This year’s Star Wars: Celebration event is in full swing in London, and while a number of panels will cover a variety of Star Wars-related topics from the forthcoming Star Wars: Episode VIII to the animated Star Wars: Rebels, there’s one project that’s receiving a tremendous amount of attention.
During the opening festivities, there was a huge celebration for the Rogue One: A Star Wars Story movie, a spin-off that tells the story of a brave team attempting to steal plans for the Empire’s mighty Death Star station. A panel featuring a majority of the film’s cast, including Felicity Jones, Diego Luna and Donnie Yen alongside director Gareth Edwards got fans excited by presenting a “celebration reel” that showcased behind-the-scenes footage.
Disney is sparing no expense at promoting Rogue One as one of its biggest holiday releases, considering that its last Star Wars film, The Force Awakens, made well over $935 million domestically and more than $2 billion worldwide. It also did remarkably well on home video, and Starz paid top dollar for the cable rights to the film, set to premiere on September 10.
The promotion for Rogue One isn’t just at Celebration. ABC will be airing a Star Wars-themed special, Secrets of the Force Awakens: A Cinematic Journey, tonight, and the newest movie trailer is expected to debut right along with it. There are hints that this snippet will also reveal a popular villain in the Star Wars universe—the return of Darth Vader.
Disney hasn’t laid out all its promotional plans for Rogue One yet, but they’re likely to be along the same lines as The Force Awakens, with a number of promotional partners, toys and other products related to the film. EA is working on new add-on content for its hit game Star Wars: Battlefront, but hasn’t detailed how or if it’ll tie in with the film.
There’s still plenty of time for Disney to continue Rogue One‘s push leading up to its release. Given its strong reception at the Star Wars Celebration, the Force is certainly strong with this movie.
Star Wars: Rogue One hits theaters on December 16.
Sometimes you need more than a marketing message to push a particular brand—and that’s where emoji can come in.
The imagery, which has been popular on Twitter over the past couple of years—with brands like UFC and Star Wars taking full advantage—is starting to take off more with companies, as more and more are introducing personalized versions of it to draw in fans.
Earlier this year, 20th Century Fox worked with Snaps Media to produce a series of emoji based on the hit comic book film Deadpool, making it a top draw with fans. (The film went on to generate over $700 million at the box office off of just a $58 million budget.)
Now, more brands are getting into the swing of things. Following the release of her hit mobile game Kim Kardashian: Hollywood (produced in conjunction with Glu Mobile), the mega media mogul launched her line of Kimoji in December, charging $1.99 for a series of personalized emoji featuring a number of Kim’s expressions.
As a result, it’s become one of the best-selling celebrity emoji-based apps on the market. Quartz noted, “Kimoji’s success can be attributed to disparate factors. Firstly, it’s a keyboard app, which means it can be universally access from within any iPhone application that requires text input. Secondly, the Kimoji app is still quite fiddly because it’s a keyboard app. Users have to activate it in their phone’s settings before it’s available. By contrast, a version of Kimoji released as a native sticker app for iMessage would be frictionless.”
This week, Disney wants a bigger piece of the emoji picture. Not content with just dominating Twitter with Star Wars imagery last year (starting with the Star Wars Celebration event and leading through the release of The Force Awakens in theaters), the company has released the new game Disney Emoji Bliss, a match-three effort that comes with a plethora of emoji characters, based on its most popular properties, including Alice In Wonderland, The Little Mermaid and Monsters Inc.
“Collect and play with hundreds of Disney and Pixar emoji like never before in an exciting matching game! Play fast-paced rounds of match-3 to earn prizes, complete missions, and discover new emoji,” the company noted in a press release.
The game encourages players to keep matching up and unlocking emoji, which can be used in text conversations for iOS and Android.
Between these three properties alone, licensed emoji have really come a long way over the past couple of years. And with Facebook expanding Messenger features with more emoji selections (including general expressions and licensed characters from Elf, Inside Out and Angry Birds) and Twitter introducing a customizable emoji-like sticker system to liven up photos posted to the social page, there’s no sign of the emoji trend slowing down.
