Shazam Your Wine to Become an Expert in Vine

A PSFK article "Shazam Your Wine to Become an Expert in Vine" does not only have a catchy title but also covers a very interesting app, Delectable.

The app used to identify a wine, rate and share your drinking experiences with fellow Dionysoses. The updated version now allows users to "shazam" a wine and add it to your history under the titles: Top Styles, Regions, Top Rated Wines, and Drinks With."

To me, this is a flag for Google as an example of the increase in mobile, in-app searches as opposed go googling things as default. It will be interesting to observe how Google will address this challenge.

Apple Watch: a new digital marketing channel?

It seems like all eyes have been on the Apple Watch this month. There has been a flood of articles and blog posts about how Apple is executing luxury marketing strategies to promote the Watch and how this wearable technology is going to be groundbreaking. 

We must accept that, and at this point in time, it's probably not worth it to speculate if the Watch is going to be a fad, because it's Apple-approved. Apple's approval stamp in the modern society means real legitimacy.

So what we must think of now is: how can the Watch be a new digital marketing channel? This forward thinking will get us far, and in fact, PSFK advises us to not crowd the content. Read the whole article here.

The Age of YOU: the Future of Business Is Personal

Last month, the worldly renowned brand consultancy firm, Interbrand announced their list of the 100 Best Global Brands. With it, the company also declared that the future of business is personal. The Age of You has arrived. See the full article on the website.

On a short 1.5-minute clip, Interbrand's Global CEO Jez Frampton congratulates the top 100 brands and addresses the increasingly complicated nature of building brands in today's minutely transforming society. He says, "It's not just about having a great idea, a great identity, fantastic communications. Nowadays it's about building a tight, seamless experience -- an ecosystem if you'd like."

That is, the Age of You signifies customers' increasing expectations on getting personalized services. Frampton calls this the "mecosystem."

As soon as I saw this, I instantly thought -- digital marketing! Digital marketing strategies actualize the mecosystem in businesses through tactics that target intent-driven searches and activities. But how is this manageable to YOUR business? And how does this affect YOU as a customer?

The New York Times Gets Instagram!

In the face of hyper-digitialization, one could say that the newspapers struggled the most to find ways to survive. It was no exception for the worldly renowned company like the New York Times in its 160-year history. Last year was especially difficult with the executive editor Jill Abramson suddenly fired and leak of an internal report how the paper has been struggling to keep up with digital trends.

Well, it seems like this year has brought a fresh scene of change for the beloved newspaper company. Earlier this week, the Times got -- drumroll please -- Instagram! 

Already with 27.9k followers in four days, they have been posting photographs and snippets from their articles on the theme of "Beginnings" as exemplified by their first post on Insta:

On the company's new presence in social media, the new executive editor, Alexandra MacCallum said, "It's raising our profile with a different set of people than we're used to reaching, and I think that's a really important thing for the Times going forward." (source: Mashable article) 

So what does this mean for the Times and social media in the long run? People have increasingly been using social media as a source of their news feed (literally), and does the Times' Instagram acknowledge that? Is it simply a way to reach out to and engage more variety of audience for them? Or, is this a new way for the people get the real news fed into their minds while spending infinite hours on Instagram? How will the stories be curated anyways?

So many questions aside, many are responding with warm welcoming into their Insta world, instead of raising their eyebrows. I have a gut feeling that we could be witnessing a milestone moment in the history of news and journalism. 

Social Media Is Not PR

If you've been using your social media platforms as a way to broadcast your messages, it's not going anywhere but lost amid a plethora of contents that a viewer sees every day.

You must create a context; conduct and execute a strategy to start a conversation with your viewers. Create a value that will endure in the consumer's mind that he/she will want to follow you, like your posts, share them, and become your loyal consumer for -- who knows -- a lifetime. *marketer's dreamy sigh*

"I LOVE THAT BRAND" is what you want to hear; qualitative measurement of success right there folks.

So how do you do that? Create a story and narrate it creatively through your social media.

Yes, creativity is key. Don't just publish a picture of your product; get to the consumer's end goal of your product and trace back.

Example:

If you're an art museum, it's not effective to publish pictures of your artworks everyday. People care less about static images; they simply see too many.

Alternative strategy: do something like what these guys are doing - Dave Krugman and Zach Glassman. 

Krugman randomly dresses up and goes to the Met after its hours, takes some baroque pictures and publishes them. Zach is a wonderlust who takes astonishing yet enigmatic photographs around the world.

We get curious. We want to know more about their story and what places they're going to. So Krugman has 155k followers on his Instagram, while Glassman has 199k on his. 

Social media posts that tell people what to do (i.e. "Exhibition opens this Friday! Come check it out!") won't do the trick anymore. Compel your audience.

2015 is no longer the year when you tweet, people will buy. Social media is not a PR means; it's a marketing strategy. Think creatively and curate your story. 

 

Zach Glassman @zachspassport

Dave Krugman @dave.krugman

U.S. Bank Digital Marketing with Kittens, Puppies, and Babies

A really great article came out on Forbes today written by Jason Bloomberg.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonbloomberg/2015/02/20/building-trust-with-digital-marketing-at-u-s-bank/

The article mainly focuses on the U.S. Bank's recent digital marketing efforts led by Kelly Colbert, the company's VP of Social Media.

