Integrated Marketing Communication Project for Facebook (Master of Arts Dissertation)
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Transcript of Integrated Marketing Communication Project for Facebook (Master of Arts Dissertation)
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Integrated Marketing Communications Project
For FACEBOOK Sayaka Brand W14146916
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Table of Contents
Executive Summary ...........................................................................................................4
1. Introduction ....................................................................................................................6 1.1. Macroanalysis .........................................................................................................8
1.1.1. Industry Overview ..............................................................................................8 1.1.2. PESTLE Analysis...............................................................................................9 1.1.3. Porter’s Five Forces.........................................................................................11
1.2. Microanalysis ........................................................................................................13 1.2.1. Facts and Figures ............................................................................................13 1.2.2. Facebook Users by Age 2012 UK ...................................................................13 1.2.3. Financial Performance.....................................................................................15 1.2.4. Revenue Stream according to Sectors ...........................................................15 1.2.5. The Loss of Users............................................................................................17 1.2.6. BCG Matrix ......................................................................................................17 1.2.7. Ansoff Matrix ....................................................................................................18 1.2.8. Morphing into a different product.....................................................................20 1.2.9. Underrated Features........................................................................................22
1.3. SWOT Analysis .....................................................................................................23 1.4. Marketing Activities ..............................................................................................24
1.4.1. Public Relations ...............................................................................................24 1.4.2. Advertising .......................................................................................................25
2. Campaign Scope ..........................................................................................................28 2.1. The Role of Integrated Marketing Communications in Marketing Management .................................................................................................................28 2.2. Facebook and IMC ................................................................................................29 2.3. IMC Performance Objectives...............................................................................31
2.3.1. Business Objective ..........................................................................................31 2.3.2. Marketing Objective .........................................................................................31 2.3.3. IMC Objectives.................................................................................................32
2.4. Target Market and Consumer Profile .................................................................32 2.4.1. Age and Social Grade......................................................................................32 2.4.2. Millennials Psychographic Profile ....................................................................33 2.4.3. Decision Making Process ................................................................................36
2.5. Branding Issues ....................................................................................................40 2.5.1.Current Image versus Desired Image ..............................................................41
2.6. Campaign Tools ....................................................................................................42 2.6.1. Advertising .......................................................................................................42 2.6.2. Public Relations ...............................................................................................43 2.6.3. Sales Promotion...............................................................................................43 2.6.4. Direct Marketing...............................................................................................44
3. IMC Campaign ..............................................................................................................45 3.1. Message Development .........................................................................................45
3.1.1. Campaign Messages .......................................................................................46 3.2. Push Strategy ........................................................................................................47
3.2.1. Sales Promotion and Direct Marketing Contest ..............................................47 3.3. Pull Strategy ..........................................................................................................51
3.3.1. Advertising .......................................................................................................51 3.3.2. Public Relations ...............................................................................................59
3.4. Vertical Integration ...............................................................................................61
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3.5. Horizontal Synergy ...............................................................................................63
4. Campaign Delivery.......................................................................................................64 4.1. Campaign Budget .................................................................................................64
5. Campaign Proposal Evaluation..................................................................................67 5.1.2. Concept-Testing...............................................................................................67 5.1.3 Copy testing ......................................................................................................67
5.2 Post-testing ............................................................................................................68
6. Conclusion....................................................................................................................68
7. References ....................................................................................................................70
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Executive Summary
The aim of this report was to, based on an extensive macro and micro analysis, come up
with an integrated marketing communications campaign for Facebook. Having existed
for a decade and currently catering to 1.23 billion users, Facebook has risen to be one of
the most admired global technology companies. Despite CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s
primary motivation being to make an impact on the world by making it more open and
connected, he had decided to take his company public in 2012. Since then, it was one of
the core concerns for Facebook to postulate a lucrative investment opportunity. Initially
failing to find a successful monetization strategy, investor confidence decreased and as
a result, share prices plummeted. However, in the last quarter of 2013, Facebook finally
found its mobile strategy to bear fruit- increasing income from mobile from 30% to almost
60% of the total revenue. Even though these remarkable numbers sound promising, it
drew attention away from the actual problem: the decrease in engagement. Engagement
is crucial for Facebook to be able to continue providing highly targetable advertising
space.
The macro economical analysis has demonstrated that Facebook is still the
largest social network, but struggles with the loss of young users. Its main users are
Millennials, aged 24-35, known for their love for self-expression on social media
platforms. Moreover, the social media industry is facing threats from savvy consumers,
whose increasing concerns about data privacy damage the sector.
The microanalysis has shed light on an opportunity, which particularly would
resonate with its current main millennial users. The advertising revenue from the travel
sector is not even in the top 5 revenue sectors for Facebook- even though 52% of
people have booked vacations because they were inspired through Facebook pictures of
their friends. 95% even indicated that they had used Facebook for travel-related
activities prior to booking a holiday. There is no generation that has travelled more than
generation Y- hence, it was decided to build the campaign around travel as a core. This
will allow to achieve the objective of increasing travel sector advertising revenue to 20%
as well as increase engagement on the user side.
Even though Facebook is the most advanced and integrated platform out there, it
has lost its cool and has started to morph into a different product, mainly for young
people to keep in touch with their older relatives. Even though the campaign does not
propose to regain youth market share, as those are already covered by corporate
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Facebook’s acquisitons of younger-oriented media such as instagram and whatsapp, the
brand essence has lost its novelty.
What would happen, if we could use 100% of our brain capacity? Much like that
question, Facebook has enormous amounts of data stored in the cloud, which is left
unaccessed. Therefore, the new brand essence proposes to use the verb “explore”,
making the new essence Open. Explore. Connect. The core of the IMC campaign is a
contest, where people can submit a 1-minute video of themselves expressing how
adventurous and exploratory they are. The video with the most likes will be the winner,
getting a prize of a 3-month world travel, blogging for Facebook. The trip will be
completely unplanned and will let Facebook’s audience decide where his or her next
destination should be.
The contest will initially be advertised through outdoors and press adverts as well
as a YouTube video. After the winner is determined and the blogging starts, the print and
outdoors media will shift towards more functional advertising, to make people aware to
maximize their social media potential. Towards the end of the campaign year, Facebook
will also have its own stand at the world travel market and host seminars, to really
convince the industry players that a significant share of their ad spend should go
towards social media, particularly Facebook.
A budget of approximately GBP 3mio will be used, resulting in an ROI of 1.65.
The budget section will explain further why that number is not a definite one, as the
advertising cost was solely calculated for the UK, but the contest will have a global
impact.
Conclusively, it can be said that Facebook needs to now incentivize customer
engagement to extend and monetize their maturity stage to the maximum.
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1. Introduction
The Internet, more specifically Web 2.0, has dramatically impacted the era we currently
live in. The most predominant web-based development of the last decades was marked
by the emergence of social media. Not only has social media not been a short-lived
trend, but also has proven to be a powerful force that shaped societal behavior
completely. The connected world enables information to travel across borders with
hardly any obstacles. (Couldry 2012).
What used to be a primary motive of creating your identity online (Kabani, 2013). Has
reached into new levels, as not only individuals, but also organizations depend on it
(Dijk, J. 2012). The injection of social software platforms into companies, also referred to
as Enterprise 2.0, helps employees, customers and suppliers to share and organization
through Web 2.0 technologies (McAfee, 2006).
The industry it had its strongest effect on was the marketing industry. The emergence of
social platforms have challenged traditional media tools profusely and forced the industry
to gain “earned media” and improve their transparency (Kirby and Marsden 2006) What
used to be corporations preaching to helpless consumers on a one-way street has
transformed to a two-way feedback culture, allowing firms to gain extremely valuable
consumer insight (Kabani 2013; Zarella 2010).
The market player who has been the frontrunner for a considerable time is Facebook.
However, after a decade since its inception, the market leader has reached a turning
point. Despite being the worlds 3rd largest country, Facebook has started to experience a
decline in western countries due to saturation of the market (Williams, 2012).
In 2013, Facebook was the biggest riser in the Interbrand’s best global brands report
(Interbrand 2014; Figure 1). After a tumultuous year and decrease in investor confidence
following their IPO in 2012, they have finally managed to turn their performance around
in the last quarter of 2013. The successful implementation of an improved mobile
strategy has allowed for the latter to account for 59%, as opposed to 30% last year, of its
advertising revenue (Oreskovic 2014). Hence, Facebook has thrived at intelligently
exploiting big data to provide a meaningful and profitable strategy for its advertisers.
However, these remarkable financial figures drew attention away from the main
underlying issue; the decrease in user engagement. Facebook will only be able to
provide value to its customers as long as its product, namely the users, actively build
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their online identity by communicating their preferences, sharing content and the like
(Interbrand, 2014).
Figure 1, Source: Courtesy of Interbrand.com
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1.1. Macroanalysis
1.1.1. Industry Overview
The social media industry drives revenue from selling highly targetable advertising space
to buyers. The low barriers to entry allow small but innovative companies to gain foot in
the market, such as Pinterest. Facebook triumphantly holds the largest share of 54%,
followed by Twitter and LinkedIn (Figure 2).
