B
Megan Buck Advertising
Ta k e a s t e p i n t o c u r i o s i t y.
Huzzaz Media Plan Complied by @HZZGaming
BLOGS
THE OBJECTIVE Marketing Objective
Our team sat down in a focus group and decided that we wanted to target gamers. We chose gamers because we Media knew these Objective were people who actively used videos. Whether it be for ideas on what game to buy next or finding different cheat videos on how to advance to the next level. We thought Huzazz would be a great product for them to organize their video collections.
Media Objective
The objective is to drive awareness, familiarity and member registration for Huzzaz. We did this by focusing on gamers who have videos about gaming. We started driving our awareness by creating a twitter account called: HZZ Gaming. We thought with a name related to our target market that it would help us gain more influencers. We are also finding blogs and forums that could patiently promote Huzzaz with the focus being on gaming.
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Competetive Analysis Strengths
Oppertunites
You can log in within a couple seconds using your Facebook, Twitter, or Google account. Skins allow the users to embed their playlists in a way that looks more cohesive to the site or blog they are sharing on. You can also embed videos from your own server.
Adding support for other video sharing sites, such as Vimeo, could make tubesnack a more enticing product to use. Being more upfront with the perks of a premium membership might lead to more paid subscribers
Weaknesses You can only embed videos from YouTube, DailyMotion, and your own server. It does not support other video sharing sites, such as Vimeo. The fact that tubesnack is only a small part of a bigger “snack� product line of other widgets makes the site seem much less specialized. The site also wants you to sign up for a premium membership. It is very hard to figure out the benefits you receive with a premium membership.
Threats against Huzzaz Huzzaz might become a more attractive choice to younger users because it incorporates Vimeo and it includes the social media aspect, whereas tubesnack does not.
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Strengths
Theats against Huzzaz
The content is all professionally produced, so quality is not an issue. It’s easy to log in with a Facebook or Twitter account.
Huzzaz, ShowYou, and Waywire are much more user friendly. They also allow the users to curate the content themselves and embed the content on other sites and blogs.
Weaknesses Users cannot make their own collections. The users are limited to videos that are placed on there by the producers. The videos can be shared through social media but they cannot be embedded on another site or blog.
Oppertunites They could potentially incorporate user made collections and allow their collections to be embedded.
Strengths
Theats against Huzzaz
They have an application available to iOS and Android users which make it very easy to keep up with various collections on the go. It’s also easy to sign-in via Facebook and Twitter.
Huzzaz is a threat just because it looks better. Users might also like how ShowYou looks and the mobile app might be very appealing to some.
Weaknesses
They could make their site more aesthetically pleasing and easier for new users to learn how to use it.
The site can be very intimidating for new users. It also seems messy and unorganized. Overall, it just takes more time than it should to learn how to navigate the site. It’s also very plain looking. Besides sharing wires via social media and tracking your activity and the wires you follow, there is no integrated social aspect.
Oppertunites
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VGChartz
Data of sales from the video game industry. Looks at which games and consoles are on top.
www.vgchartz.com
IGN
Video Game Jounalism
www.ign.com
Giant Bomb
Gamers with Jobs Game Politics
A hub for tips, reviews, cheats; it’s the Wikipedia of gaming. A blog of gamers who are employeed. Covers the politics of laws and other issues in the gaming industry.
www.giantbomb.com
www.gamerswithjobs.com www.gamepolitics.com
Gamasutra
Shows how games are made through art and business.
www.gamasutra.com
1Up
Produces original content as well as reviews and tips/hints/strategies.
www.1Up.com
The Escapist
Mostly articles, videos and game reviews as well as original content.
www.escapistmagazine.com
An ongoing video game review series created by comedy writer and video game journalist Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw.
www.youtube.com/channel/ HCMF90rwEDU8Q
Zero Punctuation
TheAcornnMan
A YouTuber who produces game plays and reviews.
