There’s nothing I love more than the Marvel movies. So I wanted to write my post on the biggest movie of the year. Avengers: Age of Ultron opened in the North America this weekend with $187.7 million. This makes the movie the second biggest opening of all time (next to Harry Potter 7 Part 2).
Avengers: Age of Ultron had a great social media marketing plan. While tradition, a lot of excitement was built up by the fans. Fans would share the trailer, Marvel would cleverly deal with any leaks, and when the trailer first came out, it was the most viewed on Youtube. Age of Ultron didn’t do any crazy AR game like Dark Knight, but still did incredibly well. However, the number of ticket sales is lower than expected. It is believed that the Mayweather vs Pacquiao fight caused the film to lose ticket sales. This is another thing that was extremely exciting to fans. Marvel could have used this trending topic to their advantage. I’ve seen similar advertisments feature Ironman vs Hulk in a boxing type poster so Marvel could have pushed this more. Their social media channels are very professional so maybe it’s time to add some personality. This way, the account can adapt to trends in entertainment or media. Of course, this is just my slight suggestion.
Regardless of the Mayweather vs
Pacquiao fight, Marvel and Disney are pulling a huge win for this weekend. The film was amazing.
Pinterest has gotten the same rap for years: it’s a great looking service used far more by women than men. Evan Sharp, Pinterest’s cofounder and Chief Creative Officer, doesn’t …
Interestingly in class, we talked about how the Pinterest demographic is mostly female but CCO, Evan Sharp, believes this ratio is surely change. Pinterest hopes to attract more of a male audience with it’s new “smart board picker”. The new algorithm is more effective in suggesting relevant boards to the user. Internationally, Pinterest has a 50-50 ratio between guys and girls. This is interesting for international companies who may want to use Pinterest in their social media strategy. However, as of now, I personally don’t have any interest in Pinterest.
Former Square Enix CEO Yoichi Wada discusses his cloud-based gaming venture and the dent that he thinks it will make.
The future of video games may be in the cloud. Former CEO of Square Enix, Yoichi Wada, believes that cloud gaming allows for programmers to think outside the box. Instead of traditional means of programming, cloud gaming allows programmers to create games without the worry of console performance restriction.
“The idea is to allow developers to use Shinra’s supercomputers and data centers connected via high-speed Internet to design and stream games without worrying about limitations of a console or a PC.”
In class we discussed how gaming is some of the most interactive and effective means of advertising. Imagine games that are so interactive, you could have AI talk about your products (as if in a real conversation). It could be a non-intrusive form of advertising if done correctly.
Facebook just released some interesting highlights from their Q1 2015 report. There are now 1.44 billion active users on Facebook every month. That’s such a large number of users that it should excite marketers. How can we reach that many people with so many connections? Furthermore, the stats reveal that there are over 2 million advertisers on Facebook. Could you imagine 2 million advertisers fighting for your attention? Facebook has become such a vital aspect of social media marketing. It’s nonstop growth is very impressive.
The internet allows anyone, anywhere, to post anything. This can also be a problem for companies (see the Sony Wikileaks this week). I want to talk about something much more basic like the leaked releases of trailers.
Batman v. Superman released a teaser for their trailer to be screened exclusively in IMAX theaters next week. However, the following day, a leaked pirated version of the trailer was released because internationally, people already saw it. Now this has happened to many movies before. Some handle it well (Marvel claiming it was their comic-terrorist group Hydra) and some try their hardest to remove the leak and pretend it didn’t happen. Warner Brothers decided to release the HD trailer later that day, driving all the traffic toward them. Now that’s a quick way to respond to feedback and to direct traffic toward your product. A better way would be to release additional footage to the IMAX release, that way people will still want to go. Companies have to be flexible in a world run by social media and leaks are just another day in the business.
Facebook rolled out a web browser version of its standalone Messenger app on Wednesday.