Figure 2, Source: (Creativebrandmarketing 2012), Graphic Author’s own
Facebook54%
Twitter15%
Linkedin11%
Myspace2%
Flickr6%
Pinterest1%
Tumblr5%
Google Plus6%
UK Social Media Market Share in %
Myspace
Flickr
Tumblr
Google Plus
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1.1.2. PESTLE Analysis
Source Description Implication O/T Importance
Polito-Legal Privacy of Users and
User Generated
Content
Competition
Commission might
hinder planned
acquisitions
People more reluctant to use
social media, or switch to
media which only share with
a close circle of family/friends
such as Snapchat
The government might
intervene and tighten privacy
regulations, or hinder a
merger from happening to
protect user data
**
Economical Developing markets
and increased
connection to the
internet provide
opportunities
Economic Downturn
draws to Social
Media advertising for
reduced cost
Focus on developing markets
with little competition to have
first mover advantage
The Economic downturn could
portray an opportunity, as
firms are looking for more
cost-effective ways to
advertise
**
Social Preference of Mobile
Usage of Social
Media
Younger Generation
less likely to
participate in over
sharing
Marketing Savvy
Consumers
Millennials still eager to
use social platforms
Imperative to find a mobile
advertising strategy to
monetize that revenue
stream
To avoid loss of young users,
features must be adjusted to
their preferences or other
social media acquired to gain
youth market share
Promoting transparency and
listen to user’s concerns
Advertise relevant topics in
context to Millennials to
increase engagement
***
Technologic
al
Ad blocking technology
Embed adverts into newsfeed
to avoid being ignored
**
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Environment
al Increased Energy
consumption due to
technological
requirements
CSR
Promote Corporate Social
Responsibility and “green”
factors through Public
Relations to foster positive
brand image
Millennials are very receptive
towards cause-related
marketing, promote
charitable actions, such as
the “ALS Ice Bucket
Challenge” through social
media
*
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1.1.3. Porter’s Five Forces
Porter’s framework was established in 1979 to emphasize the fact that industry
competition does not only occur amongst direct rivals. Continuous striving for higher
profits goes past the direct industry rivalry as it includes four additional forces (Porter
2008). More specific information regarding competitors is available in Appendix 1.
Rivalry amongst competitors – High
The constant underlying necessity to innovate in order to stay competitive stipulates a
high intensity amongst rivals in the marketplace. Even though market players strive to
attract the highest number of users to be able to increase profitability by offering
targetable and valuable advertising opportunities, it has to be kept in mind that each of
the predominant incumbents have their own distinct features. As a consequence, users
sign up for several social networks simultaneously and use each one for its specific
purpose- be it a distinct feature, such as Graph Search for Facebook, WeChat to stay in
touch with friends from Asia, or LinkedIn to enhance one’s professional network.
Therefore, Facebook is not necessarily losing users because it failed to keep up with the
competition, but because it has reached its saturation point for some, also known as
“platform fatigue” (Waddell 2013). Another indication of a strong rivalry is the “ if you
can’t beat them- buy them” strategy that Facebook has adapted with its recent
acquisitions of Instagram for USD 1bn and Whatsapp for USD 19bn (Borges 2014; Raice
and Ante, 2014).
Threat of Substitution – Low
Directly feeding into the aforementioned argument, the threat of substitution is low.
Within the industry, users rarely convert to a medium to use exclusively, but use various
products to satisfy diverse needs. With a perspective for outside the industry, there is no
product that could substitute the characteristics social media provides to its users. The
only alternative would be to discontinue with the use of social media platforms and turn
to more traditional ways of exchanging and sharing information, such as e-mail.
Threat of New Entrants – Medium
To ensure steady profitability, it is a matter of great interest for incumbents to keep out
potential entrants (Porter, 2008). Market players therefore attempt to augment the
barriers to entry by reducing the incentives to enter the market. Habitually, what forms a
great obstacle for new entrants is the high initial capital investment required to become
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established. However, in the online-based environment, costs are a fraction of e.g.
physical storefronts and allow startups to gain foot in the market with ease. Especially in
the social media industry, it is possible to achieve explosive rates of growth after entry,
as demonstrated by incumbents such as Snapchat and Pinterest.
Nevertheless, to compete in the league of giant players such as Facebook and Google,
a vast amount of capital is needed to build competitive infrastructure.
Last but certainly not least is the necessity of highly skilled technological intelligence,
which postulates a strong barrier to entry. Given the easy entry due to low cost but high
barriers to effectively compete with know-how and infrastructure, the force can be
evaluated as medium.
Bargaining Power of Suppliers – Medium
In the case of this industry, it is quite a unique phenomenon that the user is the supplier.
This is due to the fact that users provide the “product”, to which businesses advertise.
Even though advertising through Social Media is tremendously targetable and a llows for
specific fine-tuning, the predominance of ad-blocking technology and the shift to
marketing savvy and informed consumers make impair advertising effectiveness (Kirby
and Marsden, 2006). As aforementioned, users tend to simultaneously engage with
several media with different purposes. It has to also be considered that the primary
function of social media is to connect with an audience relevant to the user. If the
medium is promising, but has no relevant audience to the user, the incentive to
communicate through the latter is significantly compromised. Hence, given the
combination of low switching cost, low threat of alternatives but tech-savvy users, the
bargaining power of suppliers can be evaluated as medium.
Bargaining Power of Buyers- Low
Marketing campaigns nowadays very often adapt an integrated approach to allow one
medium’s weakness to be counterbalanced by another’s strength (Kitchen et al 2004).
Therefore, the buyer, in this case the businesses buying advertising space and
information about the users on social media, have an interest to simultaneously use as
many channels as possible to reinforce their message to the consumer from different
angles. Hence, using a competitor’s space does not signify particular loyalty. Moreover,
since Facebook has managed to leverage a profitable mobile strategy, the revenues
have almost tripled (72%) to USD 2.5billion in the first financial quarter of 2014,
exceeding all analysts’ expectations (Taylor 2014; Alberglotti 1/2014). This illustrates
that buyers are heavily reliant on social media advertising and have therefore low
bargaining power.
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1.2. Microanalysis
1.2.1. Facts and Figures
Facebook is a social networking site, which was created Mark Zuckerberg in 2004 in his
college dorm room. What intended to be a social networking site exclusively for Harvard
students was made available nationwide, then globally, and is one of the most visited
websites today (Carlson, 2010). Facebook’s mission is to make the world more open and
connected (Facebook 2014) The company celebrated its 10th birthday in February 2014.
“The future of Facebook as the central social network in consumers’ lives will be dictated
not only by who is on it now, but also who will adopt it in the future. Facebook use has
been a habit for the over-25s for the past 10 years, it’s almost beyond a choice, more of
a reflex.” (Ollerton 2014) The company now registers 1.23billion monthly users, of which
1billion access the site also via mobile (Sedghi 2014; Figure 3).
Figure 3 Source: Courtesy of Facebook
In the UK, Facebook has 33million users, of which 24million log onto the page daily and
portrays the company’s sixth-biggest market (Halliday 2013).
1.2.2. Facebook Users by Age 2012 UK
The largest user group in the UK is aged 25-34, whereas the younger segment of 18-24
year olds only contribute to a small number of 11% or 3.3million (Figure 4). It becomes
evident that particularly Generation Y, or Millennials, are making up the largest share of
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users. They are known to be particularly active on social media, seeking validation from
peers through sharing content (Lee 2013).
Figure 4, Author’s own, Source: creativebrandmarketing
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
0-17 18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65+
511
3630
13
41
%Facebook Users by Age 2012 UK
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1.2.3. Financial Performance
Figure 5, author’s own, Source: Facebook Annual Report 2013, Edwards, 2014
As the chart illustrates, Facebook has generated consistent increased revenue over the
past 5 years. However, the profit margin was volatile until recently and has only
stabilized in 2013. The IPO in 2012 affected profits as it was a tumultuous time
financially for the company (Facebook Annual Report 2013). However, as the firm has
finally managed to find a profitable revenue stream from their mobile operations, they
were able to increase mobile revenue from 30% to 59%, making mobile income their
largest source of income (Edwards, 2014). Since its further expansion into mobile
through What’sApp, the outlook on profits for 2014 is promising.
1.2.4. Revenue Stream according to Sectors
This chart illustrates the five largest income sectors for Facebook’s advertising revenue
stream. It becomes evident that the travel sector is behind at 6% (Figure 6, Lillie 2012)
Despite Millennials being the generations that travels more than any other, and location
and rating/review services available, this sector could has upward potential (O’ Neill
2013). Facebook has been recruiting for travel sales representatives in particular as it is
trying to increase spend from the travel industry to compete with its current biggest
spenders such as Financial or Retail (FMCG) (O’Reilly 2013). A study conducted by
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
7000
8000
2014 Q1 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009
1458
7872
5089
3711
1974
777219
1500
53
1000606
22915% 19% 1% 27% 31% 29%
Facebook Financial Performance 2009-2013 in USD mn
Revenue
Net income
Profit Margin
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Sparkler Research Agency demonstrated that there are five stages of taking a holiday,
on which Facebook has an influence over: dreaming, planning, booking, experiencing
and reflecting. 52% claimed that the dreaming stage was induced by browsing on
Facebook, and even 95% of participants indicated that they use Facebook for travel
related activities prior to booking a holiday. (O’Reilly 2013) Andy Pang, Facebook ‘s UK
measurement solutions group lead, told Marketing Week it is hoped the study will aid
companies in the travel industry realise that Facebook should form a distinct share of
their advertising spend. He said: “A lot of travel marketing is about using search as the
main mechanism but that mainly falls at the buying and planning stages. This is about
reminding them that Facebook is present throughout the five stages of travel. [At the
dreaming, experiencing and reflecting stage] friends and family in pictures adds so much
more weight than a picture of an empty beach in a glossy brochure.” (O’Reily 2013)
Figure 6 Author’s own, Source:(Lillie 2012 TGB Digital)
18%
15%
13%
13%
9%
32%
Top Five Advertising Sectors Facebook
Finance
Food and Drink
Retail
Games
Entertainment
Others
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1.2.5. The Loss of Users
Despite Facebook’s promising growth and increased profitability over the past decade, it
is feared that the platform itself has reached its saturation point. In the UK alone,
Facebook lost 600’000 users in 2013, which equals to a 2% decline (Benjamin 2013).