Miranda Sanchez
Co-found of Random Havok, a site that covers big news and features in the gaming industry.
www.youtube.com/user/ theacornnman Twitter – @TheAcornnMan www.randomhavok.com Twitter - @HavokRose
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Target Analysis Who are we targeting?
Adults between the ages of 18 – 35 who regularly play video games. These gamers not only play video games out of sheer leisure, but they also constantly seek out information about upcoming games and news in the gaming industry. Some of the top reasons why gamers say they purchase a computer or video game: quality of game graphics, an interesting storyline, a sequel to a favorite game, word of mouth. According to the Entertainment Software Association, 62% of gamers play games with others, either in person or online. Gamers also build relationships with and around games that they played while growing up.
Our media strategy is comprised of four main parts:
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t 4FFL PVU IFBWZ JOĘVFODFST VTFST PG OJDIF HBNJOH DPNNVOJUJFT UP FYQBOE )V[[B[ NFNCFSTIJQ BOE JODSFBTF BXBSFOFTT "DPSONBO
t *ODSFBTF GSFRVFODZ PG WJTJUT UP )V[[B[ BOE WJEFP DPMMFDUJPOT UISPVHI TPDJBM NFEJB 5XJUUFS :PV5VCF CZ drawing from the release of new gaming consoles, games, and game-related activities such as gameplays, walkthroughs, cheats, hints, trailers and tutorials. Site Twitter YouTube
Time Frame November 2013 – March 2013
Type of Ad Promoted Tweets
November 25 – December 23, Pre-roll for game play January 20 – 27, February 17 – 24, videos. March 17 – 31
Creative Size
0:30
November 18 – December 30
Banner-Square
125x125
IGN
December 15 – January 18, February 1 – 15, March 1 – 15
Banner- Full; Skyscraper
Full – 468x60 Skyscraper – 160x600
The Escapist
December 20, 25, 30
Homepage Takeover
Full Screen
VGChartz
November 17 – January 18
Banner- Full; Skyscraper Full – 468x60 Skyscraper – 120x600
Gamasutra
November 17 – December 28, March 10, 31
Banner – full, skyscraper Full – 468x60 For March – specific to Skyscraper – 120x60 game release.
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On YouTube, we are using a fleeting schedule to hit gameplay watchers and content-creators at different times of the year. The type of the advertisement that will appear is a pre-roll ad that will come before gameplay videos. These ads will target gameplay lovers at the spot of where they go for gameplay content. We plan on spending $155,000 net on YouTube. We will be using a continuous twitter schedule that hits our users the most to best communicate our different huzzaz gaming campaigns. These ads will pop up when users search for popular gaming websites like IGN, and will lead them to the Huzzaz twitter page. We plan on spending $75,000 net on Twitter.
These digital square ads will be displayed on different subreddits relevant to different gaming topics. We will be running these in the holiday season, to capitalize on relevant topics like the release of the Xbox One, the PS4, and popular new games that are coming out.We plan on spending $50,000 net on Reddit We will be advertising full banner and skyscraper ads on IGN from the 16th of December to the end of the year. This is to capitalize on end-of-year lists in trying to get IGN users to compile their best-of gaming lists on Huzzaz. We plan on spending $105,000 net on IGN. On The Escapist, a popular gaming journalism website, we will be performing a homepage takeover for three days on December 20th, December 25th, and December 30th. This is to revolve around content urging users to go to Huzzaz and compile their end-of-year lists as well as make collections of their most anticipated games of 2014. We plan on spending $75,000 net on The Escapist On Gamasutra, we will be advertising banner ads around two specific dates in the spring specifically. Because Gamasutra highlights the processes of making new games, we will be advertising for Huzzaz for users to create collections based around these two games. Two hotly anticipated games coming out in the spring are the new Final Fantasy and Elder Scrolls games. We would be advertising a week in advance to help build hype for these games and Huzzaz as well. We plan on spending $15,000 net on Gamasutra.