“You have to spend money to make money,” says the old adage. Long gone are the days of placing an ad in the newspaper and watching customers line up outside the store. In a world where influencers advertise our products, the modern marketer has to balance brand awareness with engagement, call to action and monetary return. When it comes to social marketing, measuring the success of campaigns can be tricky. But thanks to tools like the Ayzenberg Earned Media Value Index, that nut has become a lot easier to crack (read more about that here).
If you’re having a hard time calculating the Return on Investment (ROI) for a social campaign, you’re not alone. According to a recent study, over half of the marketers surveyed named “measuring ROI” as the number one challenge they face. In fact, only 9.4 percent of marketers said they were able to quantify the revenue driven by social media. One major reason for this challenge lies in the way we measure success. Unless your campaign is strictly to gain followers on a platform, detailed metrics of user behavior are required. Social media platforms vary greatly in which analytics they provide, which naturally leads marketers to feel more confident in numbers they can sink their teeth into.
In a separate survey conducted by Social Fresh, Firebrand Group and Simply Measured, over 95 percent of marketers named Facebook as the best social media platform for ROI. Facebook’s 1.65 billion share of the 2.2 billion global social media users makes it an obvious target for brand awareness, and a big reason why so many companies consider Facebook to be central to their social marketing strategy. Another attractive feature is the ability to track analytics directly through a Facebook profile.
Despite its increasing popularity, Snapchat has some catching up to do in the way of measuring ROI. The survey placed Snapchat at the very bottom of the list for producing investment return, which could be attributed to a lack of onboard analytic tools. Snapchat currently does not offer direct monetization, but brands are still finding ways to measure financial success through the app. MeUndies, a company targeting loungewear and underwear to millennials, used a call-to-action with vanity URLs in a series of comedic skits. The company saw a conversion rate of 16 percent on Snapchat traffic in June.
With the prevalence of “Dark Social,” a term for what audiences say about your brand in private chat, many brands are now turning to social media messaging apps to connect with their audience. While measuring ROI may be a mystical, marketing unicorn right now, brands are forced to get creative and that’s no bad thing. The savvy marketer will utilize frontline marketing, understand the buyer’s journey, and use storytelling to connect with their audiences in a unique way.
L’Oreal blessed the masses with Beaumoji last week, a new keyboard of beauty-themed emoji to keep the conversation going within the company’s target demographic.
Custom-tailored to the beauty enthusiast, Beaumoji features a number of icons, hairstyles and ideas surrounding pampering, hairstyles, make-up and more.
“We know the online conversation around beauty is huge and continuing to spike along with the shorthand language of emojis. We saw an opportunity to provide expressions and tools for our beauty community that reflect the daily conversations we see happening,” said Rachel Weiss, vice president of innovation and entrepreneurship at L’Oréal USA . “With Beaumoji, our goal is to provide emojis that beauty enthusiasts crave and speak to their unique passions, lifestyles and personalities.”
To celebrate the launch, L’Oreal is hosting a contest for whoever can create the best custom Beaumoji design. The winner will be flown to New York City for a one-night stay and VIP ticket to Beautycon Festival New York on October 1, where their Beaumoji will be revealed live on stage.
As the number one beauty brand in the US, L’Oreal accounts for roughly 19 percent of a America’s $56.8 billion dollar industry, according to a recent study by Statistic Brain Research Institute. Beaumoji is the latest effort in L’Oréal’s ongoing digital and technology innovation strategy.
L’Oreal’s beaumoji allow users to express ideas about beauty and style. Source: L’Oreal USA
L’Oreal furthered its stronghold in the social conversation in March with an augmented reality mobile app, in partnership with ModiFace. Although the Style My Hair did not have the worldwide phenomenon of say, Pokémon Go, they allowed customers to virtually try hairstyles and hair colors before they visit a salon, which is still a sizable leap, and it’s all part of a marketing strategy that’s aiming at reaching consumers in new way.