Moreover, a Princeton study conducted by Cannarella and Spechler(2014) has revealed
that Facebook is expected to lose 80% of its users by 2017. This research compared
epidemiological models to explain user adoption and abandonment of online social
networks, hence comparing Facebook to an infectious disease, from which people will
recover once it reaches a critical mass of “infected” users. This research consequently
attracted a lot of controversy, but has a vast number of sources agreeing with it when it
comes to its saturation point in the market, as it has “lost its cool”. The initial extreme
exclusivity it was under made the platform very desirable. “Facebook is no longer where
we flirt with college classmates and spend hours posting photos. That use-case became
nearly impossible when Facebook stopped being exclusively for college students and
opened up to everyone. Inevitably, younger cousins and aunts and uncles and parents
got on the platform. It started feeling more like a family reunion photo site than a hot
social network.” (Crook 2014) The younger generation therefore gravitates towards
Snapchat, Instagram and What’sApp, which all have maintained a spark of cool by
refraining from ubiquity but focusing on their trade mark feature (Knighton 2013).
1.2.6. BCG Matrix
Figure 7, Author’s own
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When applied to the BCG Framework, it becomes evident that Facebook is a “Cash
Cow”- as it currently holds highest market share, but only sluggishly grows its user base
or even experiences declines in Europe (Figure 7). Figure 8 demonstrates Facebook’s
stage in the product lifecycle, placing it at its maturity stage.
Figure 8, Source: Payambarpour
1.2.7. Ansoff Matrix
Throughout the decade of its activeness, Facebook widely lead the market with its
innovations. Figure 9 below illustrates that Facebook has well diversified into all
strategies of growth of the Ansoff matrix. The initial years, its small market of solely Ivy
League students was penetrated until in 2006, where the firm adapted a market
development strategy, where anyone above the age of 13 was allowed on board. Since
the product is reaching maturity in western regions of the world, Facebook is looking into
further developing its emerging markets intensively (Marshall 2014). To improve user
experience and aid the creation of one’s online identity, the firm also adapted a product
development strategy by continuously adding new features such as walls, likes, news
feeds, graph search and the like (Facebook 2014). Especially since going public in 2012,
the company found itself on a bumpy road until finally succeeding at exploiting its mobile
strategy. Its main source of income is paid-for-advertising of brands, since it offers a
vastly targetable platform. The firm recently started to reduce organic reach of brand
pages to encourage paid-for ads and sponsoring of posts (Hoffmann, 2014).
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Facebook as a corporation is performing very well and has been following an aggressive
acquisition and diversification strategy to spread its portfolio amongst various technology
industries. A key advantage of the nature of Facebook’s business is that new “products”
are intangible and cost a fraction of a usual research and development for a physical
product. Given the lack of these types of expenses, the company is in possession of vast
amounts of cash (Stone 2014) In addition to the recent acquisitions of Instagram and
What’sApp, Facebook has also taken ownership of Oculus Rift, a virtual reality
technology company, and ProtoGeo Oy, a company that produces a fitness tracking app
called moves (Alberglotti 2/2014). Facebook is heading to compete with Google on the
battle of who is pioneering the future (Stone 2014).
Diversification strengthens a company’s position in the market place as it spreads risk
into different sectors and extends the company’s existence in case one sector
underperforms. In the case of Facebook, as a platform, however, the unrelated
acquisitions will not be able to directly extend its growth or maturity stage in the life
cycle.
Figure 9: Ansoff Matrix, Author’s own
If all the growth strategies have been fully exploited and the maturity stage extended to
its maximum potential, it is natural to slowly mature with the market. However, Facebook
is still the world’s largest and most integrated social network. This IMC campaign will
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allow the platform to maximize its capabilities for its existing users to significantly delay
its expiry date.
1.2.8. Morphing into a different product
According to a recent study, older teenagers perceived Facebook as “not just on the
slide, but basically dead and buried” Simpler social networks, such as Twitter, Snapchat,
Instagram and WhatsApp have started to take its place.
The continuous loss of young users is attributed to the fact that it has been regarded as
“uncool” and profiles purely kept alive to keep in touch with older relatives (Sparkes
2013). “What appears to be the most seminal moment in a young person’s decision to
leave Facebook was surely that dreaded day your mum sends you a friend request”
(Miller, 2013). Professor Daniel Miller of University College London, who conducted an
extensive anthropological study on social media behavior, says: “This year marked the
start of what looks likely to be a sustained decline of what had been the most pervasive
of all social networking sites. Young people are turning away in their droves and
adopting other social networks instead, while the worst people of all, their parents,
continue to use the service.” (Miller, 2013)
The chart below (Figure 10) illustrates the decrease of users from younger age groups
since 2011, whereas the 25+ segments have augmented.
Figure 10 Source: Courtesy of Statista.com
As aforementioned, as a response to increasing loss and disinterest of younger users,
Facebook has acquired competitors, such as Instagram and WhatsApp, to gain media
market share of younger users. The figure below illustrates that in the UK, the largest
user group falls into that of people aged 25-34, whereas the age group up to 24 years
old only make up less than half of the latter.
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Instagram has grown its user base at a rate of 23% in 2013 to 90.77million. More
importantly, Instagram has one of the largest shares of an active user base of 16-24 year
olds (Mander 2014) The company’s most recent acquisition, WhatsApp, has been
growing at a remarkably rapid rate, still acquiring 1million new users daily. Moreover, it
took WhatsApp only 4 years to reach 450million users (see Figure 11), whilst not
spending a penny on marketing thanks to its viral success (The Economist, 2014). In
addition to gaining more share of the younger users market, this partnership will help
Facebook to further establish their presence in the messaging sector (Gaudin 2014).
Figure 11, Source: The economist
Since Facebook has implemented its strategy to acquire younger users through different
media, it is now crucial to maximize the potential of existing users.
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1.2.9. Underrated Features
Since Facebook’s omnipresence has made the platform very mainstream, the company
needs to drive away from this image and emphasize its almost unknown features, which
should give the company competitive advantage over other market players. A year ago,
the firm injected a powerful search engine, graph search, into their platform. However, it
has not been able to use its full potential, not for the advertiser nor user, yet (Joseph,
2014). Having suffered from “quality content problem”, where Newsfeeds were cluttered
in irrelevant information, the organization now relies on machine learning to provide the
customized content for the individual user. Based on history and memory thereof, the
platform chooses from over 1500 possible posts and selects those relevant to past social
media behavior (Oremus, 2014). It also has recently launched “nearby friends”, which
allows users with the enabled feature to see who is the nearby area. Whilst Google is
very mainstream, it does not suffer from platform fatigue, because it provides useful
features people enjoy using. Facebook could follow this pathway if the attention was
drawn to the availability of these features, through an integrated marketing
communications campaign.
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1.3. SWOT Analysis
The SWOT analysis (Figure 12) will derive the individual components from the previous
analysis. The main weaknesses of Facebook do not necessarily lie in the assumption
that its features are not competitive. On the contrary, it is more the lack of awareness
due to absent advertising. The greatest strength, next to almost unlimited financial
resources due to the intangible product nature, is the corporate structure and the
extreme concentration of knowledge and passion. This allows them to mobilize new
ideas easily onto the market as the corporate construct supports it. Hence, to combat the
threat of decline in engagement and data privacy activists, the corporate resources,
financial and technical, should be employed. In order to capture opportunities to adapt to
more youth-relevant needs, a marketing campaign needs to rectify the previously
deficient advertising to raise awareness.
Figure 12: SWOT Analysis, Author’s Own
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1.4. Marketing Activities
1.4.1. Public Relations
In terms of its own marketing communications, Facebook primarily uses public relations
through their own online newsroom to communicate important information concerning
the platform, as well as on a corporate level, with its different publics (Newsroom.fb.com
2014). According to Grunig and Hunt (1984)’s four models of public relations, the latter
falls into the category of public information. It is referred to as the “in-house journalist”,
who practices a one-way communication strategy, as he releases news releases and the
like to distribute organizational information. On a corporate level, Facebook makes use
of all the 4 models to communicate with its stakeholders as shown in these examples in
figure 13.
Figure 13: Author’s own, adapted from Grunig (1984)
However, it has to be considered that an average user will not necessarily come in
contact with this touch point, unless he or she were looking for specific information.
The channel most likely to resonate on an informal level with its users is Facebook’s own
Facebook page. With 163 million likes and the power to maximize their own organic
reach, it can be regarded as an effective tool to influence the audience’s attitude.
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Despite the lack of marketing communication activities up until now, Facebook was able
to grow into an enormous network solely relying on word of mouth endorsement.
However, as the recent changes have demonstrated, it does not suffice if long-term
customer loyalty is desired.
1.4.2. Advertising
In 2012, Facebook launched its first advertisement to celebrate the acquisition of 1billion
users. In this ad, the company compared itself to chairs, as “things that people use to get
together so they can open up and connect. Chairs are for people, and that is why chairs
are like Facebook.’’ The advert did not resonate particularly well with the public and was
a base for many parodies (Starke, 2012). Mashable’s editor-in-chief Lance Ulanoff said
“It was created to celebrate the social media platform’s 1 billion active monthly users and
my takeaway is that Facebook is an empty chair”. He further highlighted that the ad used
confusing analogies, that there was an absence of technology but an overabundance of
vagueness that spoilt an otherwise beautifully shot commercial (Consunji 2012).
The commercial ran in 13 countries including America, the UK, Japan and Indonesia.
Figure 14 Source: Courtesy of Facebook
26
The company has since launched numerous friendship-themed short video adverts and
picture adverts on their own Facebook page, which are also available on their own
YouTube channel (Figure 14-17).
