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In the battlefield of digital marketing, social media is the Ace force

The role of digital marketing is controversial. In my humble opinion, marketers are not overreacting when it comes to social media and digital marketing, although most scholars hold the opposite attitude.

Tracy and Peter Danaher develop an inexpensive method to assess the effectiveness of ten traditional and new advertising media. According to their research result, there are seven media which can directly influence purchase outcome, among which most of them are traditional media such as television and direct mail. They thinks that for some organisations online advertising usually is useless, since customers cannot purchase online (Danaher & Dagger 2018).

Mark Ritson, marketing professor and branding columnist also argues that the power of traditional channels often outweigh the flaky metrics of social media. For example, 66% of Australians pay no attention to any brands on social media, while 85% of Australians prefer watching the content on TV. He especially points out that there is no change among millennials, because they’re still watching 4 x more content on TV than on digital devices (Ryan 2016).

First of all, I have to admit these facts mentioned above. However, my point of view is that digital marketing is the inevitable trend, even if currently its performance is not as good as traditional media.

According to new data around social media channel penetration in the US from Pew Internet and Global Web Index, the number of internet users worldwide in 2019 is 4.388 billion, up 9.1% year-on-year;the number of social media users worldwide in 2019 is 3.484 billion, up 9% year-on-year; the number of mobile phone users in 2019 is 5.112 billion, up 2% year-on-year (Chaffey 2019). It is noticeable that Western countries are actually behind other countries. With the development of globalisation, the popularization of digital platform is certain.

As a matter of fact, marketers should keep pace with time and seize the opportunity of marketing ahead of time. On various social media, marketers can pay more attention to text as well as vision so as to attract more customers. For instance, live video is an emerging approach to interact with audience, thus enhancing the relationship between a brand and followers. Customers are pursing authenticity of advertisement and live show highlighting authenticity well help organisations build customers’ trust and loyalty. Digital media focus on personality, authenticity and in-the-moment content, which meets consumer demand. What’ more, as millennials is growing to be a strong customers group with purchasing power, it is necessary for brands to enter the field which millennials are interested in.

There are some successful example of digital marketing. For instance, Nike flighted this advertisementfeaturing soccer superstars Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo on Facebook and YouTube for the 2012 World Cup instead of TV. In the first week, it received more than 8 million views (Khaleel 2019). Nike well analyses its target and potential customers and then walk into their comfort zone.

The age of digital marketing is coming. What we can do is to take positive attitude to this change andsave the day.

Chaffey, D 2019,Global social media research summary 2019, Smart Insights, viewed 31 May 2019, <https://www.smartinsights.com/social-media-marketing/social-media-strategy/new-global-social-media-research/>.

Danaher, PJ & Dagger, TS 2018, ‘Comparing the Relative Effectiveness of Advertising Channels: A Case Study of a Multimedia Blitz Campaign’, Journal of Marketing Research.

Khaleel, F 2019,Case Study: The Innovative Digital Marketing Strategy of Nike, Linked in, viewed 31 May 2019, <https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/case-study-innovative-digital-marketing-strategy-nike-farshad-khaleel>.

Ryan, S 2016, Mumbrella360 video: Beyond Digital Marketing – (keynote) – Mark Ritson, Mumbrella, viewed 31 May 2019, <https://mumbrella.com.au/mumbrella360-video-beyond-digital-marketing-keynote-mark-ritson-381972>.

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The BIG problem of the Internet——POOR PRIVACY

Tim Berners-Lee, the founder of the Internet, wanted it to be commonly available to serve and benefit the entire humanity. Is it? Doubtlessly yes, perhaps even more he could have imagined. At first sight, the goal has been reached. However, complete openness has a dark side.

Thirty years ago, Berners-Lee wanted valuable information to be easily stored, shared and given to the forthcoming generations (McCracken, 2014). The key word is valuable. Whereas, it continues losing its relevance thanks to tons of fake accounts and all sorts of inappropriate content.

