Who is Johnny X?

I need help.
I don’t know who I am.
And I need to find out first.
- Johnny X

Would it be very interesting if you could sell your product in a form of James Bond-like and Bourne Identity-like movie with the additional elements of thriller and mystery? Well, that was what Sony Ericsson did in 2008. Sony Ericsson went viral with Xperia X1 marketing. The mobile company made used of the world wide web by creating a nine-part of "Webisode" which portray a mysterious character named Johnny X, who was trying to piece together his personality and identity (Ccsinsight.com). Each episode is from two to three minutes long which followed Johnny X as he used his X1 mobile phone to try and piece together elements of his life following a kidnap by a gang.

Audience was entertained with the “alternative reality thriller” with a number of action-packed chases which can be viewed in YouTube (Techindia.forumr.net). According to Ccsinsight.com, the theme of the video was relevant to Sony Ericsson as the company is seeking to redefine itself as it struggles to differentiate its product line up from those of rivals such as Apple, Samsung, and Nokia. The award-winning campaign had attracted many interests among mobile phone users as it is being viewed and shared by them.




Who is Johnny X Trailer
(The rest of the episode can be viewed in YouTube
As the competition between smart phones has become overwhelming, Sony Ericsson needs to design a marketing strategy that is different from others. Basically, Sony Ericsson had designed an interesting product campaign by enticing the public’s curiosity as well as connects with the “coolness” of Xperia X1. The webisode also relates with the company’s initiative to position itself again. By doing so, Sony Ericsson is able to create greater awareness about its latest product and eventually increase it sales.

References:
10 Social Media Campaigns That Rock! Learn How To Do the Same. Retrieved on 7 June 2012, from http://blog.thoughtpick.com/2009/06/10-social-media-campaigns-that-rock-learn-how-to-do-the-same.html
Sony Ericsson goes viral with Xperia X1 marketing. Retrieved on 7 June 2012, from http://www.engadget.com/2008/09/11/sony-ericsson-goes-viral-with-xperia-x1-marketing/ http://techindia.forumr.net/t184-sony-ericsson-goes-viral-with-xperia-x1-marketing
BusinessWeek: Can Xperia Redefine Sony Ericsson? Retrieved on 7 June 2012, from http://www.ccsinsight.com/press/media-coverage/870-businessweek-can-xperia-redefine-sony-ericsson

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Online campaign simply the best

by Syarifah Syameen bt Syed Johari 2009567623
What better way to create an awareness of a new product if not by using the new media. New media can be portrayed as the ‘21st century’s god’ and, thus it may be considered as a lost for an organisation with no interest on embracing this new technology. This is due to the fact that everybody across the world connects with each other by using new media hence awareness of any products, services, or causes can simply be made within a minute. Ever heard of the phrase ‘the fall of advertising and the rise of public relations’? The phrase were created due to the scenario whereby many organisations nowadays has replace advertisement with public relations since public relations is more effective and cheaper compared to advertisement. Online public relations campaign is time efficient and publics can simply identify about the product or service once it goes viral in the internet.

This can be seen on a case study by Beverley Hills in 2006 on promoting and creating awareness of their new ‘Shielding Lotion’. Beverly Hills is a skincare company and has come out with numerous skincare products. One of their products is 21st Century Formulations which has a skincare lotion that called Skin MD Natural. After the successful of Skin MD Natural, they had formulated a new lotion under the Skin MD Natural which is ‘Shielding Lotion’. However, consumers had no awareness of this new product category by Skin MD Natural.


One of Beverley Hills solution is by creating an online campaign and it was launched to aimed and reaches the online consumers. Part of their strategies is by creating high search rankings on specific keywords and phrases, articles, blogs, newsgroups and also forums. Their main objectives were to create a new search term which was ‘shielding lotion’ as well as to gain search engine visibility regarding the research keywords and phrase on:
• Shielding Lotion
• Dry skin
• Dry skin treatment
• Dry skin lotion and
• Eczema treatment

The strategy on creating the awareness involved the following tactics:
• Undertaken the keyword research and optimized the website’s pages for the chosen words and phrases
• Created a news section of the site with RSS Feeds
• Written and posted weekly articles on the subject of dry skin and related skin conditions to their site. Evert article page was optimized by using the previous keywords that had mentioned before

As a result, all the articles that had been published were picked up in Google News and other syndication websites. There was no mention of shielding lotions on the internet in January 2006 yet today, when you type and search ‘shielding lotion’ in Google, you will get more than 20,000 mentions as the results. Moreover, if you search for ‘Skin MD’ you will get more than 40,000 search results. Apart from the successful of the search result in Google, Beverly Hills’ articles also were published in numerous websites and have been included in many leading physician journals for aesthetics and wellness. Furthermore, the news pages also appeared in Google Blog Search and the feed was selected up on more than 1,500 in other websites and blogs.

In a nutshell, based on the case study; this had proved that online campaign is more effective compare to the traditional advertisement. Despite creating awareness of the new product or service through online, publics can easily know and obtain information from the internet regarding the product or the service. With the emergence of social networking site nowadays, new media is one of the most successful tools and can become one of organisations measurement on creating awareness to the public on promoting their brand and their product.

Reference
Eight Case Studies Showing the Power of an Online PR Campaign. (2009, May 26). Retrieved May 30, 2012, from Social Magnet: http://www.socialmagnet.co.uk/2009/05/eight-case-studies-showing-the-power-of-an-online-pr-campaign/

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"Groupon-ing Your Brand"

by ‘Ainul ‘Aziem Binti Rahiim 2009534884
Founded in November 2008 by Andrew Mason, Groupon offers members discounts on everything from meals at restaurants to shopping excursion. Groupon is an e-tailing discount service that offers subscribers daily discounts on all manner of goods and services focused on local markets. Groupon, a name that blends "group" and "coupon," presents an online audience with deep discounts on a product or service.

Using the principles of collective buying power, Groupon offers extraordinary discounts with popular businesses and shares them with subscribers via free daily emails. The deals are activated only when a minimum number of people agree to buy, encouraging subscribers to share the promotion with family and friends. Groupon has created a powerful new marketing medium for products and services worldwide.

Through their strategic planning via collaborating with other social media such as Facebook and Twitter, Groupon have won over millions of customers across the world and their expansion is set to continue at a rapid pace towards upcoming years. No doubt by using Groupon as an internet advertising strategy can be a great way to introduce our business; especially to our local community. In other word, Groupon symbolize a simple and lucrative business as they are expanding fast, though the market is increasingly competitive. It works like e-Bay that collects things from other entities and advertises it at the reasonable price accordingly.



Check it out!!! How Rihanna used a Groupon strategy on Facebook to launch her album
Based from Todd Wasserman (2012) via mashable.com, he indicates that Rihanna currently has 53.4 million Facebook fans which make her the second most popular musician on Facebook, behind Eminem. With Rihanna consumed by her tour, the challenge was to give all those fans something to do on Facebook, preferably something that promoted the new album. The app challenged listeners to “like” a page and then go on missions to uncover content. By using Groupon, her fans can easily buy her new songs without have to go out or downloaded it from somewhere else as Groupon provide special offers and trusted services.

Evaluation
Groupon had a lot of success in its early stages, but the model of group buying has limited barriers to entry. Whether it can turn its popularity into profit will be determined by the reliability acceptance by customers.

References:
http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/0830/entrepreneurs-groupon-facebook-twitter-next-web-phenom.html
http://newmediapartners.co.uk/index.php?id=1023
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/will-groupon-really-boost-your-local-business/
http://mashable.com/2012/03/15/rihanna-unlocked-facebook/

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