My main takeaway was Colbert's quote: "Digital used to mean just an  additional touchpoint. Now it's a unique experience displayed on Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube, etc."

To understand the belief system of the millennials ("the future of the business" says Colbert), they are experimenting with digital marketing to build a "trust relationship" associated with content marketing and emotional connection, often incorporating visual aids of kittens, puppies, and babies.

This relates to my blog post about Cookie Monster visiting art museums and how that was a great digital marketing initiative for MoMA.

It's that image-using, story-telling, common-ground-establishing content that shakes the core and pulls in the consumers. Keep it direct and simple, and you will be just fine.

Cookie Monster in NY Art Museums: Digital Marketing Efforts in the Arts

 Source: Instagram @sesamestreet 

 On this bitter cold day in New York, my Intagram feed was warmed up by a series of pictures showing Cookie Monster checking out my favorite museums in the city - MoMA, Guggenheim, and the Met.

 Little did I know that Sesame Street had an Insta account (@sesamestreet) where their characters appear at the US Open and Jimmy Fallon's Late Night Show, but I also didn't know MoMA gave out lifetime memberships to nonhumans:

http://instagram.com/p/zDyFwBDMDQ/?modal=true

 So what's the message here? I say marketing. Using social media to promote both parties, the art museums and Sesame Street. It's just something simple and silly -- a Sesame character casually roaming around the galleries of these world-class museums -- but it's effective. Catches the eye immediately and especially take a look at what MoMA social media team did with it!

 Unlike the other two museums that admitted Cookie Monster today, MoMA took the initiative to give a more thorough tour of the place to expose relatively unseen parts of the Museum, such as the Modern restaurant (visitors/tourists often don't know that it's an official, Michelin-starred restaurant of the MoMA) and the Art Lab that people rarely engage in:

Caption reads: "Time for a cookie break! @THEMODERNnyc pastry chef Jiho Kim baked a special treat for Cookie Monster. #CookieArtTour

Caption reads: "Cookie Monster stopped by the #MoMAArtLab to make some art of his own. #CookieArtTour

 I say this is how marketing in the arts should be done: creative interdisciplinary collaboration, consistent message, and strong (not violent) visuals that resonate in consumers' minds for a while. Great job (again) MoMA.

Must Watch: Woo Woo?

This simple, one-minute video by Adobe Marketing Cloud aptly captures the real struggles of marketers in today's social media platform that transforms everyday (and the interval continues to shorten). In the video, this imaginary social media site "Woo Woo" initially seems like where the young and hip people congregate now, and the excited marketers go all-in on Woo Woo marketing strategies. Literally within a minute, Woo Woo turns out to be a fad where those cool guys' moms are on Woo Woo.

The message here is, do you know what your marketing is doing? I would say this is a brilliant advertisement for Adobe Marketing Cloud, and guess where I saw this commercial, too - Hulu! Advertising digital analytics tool by using digital marketing. Uniform message, consistent identity, and clear target. And a sense of humor is definitely a plus. Great job, Adobe.

Internet Portal & Messaging App in the Case of South Korea

Last summer in 2014, one of the biggest South Korean search portals Daum acquired KakaoTalk, a small start-up messaging application at the time. In my opinion, this was Daum's best decision ever because KakaoTalk allows personalized advertisements on its 145mil registered devices. As an avid KakaoTalk user, I am also increasingly more favoring Daum as my go-to portal instead of Naver (the leading portal in S. Korea), not only because of the convenience but also because I love seeing Daum's witty advertisements on Kakao (cute emojis and stickers, available as stationery items and toys in retail stores, too! Koreans love this stuff, you know). KakaoTalk and Daum now share a great subculture that is prominent throughout the application; Kakao has become more than a messaging app now, almost a social media platform where people converse minutely.

Naver is still the leading internet portal in South Korea today, but Daum might soon catch up. In order to combat this, Naver recently launched TV ads for the first time with the slogan "Ask Naver (네이버에 물어봐)." But will TV ads be enough? It will be interesting to observe how this Naver vs. Daum or internet portal's TV commercial vs. Digital Marketing action will unravel. We will see the results this year.

http://www.economist.com/news/business/21603035-latest-tie-up-between-messaging-apps-and-broader-online-firms-getting-message

Saatchi Art Gallery and its new mobile presence

http://news.artnet.com/in-brief/saatchi-arts-mobile-app-virtually-hangs-artworks-in-users-living-room-196036

Saatchi Art Gallery's mobile app virtually hangs artworks in user's living room. I'm telling you - if this cracks through social media platforms, the art world will transform! Already, Instagram is taking the role of catalogues in auction houses and galleries, and the art connoisseurs are discussing how to regulate this. In the midst of all this rapid transformation, this new application exemplifies an unprecedented way to engage audience in the art world via digital marketing.

The art world before the mobile app and digital marketing is outdated now; we must now pay attention to the innovative methods of targeting and engaging audience in the art world.