Peer Promoting: The Benefits of Social Media Engagement for the Entertainment Industry

By Blaire Townshend

Though I am a member of the oft-mentioned Millennial generation, I am new to the world of social media. Unlike many of my peers, I don’t find that hashtags, retweets, and Instagram posts come naturally to me. However, in a quest to make myself less antediluvian, I have been attempting to understand the complexities of these vast online communities and their implications both for my field of interest (arts and entertainment) and for society in general. What I have gathered quite quickly is that social media not only has the potential to revolutionize marketing tactics, but has already done so. In the interests of time I will speak to this revolution as it pertains to digital arts marketing, but as I am sure you are well aware, no market is unaffected.  

What is truly incredible about these mediums is their capacity to encourage consumer driven marketing. A perfect example of this is live tweeting; the phenomenon of responding to events in real time on Twitter using predetermined hashtags pertaining to the subject material at hand. While I was observing arts events and bemoaning declining audiences and lack of widespread support, my peers were busy beaming relevant discussion topics to a global audience of millions and thus bringing exposure to the art. And this without any urging from the producers of these events! In essence, they were marketing arts events for these producers. On their own time. For free. In marketing parlance, these tweeters exemplify the ideal of the net promoter; an enthusiastic supporter of a good or event who takes it upon themselves to recommend that good or event to their peers. This is an incredibly cost-effective marketing base for organizations to tap into.    

In fact, a Forbes article from 2014 speaks specifically to the effects that live tweeting has on platform engagement (Bercovici). It claims that “programs whose cast members live-tweet when the show is airing generate 64% more discussion” (Bercovici). I can certainly attest to the fact that this is still the case two years later—when Grease Live aired this past week, and stars such as Julianne Hough and Aaron Tveit took to Twitter and Instagram to share their experiences backstage, express their excitement, and just generally check in, my social media feeds exploded. People could not seem to get enough of the up-to-the-minute, intimate feel of these posts. They responded in kind, and as a result, Grease Live was the main topic of conversation on Twitter and Facebook for hours that night.

The beauty of these scenarios is that the marketing personnel of these productions can do relatively little and reap fantastic rewards. Encourage your stars to engage in light commentary, promote a few backstage Instagram posts, and your fans will do the rest of the work for you. Obviously, this is an oversimplification of the marketing process. However, the fact remains that the resulting online conversations generate the very organic word of mouth that marketers lust after. And it is important to note that word of mouth is overwhelmingly what this generation responds to. The statistics say it: the Broadway League demographics report found that word of mouth and personal recommendations were the most popular methods for gathering information and making choices about arts events (Demographics). The experts say it: Chris Anderson reminds us that “fundamentally social media is a peer-to-peer medium”—in other words, the online generation values and trusts the recommendations of their peers (Anderson 242).

When marketers understand this and take advantage of this, they encourage the use of social media as a platform for “peer-production”, where “users happily do for free what companies would otherwise have to pay employees to do”—recommend these events to each other (Anderson 219). Anderson flippantly describes this as a transition from “outsourcing” to “crowdsourcing”, but I feel that his description is wonderfully apropos (Anderson 219). In a market such as the arts, where paying for wages and advertising campaigns is at a premium, who in their right mind would refuse the assistance of that crowd? I may be slow on the uptake, but even I can see that encouraging such collaboration is #ontrend.

Anderson, Chris. The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More. New York: Hyperion, 2008.

Bercovici, Jeff. “Twitter Quantifies Impact of Live-Tweeting on TV Engagement.” Forbes Tech. Forbes. 18 Sept 2014. Web. 4 Feb 2016.

“The Demographics of the Broadway Audience 2013-2014.” The Broadway League. The Broadway League. 2014. Web. 6 Dec 2015.

Millenials are not a niche "youth"

I was thinking last week about one question the teacher raised in class. Since the youngest consumers seem less interested in Facebook and more in other social media like Snapchat, will Facebook suffer from it or is that a specifity of their age and they will grow as Facebook users as they grow older. I could not make my mind, seeing pros and cons for every side of the argument. But then, after some research I stumbled on a very interesting summary of who are millenials in term of numbers. http://www.millennialmarketing.com/who-are-millennials/
That is when I realized that actually millennials are not a niche “youth” segment but a generation of people who will ultimately give way to a newer generation. Therefore, millennial-focused brands will have to change their game to stay relevant. 