Style My Hair, available on US Android and iOS devices, allows potential customers to explore new looks and share them on social; it was downloaded nearly 500,000 times in the immediate weeks after the launch. As for cosmetics,L’Oreal’sMakeup Genius virtual makeup app ,and the My UV Patch skin sensor app, launched at the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this year. Makeup Genius now has 6.3 million downloads.
ModiFace has also developed an augmented reality app with L’Oreal brand Urban Decay. The Vice Lipstick app allows users to try on more than a hundred lipstick shades by overlaying colors atop self-facing camera images. Users can then swipe left or right to choose different shades to try on, create a scrap book of various lipstick looks, and of course, share on social. The Vice Lipstick line was also featured as a Snapchat filter in May, allowing users to experiment with the new color palette.
Maybe She’s Born With It—Maybe It’s Augmented Reality
According to a Demandware study, 72 percent of US beauty brands are testing a form of “guided selling” to push sales, like Snapchat lenses and augmented reality, and L’Oreal isn’t the only beauty brand to embrace an age of social media.
In May, Benefit Cosmetics released the Brow Genie, a digital tool that virtually transforms users’ eyebrows, then demonstrates how to recreate the shape.
Elizabeth Ardenteamed with the app YouCam, which has 100 million users, to let customers virtually try on and order products.
Rimmel also partnered with ModiFace for a hairstyle simulation app called “Get The Look” that was unveiled at the end of June. In addition to simulating hairstyles, the app also recommends cuts based on a user’s face shape and features, while also sharing daily hair inspirations and latest trends.
Sephora hosts a “Virtual Artist” tool within its product app to help customers test products using AR technology.
Covergirl’s BeautyU app uses facial scanning and tracking to identify skin tones and apply makeup looks in real-time using the front-facing camera.
One needs to only stroll down the drug store cosmetics aisle to understand the recent push to virtual “testing.” Until now, consumers had to buy sealed makeup and hope for the best, but AR gives at least some sort of idea of an end result, with varied realism across mobile apps.
Snapchat is a unique animal. When a photo or video self-destructs in ten seconds or less, brands are met with the challenge of making every moment count. The proven key to success is to be casual and relatable, showing users how easy it is to bring a product or idea into their lives. That said, this highly lucrative platform is highly visual, so marketing teams are finding new ways to “show, not tell.”
Filters
Snapchat filters are a simple, yet highly effective tool for promotion, and are surprisingly flexible in terms of how extreme brands can go. Beauty brands are finding a natural home with Snapchat filters. In June, Urban Decay launched its 100-piece Vice lipstick collection with a filter that allowed Snapchat users to virtually test out every shade of lipstick. L’Oréal Paris launched a successful one-day filter last month that superimposed beauty make-up onto users’ faces.
20th Century Fox staged the first-ever, compete filter takeover in May for X-Men: Apocalypse. Designed to boost opening weekend ticket sales, the filter allowed users to “become” X-Men characters by combining photos with virtual costumes. In a hilariously disturbing promotion, Taco Bell used the filter to transform users into living tacos for Cinco de Mayo, which proved to be a big hit.
Exclusive Deals
For online underwear brand, MeUndies, demonstrating their products in funny, “brief” ways has proved incredibly effective. In a video ad called “Lounge Off,” two members of the team modeled the brand’s new tie-dyed lounge pants in some seemingly uncomfortable places like on top of tables and in the street. Using a call-to-action with vanity URLs, the company saw a conversion rate of 16 percent on Snapchat traffic in June.
“For us, user engagement on Snapchat is higher than Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. I think how people consume Snapchat now is like how they used to watch TV,” Dan King, head of marketing for MeUndies, told Digiday. “We’ve been hiring writers, comedians and actors to create delightful content on Snapchat, which has done well for us.”
Time Limits Make For Great Teasers
The ten-second time limit on Snapchat is naturally conducive to unveiling teaser content. In May, Volvo teased a new model on the app, using emoticons and captions such as “not your daddy’s Volvo.” Also in May, Musicians, DJ Snake and Skrillex teased their unreleased collaboration with a behind-the-scenes look. Bravo took to Snapchat with a teaser for The Real Housewives of New Jersey, and Activision had fans clamoring for more information when teasers surfaced on the platform for Call of Duty: Black Ops III.
