitterMarketing:Anhouraday.Indianapolis:Wiley.Treadaway,C.,&Smith,M.(2012).Facebookmarketing:Anhouraday(2nded.).
Indianapolis:Wiley.Tuten,T.L.,&Solomon,M.R.(2015).Socialmediamarketing.London:Sage.
Weinberg,B.D.,&Pehlivan,E.(2011).Socialspending:Managingthesocialmediamix.
BusinessHorizons,54,275-282.
Wood’s,M.B.(2013).Essentialguidetomarketingplanning(3rded.).UnitedKingdom:Pearson.
WOW.(2017).Saganokkar.Retrievedfromhttps://wowair.is/um-okkur/sagan-okkar/
55
7 Appendix
7.1 Appendix1Thebasiclistofquestions
1. Geturþúsagtmérstuttlegafráherferðinni?2. Áhvaðamiðileinblínduþiðáímarkaðssetninguherferðinnar?
a. Efmarga,hvernignýtiðþiðsamspilþessaramiðla?3. Áhverjubyggðistsúákvörðunaðnotastviðþennanmiðil?4. Hverjatelurþúkostinaveraviðnotkunmiðilsins?
a. Hversvegna?5. Hverjatelurþúgallanavera?
a. Hversvegna?6. Hvernigvarárangurherferðinnarmældur?
a. Hversvegnavarnotastviðþámælingaraðferð?b. Ersúmælingalmennaaðferðinviðárangursmælingar?c. Hvernigvoruniðurstöðurnar?
7. Hvervaraðalmarkhópurinnsemvarveriðaðreynaaðnátilmeðherferðinni?8. Hvernigþróaðistherferðin/Voruðþiðoftaðendurbætaherferðina?9. Fenguðþiðsvörunviðherferðinniumleiðoghúnfórafstað?
a. Munuráherferðumásamfélagsmiðlumogalmennt?10. Hvernigtelurþúkomusamfélagsmiðlahafabreyttmarkaðssetninguykkar
almennt?a. Ágóðaneðaslæmanhátt?
11. Eruðþiðaðnotastviðsamfélagsmiðlaíöðrumherferðumykkarogalmennrimarkaðssetningu?
a. Hverjaþá?12. Hvaðalærdómdróguðþiðafherferðinni?13. Hvaðeruðþiðaðgeratilaðveratilbúintilaðbregðastviðtækninýjungum
framtíðarinnar?14. Ereinhvernýrmiðillsemþiðsjáiðfyrirykkuraðnotastviðímarkaðssetninguí
nálægðriframtíð?
56
7.2 Appendix2ThelistofquestionsforDomino’s
1. ÁhvaðamiðileinblínirDomino’shelstáímarkaðssetningusinni?a. Efmarga,hvernignýtiðþiðsamspilþessaramiðla?
2. Áhverjubyggðistsúákvörðunaðnotastviðþessamiðla?3. Hverjatelurþúkostinaveraviðnotkunmiðilanna?
a. Hversvegna?4. Hverjatelurþúgallanavera?
a. Hversvegna?5. Afhverjuhættuþiðásnapchat?6. Hefurkomaappsinsbreyttmikluímarkaðssetninguykkar?7. Hvernigmæliðþiðárangurherferðaásamfélagsmiðlum?
a. Hversvegnaernotastviðþámælingaraðferð?b. Ersúmælingalmennaaðferðinviðárangursmælingar?c. Hvernighafaniðurstöðurnarverið?
8. Þegarákveðiðerhvaðamiðiláaðnota,skiptirmarkhópurinnþámiklumáli?a. Erákveðinnmarkhópurfyrirákveðinnmiðil?
9. Eftiraðþiðhefjiðherferðirásamfélagsmiðlumeruþiðoftaðendurbætaherferðirnar?
10. Fáiðþiðsvörunumleiðfráherferðumásamfélagsmiðlum?a. Munuráherferðumásamfélagsmiðlumogalmennt?
11. Hvernigtelurþúkomusamfélagsmiðlahafabreyttmarkaðssetninguykkaralmennt?
a. Ágóðaneðaslæmanhátt?12. Hvaðalærdómhafiðþiðdregiðafnotkunsamfélagsmiðlaímarkaðssetningu?13. Ereinhvereinherferðásamfélagsmiðlumsemhefurnáðsemmestumárangri?
a. Efsvoer,hvaðtelurþúhafaýttundirárangurhennar?14. Þarsemþiðtilheyriðerlendrikeðju,eruákveðnartakmarkanireðareglursem
þiðþurfiðaðfylgjaímarkaðssetningu?15. Hvaðeruþiðaðgeratilaðveratilbúintilaðbregðastviðtækninýjungum
framtíðarinnar?16. Ereinhvernýrmiðillsemþiðsjáiðfyrirykkuraðnotastviðímarkaðssetninguí
nálægðriframtíð?