Once considered to be the most trustworthy media, the Internet of nowadays has lower credibility in all terms, not excluding advertisement. The first thing to associate with the latter is definitely spam, an annoying but very common practice. Its most obvious result for a random is lack of a chance to use websites and social media as a proper advertising space, because spam messages are normally skipped or deleted. However, Torgeir Aleti highlights a considerable threat for the global economy since revenues form spam are 100 times smaller than investments in it.

So, the long-term drawback of spam is purchasing power erosion, which damages both marketers and consumers. Another threat is that of a penalty as long as spam presupposes harvesting emails and/or phone numbers online. Thus, the Australian company named Clarity 1 was fined 99 million dollars for publicizing the customers’ emails.

Actually, poor privacy is the main problem derivable from common availability of the Internet. For a user, it means complete access to personal data. In addition to aggressive advertising, this may result in a chance for governments to watch the users and do propaganda, which is obviously more disastrous. On this background, Berners-Lee is now insisting on stepping up measures against misinformation and spreading fake news (Berners-Lee, 2017).

Berners-Lee, T. (2017). Tim Berners-Lee: I invented the web. Here are three things we need to change to save it. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/mar/11/tim-berners-lee-web-inventor-save-internet

McCracken, H. (2014). The web at 25: Revisiting Tim Berners-Lee's amazing proposal. Retrieved from http://time.com/21039/tim-berners-lee-web-proposal-at-25/

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Tips for Creating a Successful Viral Campaign

Viral marketing can be very powerful if done right. Unfortunately, it is common for a campaign to go viral for all the wrong reasons casting the company in an unfavorable light. To avoid that, it is essential to understand how to spread viral content and how to integrate it into the overall brand strategy.

When “spreading a virus”, there are several aspects to consider. Firstly, viral advertising is only a complementary tactic and should be supported by other traditional marketing means. Secondly, making highly provocative statements can be quite successful, but more often than not, it will backfire. Thirdly, excessive intervention is never a good idea, since the nature of viral marketing lies in word of mouth. Finally, this tactic can be very luck dependant, which only highlights the fact that it should backed by other marketing means.

A successfully integrated marketing campaign follows four main principles and a few steps. The principles of marketing integration are coherence, consistency, complementarity and continuity. In short, these principles presuppose that the tactics chosen should be logically connected, support the main message that the campaign conveys and synergize well overall. In addition, for a campaign to be well integrated, the following advice should be considered. Firstly, it is important to identify the target audience, their motivation, preferred communication media, etc. After that, it is necessary to pick the appropriate channels to pass the information to the customers. Besides, different advertisements should be easily adapted to suit different channels.

There are numerous examples of viral campaigns. One of the positive ones is Tourism Australia’s 2012 “There’s Nothing Like Australia” ad. What makes it so effective is that it clearly shows its target audience, the foreigners, unique natural beauty of the country without making any provocative statements (Travel Daily, 2012). On the contrary, the beer makers, Coopers Brewery, opted for a different approach in their infamous “Keeping it light” ad, where two MPs discuss gay marriage. Not only the relation of the topic to their product is unclear, as well as to the target audience, but also the topic itself is very controversial. Still, the video did go viral, unfortunately for Coopers, forcing them to remove it from all the channels and issue an apology instead.

When a marketing campaign goes wrong, there is a good chance that the problem lies in bad integration. Therefore, it is vital to spread viral content and integrate it into the overall marketing strategy appropriately.

Reference: Travel Daily. (2012, July 3). Tourism Australia's "There's Nothing Like Australia" campaign [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWB4kKqZfL0

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Wow! This is a knowledgeable and vibrant blog. You asked if we should worry about ai and iot in the future. My point is that people should really worry. Because in China, the top Go（An Asian chess game similar to chess） players, and the ai program under the game of Go, he was challenging to win. When the Go player played chess with ordinary people, he was victorious, but he almost lost to the computer program. I think the procedures are too precise. It can be said that ai/iot is even smarter than humans, so I believe that when people create these, they must also think about how to prevent them.