You might say that Snapchat is #adulting—the popular, self-destructing photo and video app made popular by millennials has evolved into a serious marketing tool for brands. From behind the scenes looks to contests, exclusive offers and filter takeovers, Snapchat provides a unique platform with which to interact with audiences.
When it made its debut last year on USA Network, Mr. Robot became a big hit with fans, telling an intriguing tale of a hacker (Rami Malek) working alongside a mysterious figure (Christian Slater) to battle corporate conglomerates. Now, just days before the premiere of its second season this week, the network has opted to take a viral approach to keep those fans happy.
During a Facebook Live Q&A last night (featuring various cast members from the show), the network “hacked” its own feed and showed off the first hour of the two-part premiere that will air this Wednesday.
Facebook was just part of Mr. Robot‘s takeover, however, as the channel also hosted special broadcasts of the first hour on Twitter, followed by Snapchat’s Buzzfeed Discover Channel and the official Mr. Robot YouTube channel, along with USA Network’s website, with each channel getting its own special premiere time—all within 15 minutes of one another.
The “leak” was the network’s latest move to promote the highly popular show, which many consider one of NBCUniversal’s key shows for the “binge-worthy” demographic. Other promotions included a huge push in advertising, including short-but-sweet TV ads giving viewers a taste of what’s to come.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YibylhkLwGo
So far, feedback on the surprise season premiere has been huge on social media, with many fans noting the move as surprising, and a way to get them excited for the full season premiere.
Brownie points: a digital-first launch plan for a digital-first program. Also: SEASON 2 OF #MrRobot!!! https://t.co/8HY3C8pYMy
In addition to heavily promoting the show, USA Network is also giving in to the practice of providing a live feedback show, which will air after the season two premiere. No other details were provided on it just yet, but members of the cast and crew are expected to be on said show.
Sometimes, all it takes for a small studio to find big success is that little spark—that push that gives just the right amount of energy to build up speed in the marketplace. For Outerminds, that came with a little help from one of the biggest influencers on YouTube, Felix “PewDiePie” Kjellberg.
The Montreal game studio Outerminds got its start back in 2014, with a three-person team trying their luck in a Game Jolt-sponsored “game jam” session, where developers submit game ideas in the hopes of being selected. One big difference that Outerminds made with its effort was reaching out to PewDiePie to create a game featuring him.
As a result, PewDiePie’s Paradise Island was born, and even though it didn’t win the game jam session, it was inspired enough for Kjellberg to come back to the team and work on a new mobile. Just one year later, Outerminds released its first major mobile title, PewDiePie: Legend of the Brofist.
PewDiePie’s star power by itself was enough to push the title, but Kjellberg also pushed it on his own channel, which has over 46 million subscribers. As a result, the game became a massive hit, becoming the biggest app across 50 countries during that time frame.
But while the game has plenty of PewDiePie star power to go around, Outerminds learned from the early going that YouTube influencers in general had a good amount of reach with the game. “At one point PewDiePie said, ‘Is it OK if my friends join in?’ And we said, ‘Hey, you can bring as many 10-million-subscriber people as you want,’” said Outerminds community manager Ghislain de Pessemier, speaking with Chartboost. As a result, several of Kjellberg’s pals took part in the game providing voiceovers.
While the game concentrated on making the gameplay fun for both PewDiePie fans and casual players, de Pessemier pointed out that the game also needed to look fun to draw in others. “Even a bad game can be fun to play, fun to watch,” said de Pessemier.
However, continuing coverage of said game can significantly contribute to longevity. “Every time we’re releasing an update, PewDiePie’s playing it on his channel, and we get a huge spike in sales,” said Pessemier. “We didn’t invest a penny in advertising. PewDiePie is the advertisement.”
