Rebelling

5 Brand Campaigns that Made Christmas Merrier

Posted on December 27, 2019 by ittisa-admin

“Christmas is doing a little something extra for someone.”

It’s Christmas season, and while candles, cakes and carols are a part of this holiday season, brands do their part with messages of joy, happiness, family bonding and solidarity. 

Take a look at 5 Christmas campaigns that made social media a happy and merry place –

1. Apple – Holiday – The Surprise

Bringing in the festive season with warmth, togetherness and family bonding, Apple released a 3-minute film centring around two granddaughters visiting their grandfather with their parents after the demise of their grandmother. The children are handed an iPad to keep themselves busy while the parents help the grandfather. 

On Christmas morning, it is revealed that the children had used the iPad to create a multimedia album, telling the story of their grandpa and his late wife to show that she’ll always be there with them. With the message of Make Someone’s Holiday, the film is a reminder that the true essence of Christmas lies in family togetherness.

The video was a great success and received 24M views on YouTube. The brand hopes that this ad will encourage users to understand that technology is not merely for meaningless consumption, it can also be used for expressing creativity and love.

front view of tablet screen with fmaily and dog

Source: Daily Express

2. Mercedes Benz – Picture of Santa

Mercedes has always been famous for creating campaigns that evoke the right sentiments, captivate the audience and encourage sharing. This Christmas, there was a touch of humour in their ad that shows a Santa secretly placing gifts while a child catches him and clicks a picture. Finding out that he has been caught, Santa tries to bribe the boy with gifts so that his secret remains a secret. The child, however, sees that Santa has a Mercedes car. Even after a lot of negotiation, the kid only settles for the car as a ‘bribe’.

Picture of Santa

Source: YouTube

Sending out the message “for those who never compromise”, Mercedes also highlights the brand message that owning the car is like an ultimate desire in life. Till now, the video has received 5.7K views on YouTube. On Facebook, the campaign witnessed 101K views, 7.7K reactions, 470+ comments and 1.6K shares.

Watch the video here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiu4gK7SHNQ

3. Microsoft – Holiday Magic: Lucy and the Reindeer

Bringing in the holiday season while also promoting voice language translation technology, Microsoft’s Christmas campaign tells the amusing story of Lucy. The little girl sees her mother attending a business conference call using the cloud-based Microsoft Translator with Japanese colleagues. She then takes the tablet and goes out to meet a couple of reindeer and talk to them. As she sees that their snort could be translated into English, she fires off with a number of curious questions like how do reindeers fly, what does Santa Claus do in summer, if Mrs Claus is a good cook, and so on.

Girl and the Reindeer

Source: YouTube

The ad ends with the line – “ Happy Holidays in 60+ languages. Reindeer is not one of them. Yet.” It witnessed 148K views on YouTube. Facebook garnered 4K views till now, with 90+ reactions.

Watch the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnmy7IPE08I

4. SBI Life Insurance – Real Life Real Stories

SBI’s “Real Life Real Stories” campaigns bring out the selfless acts of real unsung heroes in the country who have bought a positive change in society. This Christmas, they released an inspiring video of an auto driver and social activist Murugan Theruvorum who became a real-life Santa for the homeless, orphaned and the elderly. For 20 years, he has rescued more than 10,000 homeless people and provided them with basic amenities.

SBI Life Insurance

Source: Adgully.com

The video has already gained 2M views on YouTube. On Facebook, it witnessed 1.4M views with 4.6K reactions and 670+ comments.

Watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBx0hCY-D1U&t=22s

5. Uber – Santa & his Elves are coming to Town

Uber came up with a short and sweet Christmas video to bring in the season of joy. The video shows a little boy dressed as an elf taking a ride with his mother for a fancy dress competition. He gets Santa Claus as his co-passenger and is overjoyed to see him. The child also gets candy from Santa, which thrills him all the more. The video is described as Santa and his elves are coming to town, with Uber bringing them home.

Santa & his Elves are coming to Town

Source: Facebook

The video gathered 1.4M views on Facebook, 3.8K reactions, 70+ comments and 120+ shares. It has also received 1.6M views on Instagram. 

Watch the video here: https://www.facebook.com/uber.IND/videos/2503697176510168/

Which was your favourite Christmas campaign this year? Tell us in the comment section below. 

 

Posted under: Social Media

Why does your brand need performance marketing?