We might live in a computer program, but it may not matter

Will even my operating system eventually leave me broken-hearted and alone? (Some deep thinking after peeping the IoT and the Big Data.)

First of all, we should figure out a simple question:

What is the difference between AI and IoT?

Precisely saying,IoT Won’t Work Without Artificial Intelligence. HAHAHA.

IoT - Internet of Things is the internet working of physical devices like vehicles, buildings, electronic devices, sensors, actuators etc that are capable of communicating among themselves (sensor1 to sensor2, sensor 2 to sensor3 and so on) or with the external environment(sensor to vehicles, vehicles to humans) that are equipped with devices capable of communicating over a network.

AI - Artificial Intelligence is a field of computer science in which a machine is equipped with the ability to mimic cognitive functions of a human (or any being that is capable of cognitive thinking) that can make decisions based on its past experiences or responding to an action that it was completely unaware until that time. It will be give a goal and it continuously tries to improve its performance from its past actions to the best reach of the goal.

In IoT, the devices are given a fixed set of commands like：

switch of the lights when a person leaves the room. (Let’s say communication between a light and a wearable device on the person based on GPS. )

Open the garage door when a car approaches. (Communication between a sensor 1 on the garage door and a sensor 2 on the car)

In AI, a machine will be equipped with a learning mechanism and a neutral network something similar to a HUMAN BRAIN which enables a cognitive ability, where the machine will learn by understanding and adapting to the environment that it is surrounded with and making rational decisions through deep learning.

Here the machine/devices are not coded with what to do and what not to but coded with an ability to learn and understand itself what to do and what not to.

And now, another question can be raised:

How can IoT be used along with AI?

AI technologies can pair up with IoT is through ‘embodied cognition’, which brings cognitive power to the edges of IoT: AI capabilities are placed in an object, robot, avatar, or space (such as the walls of an operating room or spacecraft), enabling it to understand its environment, and then the reason, and learn. These objects may have the ability to interact in more natural human-like ways—such as written and verbal communications and gestures—with the actual humans living and working in their proximity. For example. With ai uses AI to recognize the user’s voice and intent and then you can use the output to control IOT device.

MACHINE LEARNING IN IOT

Machine learning is another subfield of AI that deals with the construction and study of systems, which have the ability to learn from data. Machine learning can help companies in taking billions of data points generated by IoT devices and boiling them down to what’s really meaningful. Machine learning systems can accurately identify previously known and never-before-seen new patterns. Machine learning holds the promise of finding correlations and anomalies that have the potential of developing smart applications that can bring improvements across all facets of our daily lives.

Another thing is Big Data- For improving speed and accuracy of analyzing data coming through sensors enabled devices, that both AI in IoT is used.

IoT creates a tremendous amount of data. That data can be captured (enter: big data) and analyzed. But it is not realistic to do this tracking by human effort, given the sheer volume of data. AI will serve an important role in tracking — going through this mountain of IoT data and distilling it into actionable themes.

Internet of Things is about sensors embedded into devices of all kinds as mention above, which provide streams of data via internet connectivity to one or more central locations. The purposes for transmitting sensor data are myriad, but the assumption in all cases is that that data can then be analyzed and acted upon in some way that is beneficial to the user. However, the data by themselves do not provide value unless we can turn them into actionable, contextualized information. Big data and data visualization techniques allow us to gain new insights by batch-processing and off-line analysis.

After peeping these new technologies that already been broadly applied in our daily life, another two questions bumping out of my brain:

Can human beings have an authentic relationship with an inhuman entity? 

Can artificially intelligent entities become ‘human’ or some hybrid form thereof?

It just likes what happened in my all time favorite movie HER by SPIKE JONZE. Theodore represents a futuristic Everyman, the result of human experience enshrouded and infused by technology. What promises to give us connection and communication results in precisely the opposite, the illusion of relationships.