We will be running banner and skyscraper ads on VGChartz immediately following the release of the Xbox One and PS4 in an attempt to target users who are interesting in content surrounding these platforms. This would highlight Huzzaz’s benefit in making collections based off of new gaming platforms. We plan on spending $25,000 net on VGChartz.
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The case
The impact of social media A Deprivation Study of isolating 8 people from Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for 2 weeks.
TABLE OF CONTENTS 3
the case
4
history of social media
9 13 before & after 14 the results 16 conclusion 17 work cited
team members Megan Buck Parnia Tahamzadeh Alex Luft Melissa Valadez Michael Burns
Deprivation Study: Social Media
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The case We define social media as websites that are used for the purpose of connecting with people socially. The sites we chose to deprive our participants from were Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The participants for our study were asked to give up all connections to social media for two whole weeks. We decided to deprive our participants from these three different sources of social media because we thought they were the most relevant to our generation. Why Social Media? We live in a society that bases their friendships and connections off how many people follow them on
Twitter or how many friends they have on Facebook. We devised a focus group and came to a conclusion that the results from taking away social media would be very interesting. We wanted to see where people would spend their time if they were not connected to social media. We were also interested in seeing how people would communicate. Before the study began, we discovered that social media is one of the main forms of communication within college students. This study drew us in because we wanted to analyze if the members of the study would be more willing to communicate with people in person or over the phone in place of social media.
We also realized that a lot of businesses use social media for their main form of communication within the to play? Due to the fact that social media plays such a large days, businesses and companies have also been moving toward social media platforms to reach their target audiences. There are unique and interactive ways for consumers to get involved with a product or service through the use of Facebook pages and twitter accounts. Even when a special event is taking place, social media users can utilize hashtags to participate in a world-wide community.
Deprivation Study: Social Media
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the history of social media according to Webster: forms of electronic communication (as Web sites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (as videos) Article from University of North Carolina 1992: “Tripod opened as a community online for college students and young adults.” (UNCP) 1994: “Yahoo, which opened as a major Internet search engine and index in 1994, owns Geocities.” “More than 1,500 Web Servers were online in 1994 and people were referring to the Internet as the Information SuperHighway.” (UNCP) 1998: “Google opens as a major Internet search engine and index.” (UNCP) 1999: “Friends Reunited, social network to achieve prominence, was founded in the Great Britain to relate past school pals.” UNCP) 2002: “Friendster, a social networking website, was opened to the public in the U.S. and grew 3 million users in three months. AOL had 34 Million members.” (UNCP) 2003: “Myspace.com another
social networking website, was launched as a clone of Friendster. Linden Lab opened the virtual world Second life on the Internet. LinkedIn was started as a business-oriented social networking site for professionals.” (UNCP) 2004: “Facebook, another social networking website, was started for students at Harvard College. It was referred to at the time as a college version of Friendster. Myspace surpassed Friendster in page viewers. Flickr image hosting website opened.” (UNCP) 2006: “Myspace was the most popular social networking site in the U.S. However, based on monthly unique visitors Facebook would take away the lead later in 2008. Twitter was launched as a social networking and microblogging site, enabling members to send and receive 140 characters messages called tweets. Facebook membership was expanded and opened to anyone over age 13. Google had index more than 25 billion web pages, 400 million queries per day, 1.3 million images, and more than a billion Usenet messages.” (UNCP) 2007: “Facebook initiated Facebook Platform which let third-party developers create applications (apps) for the site.” 2008: “Facebook Surpassed MySpace in the total number
