SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS: A CASE FOR CONVERSATION VS CONTENT

As a digital media student, understanding marketing in our ever changing digital age can be somewhat overwhelming when considering the body of information that is available 24-7. With so many avenues for information, which can be accessed within seconds of an occurrence, where do you really begin in deciphering how to determine which marketing channels to use, how should marketing budgets and resources best be allocated, etc.

This week I'm tasked with discussing social media platforms and their impact on marketing efforts. How do marketers select which of the respective social media platforms to use as their primary marketing channel? In addition, based on the Catherine Novak's blogpost on SocialMedia Today,  Why Conversation, not Content, is King, do I agree with this position that its conversation, not content that is king? I think this question would best be answered by understanding that there has been a significant shift in how messages are reaching consumers, not just with the dominance of social media, but also due to the fact that there has been a significant increase in user generated content (UGC), which evidence has shown, at times, does more for a brand than its own marketing efforts. 

While there're multiple examples of successful social media campaigns that can aid in furthering this discussion. One of my favourites, and to my mind, an excellent case study of customer engagement, is HBO's now cancelled hit series

HBO introduced its  series in what can be considered one of the more brilliant marketing initiatives ever. In May of 2008, prior to the airing of the first ever episode which premiered September 7, 2008, "cryptic letters in black envelopes sealed with red wax" were sent "to people who might generously be described as pillars of the goth community: horror film bloggers, subscribers to the horror movie magazine Fangoria and the like." (Quenqua, 2008) Though the letters were written in a dead language, the recipients' enthusiasm garnered participation to translate them, write blog posts and cultivated discussions resulting in a designated web site hosted by a beautiful vampire. This is a very good example of how UGC successfully added value to a brand. 

The creativity to establish this phenomenon I consider to be among one of the best marketing strategies and was a wise gamble for HBO. This afforded HBO to enable UGC to generate the buzz for the upcoming series. Yes, there was a cost to the production and dissemination of the cryptic letters, but the success factor outweighed anything HBO could have done to introduce its series and capture viewers attention. So much so that the outdoor advertising and vending machines displaying the Tru Blood drink 

had many persons attempting to buy this product not understanding that it did not exist. (Rice, 2008) This was however remedied by Comic-Con 2009.

The marketing strategy introducing the series was so successful that by Season 2, HBO sought to strike gold again and with Digital Kitchen won the coveted Best In Show award for their Hacking Reality Campaign. Their work integrated digital and traditional media, with online, outdoor, print, stunts and a series of brand partnerships." This marketing effort resulted in "episode 1, being the most-watched show on HBO On Demand, with an average of 12.6 million gross viewers per episode for the season, up 62% over the previous year." (Lynpd, 2010) 

This award winning marketing strategy saw HBO and Digital Kitchen creating faux ads with the company logo of real brands showing the ads targeting 'vampires'. This was an excellent promotional campaign. Of course, by this time, HBO had created their Facebook fan page. So what we see is that for Season 1, HBO choose to utilise the blogosphere as the social media platform of choice to launch their series and by Season 2, they opted to combine the social media platform Facebook with traditional and digital media to further the show's awareness.

By Season 3, HBO changed yet again, this time using social media platform, Twitter. "The show’s marketing team launched a digital media campaign centered on “The True Blood Ultimate Fan Experience.” The show's Twitter account, shared clues where dedicated fans could score tickets to any of the 50 movie theatres nationwide for the midnight screening of the series. The lucky fans got an exclusive sneak peak at Season 3 along with a simulcast of the show's creator Allan Ball and the cast. (Shorty Awards Blog) This promotion, won HBO's True Blood, the Shorty Industry Award for best use of Twitter in a marketing campaign.  In addition to its Twitter promotion, HBO also partnered with Medialets producing a mobile campaign catering solely to iPhone users. Here's a video that shows what happened when iPhone users opened participating apps. (Griwert, 2010)

What was the conversion of these marketing strategies?  5 million viewers tuned in to watch the Season 3 premier, an increase of 1.3 million more viewers than the Season 2 premier.

Keeping with their social media platform theme to drum up interest for a new Season. The summer before Season 4, HBO launched the "Immortalise yourself" campaign. "The application allowed users to enter the show through an interactive video sequence. By answering a few simple questions and connecting the app to their social graph, users appeared throughout the original video content right alongside the True Blood cast." (Shorty Awards, n.d.) The ability for fans to be immersed in a virtual reality episode of True Blood through Facebook, resulted in the True Blood Facebook fan page growing to 9 millions viewers, which showed a more than 10% increase in just this season. (ibid)

Determining which social media platform or even if it to use more than one platform has gotten easier given that Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter all fall under the same umbrella. While these three options are not the only social media platforms available, they are among the most popular. Moreover, monitoring the conversions on your platforms will allow for adjustments as deemed necessary. 

To Novak’s point of why conversation not content is king, I believe HBO’s True Blood crystallises this viewpoint. The series’ success can be attributed largely to the conversations viewers engaged in across multiple social media platforms. And while HBO’s content sparked the flame that later erupted into the massive fan base, it was indisputably the conversations between these fans that led to HBO’s True Blood real success.

Until next time, I leave you with this short video that discusses HBO’s True Blood as a fundamental case study.

References:

Griwert, K. (2010, August 6). True Blood demonstrates potential of rich media mobile ad units. Retrieved June 5, 2022, from https://www.brafton.com/news/true-blood-demonstrates-potential-rich-media-mobile-ad-units-800016485/

Lynpd. (2010, October 3). TRUE BLOOD'S AD CAMPAIGN FOR S 2 "WINS BEST IN SHOW". Retrieved on February 15, 2022, from https://www.trueblood-online.com/true-bloods-ad-campaign-for-s2-wins-best-in-show/

Novak, C. (2010, July 27). Why conversation, not content, is king. SocialMediaToday.com. Retrieved from http://socialmediatoday.com/wordspring/152636/why-conversation-not-content-king

Rice, L. (2008, July 22). Ad campaign for HBO's 'True Blood' confuses thirsty consumers. Retrieved June 5, 2022, from https://ew.com/article/2008/07/22/tru-blood-campa/

Shorty Award Blog. (2011, April 12). HBO'S True Blood Wins the Shorty Industry Award for Best Use of Twitter in a Marketing Campaign. Retrieved February 15, 2022, from https://blog.shortyawards.com/post/4563684715/hbos-true-blood-wins-the-shorty-industry-award

Shorty Awards. (n.d.). THE 7TH ANNUAL SHORTY IMPACT AWARDS IS OPEN FOR ENTRIES! Retrieved June 5, 2022, from https://shortyawards.com/4th/hbo-true-blood-immortalize-yourself

Quenqua, D. (2008, July 15). The Vampires Are Coming, but Only After Months of Warnings. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/15/business/media/15adco.html?auth=link-dismiss-google1tap