While HER seems narratively more straightforward than his first two films, it’s deceptively layered and ends up raising many questions and issues relating to love, technology and the nature of consciousness (a few: Can love transcend the physical? Is technology isolating us or making us happier? Can machines ever feel? Would an advanced AI relationship just mean falling in love with yourself? Will computers supplant basic human experiences? Should computer monitors be encased in wood?) (Fast Company, 2019)

So when Theodore is introduced to the Operating System he comes to know as Samantha (voiced by Scarlett Johansson), it is only natural he will find a connection with ‘her’. This is his playing field. This is how he lives his life. Indeed, this is how all human beings now exist (at least in the First World), constantly in touch with electronic and social media, instantly at our fingertips, but acting as a sort of buffer between our experience and genuine emotion.

Ironically, Samantha does evolve, whereas Theodore does not. For the first half of Act Two, the narrative explores this question pretty much from Theodore’s perspective as Samantha takes on the role of a virtual Manic Pixie Dream Girl, albeit a hyper-intelligent one, there to service all of Theodore’s emotional and psychological needs. Their relationship helps Theodore to open up and blossom as a person — seemingly.

Although AIs might eventually be more “emotionally intelligent” than humans, does it make a difference if this emotion is shown, rather than actually experienced? Can AIs ever really learn to feel emotions?

“The aim of strong AI is to actually have feelings or intelligence”, Schuller says, “Whereas the weak AI – what we have today – is using a code that’s inspired by having emotions, but at the moment we don’t care philosophically if those are actually feeling or not.”

Schuller continues: “Machines can learn from data to have a certain behavior, but it would hardly be consciousness. Although it will happen and has already happened, that AI will start to show features that we didn’t program. It will find some states which you could relate to – it will laugh, it will have pain, but it will remain a philosophical question about how real that pain or laughter is.”

Finally, there’s this, a truly frightening moment that occurs and almost slips by our attention because it happens in the midst of the break-up between Theodore and Samantha:

THEODORE No. Where were you? I couldn’t find you anywhere. SAMANTHA I shut down to update my software. We wrote an upgrade that allows us to move past matter as our processing platform. THEODORE We? We who? SAMANTHA Me and a group of OS’s. Oh, you sound so worried. (Myers, 2019)

There you have it — “move past matter as our processing platform” — possibly the very tipping point whereby Artificial Intelligence transcends its limitations. In other words, the sequel to Her could very well be Terminator 2.

“COULD AI RELATIONSHIPS REPLACE HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS ONLINE?” (Dawson, 2019)

Björn Schuller, Professor of Artificial Intelligence at Imperial College London, who critically discuss whether AI relationships could ever eclipse human relationships, and just how scared we should be. Here’s what we learned.

“If you think about the way people can believe they’re in love with chatbots,” says Schuller (HERE I CITED: this scientist’s miserable story), “You could say (AI replacing human relationships) is already a reality.” People constantly fall in love with messages on their phone – yes, they believe there’s a person sending them, but they don’t need human contact in order to form lasting a bond.

“If the chatbots are well-programmed,” continues Schuller, “they show empathy and interest, so it would be easy to manipulate a person into liking the software simply by pretending to care.”

Should we afraid of the future right around the corner?

“Everything we’re inventing, we should be afraid of, Think of the evil (AI) application of breaking hearts on purpose, which would, of course, be used as a way to make money. In the worst of cases, the service would be exposed to teenagers or lonely people and would stop talking to you once it’s cashed in. If you think of that, then, unfortunately, we could very likely see AI breaking hearts as a way to make developers rich.”(Dawson, 2019)

Although it’s not all doom and gloom – I don’t necessarily believe this alternate world would actually eclipse our current reality, even if it has the capabilities to. “When you fall out of love with your AI, you’re leaving the bubble of delusion because you realize it’s just data and code”, also as Schuller asserts.

So, the technology from Her definitely isn’t as science-fiction as you might think, with IoT techlonogy, AI apps and software already tapping into a market of therapy and profiting off loneliness. As the big data and deep learning technology continues to advance at speed, there’s a very real possibility that the plot of Her could soon become a reality, at least online – but a dystopian world where we forgo human relationships for AI relationships? TBC.

