PepperDigital

12 Days of Digital: Day 1

In keeping with our year-end tradition, the PepperDigital team would like to take a look back to the best and worst displays of digital savvy (or lack thereof) from 2009. Join us for the next 12 Days of Digital and let us know what online campaigns made the top (or bottom) of your list.

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Paranormal Activity Finds Abnormal Amount of Success Thanks to Online Following

By Lauren Begley, PepperDigital

I’m not a fan of scary movies, but I have great respect for the creators of Paranormal Activity, a low-budget horror flick released earlier this fall. With a miniscule budget of just $10,000, Paranormal Activity was able to reach blockbuster status after bringing in $22 million in its first weekend in wide-release. And it was all thanks to the power of social media.

While the film earned respectable viewership while in limited release, Paramount Studios saw even greater potential in mainstream audiences—but before investing the cash, they wanted to make sure. The studio launched a grassroots digital campaign to generate buzz around the film and gauge interest from potential viewers. Should 1 million viewers announce online that they’d like to see the film, Paranormal Activity would be expanded to wide-release across the country.

This campaign was hugely successful and the online chatter surrounding the psychological thriller was even more than expected. Horror film buffs took to their blogs, Twitter pages and Facebook account not only asking, but demanding to see the film in wide-release.

“The fans have really made this their film and they are doing the bulk of the work to market the film,” said Megan Colligan, co-president of marketing for Paramount Studios.

The grassroots approach enabled consumers to feel like they were a part of a movement and encouraged them to spread the word—a benchmark of a successful online campaign. Even though I respect and appreciate what the marketers were able to accomplish, I’ll stick to watching It’s a Wonderful Life this time of year.

‘Tis the season to be tweeting…

By Carl Foster, PepperDigital

In the UK, Monday was not just the start of any other week, it was ‘Mega Monday’, the busiest day of the year for online shopping. Apparently, the onset of December coupled with the prospect of sharp elbowed crowds on the high street means we fire up the laptop, get out the credit card and load up the shopping cart (or trolley, as we say over here). Mega Monday has grown year-on-year as more people feel comfortable shopping online. This year, £400 million was predicted to be spent, 25 per cent up on last year.

 What’s new this year though is Twitter. Some big high street retailers, including Marks and Spencer, Debenhams and Waterstone’s are using Twitter to extend their personal customer service online. What is encouraging is that these outlets are not using Twitter as just another broadcast channel for new products and special offers; they really are using it to engage with their customers. Check out the Waterstone’s Twitter page (twitter.com/waterstones 6944 followers). It has the special offers in there but it is full of back and forth with customers, both chatty and personal, but also on issues such as delivery problems and other customer service issues. Debenhams (twitter.com/DebenhamsRetail 2007 followers) is an even better example of Twitter being used to engage with customers. Apparently Debenhams issued blackberries to some staff at its Oxford Street branch, which even led to people tweeting requests from the changing room for clothes in different sizes.

A survey by Immediate Future on how 140 UK and global organisations are using Twitter found that majority of organisations are using the platform to broadcast content from other sources - usually their own websites. The example set by the high street retailers shows that maybe this is starting to change and companies recognise the value of engaging with consumers through Twitter. Let’s hope the trend continues in 2010.

"One Size Fits None": Navigating the Online Pitfalls and Opportunities of Today's Global Social Norms

Part 12 of 12

In this concluding entry in the “One Size Fits None” blog series, we explore the themes that have emerged throughout the past 11 posts and some of the takeaways for public relations professionals operating in an age of online communication that regularly crosses national borders.

Public relations is shifting dramatically in an era when a greater proportion of many societies have access to communication technologies that give them the opportunity to reach a large international audience. Today, as never before, brands cannot take a monolithic approach to their outreach with a global audience, nor can they expect that each national audience will not impact one another or see the messages intended for another culture. As we said at the beginning of this series, the takeaways from the examples shared here emphasize that social media:

1) is truly global, allowing people from cultures around the world to connect - and stay connected - more directly and fluidly than ever before;

2) does not create unilateral platforms, in that cultures - and subcultures within that culture - use social media in markedly different ways; and

3) will not replace traditional media, but provides the opportunity to connect with targeted global audiences in ways that both embrace local concerns and issues and build support and conversation across multiple cultures.

Henry Jenkins' concept of "pop cosmopolitanism" helps explain how conversations about entertainment, politics, causes and hobbies may lead people from around the world to learn about and perhaps even feel a part of cultures they've never actually visited. Similarly, as communication more rapidly permeates borders, that international flavor of popular culture begins to shape how people think about and understand other cultures and themselves. 

Think, for instance, of how social media communication traveling across national borders shaped coverage and discussion of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai last year. Social media affords citizens with the ability to communicate out about events in their country and simultaneously gives diaspora or other interested international audiences ways to circumvent traditional media platforms, as demonstrated by international audience's use of Twitter to communicate around government-controlled media platforms in the disputed Iranian election this year.

For public relations professionals, following the trends of popular culture is crucial for having a solid grip on how communication is changing. Discussion of their personal passions may seem frivolous to some, but the transnational connections people make around entertainment, etc., often lay the groundwork for larger communication shifts over time. Those companies which devote time to understanding these cultural trends and shifts will be best poised to help themselves and their clients better understand the communication environment in which  we operate. Those who don't may not just miss opportunities but open themselves up to gross miscalculations about how international communication is evolving.