As a result of the success of Brofist, Outerminds has had to expand its team to eight people, and now has over 20,000 Twitter followers. It’s also getting bombarded with tons of suggestions. “People were so creative, but there were 30,000 suggestions,” noted de Pessemier. “I had to ask one of the coders to do an algorithm to sort all the nouns.”
The bottom line is that the power of influencers continues to be as strong as ever, particularly PewDiePie, who’s already hard at work on a second game with Outerminds. Whether it will be as epic as Legend of the Brofist has yet to be seen. But, with Kjellberg on board and the team devoted to crazy, good-looking games, it’s sure to be interesting.
The use of live video by brands is on the rise, connecting with worldwide audiences in unique, interactive ways. In celebration of National Fried Chicken Day, Popeyes took to Facebook Live on Wednesday with a virtual drive-thru window and jazz musician. Fans were encouraged to interact with the stream through trivia, music and games. Participants in the US who commented also had the chance to win a delivery of Popeyes’ limited-time offer of their $5 Boneless Wing Bash.
“This is something unique, innovative, something that we don’t think has ever been done before,” Hector A. Muñoz, chief marketing officer for Popeyes, said in a statement. “Not only will we engage with current consumers but we also have an opportunity to reach new consumers that maybe never tried us.” The campaign was expected to exceed 3.7 million people thanks to live tweets, text message outreach and paid advertising.
McDonald’s held a similarly effective event on on Facebook Live for National Hamburger Day, during which a Boss Ross-esque actor unveiled a number of hamburger-themed paintings to be auctioned for charity.
Meanwhile, Twitter hosted its first live cast of a sporting event Wednesday, offering commentary and replays for Wimbledon. Twitter recently purchased the rights to broadcast for the NFL, so today’s example gives viewers an idea of what’s to come.
Callaway Golf has been utilizing live video for some time, debuting a live show in 2015 hosted by Harry Arnett, their senior vice president of marketing and brand management. This marketing strategy made transitioning to Facebook Live a natural one. The brand recently hosted an exclusive tour of Arnold Palmer’s office, which is the kind of experience that Callaway wanted to bring to fans since the beginning.
“We felt like if we could figure out a way to be unique in it, provide utility to it, and be a contributing citizen in the community of golfers, we could become sort of the people’s brand, which was very closely connected to the DNA of the company when it got started 20 years ago,” Arnett told Golf Digest last year.
Although sports naturally lends itself to live viewership, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has used Facebook Live effectively, as well. From a tour of the museum from Fifth Avenue to live openings and previews of future exhibitions, The Met utilizes live video to engage and excite art enthusiasts, while attracting new fans. One such video broadcast previewed “Pergamon and the Hellenistic Kingdoms of the Ancient World” four days before the exhibition opening.
On Thursday, the marketing team for Mr. Robot promoted the USA network show’s second season premiere with a mysterious broadcast on Facebook Live. Using familiar “fsociety” imagery and hacker themes, over 98 thousand viewers tuned in for a special message and what appeared to be a preview of season two. Over seven thousand comments praised the marketing efforts and fans shared their excitement for the program’s return. Each comment was given a cryptic reply from fsociety about the “revolution” and what’s to come, staying true to the fictional world of Mr. Robot.
From sports to art and making you hungry for lunch, live video is proving an effective tool for brand outreach and audience interaction. These live stream examples prove that any brand can take to live media, offering entertainment value to its existing fan base while attracting new fans to help spread the word.
Considering the rousing success of Facebook’s Messenger service, companies are looking for new ways to utilize it for maximum potential—and eMarketer has provided a plethora of helpful pointers in going in the right direction.
Through a new report titled “Facebook Messenger: Strategies For Customer Service, eCommerce, Content Delivery and Advertising,” the study breaks down into four key components that can serve companies well when it comes to using Facebook Messenger to their best benefit.
The report quickly noted that the service currently has over 105 million active users in the US alone for this year (expected to expand to 139.2 million by 2020), with 4 out of 10 different mobile phone users making use of it. That makes it the leading over-the-top (OTT) messaging app available in the market.