Figure 15, Courtesy of YouTube
Figure16: Source: Courtesy of Facebook
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Figure 17 Courtesy of Facebook
Moreover, the recently launched “Nearby Friends” feature was solely advertised through
their newsroom, which an average user will not actively engage with (Figure 18).
Figure 18, Courtesy of Facebook
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Facebook features “Facebook stories”, which asks users to submit their extraordinary
story that involves Facebook as a platform of communication. It is heavily reliant on viral
aspects than pushing their products further. (Figure 19)
Figure 19, Courtesy of Facebook
So far, Facebook spread through word of mouth and a small amount of PR activities.
However, as it is nearing its saturation point and struggles to attract younger users on
board, it is time to rethink the marketing strategy.
2. Campaign Scope
2.1. The Role of Integrated Marketing Communications in Marketing Management
The past decade has witnessed a continuous transformation of opinions regarding the
implementation of integrated marketing communications (IMC). Initially, the focus lied on
integrating all elements of the promotional mix to make messages appear and sound the
same to all customers exposed (Eagle et all 2007). IMC has since grown into a practice
beyond working with adverts communicating one single message and one unifying
brand, but are now much more personalized, relationship-based, interactive, customer-
oriented- purposefully designed to influence behavior and consequently change attitudes
(De Pelsmacker et all 2010). Kilatchko (2008) suggests that the impact of IMC cannot be
regarded solely as a communications process, but needs to be considered an audience-
driven management process, as the customer’s influence is steering the direction at the
core of the campaign. Today’s marketing communications world is particularly
29
challenged by media proliferation, audience fragmentation and consumer empowerment.
On the one hand, audience and media fragmentation aids targeted marketing by
providing various channels that reach a specific consumer. On the other, it reduces its
effectiveness if the chosen channel fails to capture the desired consumer. This is
precisely why the integrated marketing approach has emerged as a concept; instead of
suffocating under media fragmentation, it uses the dispersion to its advantage. To
enhance the primary advertising message and to reach out to their desired specific
consumers, marketers use tools such as promotions, sponsorships and public relations
in addition (O'Guinn, Allen and Semenik, 2012). Therefore, integrated marketing
communications (IMC) campaigns cater to the needs of today’s fragmented audience
and media. As previously mentioned, it is critiqued that IMC uses mass marketing
channels and sends a unified message across all traditional and non-traditional media.
Further, it is said to face strong barriers, such as restriction in creativity and
unaccommodating organizational structures, which encumber success (De Pelsmacker,
Geuens and Bergh, 2010). However, the combination of the efforts of each medium has
a greater impact all together than a message wandering through a single channel.
Moreover, IMC is essentially used to allow one medium's weakness to be
counterbalanced by another’s strength, synergized components to support each other
and create grander effect (Kitchen et all 2004). Contrary to common belief, a successful
IMC strategy does not signify that an organization should work only with a single
message and one unifying brand. More realistically, an integrated method encourages
marketers to implement a strategy with multiple targets and allows them to attain
integration of different communication messages, functions and brand within one
organization. Consequently, IMC has the potential to profoundly transform the meaning
of marketing communications and might even be the succeeding step in the evolution of
marketing. (Dewhirst and Davis, 2005, Kilatchko, 2005, Grove, Carlson and Dorsch,
2002, Lee, 2002, Phelps and Johnson 1996)
2.2. Facebook and IMC
“To date, the Facebook user community has grown virally with users inviting their friends
to connect with them, supported by internal efforts to stimulate user awareness and
interest.“(Facebook Annual Report 2013) To date, Facebook has heavily relied on
earned media and bits of advertising efforts.
In comparison to its main competitor, Google, Facebook’s global ad spend with $117
million in 2013, seems incredibly small to 21 billion (Figure 20). Considering the different
30
size and nature of both businesses, this chart does not provide enough insight into the
allocation of funds for advertising.
Figure 20: Author’s own, Source: Google Annual Report 2013, Facebook Annual Report 2013
When the advertising spend is put into context with the company’s revenue (Figure 21),
it becomes visible how much of its total revenue the companies are dedicating towards
advertising. Where Facebook’s $117 million are just about 1.49% of its total revenue
(after cost), Google’s $21 billion make up 37% of their ad spend. As previously
mentioned, Facebook has been relying on its community to grow its user base virally,
with a certain amount of internal efforts that have stimulated user awareness and
interest.
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Figure 21: Author’s own, Source: Google Annual Report 2013, Facebook Annual Report 2013
To counteract the current issues, it is time Facebook invested more in to advertising, as
it is the tool that has the power to persuade an audience (O'Guinn et al 2012).
Given the previous analysis, it can be concluded that Facebook has reached the stage
where a reliance solely on word-of-mouth is not sufficient to keep up the engagement
levels of their users. Moreover, the tools used only include public relations and
advertising. To reach out to users and create synergy through their campaign, the firm
needs to consider joining forces with other IMC tools such as direct marketing and sales
promotions.
2.3. IMC Performance Objectives
2.3.1. Business Objective
To continue to provide highly relevant, precisely targetable advertising space to
customers (brands) on both mobile and desktop
Increase revenue from particularly from the travel sector from 6% to 20%
2.3.2. Marketing Objective
Retain existing users by providing them with value through meaningful and
relevant features
Stimulate Travel Advertising Sector Revenue
To increase user engagement (frequency of use) by 30% of existing users aged
24-35, with a spillover of 6 years below and above
o Likes on branded and friends posts
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o Comments on branded and friends posts
o Uploading of content: photos, videos, articles, status updates
o Reviews on restaurants and places
o More completed basic data on user profiles
2.3.3. IMC Objectives
Through this particular IMC campaign, the aforementioned business and marketing
objectives shall be reached.
To augment interest, buzz, earned media and engagement through a
promotional direct marketing (social media) campaign featuring a contest
To increase top-of-mind awareness of integrated features using functional
explanatory as well as emotional elements in advertising and direct marketing
To improve Facebook’s likeability and popularity by highlighting usefulness
through public relations
To increase advertising revenue from the travel sector which particularly
responds with millennials
2.4. Target Market and Consumer Profile
2.4.1. Age and Social Grade
Facebook has just passed 1.23 billion monthly active users, 945 million mobile users,
and 757 million daily users (Protalinski, 2014). Provided there is no country-wide
censorship, the platform is basically available to absolutely anyone with internet access.
This is why this social medium is so extraordinarily valuable to business users, as they
can pick and tailor a very precise target to expose their advertisements to. Since
Facebook users have vastly diversified psychographic profiles, this campaign will
primarily use age as a parameter for the campaign. Using the current user profile
according to age (Figure 22), this IMC campaign will target millennials, more specifically
24-35 year old male and females in the UK, with a spillover to younger and older
categories. In terms of social grade, Facebook covers all the grades in the UK. However,
33
the campaign will focus on grades ABC1, as these are most likely to have had the
chance to travel and are able to produce the required and desired content.
Figure 22: Author’s own, Source: creativebrandmarketing.com
2.4.2. Millennials Psychographic Profile
Psychographic segmentation differentiates and combines consumers with regards to
their psychological dimensions, such as values, lifestyles, attitudes, interests and
opinions (Mullen and Johnson 1990). This type of segmentation is usually used when
purchasing behavior is associated with the lifestyle or personality of consumers (Jobber
1995). The campaign will use a combination of functional and emotional attributes
through their communication channels to appeal to an audience as large as possible.
However, the contest/prize motivated sales promotion, which will be described later in
the campaign strategy, will try to more specifically speak to a type of “millennial
personality” that particularly could represent Facebook well.
Participation
Previously, it was suggested that the firm consider transforming its stakeholder matrix by
moving the general public to the key player quadrant, where they can be actively
involved in decision making processes. Millennials are ideal candidates to be involved in
processes, as they belong to the generation that has overcome the stage of being
34
passive consumers, but want to actively participate, co-create and be included as
partners in the brands they love. The willingness to participate starts already at the
product and service design, and stretches through the customer journey and shopper
experience. They become most prominent towards the end of the marketing cycle
through the usage of tools such as social media. It is even suggested that the illustration
of functional and emotional benefits alone will not suffice for a brand to excel since
millennial brand fans believe they have a shared interest in the success of the brand
(Fromm 2013). Bill George (2009) suggests, “People are their own medium, their own
creation. You have to let them in, let consumers move your ideas along. They want to
interact. Measure ‘Return on Involvement, not ‘Return on Investment’.”
Distrust- Consumer Empowerment
With the level of the aforementioned involvement levels, it needs to be highlighted that
generation Y consumers are extraordinarily empowered. Especially with the abundance
of information available on the Internet, where tech-savvy Millennials can easily access
reviews and opinions, firms are challenged to thoroughly work on their transparency.
Consumers are now extremely marketing-savvy and choose to trust recommendations of
friends or family far more than any company sponsored advertising efforts (Kirby 2006).
Therefore, companies targeting this age group have witnessed an increased importance
of public relations, as it is imperative to increase earned media to gain credibility and
maintain authenticity. It can be argued that Millennials are eager to make most out of
their lives- reducing risk through pre-purchase information searches and relying on
recommendations of their friends to create a unique experience for themselves.
The “Now” Generation- Real Time Information
As digital natives, Millennials seek instant gratification – particularly focusing on speed,
ease, efficiency and convenience in all their transactions. It is highly important to these
consumers that the service they are receiving is flexible and can be tailored and
customized according to their individual needs.
Moreover, again relating to their tech-savvy nature, they demand information as it
occurs. As the first generation to grow up with social media, the urge to access real-time
reporting from any location is an integral part of their lives. The sharing of their life
activities can be particularly visible when a TV show airs with a hashtag on the corner of
the screen, enabling all viewers to participate in discussions about the show on Twitter
or Facebook (Lee 2013).