Millennial Marketing Tips from 4 of the World's Biggest Digital Platforms

Executives from Facebok, Snapchat, Twitter and Pandora gathered at ZenithOptimedia Group's Mobile Day event to give advertisers tips on how to more effectively reach millennials - adults ages 18-34 who don't respond to traditional advertising and are increasing "cutting the cord" (consumers who ditch TV sets to watch videos on smartphones and tablets). Four interesting insights for the digital players are:

1. Get Local

Steve Hwang, director of operations and strategy at Snapchat, said brands should be involved on a more local level in the real world. Snapchat's core group of 18- to 24-year-olds hate feeling like they are being marketed to. Instead they want to watch videos and look at photos their friends are sharing. Snapchat has a "Live Story feature" that curates streams about nearby events that brands can buy full-page placements in. 

2. Less is more with video

Although it seems like autoplay video has taken over Facebook, brands are still struggling with building the right content for the platform. Facebook advises brands to make four, eight- and 10-second videos that grab people's attention in a news feed. Once people tap on a video, the sound automatically kicks in, which helps hook them to watch longer clips. 

3. Find social's new celebrities

According to Twitter, vine stars are hotter than Hollywood A-listers for millennials. Some influencers have followers and a social graph that is far bigger than any celebrity, and brands should try to emulate or work with these people when posting videos, photos and GIFs to Twitter.

4. Data-backed creative

Pandora revealed that women age 18 to 34 like to listen to YouTube violinist Lindsey Stirling on the Pandora, and they overwhelmingly listen to her from the company's app. This is an example of data that can shape a campaign and determine if it should run on mobile or desktop. Brands should tailor creative message to the environment and mindset. 

Source: 

http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/top-millennnial-marketing-tips-4-worlds-biggest-digital-platforms-165888

The most trusted name in news is... Google?

This week the public relations firm Edelman released a report showing that online search is now a more trusted source of news and information than traditional news media. Interestingly, but perhaps not surprisingly, this effect was even more pronounced among millenials.

At this point, you are probably a little confused. Google isn't a news outlet. It does not generate content or track down leads. How can Google be a more trusted news source than an actual news site? What's going on here?

Well, here is how I have been thinking about this.  As more news media moves online, users are more comfortable consuming their news and information entirely from the internet, but as with most things on the internet, we want choice! (After all, have you ever searched for a relatively specific search term, but still felt annoyed or let down when the search engine only returns one or two relevant hits?) Users are no longer limited to the magazines to which they can afford to subscribe or to their local news stations. More sources, more details, and more viewpoints are becoming better. As Quartz explains: "Getting an at-a-glance look at a wide range of stories deemed relevant by a search-engine algorithm—be they from traditional news outlets, blogs, advertisements, and much else besides—is more comforting to the curious reader, it seems, than simply pulling up a single news outlet’s site." And given the inherent biases of so many news outlets these days, perhaps this approach is actually more balanced overall... but that is a discussion for another blog.

So what does this mean for digital marketing and for search engines? Well, on the one hand, this trust gives search a level of credibility and power with consumers, making paid search and search engine optimization even more valuable as marketing tools. Users clearly trust the algorithms to effectively curate their worldview, so imagine how much more likely they are to select an ad or a site that was picked for them and presented as highly and specifically relevant. On the other hand, this revelation should serve as a warning to companies like Google not to overdo it or to lose sight of their core competency. If advertising is not judiciously vetted and well matched to users or if search results become too easily manipulated by crack marketing teams, search engines could lose that valuable trust as quickly as they earned it.

Consumers trust Google's news algorithm more than traditional media organizations
Google is now a more trusted source of news than the websites it aggregates

Are Millennial Travelers Loyal?