It’s also managed to do quite well in the worldwide messaging app game, with 37 percent of overall usage for Q3 2015, with the WhatsApp application closely behind in second place with 33 percent.
As far as the four strategies that are key to success on the Messenger front, they break down like this.
Content Delivery: Even though this particular step is still in the early going process, there are many companies looking at better content delivery through Messenger, including the NBA and CNN, as well as Activision and HealthTap. This could expand even further with push notifications to interested consumers, bots that utilize visual recognition and content personalized based on Facebook behaviors (though there is a question in regards to how much data would be used).
e-Commerce: Even though the app itself doesn’t quite have a way to make purchases, there are a number of businesses that are working on ways to integrate potential consumers with it, including Spring and 1-800-Flowers. It could improve in a number of areas, including personalized shopping options and conversational commerce.
Customer Service: A number of brands such as eBay, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Staples, Hyatt, and most recently American Express with their chat, utilize Messenger as a tool that can supplement—although not entirely replace—existing channels. As a result, there’s a better flow of support that can be delivered to customers, and could improve with smarter bots for better understanding and integration with CRM tools, based on company needs.
Advertising: Again, with the Messenger app still fresh, ads have not yet been utilized, but a number of companies are looking to roll out ideas with advertising, possibly starting as soon as this fall, including possible interactions with a business through ads and direct offers.
One thing to consider with each of these is how to market on Facebook Messenger the right way. A number of respondents were asked if they would interact with brands through the app, and only about 18.4 percent noted they were likely or very likely to, while 25.9 percent remained neutral. That’s not stopping companies from finding out what they can do with the app, but there’s a reason they’re proceeding carefully, so not to bombard potential consumers with unwanted messages.
As for the type of messages consumers would want from companies, 54.7 percent noted that they’re all for discounts and promotional offers for products that they’re interested in, followed by event updates (26.1 percent) and feedback requests (25.9 percent). However, 27.7 percent noted that they aren’t looking for any kind of interaction with brands—at least, not yet.
Nintendo has made quite a name for itself in the mobile market in a short amount of time, starting with the company’s socially-based Miitomo garnering ten million downloads, with new items being added to its store every week. But the company has a much bigger picture in mind.
The company recently hosted its 76th annual general meeting of shareholders, in which general manager of entertainment planning and development Shinya Takahashi, president Tatsumi Kimishima and game producer/designer Shigeru Miyamoto discussed, among other topics, Nintendo’s focus on mobile development—with plans for both hardware and software projects.
Takahashi pointed out that, while games will still be a big focus, Nintendo is looking at other types of applications. He noted that, alongside mobile partner DeNA, there are “various projects” in the future.
“Advancing projects like these will require the involvement and support of our partners and not just our own human resources,” said Kimishima, noting that DeNA’s knowledge of the market will play a big part in future developments.
As for hardware, Takahashi made note of peripherals that cater to the mobile market. “Physical controllers for smart device applications are available in the market and it is possible that we may also develop something new by ourselves,” he said. “I believe Nintendo’s way of thinking is to look at whether action games are really not impossible (without a physical controller for smart device applications) to create and how we can make it happen to create such a game.”
Although the company hasn’t fully laid out its mobile plans, games based on the Fire Emblem and Animal Crossing franchises are in the works, and will likely release sometime this year.
Kimishima noted that Miitomo still has a ways to go in mobile distribution. “Miitomo has been downloaded more than 10 million times (by unique users) since it was made available for download this March, and the number of downloads continues to grow. We plan to expand the number of countries where it is available, which should further increase the number of downloads. We are focused on the retention rate, which is how many users continue to play Miitomo. Miitomo represents our first attempt in the field of smart device applications. The communication style of the app is also a new challenge for Nintendo, as this is not just direct one-way communication, but rather communication through Mii characters.”
There’s no question that mobile will continue to play a big part in Nintendo’s future, with a possible tie-in with its upcoming NX console. For the time being, it will rely on the strength of its development and franchises–and considering that Pokémon GOis rolling out worldwide this month, the momentum is just starting.