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Social Self-Expression
With no generation more multi-ethnic than them, Millennials fully embrace the act of self-
expression. A study by PewResearch has shown that at least 75% of Millennials have a
profile on a social networking site and have created and shared content in video or
picture format. Almost 40% have one or more tattoos and 25% have at least one
piercing- that is six times more than their older generations (Khan 2010). With 200 or
more friends, this generation is known to have the largest amounts of friends or followers
on social platforms. There is a fear of missing out if not kept up to date through social
media. In addition, they seek validation through ‘likes’ of their posts and photos. A study
conducted by BCG illustrates that the majority agree that their lives feel far more
enriched if they are connected to people through their social media, which even extends
to favouring brands with Facebook pages.
Moreover, the aspiration to connect and share experiences with peers exceeds the
online bubble- Millennials desire to participate in group activities with people outside
their immediate family, much more than their previous generation. They further seek
reassurance and validation from their friends and coworkers, whom they shop, dine and
travel with. Companies such as restaurants and retailers have capitalized on these
habits using location-based services such as Foursquare; since people in groups tend to
spend larger amounts of money than if they were by themselves. (Barton, Fromm and
Egan, 2012)
Social Responsibility
Generation Y is known to have an ‘inner hippie’ and are strongly motivated by the
thought of making the world a better place. As they were taught to recycle in pre-school,
green values have been planted into their value system early on. They feel that working
for a good cause is an integral part of life and are concerned with big issues the world is
facing (Barton, Fromm and Egan, 2012). Deloitte's Millennial Survey revealed that the
world's future leaders are progressively viewing business through the lens of social
impact. 52 percent of participants felt that, more than any other part of society, business
would achieve the greatest impact in terms of solving society’s biggest issues (Deloitte
2013) Moreover, instead of one-time donations to charities, Millennials volunteer for
causes close to their hearts.
Traveller - Explorer
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There is no generation that has travelled as much as this one (Shellenberg 2013). The
prevalent multiethnic nature and intense global migratory of this generation also aids in
the process of stimulating travel as people are calling several countries their homes. They
are known to be adventurous, letting their holidays fall into place as opposed to planning out
details beforehand. They also ask their friends for recommendations and live -report about
their travels through their social media channels. Moreover, connecting to their strong
feelings about social responsibility, “voluntourism”, where people travel to places to volunteer
for social causes, has gained massive popularity (Travel 2.0 Consulting Group, 2008).
Psychographic Profile for Facebook’s IMC Campaign
Figure 23, Author’s own, adapted from Mullen and Johnson 1990
2.4.3. Decision Making Process
The decision making process instigates as the consumer becomes aware of an issue,
either through a real need or through a marketing-induced need recognition. Here, the
self-concept theory further highlights how the latter is able to manipulate and influence
consumers to gain interest in the product. This theory argues that every individual holds
beliefs and values regarding its own attributes, the “actual self”, which are continuously
compared to an aspirational “ideal self”. Hence, the problem awareness occurs when
there is a significant gap between the two selves. The consumer therefore tries to reduce
the distance to its aspired self by satisfying the arisen need. Whilst this process happens
naturally, it is one of the aims of marketing to uncover hidden needs by introducing
consumers to previously unknown opportunities (Solomon, 2010).
•Tech-savvy, curious, explorer, traveller
•Visionary, entrepreneurial, social Personality
•socially responsible, tolerance, environment, social justice
•work/life balance, teamrowk, diversity
•self-expression,genuine, optimism, •family, personal connections
Values
•suspicious, trusts peer-reviews more than corporate
•Passionate about making a difference, crave change
Opinions and Attitudes
•Technology/Gadgets
•Cultures/Travel/CharityInterests
•Educated, medium income, traveller, seek active involvement Lifestyles
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Figure 24: Author’s Own, Source: Solomon 2010
38
The decision making process ultimately helps consumers reduce risk pre-purchase.
Depending on the level of the involvement of the product, the information search and
evaluation of alternatives can be done extensively. Facebook, as a free-of-charge
service, could be considered a low-involvement product. Even if one decides to open an
account, there is no requirement to neither produce or engage with content, nor give out
personal information.
Needs Recognition
For social media in general, the needs recognition could be attributed to the snowball
effect. As these are communication tools, they can only be as successful if the
environment surrounding the potential consumer is actively utilizing the service. The
peer pressure of wanting to belong and participate creates a need that has to be met.
Information Search
The low-involvement nature of the service does not require an extensive information
search before signing up for it. More recently, however, data privacy issues have posed
a greater concern for users. Facebook heavily relies on selling data, ranging from
personal information to even browsing data, as their main source of income (Morran,
2014). The recent National Security Agency (NSA) scandal in the US, with some
claiming Facebook collaborated in providing data to the US government, shed further
negative light on the company’s ethics (BBC 2014). When the acquisition of WhatsApp
was confirmed, the competing messaging service “Telegram”, well-known for its security-
focus, started acquiring users at a rate of 5million a day (Russell, 2014). Savvy
consumers therefore pose a threat to increasing usage and engagement, as they are
less willing to reveal information. Hence, it is of utmost importance to provide easily
accessible and fully transparent information on data privacy.
Evaluation of Alternatives
As determined earlier, the desire to communicate with existing users will have the
strongest influence on a potential user’s decision. However, besides the transparency
and accessibility of terms and conditions, its unique features will facilitate the evaluation
of competing services.
Purchase
The “purchasing” process is highly facilitated as no money exchanges hands, but only
requires little basic information to open an account.
Post-Purchase Evaluation
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This is the most crucial part for Facebook to focus on. They have to prove to their users
that they are able to continuously provide them with meaningful ways to create value
and become an indispensable part of their lives. Figure 25 illustrates post-purchase
behavior (Cant 2006), where users evaluate their product or service during its usage. If
Facebook fails to provide an incentive to its users to engage with the platform, existing
users might dispose the product and gravitate towards another one. The IMC campaign
will focus on making users aware of the daily usage possibilities and therefore elicit an
increase in engagement and ultimately lead to customer satisfaction, which can spread
positive word of mouth and encourage potential users to get on board.
Figure 25 the process of problem recognition (Cant 2006)
.
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2.5. Branding Issues
The below brand wheel provides an overview of what Facebook as a brand represents.
The brand essence, “connect the world”, is closely related to their mission statement of
“making the world more open and connected”. Above all the monetary goals, Mark
Zuckerberg’s primary motivation is to make a significant impact on the world. Even
though people are aware that the platform itself is the most advanced and integrated, its
novelty and excitement have vanished after its presence in the market for over 10 years
(Miller 2013). However, with the next generation of web knocking on the door, it has
never been more important to keep users loyal and interested. Facebook, next to
Google, could be a main contributor to the creation of Web 3.0. It is said that the latter
will facilitate the use of information e.g. if a movie night out is planned, people will google
movie reviews, playtimes, ticket purchasing, restaurants nearby, reviews of the food, etc.
Ultimately, one has consulted dozens of websites until a choice can be made. Web 3.0 is
speculated to simplify customer experience by using complex search sentences, e.g. “I
want to see a funny romantic movie that plays close to Leicester Square London and
have Japanese food with ratings above 4 stars nearby before watching the film. What
are my options?” (Strickland 2014). Since Facebook’s Graph Search is indexed precisely
to provide this type of service, it is crucial to retain its consumer base. The brand
essence, “connect the world”, needs to shift to a more active “explore the world”, since
Facebook gives one all the tools to do so.
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Figure 26
2.5.1.Current Image versus Desired Image
Once perceived young, vibrant and innovative, Facebook recently has not been able to
shake off its “uncool” image (Sparkes 2013). Through this IMC campaign, the firm needs
to shift focus to change the current negative attitude and restore its popularity. This
campaign will particularly focus on usefulness, reliability, and ease of use in a relevant
context and provoke positive emotions.
Most importantly, Facebook needs to position itself as an indispensable tool for
Millennials to realise their full potential in life.
Figure 27
Attributes
Social Medium/Community/Netw ork of Family and Friends
Content Creation, Consumption and Sharing w ith MultipleReceivers
New s Feed
Chat/Communications Tool
Accessible through various electronic devices
Online Gaming
F Logo/Blue themed
Benefits
Keeping in touch w ith friends/family
Have content liked by others
Self-expression
Keeping up w ith current affairs
Obtain information on companies, products and review s
Values
Convenience (to share/keep in touch w ith many people at once)
Community/Belonging
Increased Popularity through Self -Expression
Makes me feel inspired by observing friends’ activities
Personality
Explorer
Outgoing
Innovative
Social/Friendly
Popular
Multi cultural
Intelligent
Brand Essence
Connect the World
Current Image
Uncool, Unexciting
Desired Image
Helps you to make the
most out of your life
Explore the World
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2.6. Campaign Tools
2.6.1. Advertising
An identified company, non-profit organization or individual can define advertising as any
paid, non-personal communications through various media. Advertising is an effective
integrated marketing communications tool to inform and persuade an audience,
regardless of whether a product, a service or an idea is promoted. An advertising
campaign consists of a series of ads and other promotional efforts with a shared theme
also placed to persuade an audience over a specified period of time. (O’ Guinn et all,
2014) Hence, it is a tool commonly used in promotional activities. Compared to 2011,
global advertising spend has risen in most parts of the world except for Europe in 2012.
As one of the oldest, most visible and most crucial instrument, large sums of money are
spent on research evaluating its role and its effectiveness (De Pelsmacker 2013).