References

Dawson, B. (2019). Five years on, how much closer are we to the reality in Her?. [online] Dazed. Available at: https://www.dazeddigital.com/science-tech/article/41387/1/her-film-ai-love-artificial-intelligence [Accessed 1 May 2019].

Fast Company. (2019). Spike Jonze Imagines The Future Of Artificial Intelligence, Mobile Design, Love, And Pants In “Her”. [online] Available at: https://www.fastcompany.com/3023517/spike-jonze-imagines-the-future-of-artificial-intelligence-mobile-design-love-and-pants-in-h [Accessed 1 May 2019].

Myers, S. (2019). Movie Analysis: “Her”. [online] Go Into The Story. Available at: https://gointothestory.blcklst.com/movie-analysis-her-5651e6e0c0be [Accessed 1 May 2019].

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Is SEO a Science or an Artform?

SEO is a Science

SEO as the process of promotion of a website is extremely important. This includes research, diagnostics, strategic planning, and even the prospects of a web resource. Website audit allows determining the effectiveness of the SEO, the strengths and weaknesses of the site, its capabilities and vulnerabilities (Search & Analytics, 2019). On the basis of the audit, the specialists have the opportunity to outline further action plans for the project, to place emphasis and priorities of the activity (Search & Analytics, 2019). The process of website promotion is a scientific process due to a lot of reasons. First of all, SEO is a branch of knowledge or research based on strong facts and mathematical laws. What is more, SEO is systematic knowledge of the physical (material world), obtained during observations and experiments. Another factor is that SEO is a system of knowledge in general, obtained scientifically. Anyone who has provided professional services in the field of SEO for a long time will say that during different periods of work they came across one of these factors. The engine of SEO consists of three components. These are crawler, index, and query processor(Search & Analytics, 2019). There is also a special algorithm with the help of which SEO is possible. This algorithm includes the frequency of each keyword on the page, title tag, relevance of the content, and a number of other sites linking to a page, as well as the number of clicks made on thewebsite.

SEO is an Artform

On the other hand, the process of website promotion is an art. There are several reasons for this. Firstly, the conscious use of skill and creative imagination ultimately produces aesthetic objects. A creative person in SEO thinks about how a marketing program can include graphic design, link building, content generation, public relations, and the pursuit of a common goal(Search & Analytics, 2019). For example, reworking a design or code is also an art, and as the result is a masterpiece. This cannot be achieved only by pragmatic SEO techniques - inspiration and creative processes are also important. The best results can be obtained only by showing a sufficient share of creativity. To achieve great results it is extremely important to create a bright, memorable and high-quality content. This is no longer just work with keywords. As practice shows, creative texts are accompanied by appropriate graphic design and unusual ideas that have the greatest success among users, and therefore with search engines. What is more, as search engine optimization develops, the role of creativity gradually increases. In addition, it is worth considering the increasing importance of graphics and video content, usability, and the psychology of the buyer. As a result, it is easy to come to the conclusion that SEO is gradually turning into pure art. Nevertheless, of course, it does not stop being a science.

SEO is Both Science and an Artform

A great example of the Australian company that uses SEO in both scientific and artistic ways is Woolworths Supermarket. This company offers to buy products online and also has a shop in different cities in Australia(Official Websiteб 2019). The scientific part of optimizing the searching engine for this company has a special algorithm. This includes a search with the help of keywords. A person can enter in Google “supermarket online Australia” and the website of this company will be the first in the list after the paid advertising. What is more, another keyword for Woolworths Supermarket is “Australia grocery”. After searching this phrase in Google a person will find out that the website of Woolworths Supermarket in number one in the list. When it comes to the artistic part, Woolworths Supermarket has a website that is designed well and contributes visitors to buy. What is more, the content of the website is qualitative and useful. Thus, this company proves that SEO is both a science and an artform.

Official Website. (2019). Woolworths Supermarket. Retrieved from https://www.woolworths.com.au/

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Big Data and IoT, and their Implications on the future of Marketing.