of monthly unique visitors.” (UNCP) 2009: “Facebook ranked as the most used social network worldwide with more that 200 million users.” growth moved it above 400 million users, while MySpace users declined to 57 million users, down from a peak of 75 millions users. To compete with Facebook and Twitter, Google launched BUZZ.” 2011: “Social media commerce was on the rise along with mobile social media via smartphone and tablet computers.” (UNCP) 2012: “Even more people are connected to the Internet for longer periods of time. 2 Billion people around the World use the internet and social media. It is estimated Internet would double by 2015 to a global total of some four billion users, population. Advertisers look to social “likes” to enhance brand visibility. 2013: “Facebook user total climber to 1.11 billion. Twitter had 500 million registered users, with more than 200 million active. LinkedIn had 225 million users, while MySpace had 25 million users. Pinterest had 48.7 million users, while Word Press hosted 74 million blogs.” (UNCP)
Deprivation Study: Social Media
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the history of social media A brief history of Facebook “Mark Zuckerberg, 23, founded Facebook while studying psychology at Harvard University. A keen computer programmer, Mark Zuckerberg had already developed a number of social-networking websites for fellow students, In February 2004 Mr Zuckerberg launched “The Facebook”, as it was originally known; Within 24 hours, 1,200 Harvard students had signed up, and after one month, over half of the undergraduate population was promptly extended to other Boston universities, the Ivy League and eventually all US universities. It became Facebook.com in August 2005 after the address was purchased for $200,000. US high schools could sign up from September 2005, then it began to spread worldwide, reaching UK universities the following month. As of September 2006, the network was extended beyond educational institutions to anyone with a registered email address. The History of Twitter “This is what the naysayers fail to use Twitter to spread the word about a brilliant 10,000word New Yorker article as it is to spread the word about your
Lucky Charms habit.” -Steven Johnson, author of The Invention of Air Twitter is approaching its 6th birthday soon and the platform has really come a long way from its early beginnings. Twitter is one of the most popular social networks used today but it began as another micro-blogging platform created by programmers who worked at the podcasting company Odeo Inc. in San Francisco, California. Jack Dorsey (@Jack), Evan Williams (@Ev) and Biz Stone (@Biz) had big plans for Twitter but they likely had no idea how popular it would created the site, they were just looking for a way to send text
messages on their cell phones and a way to reinvent a somewhat dying company. On March 21, 2006, @Jack sent up my twttr.” It would be the beginning of a revolution. Now people from all over the world professions are saying it all in 140 characters or less. Dom Sagolla (@Dom), in tweet 38, typed these prescient words: “Oh, this is going to be addictive.” Twitter Beginnings “So how did Twitter get its name? Supposedly, the name was inspired by the photo-sharing site, Flickr, and other considerations were FriendStalker and Dodgeball. Deprivation Study: Social Media
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the history of social media short burst of inconsequential information” and “a series of chirps from birds”. The name platform became Twitter. Soon the “chirps” of many twitterers would be heard/seen throughout the Twitterverse as the microblogging platform caught on with Internet users. It would still be a couple of years before it was fully this new site long to gain fame. Why 140 characters only? The limit was set because 160 characters was the SMS carrier limit and they wanted to leave room for the username. Twitter Spreads the News Twitter is much more than just your friends telling you about their day. It has changed the media, politics and business. Many will report they hear
In the past, political news and commentary was only reported by a select group of those “in the know”. But today, we see both politicians and the Average Joe on Twitter sharing their political banter and opinions. It is a new era of citizen journalists and we see people speaking up and speaking out about the things that are important to them. Twitter has also had an impact
460,000 new accounts being created each day. There are more than 140 million tweets sent each day and while the company had only eight employees in 2008, they now have more than 400 and Wallace said that the Internet was “the bathroom wall of the American psyche,” which led The New Yorker to ask its
new way to reach their fans where they are already- in social media and on their smartphones. Twitter has become a tool that businesses large and small can use to reach their target market, provide customer service, share their unique content and
stories of natural disasters, sports scores, the death of a celebrity and more are
for everyday people to keep in touch with their favorite celebrities and a tool for the celebrities to stay in contact with their fans. This brings us to some of the most popular Twitter accounts.
media and microblogging site Twitter has changed political communication profoundly.