However, as previously mentioned, the rise of the active and empowered consumer has
tremendously affected the effectiveness of advertising. Especially for Generation Y,
where any word of mouth recommendation is heavily preferred over paid corporate
advertising, advertisers struggle to convince through solely Advertising. Moreover, media
proliferation and audience fragmentation contribute to the reduction of its impact. It is
said that “advertising is what you pay for- publicity is what you pray for”. Advert ising is
used to tell people how great you are, whereas with public relations, others sign your
praises (Wynne 2014).
Therefore, it is crucial for advertising to be embedded in an integrated marketing
communications plan, where its weaknesses can be offset by the strengths of another
medium. Even though it might provoke doubtful emotions in its audience, it is still the tool
that achieves the most visibility and allows the company to tell a story the way they
desire. Since advertising is more visual than language-focused as PR is, it still has a
powerful way to communicate emotional attributes to an audience. For Facebook, which
has grown its user based virally, it is now time to invest in advertising, to especially
increase its visibility and achieve top-of-mind awareness. Advertising will be the most
crucial element for the firm, as they need to tell a positively emotional story whilst
explaining features visually to make people aware of how to maximize the value they
gain through their Facebook usage.
Advertising is only effective if it benefits the consumer. Therefore, the message cannot
be focused on seller objectives, but has to start from the target consumers motives
(Solomon 2010).
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2.6.2. Public Relations
Public relations traditionally were not accounted for being a part of the marketing
communications process, but solely acting as the ‘press agent’, bridging the company’s
point of view and the media coverage of the company’s activities (De Pelsmacker 2013).
Gradually, it became evident that public relations needed to be embedded as a part of
an integrated communications process to achieve and leverage a unified brand image.
Essentially, PR is a communications tool, which is used to promote goodwill towards the
firm as a whole (Syrgy 1998). As the matrix below (Figure28) further illustrates, the
“General Public”, of which users and potential users are a part of, is in the “Meet their
Needs”-quadrant. These stakeholders’ needs are habitually met by consultation and
engagement. Since their influence power is already on a high level, the aim here should
be to increase the interest level to progress those to become key players (Ackermann
and Eden 2011). Conclusively, the interest level of the users needs to increase in order
to foster engagement- by transforming the general public into a priority, namely a key
player. The latter will need to be involved in decision making processes and engaged
and consulted with regularly through a two-way symmetric communications model.
Figure 28, Author’s own, adapted from Ackermann and Eden, 2011
2.6.3. Sales Promotion
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Sales Promotions take on many different shapes, such as coupons, free products and
samples, fixed ratios such as buy 1 get 1 free, and many more. It aids to enhance
customer experience and communicate the brand personality to customers. Since
Facebook does not have in-store products for purchase, the only sales promotion
technique that will augment synergy across the entire campaign is “prize” in form of a
contest. With the “prize” technique, the benefit for the consumer is determined by
whether he wins or not. The advantage thereof lies in the fact that the costs for such
campaigns can be pre-calculated and has no variable cost attached depending on the
number of participants. Further, a far more valuable benefit can be given to the
consumer as the prize, compared to a promotion where the reward is available to
anyone (Mullin 2010). This type of random ratio reinforcement scheme, where the
participant gambles with the chances of winning, can have a strong persuasive influence
(Solomon 2010).
2.6.4. Direct Marketing
“The success of direct marketing originates from the corner shopkeepers philosophy of
having close and personal contact with customers, knowing everyone’s needs and
wants, providing them with the best solution to their problems and giving them excellent
after-sales service (De Pelsmacker, 2013).” Since then, however, technology has
profoundly transformed this tool, ranging from automation to increased storage
capacities for databases and marketing intelligence systems thereof. Thanks to the
latter, direct mail, telemarketing and direct response advertising have evolved from being
traditional, low profile and pushy techniques to what potentially could be highly
sophisticated techniques that could aid in long-term relationship building (Kitchen and
Pelsmacker 2004). For this IMC, it is of particular importance to reconnect with the
audience- direct marketing here can support an intermediary-free dialogue between the
business and its customers. This will form a foundation for building and developing this
direct relationship between the organization and its customers. To provide users with
meaningful, relevant content, it is imperative that the company is continuously trying to
understand its customers better.
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3. IMC Campaign
3.1. Message Development
Facebook’s skeleton is nothing but a highly complex structure of enormous data. Much
like the questions of what would happen if we were able to access the 100% full
potential of our brain, Facebook’s data is quite properly indexed but left not to be
accessed. In addition to openness and connectivity, the campaign will include the
element of “exploration”. In order to elevate its image, which is currently resting on a
level which somewhat has lost its novelty long time ago, a new verb, associated with
activity and engagement, needs to be introduced.
Facebook is primarily used for sharing with many people at once, and to consume
picture and video content of friends (Petronzio 2014). Users especially use the platform
to share content related to travel as in pictures, location check-ins, “travelling to” status
updates (Constine, 2014). Seeing friends’ pictures of beautiful sceneries evokes “travel
envy” and intensifies one’s desire to explore that place oneself (Tam 2013). Whilst social
media can be seen as a medium that leads to isolation, the ‘Open Explore Connect’
campaign will demonstrate how Facebook could be an indispensable tool to connecting
in the real world. Beyond the strapline, there are 3 sub-messages:
The campaign will especially be based around travel, as it is an area, which particularly
resonates well with Millennials, as demonstrated under 2.4.2. The campaign will aim to
create the ultimate exploration guide for the generation Y and really enhance the sense
of community whilst increasing interest, awareness and particularly engagement.
Facebook will now have the chance to truly demonstrate how web 2.0 can be used to
exploit all the available data to make the best out of one’s life. The participatory and
active nature of the target group will demonstrate how sharing information will allow for
Make the most of life
through exploring
Friendships invigorate
your life
Indispensable, Useful,
Relevant Companion
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the best experiences to be created. Formulating a message needs to solve the following
problems:
What to say? (Message content)
How to say it? (Message format)
Who should say it? (Message-source)” (Trehan 2010)
The key content of the message is to make yourself and the world a better place through
exploration and curiosity. It will be communicated through various channels, especially
through the campaign contest, advertising
3.1.1. Campaign Messages
There is a slight difference between a tagline and a slogan. A tagline is a distillation of
the corporate values and identity into a short and catchy phrase to reinforce the brand
essence and highlight the difference between the firm and its competitors. (Schnotz
2014)
Tagline: Open. Explore. Connect.
Facebook’s Tagline so far has been its ‘Like’ icon , as it appears at the end of
every short video they have posted on their own Facebook wall. It is also accompanied
by a small sound; similar to it’s messaging notification tone. Since this iconic sign is
unmistakably recognizable, it is going to be kept. However, since the campaign is trying
to move away from and refresh its old image and draw attention to its true potential,
these three words are going to be added:
Open - Facebook has had a tremendous impact on global communications as it has
visually shortened distances, opened and brought the world closer together.
Explore- This is the element that adds novelty to the whole image, whilst the other two
component just act as a reminder of Facebook’s potency. As previously mentioned, it will
embody the adventure and curiosity resonating with Millennials, unlocking the potential
of the tremendous data that is available, but not used most efficiently. Moreover, since
this campaign is aiming to increase revenue from the travel sector, the exploration
element will also educate and inspire its audience to travel more.
Connect- Along with its mission statement of making the world more open and
connected, Facebook has truly changed the way in which people connect across the
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world. Not only through linking with friends’ profiles but also connecting users to
tremendous amounts of data and information, truly underlining the meaning of web 2.0.
Campaign Slogan: Unlock the Potential
A slogan is very similar to a tagline in terms of being a short, catchy statement
surrounding the brand. Its main difference to the tagline is its scope- as the tagline
represents Facebook as a company and brand as a whole, the slogan is specifically
made for this IMC campaign (Schnotz 2014). Whilst being based around travel, this
slogan relates to the aforementioned 3 sub-messages.
It was initially considered to use “unlock YOUR potential”. However, the use of “your” will
delve too deep into the stage of looking inside “yourself” to find your very own potential.
However, this campaign should highlight that we can enhance ourselves by using the
environment that surrounds us- which ultimately is uncountable and will go as far as the
user is willing to commit to. The use of “the potential” instead of “your potential”
demonstrates that the potential is limitless, and therefore is only what you are willing to
make of it. The sub-messages will act as an extension of this slogan, emphasizing living
life to the fullest, and cherishing friendships, and most importantly, using Facebook as an
indispensable tool to achieve these goals.
3.2. Push Strategy
Push strategies involve messages that are proactively sent out, bringing the product to
the customer. Since there is no tangible product, the sales promotion and direct
marketing in this case count as a push strategy, as this effort is actively seeking for
users to participate.
3.2.1. Sales Promotion and Direct Marketing Contest
Sales promotion and direct marketing are used jointly for this section, as the prize
contest is considered a sales promotion tool, whereas it will be held on a social media
platform, which elicits direct responses from its participants, counting as direct
marketing.
This will be the first stage of the IMC campaign. Through Facebook’s Facebook page,
users will be encouraged to participate in a contest. The participants are required to
upload a 1-minute long video of themselves, expressing their exploratory nature. It is
freely up to the user what content to produce, as long as it creatively illustrates the
adventurous and exploratory nature of the person. Since self-expression is embraced by
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the target audience, it is expected to awaken people’s interest. Users have to use the
hashtag #Facebookexplorer when uploading the video to enter the contest.
The prize awaiting the candidate with the most likes on his post is a 3 months world trip.
(Figure 29)
Figure 29 Author’s Own
Facebook’s Facebook page has 163million likes. Since it is the company’s own page,
they can use maximum organic reach.
