lilybelbin1

[lilybelbin1]

Honest reflection on Project

Over the course of this module when I’ve been planning and executing this project, I have realised I had no idea how much work goes into running a social media page and making the graphics to go onto the page until I gave it a solid go of my own. I also have realised it is much harder to build a “brand” idea and a “brand” for myself when I started out this idea completely on my own without any help. When I realised that it takes a lot of help from those around me such as family members and friends sharing everything I post and sharing my page to those they know via their friends DMs. This project has been a huge step outside my comfort zone in that I had to really delve into the mental health community online which can be a very toxic place in that some pages encourage something called “toxic positivity” which means that you dismiss any negative emotions and experiences with false reassurances rather than dealing with the situation with empathy and practicality. One of the first steps I took to make the identities were to try and find a name for the pages which I settled for “Mindpsychescape” as I felt that name conveyed a mental health page very well. Then I made a couple logos and settled for a little circular one with a purple-pink fade in the background with a white circle and the name in the circle. Thirdly I made a couple graphics to post onto the social media pages which consisted of a similar format to the logo however there was more typography onto the images helping me convey what the message I wanted to put across. Part of being a “brand” or an “influencer” is how you communicate with potential clientele or your followers as if you’re not putting a professional message out there you can then have serious repercussions on your reputation as an influencer or brand identity. I’ve left my DMs open on the social media pages so that if in case anyone wanted to reach out to me, I can respond quickly. I wanted to build my brand identity off of Alena Wheelers 3 primary functions Design Branding Identity, which allowed me to be able to create this open and communicative atmosphere that I have on my page with my followers. Overall I have really enjoyed making these pages and making all the content for them as it delves into a field that I am incredibly passionate about and allows me to potentially step into that field should I want to become qualified to do so. I think I will continue posting on these pages after this module is completed as I really enjoy creating the content as it allows me to improve my photoshop skills even further than I have throughout the course of this project and it allows me to gain more information about a subject I’m incredibly passionate about.

[lilybelbin1]

John Lewis: Christmas TV Ad Campaigns

Over the past decade and a half nearly retail department store John Lewis have been releasing very high-quality TV adverts. They have each detailed a story of someone trying to find the perfect Christmas present for a loved one. Such as in 2013 the story has a bear just beginning their hibernation for the winter which makes all the other animals sad as the bear won’t be able to experience Christmas, the story then shows the other animals preparing for Christmas when the Hare starts to feel sad that the hibernating bear is being left out of Christmas then the hare starts to start making extra preparations for the bear to be involved in the Christmas celebrations. At the end of the ad the hare wakes up the bear from hibernation to bring him to Christmas and give him a Christmas present. I think these adverts are an amazing way to start the holidays, the ads also tend to use covers of already famous songs such as “Your Song” by Elton John and “Somewhere only we know” by Keane. These adverts almost for a lot of people bring the beginning of the Christmas season. I really love how they always bring a big togetherness vibe. There is no advertising of products on these campaigns which I appreciate in comparison with a lot of other Christmas marketing campaigns that heavily rely on the products themselves to make the advert rather than using the “Christmas spirit” to make the advert more Christmassy and enjoyable to watch and consume. Also the John Lewis adverts each year are a huge talking point around Christmas as it brings a lot of excitement on how they’re going to convey an amazing Christmas story for that particular year. I also think that the adverts use of animation in some years but real-life footage in other years is affective which adds to the suspense of what the company plans to do for their adverts next year.

As for an update on my project I’m posting more frequently and creating more graphics which I’m sharing on my personal page’s story still and am asking friends and family to share the pages posts in order to extend the reach further. I haven’t gained as much traction since the second and third post however hopefully that should change as I upload more frequently with more of my own content rather than using others content like I see a lot of other mental health pages on Instagram in particular do. I will continue to be uploading content to Instagram even when the module is complete as I really enjoy making content like this and want to continue to do so. I think mental health needs as much awareness as it can possibly get and it deserves to be spoken about more.

[lilybelbin1]

McDonalds BTS Meal

In this post I’ll be showing the results of my research, discussing and analysing an existing marketing campaign by McDonalds.

In April 2021 McDonalds announced a collaboration with the current most popular boy band BTS, the collaboration consists of a 9-10 nugget meal with popular Korean sauces to be released in May of the same year. The collaboration was available in around 50 countries such as the US, Canada, Brazil etc.  The campaign had the band sing the well-known McDonald’s jingle. The campaign relied very heavily on word-of-mouth advertising via BTS’ very large fanbase, the fans would talk heavily about the collaboration via social media sites such as Twitter, Instagram and TikTok. The initial tweet announcing the collaboration got over 270 thousand “re-tweets” and the initial Instagram post got over 584 thousand likes. The campaign was a success as the meal had sold over 1.2 million meals by May 27th and cause McNugget meal sales as a whole to rise in sales by over 250% compared to before the release of the collaboration. The campaign relates to my own practice in the use of graphics using a pastel colour scheme to promote the meal and using social media platforms such as Twitter and Instagram for the ready-made content relating to the band and the Korean culture surrounding the specific sauces chosen for the meal.

As for an update on my project I have created multiple graphics to post onto Instagram and Twitter, I have posted my first post onto both of those accounts and retweeted them from my personal accounts on those sites in order to extend my reach of the account further out than the 3 followers I had at the time of launch.  I have since been able to receive promotion for my account by a larger account reposting one of my posts onto their “story” and I received some more followers as a result of that.

[lilybelbin1]

Introductory Post

Hello Internet,

My name is Lily Belbin, and this is the first post on this blog where I’ll be posting about my project for my university module MC2005: Social Media, Advertising and Branding.

This will be used to record and detail my progress throughout my project

In my blog posts you’ll be seeing my progress as I start with my social media pages as a Social Media Influencer with an Instagram and Twitter page focusing on the importance of mental health and potential advice with links and numbers of people you could go to for help regarding low moods, anxieties and other potential issues. This is something I’m incredibly passionate about as someone who has struggled both in the past and currently with mental health issues which has heavily impacted my daily life and my educational career over the past few years.

I’ll be posting graphics of advice and statistics along with phone numbers and links in the descriptions of the images of charities such as Samaritans and Mind that help with mental health while also raising awareness of mental health issues in men, POC and young people. I’ll be hopefully bringing attention to counselling groups such as iTalk, which is Hampshire based NHS service which uses an online self-referral form to book a mental health screening with one of their low intensity therapists and you would then be sent a link to the SilverCloud service within 4-5 weeks of your screening.

You’ll also be seeing a couple of analyses of past marketing campaigns and how they’ve been influential to the businesses that used them as well as how much of a success they were to their targeted audience. I’ll be analysing the BTS meal campaign from McDonalds and the Christmas marketing campaigns by John Lewis

I chose Twitter and Instagram as my social media pages as I find them the easiest to use and post on, plus I enjoy the use of their platforms the most as they have such a good variety of content on their platforms. Instagram has a lot of features such as stories, IGTV which allows video uploads for longer than a minute and IG Reels which is a TikTok style platform that allows short video uploads, which I feel will be the most beneficial for my content. I chose twitter for their “spaces” platform which allows you to have something similar to a conference where there are a small number of “speakers” a “host” and an unlimited amount of audience members.

I hope you enjoy you’re time here and enjoy the content that’ll I’ll be posting in the very near future!