Twitter Today Today Twitter has over 200 million users with about
MOST POPULAR TWITTER ACCOUNTS
Gaga (@ladygaga) 1 Lady 33,265,051 followers
a tweet. They got some very interesting and sometimes funny responses: @dnahinga – “Alone Together” @Wodespain – “Communicative disease” @Winooski – “Crouching Grammar, Hidden Manners” @anglescott – “Twitter is the dime store in the marketplace of ideas” @jaelmchenry – “A riddle wrapped in an enigma wrapped in typos wrapped in bacon.” @francesolimpo – “Twitter a lot to wade through, and whale” (Socialnomics)
Bieber (@justinbieber) 2 Justin 33,262,987 followers
Perry (@katyperry) (@rihanna) 3 Katy 31,405,485 followers 4 Rihanna 27,928,899 followers Obama (@BarackObama) 5 Barack 25,963,966 followers
the Thehistory case of social media The Beginning of Instagram Instagram launched on October 6, 2012. Instagram has turned into a leading social media site for sharing photos and videos. People have started using Instagram as their personal photo diary. They can document their day-to-day lives with
photos of food, clothes, and historical moments in their lives. “On December 12, 2010 Instagram grew to over one million users. On September 20, 2011 Instagram introduces v2.0 with four new filters.” (Instagram) On September 26, 2011 Instagram hit over 10 million users. On December 9, 2011
something big happened for Instagram, Apple names Instagram , “iPhone App of the year.” On April 3, 2012 Instagram launched to Android. On February 5, 2013 Instagram launched feeds to the web. Then on October 24, 2013 Instagram announced sponsors and videos.” (Instagram)
Deprivation Study: Social Media
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ANT P I C I T PAR FILES PRO
“ get on Facebook, I would look at
”
old pictures on my phone instead.
“ but also society as a whole, have become reliant on social media. ” Deprivation Study: Social Media
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The case
“ After the two weeks, I have
”
take social media for granted.
“ more when I am with them
”
instead of just down at my phone.
Deprivation Study: Social Media
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“ Social media is like a language. while everybody else does, you will miss out on a lot of information.
”
went to a couple more parties “ Iand hung out with my roommates
”
without a phone in front of my face.
Deprivation Study: Social Media
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The case
felt really out-of-the-loop from my “ Ifriends and from current events occuring during the two weeks. ”
no one else will notice “ Imybelieve absence from social media, but my connection with what others are doing will be effected
”
Deprivation Study: Social Media
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before & after
Deprivation Study: Social Media
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the results Eight people agreed to completely shut themselves out of social media for two weeks. Participants were moderate to heavy users of Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Before the study began, our participants were asked to rank how hard they thought the study would be and when it was complete, how hard it actually was. Most of the participants were correct on their predictions
hard for the group because it was almost natural for them to go straight to their social media sites and see what their friends were doing. One participant, Mark Stricklin, even made up a term for his seemingly uncontrollable social network habits. Stricklin calls it, “unconscious visitation.� He said that he would type Facebook into the URL without even thinking about it. A trend evolved from the predictions of our participants. When asked at what times of the day will they miss social media the most, a few common answers came about. The majority said they would
really miss social media at free times in their day. Participants gave examples such as on their lunch breaks, on the bus, in class, or while watching television. Boredom plays a large role in the use of social media, but what is it about social media that keeps people entertained? We asked the participants what they used social media for and the reasons ranged from creeping on friends to getting news. However, one thing seemed static throughout the responses. Our participants felt that friends were up to, so they had to take the initiative
because they said they would just pick up the phone and call their friends or text them instead. Social media has swept our world and locked our attention, our participants felt comfortable with no social media in their lives by the end of the study; therefore, social media is not a necessity but rather an entertainment medium. If Facebook, Twitter or
Instagram wish to gain insight on their consumer then they need to make their network a necessity. None of the participants thought they needed social media and most thought they could extend the study. Once people break the habit of compulsively logging on to social networks, it seems easy for them to immediately choose their phone to connect with others. Instagram needs to make their users feel like they need Instagram to see photos. Facebook needs to make their users feel like they need Facebook to connect with friends, family and colleagues and Twitter needs to make their users feel like they need Twitter to post their thoughts and see trending news. Our participants they were bored, until there was nothing to fill that time. They supplemented and entertained themselves other ways, or did homework or worked out instead. No one felt that social media was so necessary that they truly needed it. Social media is not a need; it is only utilized when there is time to fill.