Reach Response
Rate(Notice,
Likes,
Comments)
Conversion
Rate(Actual
participants)
Sales (Winner) Fulfillment
and other cost
163 million 25%
40.75 million
0.012%
5000
1 GBP 100’000
The cost listed above of GBP 100’000 includes not only the travel expenses, but also
marketing salaries for design and maintenance of the contest.
The conversion rate of 0.3% might seem low relative to the amount of people reached
out to, however, considering the large workload factor, the numbers are realistic.
To make things more interesting, the winner will be employed by Facebook for these 3
months. The core of the travel is that nothing will be planned beforehand- the winner will
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have to inquire on Facebook’s Facebook page what his next destination and activities
should be. The comment with the most likes will be considered the next destination.
Figure 30, Courtesy of Facebook
Since the opinions and experiences of millions of people will come together, this contest
will unlock the potential of minds working together creating the ultimate millennial travel
guide.
On top of eliciting high levels of engagement, it will inspire people to travel. As
mentioned under 1.2.4., there are five stages to taking a vacation: Dreaming, planning,
booking, experiencing and reflecting. 52% of people say Facebook induced their
“dreaming” stage, and 95% even said they used Facebook prior to making their travel
arrangements (O’Reilly 2013). Now, consumers can become aware of the fact that
Facebook is present in all five stages of travel preparation as it is visually put into
context. Consumers actively engaging and seeing their suggestions being taken into
consideration will add much more meaning and weight to the whole process. Since
Facebook has significantly increased their travel sales representatives (Rilley 2013), this
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is the ultimate timing and incentive for the travel sector to start investing in Facebook
advertising. After the winner returns home and has created his ultimate generation y
travel guide, users are able to win the trips he has been on- these will be 15x 2-week
vacations for 2 people. Facebook will post small challenges and Instagram contests,
again winning based on likes, through which the user’s interest will be kept at a higher
level since incentives are provided.
The fulfillment cost includes salaries to be paid to sales representatives.
Reach Current Travel
Revenue/User
Current Total
Travel
Revenue
33 million (UK) £0.07 (6% of
total revenue)
£2’310’000
Desired Travel
Revenue/User
Desired Total
Travel Revenue
33 million (UK) £0.25 (20% of
total revenue)
£8’250’000
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3.3. Pull Strategy
3.3.1. Advertising
Even though the contest is the core of this campaign, the firm is also trying to raise top of
mind awareness and foster a favourable attitude towards them. As advertising is
powerful in terms of persuading and influencing attitudes, it will target people outside of
the Facebook bubble.
Creative Brief
Who (Target Audience) Millennials aged 24-35 with a spillover of
6y, Social Grades ABC1
Why (Objective) To increase top-of-mind awareness of
functional explanatory as well as
emotional elements
Communicate the new brand essence
Foster a favourable attitude towards the
brand
What (Key Message) Explore + Unlock the potential
Where (Channels) London Underground, Newspapers,
Magazines, YouTube
When (Timing) Over a course of a year, with bursts 1
months prior to the contest
How (Execution) Large billboards in tube stations and
small posters on escalators
Inside London Tubes
One-page adverts in free newspapers
YouTube adverts focusing on
demonstration of functional elements
connected to emotional attributes
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3.3.1.1. Outdoor Advertising
London underground billboards are eye-catching and provide a welcoming variety to
commuters. More importantly, 74% of underground users are in the social class ABC1
and aged between 18-35 years (Outdoor Media Centre, 2014). The daily traffic of the
underground service amounts to 30 million people. Examples of billboards and escalator
adverts can be found below(Figure 31-Figure34).
Initially, these ads will only be very visual but with very little text. It has deliberately been
designed this way to awaken the interest of its audience. A quick response code (QRC),
will be embedded in each advert, which can be scanned for more information. Given the
lack of previous adverts, people’s interest will be captured and make them keen to find
out more. The QRC will also allow for evaluation of and tracking of each outlet. These
will allow for measurement of effectiveness geographically and possibly used for future
campaigns.
Figure 31, Author’s Own
53
Figure 32, Author’s own
Figure 33, Author’s Own
54
Escalator Advertising
As far as underground escalators are concerned, the entire rows of adverts will be
reserved to ensure maximum effect. The audience’s interest can be captured at the start,
and towards the end of the escalator ride, people will have enough information to
associate these adverts with the Facebook brand. Since London underground escalators
are fairly long, it will leave enough time for people to scan the QR code.
Figure 34, Author’s own
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The scanning of the QR code will lead to Facebook’s newsroom/contest page, where all
the information regarding the contest is available.
Figure 35, Author’s own
3.3.1.2. Newspapers
The outdoor advertisements will start one month before the contest officially starts, as a
“teaser campaign”. Newspapers should support the impact the outdoor campaigns
relating to the contest. In the week, in which the contest starts, a front cover page of the
Evening Standard and Metro will be used to announce the contest.
56
London Evening Standard
With a readership of 1’020’000 of ABC1 consumers and the largest share of the age
group 25-34 years, an advert in this newspaper will complement the outdoors
advertising. The use of the coverpage at the start of the contest ensures maximum
exposure.
Measurement Delivery
Circulation Circulation 887294
Readership Adults 1546000
ABC1 1020000
Figure 36, Source: newsworks.org.uk
Metro
Target Age 18-44 and a national circulation, a cover page in the metro will reach national
awareness.
Measurement Delivery
Circulation Circulation 3'100'000
Readership Adults 1'382'000
ABC1 953'000
Figure 37, Source: newsworks.org.uk
After the contest has closed and the blogging adventure begins, the nature of the
adverts will shift from promotional to functional. As buzz and top-of-mind awareness
have been created, educational ads should be introduced as long as the consumer’s
attention span is still active.
57
Figure 38, Source: courtesy of Facebook
However, these ads will be on a smaller scale and be on the newspaper once a week,
on a quarter page. Even though these ads will focus on the functional benefits of
Facebook, it is still in line with “Unlock the Potential” slogan. By using the integrated
features fully, it should provide the user with the most optimal user experience and
facilitate his or her day-to-day life.
3.3.1.4. YouTube
YouTube has a unique audience of approximately 10 million and a 26% active reach in
the UK (Mediatel, 2014). A Nielsen study has shown that online video ads are more
effective than TV adverts as users are forced to watch them- especially if they do not
have the option to skip (Keane 2014).
.
58
Figure 39, Source: Nielsen
To resonate with the digitally native generation Y, it is proposed to run an approximately
1-minute long video on YouTube.
The ad will feature a man or a woman in his/her mid-twenties, travelling to an exotic
country, with a heavy focus on spontaneity. The advert will demonstrate how Facebook’s
integrated features can be used to maximize the potential of everyday life. The person
will be shown asking his friends through posts on his timeline to give him suggestions of
which attractions and places to visit, and what activities to pursue. Moreover, the person
will also look for restaurants that his friends have liked and rated in his location. The
person will also be shown to rate locations and facilities as well as writing his own
reviews to share his gained experience. The main character will also use graph search
to explore his friends’ pictures and checked-in locations for inspiration. This ad should
reflect that through exploring the world and unlocking the potential of the environment
that surrounds him, the trip inspires and motivates him to live life to the fullest. Hence, a
story combining emotional and explanatory elements.
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3.3.2. Public Relations
3.3.2.1. Press Release The week, in which the contest will be launched, it is suggested that Facebook issues a
news release. In addition to publishing it on their own newsroom, the release discussing
the contest in detail shall be sent to the following online technology and business press:
Financial Times Online
Mashable
Wired
Guardian
BBC
Huffington Post
Buzzfeed Tech
Elite Daily
3.3.2.2. PR Event- World Travel Market Even though this campaign is mainly focusing on the B2C aspect of Facebook, its
primary corporate objective is to provide its business customers with valuable advertising
space. Since the company is aiming to increase revenue from the travel sector, it is
proposed that they exhibit their B2B services at the world travel market in November in
London. Their stand will provide them with the opportunity to actively approach other
firms in the travel industry and actively demonstrate what benefits these had if they used
Facebook’s advertising services. In particular, Facebook should hold seminars to
illustrate and educate ‘live’ how to best go about social media advertising, engagement
and ROI. Even though the event is held in the UK, representatives of countless countries
will be present. It will be an opportunity for
Media
Business
Customers
60
3.3.2.3. Feature Stories
To maintain its authenticity through endorsement from third parties, it would be
favourable for Facebook to suggest feature stories to the millennial online press. For the
latter to be realized, the organization needs to maintain favourable relationships with the
press. However, instead of being a passive, Facebook could actively inform its key
journalists about its new features and hacks to provide them with interesting content and
in return, gain third party positive endorsement.
Relationships with Journalists,
EliteDaily
Buzzfeed
Mashable
Wired
Upworthy
Figure 40, Source: Courtesy of Buzzfeed.com
General Public
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3.4. Vertical Integration
The primary corporate objective of Facebook is to provide B2B advertisers with
precisely targetable advertising space, which ultimately increases their return on
investment. This is considered the principal objective above all, as the main income
stream for Facebook is derived from advertising. However, as the situational analysis
has demonstrated, Facebook is struggling to keep up the engagement levels, which are
crucial to enhance customer data with facets that allow segmenting and targeting.
Moreover, the microanalysis has shown that their current largest user group, Millennials
aged 24-35, is the most self-expressive generation on social media and is heavily
enticed by wanderlust. However, the travel sector advertising revenue is lagging behind-
a huge opportunity for Facebook to tap into that market by leveraging the interest of their
current user base. The aim is to increase travel-advertising income from currently 6% to
20% of the total revenue stream.