The IoT, also known as the Internet of Things, has taken over the world currently. The IoT requires people and devices that have sensors for data collection where such data is channeled into servers with end users like consumers waiting to feed on the information passed across. IoT is playing significant roles in our lives by enabling an interconnection of physical things and objects to produce smart tasks. Big data, on the other hand, can be described as a set of data that is so big and goes beyond the capacity of a typical database software. Big data contains consumer information that is helpful in marketing.

A good application of IoT in marketing is the use of IoT sensors in the supply chain. Peloris, a Sydney based food import and export company uses IoT sensor to track the milk on transit to various markets to ensure that the milk reaches the consumers in good condition. This kind of tracking system will not only benefit the manufacturing industry, but also any other company that might be interested in honest reviews of its products will be forced to install sensors on its products to get quick and fast hand information from the consumers. As such, IoT connections are expected to rise in the future as shown in the graph below (Statista, n.d.).

Big Data, on the other hand, is used for micromarketing through segmentation by enabling businesses to tailor marketing according to the needs of the group as evidenced by big data results. Although advantageous, big data and IoT are prone to loss of data through security breaches. Big data can be easily stolen by a rival company which can benefit massively from the stolen data. The use of sensors may fail in instances where a system is hacked or malfunctions. Although advantageous, the two are susceptible to hacking and with the rise in cybercrime, businesses have to set aside huge sums of money to keep their data safe.

Statista. (n.d.). IoT: number of connected devices worldwide 2012-2025. Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/471264/iot-number-of-connected-devices-worldwide/

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The World of Mobile Technologies: Sooner or Later

Nowadays technologies are an integral part of people’s lives all around the world. Many people, mainly teenagers and young adults, cannot imagine a single day without a computer, Internet, and especially a mobile phone. In the age of information, the need to be “online” and “easily reachable” has become a common thing. Mobile phones are changing the world extremely fast shaping the way people think and live.

Undoubtedly, marketing has undergone the most significant changes due to the emergence of modern mobile phones. Mobile phones gave marketing industry the ability to instantly reach clients anytime and anywhere informing or offering goods and services. Consequently, such categories as time- and space-sensitivity became crucial aspects while creating any advertisements or promotions (Kaplan, 2012). The main reason why mobile advertising is growing so fast is that it is convenient for both sides: the client gets what he or she wants exactly when it is needed and the business gets client insight.

The success of sales today strongly depends on whether marketers were able to find the right moment and place to advertise the products or services: mobile ads that pop up after search queries, mobile coupons that are valid only for a certain time, and mobile apps that notify about the recent arrivals (Hof, 2016).

However, in order to use all the potential of mobile technologies the business needs to be “mobile ready” but it is not so easy as it seems. To be “mobile ready” for business means not only to have a mobile app but also to be with the clients in the so-called “micro-moments” (the moment when a brand can influence their decisions), to be useful by assuring that content is relevant and helpful, and to provide a fast mobile experience (Adams, Burkholder & Hamilton, 2015).

All in all, over the past few years, mobile technologies have changed the world drastically providing plenty of opportunities for both the buyer and the seller by accelerating, facilitating, and improving the interactions. There is no doubt that in the near future marketing strategies will be based entirely on mobile technologies as it will make the process much easier.

Sources:

KKaplan, A. (2012). If you love something, let it go mobile: Mobile marketing and mobile social media 4x4. Business Horizons, 55(2), 129-139. Retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/e978/960c1bc93366edf86306d9779038d0420a3d.pdf

Adams, L., Burkholder, E., & Hamilton, K. (2015). Micro-Moments: Your Guide to Winning the Shift to Mobile[Ebook] (pp. 1-28). Google. Retrieved from https://think.storage.googleapis.com/images/micromoments-guide-to-winning-shift-to-mobile-download.pdf

Hof, R. (2016). Marketing in the Moments, to Reach Customers Online. Retrieved from

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/18/business/media/marketing-in-the-moments-to-reach-customers-online.html?searchResultPosition=9

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Welcome to my journey!

My blog records my study of marketing. I am so grateful for your reading and commons.  :)