In an age when digital-savvy millennials in the United States are starting to enter the working world and are often on the go for business, it’s interesting to examine their loyalty when it comes to corporate travel. It is now a big question for marketers and travel managers, who must re-examine their previous approaches to advertising and loyalty programs. Travel brands are becoming increasingly popular among this audience, using a healthy mix of attainable, flexible rewards, ongoing guest feedback and traditional hospitality to win them over and gain their business. It has been found that once a millennial traveler picks a preferred brand, he or she tends to stick with that brand for a long time to come.

According to a hotel loyalty survey by Deloitte, 45% of millennials in the United States belonged to none or just one loyalty program during Q1 2014, indicating a huge opportunity for travel loyalty marketing professionals to up the ante when it comes to engaging younger travelers. Deloitte also found that approximately 75% of millennial business travels would stay with a preferred and valued hotel loyalty program even if for some reason they lost all of their status and points. These participants also demonstrated that they would spend an extra $41 per evening, on average, simply to stay at a hotel in their favored program. The right rewards and perks are key to millennial audiences, as younger travelers enjoy accessible rewards, including merchandise, gift cards and hotel upgrades. Younger travelers prefer this to harder to earn rewards such as free airline tickets. Easy-to-earn rewards resonate with the millennial audience.

SOURCE: http://www.emarketer.com/Article/How-Loyal-Millennial-Travelers/1011625/1

Four Key Steps to Engage the Millennial Traveler

Every destination we step in from the chilly breathtaking glaciers along the hiking paths of El Chaltén to bustling charming metropolises like Seoul and Buenos Aires – millennials are constantly on the move. Travel brands must develop strategies to attract this new tech savvy traveler as they grow in number and affluence. With millennials expected to outspend baby boomers by 2030, the below strategies will help travel brands engage this valuable consumer.

1. Go Mobile

The millennial traveler is all about booking on the go – whether in the subway to the next important meeting or on the impromptu night out brainstorming vacations with friends. Mobile travel gross merchandise sales are slated  to reach $26 billion this year, an amount more than double that spent in 2013. In fact, by 2017, mobile travel sales will account for one third of all digital travel sales – reaching $55 billion.

Customer engagement via mobile is no longer a bonus companies can provide, it is a necessity they must offer if they want continued millennial loyalty and further bookings and perks purchased through them.

2. Use Targeted Marketing

With the data of all search queries available to travel companies, information on traveler trends per age and type of traveler is readily available. Getting ahead of the traveler’s mind and determining the millennial traveler’s needs and destination desires becomes easier. Travel brands looking to plant the idea into the traveler can now create custom incentives, messages and offers to give the millennial booker what they crave.

3. Personalize the Communication

Alongside custom messages and deals matching each traveler’s style of vacation exploration, millennials are expecting more and more personalized recommendations to be sent directly to them while already on the trip. If there’s a show happening that aligns to that person’s interests in Berlin, they want the travel brand to remind them of this experience with a ticket link. Travel brands are then rewarded for their forward-thinking as millennials tend to share and boast about their travel experiences across highly connected social networks that reach potential new Gen Y travelers for the brand.

4. Convenience is Priority

The constantly moving millennial expects that life keeps up with them wherever they may find themselves. Any spontaneous idea must be able to be satisfied for the millennial to commit to a travel brand. Instant service, quick feedback, and around the clock problem resolution are all noted and shared with friends when discussing a vacation’s flow.

Engaging the Millennial Traveler

The emergence of new technology has made it possible for brands to understand their customer and tailor strategies to retain the millennial traveler as a customer for years to come.

One company leading in this space is inGuest by Revinate. inGuest gives hotels a platform to better engage with guests across their preferred channels, whether it’s Web,  mobile,  or in-person.  By collecting preferences and data while guests are talking with hotel staff regardless of channel, inGuest can integrate this information with existing hotel systems to enhance guest profiles. Having access to these guest profiles allows hotels to personalize all aspects of service as well as future targeted messages to prompt a new booking. Thus, travelers are engaged across all parts of their journey.  

Source:

·         http://skift.com/2014/10/15/4-strategies-to-better-engage-the-millennial-traveler/

·        http://skift.com/2014/05/23/mobile-travel-sales-in-u-s-forecast-to-reach-one-third-of-all-digital-sales-by-2017/