Since the gaining of younger segments is covered by their aggressive merger strategy,
the marketing objective is to retain and ‘entertain’ existing users and increase
engagement. This reverts back to the corporate objective of obtaining meaningful data
from users. Engagement is elicited by providing users with a travel-themed contest,
which also resonates with the new brand essence of exploration. The vertical integration
of travel and exploration provokes users to actively participate and truly demonstrate the
meaning and advantages of Web 2.0, where information exchange can aid to creating
the best experiences.
The IMC objectives are again closely interlinked to achieve every objective individually
on every level. The strengths of each tool are used to offset possible weaknesses of
another. As the promotional contest is at the core of the campaign, actively encouraging
users to participate and discover the meaning of the brand essence for themselves.
One the one hand, tools such as advertising and public relations are used to increase
awareness of the happening of the contest, but will revert to advertising other features
when sales promotion and direct marketing are up and running. This ensures efficiency
across all tools, no medium is ever fully resting, but alternating between active and
supporting functions. Even if advertising takes over the role of drawing attention to the
functional attributes of Facebook, it is still with the intention of “unlocking the potential” of
the consumer’s social media usage.
The vertical integration of all objectives with the linkages to relevant tools and common
theme ensure a more powerful, multiplied impact than one tool alone. The synergy
created will support the achievement of objectives smoothly.
62
Figure 41, Author’s Own
63
3.5. Horizontal Synergy
To obtain a positive, long lasting effect on the environment, synergy amongst all tools is
essential. For an IMC campaign to be successfully implemented, consistency and
corporate cohesion throughout will ensure an improvement of communications strategy.
The tools used for this IMC do not have clear boundaries of when they start and end, but
have morphed into each other to minimize weaknesses and leverage strengths.
Figure 42, Author’s own
Since the sales promotion contest is held on a social media platform, which encourages
active participation and responses of users, it blurs into direct marketing. The YouTube
advertisement is a traditional visual tool embedded in a non-traditional marketing setting.
Moreover, the outdoor advertisements all have a QR code to allow a fast and direct
response. PR also communicates the same message, but with the objective to obtain
third-party endorsement from journalists to maintain authenticity. Ultimately, public
relations will also host events to represent their excellent services to their business
customers and hence closing the circle. The tools are knit together tightly and present a
consistent message throughout every activity. The combination allows for a multiplied
impact with positive synergy.
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4. Campaign Delivery
4.1. Campaign Budget
Budget Frequency GBP Total
Promotion Contest 1
1'500'000.00
Small Contest 15 7000 105'000.00
Outdoors
Tube Billboards 10 5500 55'000.00
Escalators 10 23000 230'000.00
Buses 16 6200 99'200.00
Newspapers
Evening Standard Cover Page 1 16800 16'800.00
National Metro Cover Page 1 36104.6 36'104.60
Evening Standard Quarter Page 10 8400 84'000.00
Metro Quarter Page 10 18052.3 180'523.00
Digital
YouTube (Ad Production & Click Through) 1 months
700'000.00
Public Relations
Stand at World Travel Market 3 100'000.00
3'107000
Gain from Investment= £8’250’000
Cost of Investment= £3’107’000
ROI= 1.65
The ROI calculated amounted to 1.65. However, it has to be kept in mind that the
campaign, even though focusing on the UK, will have a global impact and bring
significantly more revenue than the 33million users in the UK. Currently, the revenue per
user amounts to USD 2.06 (GBP 1.42). Based on that, an increase to 20% of the total
travel revenue would amount to GBP 307'500'000.00. Relative to the amount spent, this
would result in an ROI of 97.97. It can be therefore argued that a mid-way approach
needs to be adapted. If the campaign were held on a truly global scale, the advertising
costs would be much higher and therefore result in a strong, yet more realistic return on
investment.
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4.2. Timeline
The below timeline indicates what activities are planned for which months for the year of
2015. The teaser campaign with little explanation on outdoor billboards will be in the first
month before the contest is officially announced, so that a base of awareness already
preexists. The contest will start in February and people will have 2 months to submit their
videos, and the full month of April will be dedicated to the increasing of Likes by sharing
the video for it to gain maximum exposure. YouTube will be launching from the second
month of the contest, to reinforce and awaken more awareness and intensify interest.
The day the contest is announced, Facebook will also issue a news release, so that the
business and technology press is informed and the news distributes through media.
Moreover, the same day, both the Evening Standard as well as the Metro nationwide will
have a full front cover page on the papers with the contest advert. As soon as the
blogging starts, the adverts outdoors and in newspapers will change in nature and focus
on communicating the functional features of Facebook and how they can be useful and
relevant to making everyday life better. Feature stories will be kept at bay, to reduce the
risk of media fatigue, since they should only be issued if there is a really exciting new
function that can be talked about.
The world travel market will be held in November. It will be advantageous that it is held
close to the end of the campaign, as there will be visible results with which the business
customers can be convinced.
To keep the users interested, there will be 2-weekly to monthly contests, where they can
win a trip to one of the countries the blogger has been on.
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Campaign Timeline 2015
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Outdoors
Tube Billboards
Escalators
Buses
Promotion Contest
WINNER
Promotion Blogging
Small Contests
Newspapers
Evening Standard Cover Page
National Metro Cover Page
Metro Quarter Page
Evening Standard Quarter
Page
Digital
YouTube
Public Relations
Press Releases
Feature Stories
World Travel Market
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5. Campaign Proposal Evaluation
The evaluation of a campaign will allow assessing the effectiveness and success of a
campaign. To reduce risk, a pre-evaluation as well as a post-evaluation strategy will be
proposed. These will indicate if the campaign was properly developed and then
executed. In addition, the process of evaluating adds further value, as mistakes can be
avoided this way. This will provide the opportunity to optimize and measure the overall
effectiveness of advertising tactics (Ogden and Rarick 2010).
5.1. Pre-Testing
A pre-testing can predict the success of a campaign and reveal areas of improvement.
5.1.2. Concept-Testing
In order to estimate the response the campaign will elicit from the public, it is sensible to
use focus groups with a sample group of people that represent the target audience. It is
proposed to use four separate focus groups, two with the younger spillover of 18-24 and
the other two the older group of 24-35year olds. The separation of these two age groups
will permit insight whether age is determining any differences in preferences and
responses. It could also show if there was any difference in self-expression through
social media.
Since the campaign aims to shift its brand image, essence and slogan and augment the
brand to a stage of novelty, it is more appropriate to use a qualitative research method
such as focus groups. The latter allows for the moderator to understand the opinions and
attitudes of the group. It has to be kept in mind that the result, which this qualitative
research delivers, is completely representative of the target audience under examination.
However, a direct rating system can deliver the understanding of whether the audience
is positive or negative toward an advert. In this method, respondents are questioned and
asked to rate a set of averts. The categories comprise attention, read through, cognitive,
effective and behavioural strengths (Jyoti 2010).
5.1.3 Copy testing
Copy testing is the analysis of an advert prior to it being aired. This type of pre-testing
indicates whether an advertisement’s message is strong enough so it can be used by
the firm. If it isn’t, it will identify the parameters, which can be edited to communicate the
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message with more weight. This technique is often used to shorten adverts and use the
best still frames for a combined campaign (DJS Research Ltd 2014).
5.2 Post-testing
Post-testing will finally assess the output of the campaign. Here, a quantitative approach
in form of a short survey on Facebook itself, in addition to brand tracking studies to
measure advertising effectiveness, brand awareness, beliefs and preferences, should be
used.
Most importantly, it is imperative to assess the key performance indicators, and if they
match the stated objectives. The following KPIs will confirm whether the campaign was
successful or not:
Increase of travel advertising revenue from 6% to 20% of total revenue
Increase in usage of 30% in terms of comments, likes, shares, and upload of
content
The travel revenue objective is measured with the sales-response method. The travel
sales team as well as accounting will be able to track these figures easily and call to
action if that sector should be underperforming.
The increase in usage and engagement can be measured with the use of Facebook
Analytics. This tool breaks down how many people have been exposed to the ad and
how many have shown some kind of response. In case Facebook notices an
underperformance, they could promote and boost the posts further to obtain increased
engagement.
6. Conclusion
Since its birth in 2004, Facebook has grown and into a company of unthinkable shape
and talent. However, in an era with short-lived trends and attention spans, the firm needs
to truly figure out what is meaningful and valuable to its users. Trying to be ‘cool’ by just
relying on viral word of mouth elements has gotten them to a point where their image lost
its excitement. Therefore, it is recommended that Facebook, as proposed, much more
actively engage with its users. Since it is in its maturity age and these marketing efforts
are a tool to maximize the extension of the maturity span. Facebook needs to consider
what their role in the next generation web will be, and accept the fact that it might not be
a bad thing to mature with its market and morph into a completely different product.
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However, the time has not come yet- and Facebook could, much like this campaign
proposes, focus on particular revenue sectors and incentivize customer engagement, to
monetize their residual existence.
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Appendix 1
Financial Overview Social Media Market Players
Competitor Analysis Facebook Instagram Google +
Product
Social Networking Site
Photos or 15second videos with filter and hashtags
Social Networking and Identity site
Outlet Desktop and Mobile Mobile and Desktop Desktop and Mobile
Target Audience 18-45 16-24 18-45 Turnover USD 7.8 billion part of Facebook USD 60billion Ownership Facebook Facebook Google Company Worth USD 100 billion USD 1 billion USD 268 billion
Snapchat Twitter LinkedIn Youtube
Self-destructive photos, videos and drawings exchanging mobile service
Micro-Blogging
Professional Social Network, Recruiting, Job postings
Video Sharing Website
Mobile Mobile and Desktop Mobile and Desktop Desktop and Mobile
13-25 18-45 18-45 18-34
n/a USD 665million USD 972 million Part of Google
Snapchat Twitter LinkedIn Google USD 860million USD 49 billion USD 8billion Part of Google