Deprivation Study: Social Media
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conclusion The goal of our study is to determine how our lives would be different without the presence of social media. According to our research social media is increasingly taking up larger portions of our time. Our question is: what time is it taking from? Boredom. According to the responses of our subjects social media is primarily used as a distraction from the boredom that accompanies daily life. Riding the bus, during a break,
What does this insight mean for advertisers? The average consumer is on a search for information and content at all times. The prevalence of Google and the Internet leads us to crave more knowledge and expect
were all common times that our subjects missed using social media the most. Our study has revealed that boredom results in productivity. Without the distraction of social media 75% of our subjects resorted to reading, working on homework or other enriching activities such as “Googling random stuff.”
engaging customers. Major brands such as Coca Cola and Kraft foods are shifting traditional creative advertising to the providing, curating, and sponsoring content for their consumers. Coca Cola recently shifted from creating multiple billboards and TV spots in the 2008 Olympics to creating 120 unique pieces of
a gap in the amount of (and accessibility) of knowledge and the content that currently exists. This leads us to believe that the emerging practice of “Content Marketing” will grow
content in the 2012 Olympics. Kraft Foods has created KraftFoods.com to provide recipes for its products that it shares through social media sites. One massively important thing to remember regarding social media is this: It does not exist without content. The subjects of our study use social media to overcome boredom. They yearn for engaging information as shown by their resort to reading and other enriching activities during the deprivation study. This provides an avenue for advertisers to reach consumers by overcoming their boredom with enriching and engaging content. Advertisers can exploit the marriage of social media and content to engage with their customers in an enriching way.
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WORK CITED Erickson, Tammy. “HBR Blog Network.” Harvard Business Review. N.p., 16 Feb. 2012. Web. 24 Nov. 2013. “Instagram.” Instagram. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Nov. 2013. “Instagram Use Is Exploding.” Wired.com. Conde Nast Digital, 25 Sept. 0012. Web. 01 Dec. 2013.
Philips, Sarah. “A Brief History of Facebook.” The Guardian. N.p., 24 July 2007. Web. 24 Nov. 2013 Johnson, Mark. “The History of Twitter.” Socialnomics. N.p., 23 Jan. 2013. Web. 21 Nov. 2013 “Social Networking Reaches Nearly One in Four Around the World.” EMarketer. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2013.
“Twitter Statistics.” Statistic Brain RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Nov. 2013.
Deprivation Study: Social Media
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creative brief Why are we advertising? To increase user engagement and reinforce that Facebook is not just a way to stay connected with your friends but get connected with the world. Who are we walking to? We are talking to the people that are becoming dissolution with social media. The people who want more engaging content such as news, recipes and other content. What do they currently think? “Facebook is a easy way to keep up with friends, but I
lately.”
What would we like them to think? “Facebook is my portal to the global community. When I log in I am not only connected to my network of friends but to content that matters to me.”
Media Recommendations
What is the single most persuasive idea we can convey? Facebook is a global community.
upcoming 2014 Olympics.
Why should they believe it?
message properly the campaign needs to reach a global consumer base. Our recommendation is a series played during the peak
seek to appeal to the world community and display that Facebook is what ties us all together. Facebook is not just a site for pictures or status updates but a community
users. out about major news on Facebook before traditional news organizations.
makes it. It is a news site, a recipe book, a photo album, friends.