Facebook launched a new standalone messaging app for the web (similar to that of the mobile app). By doing this, Facebook is becoming more like iMessage and allows users to message their friends without going on Facebook. This is not a forced separation (like the mobile app).
For marketers, it would be interesting to see more “stickers” based on their brands. Adventure Time, Pixar, Power Rangers, Expendables, and other properties use this function in Facebook messenger. I think it’s a new way to advertise your property and it’s non-intrusive. If Marvel did this, those would be super popular stickers, especially with the new movie coming out soon!
So I just noticed something on Facebook that you may be noticing as well. Under some status updates, there is a little text “Paper” next to the time stamp. I was curious as to what this was and it’s Facebook’s new application and venture into Social Media.
Facebook Paper is similar in design and usage to Tumblr and Flickr. At first glance, the design is much cleaner and appealing than the standard Facebook wall. Paper is made for storytelling. Instead of having a scroll down feature, Paper lets you see your friend’s status and pictures one at a time. The new features also let you view news, magazines, and trending topics quickly too (think similar to Snapchat’s new Stories feature with various companies). I’m curious to see why Facebook choose to go this direction and if it’ll be successful. Maybe Paper will soon be the new Facebook page.
This comes during a significant time for the company, which is reportedly raising a new round of funding at a valuation placed by some at up to $19 billion.
Snapcat is the newest and hottest social media tool. With it’s completely new revamp and ability for partnerships, it’s no wonder the company is valued at $19 billion. Snapchat is finally cracking down on third party apps similar to Snapchat. These apps can include apps that can save your Snapchats or have similar functionality to Snapchat. Honestly, I’m surprised it has taken Snapchat so long to really start doing this. Hopefully this will make the app, overall, more secure as it moves into the future. I’m always interested in the growth of Snapchat.
Amazon is attempting to enter the service industry. Now when you buy a ceiling fan, Amazon can recommend a handyman to help install your new purchase. Only background checked, certified, and approved workers are allowed to join Amazon Service. It will be interesting to see how well this works for Amazon. Soon, you won’t have to leave your house for really any shopping needs. Similar to all Amazon products, users can review the services they receive. I’m curious how user-reviews will affect the workers who join Amazon Service. Will it help their business or will they become overbooked? Will they be able to handle the additional demand once they receive Amazon’s approval? Cheers, Web 2.0, you’re always impressing me.
Something I’ve been wondering is how do companies respond to negative comments/feedback. I don’t necessarily mean negative feedback in terms of a product, but company decision. If example, Marvel releases an all female Avengers team and there are numerous comments that just hate the idea (which is horribly disappointing). Or the idea that Peter Parker could be an African American and there are so much disheartening, hateful, comments. Marvel doesn’t reply because it’s a company and as such, doesn’t want to alienate it’s audience.
Another trending example was the removal of a Batgirl cover (Batgirl 41) because some fans felt it conveyed the wrong message. The removal caused a lot of negative feedback even though the artist, himself, agreed with why some fans wanted the cover removed. This created an interesting dilemma for the comic industry as a whole. Read more here:
Oh a similar note, J.K Rowling responded to a negative comment from a fan believing that she “didn’t see Dumbledore as a gay”. J.K Rowling responded by saying that “gay people look just like people”. This is a clever response that puts that type of negativity to rest.
I run the social media marketing for my University’s Programming Board. With the release of every concert, students are extremely negative. Knowing how much work goes into getting artists, assigning contracts, and working to student tastes, it’s really sad when the only vocal responses are negative. I’ve been trying to figure out how to respond to the negativity, because I think they should be addressed. I want the student population to know the difficulty behind every decision so they’re more open and understanding. But is that asking too much?
Companies, such as Taco Bell, that have a personality I would expect to respond in a clever way. Is that okay for a brand? How do you think a company should respond?
I'm just doing Soical Media Marketing classwork, trying to analyze the trends of social media, and just trying to be one of the cool kids. There will also be numerous amounts of comic related posts. Opinions (of varying degress of intelligence) are my own.