Posted on by ittisa-admin

Performance marketing is a set of online strategies based on indicators that allow brands to promote a product or service and pay only when the outcome of the advertising is generated. In other words, clients need to pay performance marketing agencies only when the agency delivers profitable or agreed-upon results like sales, clicks, leads, conversions and other beneficial marketing outcomes.

Performance marketing has successfully reversed the traditional value proposition of advertising where the payment is made by the client or advertisers to an agency despite the failure of the ad campaign, thereby allowing real-time measurement of ROI.

Goals in Performance Marketing

Before beginning any marketing campaign, it is compulsory to set goals. These goals may be shared by the client or may be left on the agency to decide after discussing with the client. Having determined the goals of advertising campaigns, it is safe to proceed to the selection of marketing platforms and tools that can help in achieving them. Some of the popular goals include:

How do performance marketing campaigns work?

Performance marketing ad campaigns may range from web banners to pop-ups to cost-per-view and cost-per-click ads along with relevant content. Large amounts of traffic are generated through these ads which are purchased from web or mobile publishers.

Brands advertise via these platforms because it is easy to track, measure and quantify data about their ad spend with the correct tools. These can be linked directly back to sales. Popular sites like Google and Facebook use performance marketing but nowadays smaller brands are also going the same route.

Some of the benefits of performance marketing include:

1. Pay for Results

The most popular benefit of this form of marketing is that there are no overhead expenses before the desired results. Rather than paying an upfront cost for the services provided by an agency, performance marketing agencies charge brands or businesses every time the designated action or results takes place. Small businesses, like start-ups, often like this form of marketing because it satisfies their budgets. This is effectively applicable to brands that seek actions like leads and conversions. 

In performance marketing, it’s important that brands set a goal and follow it properly. Ad campaigns that are optimized for conversions and then switched to clicks might underperform in both categories. It is best to design creatives and set budgets around a specific goal decided at the outset.

2. Track and Measure Performance

With performance marketing, it’s easy to track and measure results for actions taken. Performance marketing is digital, therefore brands benefit from near-instant results and detailed insights with regards to performance. It includes total spend, number of clicks, impressions and conversions. 

With these metrics, brands can track performance throughout a campaign to determine the return on investment (ROI). If a campaign isn’t meeting the expectations, it can be paused and the budget can be moved elsewhere. 

3. Better Planning

Performance marketing campaigns are easy to budget for because brands have to identify goals and provide an ideal cost per action at the beginning of planning. The Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) play an important role in a brand’s ability to determine its goals. From there, it’s simple to find the proper budget based on the desired results. Since performance marketing focuses on driving higher performance levels and outcomes in businesses, therefore brands can optimize the number of impressions, leads, clicks and other performance markers. 

4. Real-time Use

Most times performance is analysed by individual advertisements. Knowing how each creative performs with a particular target audience is a great advantage, thereby allowing brands to adapt and react to feedback throughout the campaign.

If an ad with a certain copy or headline delivers a higher click-through rate than others, brands can use that copy or headline with other forms of media to see if the conversion rate can be further optimized. Reacting to this performance of a campaign can deliver more results within the original budget of the campaign.

5. Low Risk

By paying only when a specific action is completed, a brand’s money is well-spent and remains unexploited. This automatically reduces the risk of overspending without getting the desired outcome. 

6. New Formats for Experimentation

Single placement channels such as Twitter can conduct performance marketing or brands can also partner with performance marketing networks to broaden their reach. Various placement opportunities are offered by these networks, which can provide new details into valuable placements based on audiences.

Performance marketing networks like email, PPC, social media etc are especially helpful for brands targeting difficult-reaching audiences like developers who avoid display ads and are not very active on social media. 

Brands that want to improve their advertising efforts and boost their results should opt for performance marketing and all that it has to offer. Unlike traditional marketing, performance marketing can help in better planning, track performances, make a brand pay only after the desired results and discover new placement opportunities.

With all these advantages, it’s no surprise that performance marketing is becoming the new standard for advertising. To know more about performance marketing, leave us a message and we will get back to you!

 

 

Posted under: Brand

5 Reasons you need a Social Media Hashtag Strategy

Posted on December 19, 2019 by ittisa-admin

66.6% of Instagram posts contain atleast one hashtag.

Hashtags have now become a social media phenomenon and a powerful part for online marketing strategies. They can be easily created and are searchable, thus becoming an indispensable tool for brands, organisations, celebrities and even common individuals. If used correctly, hashtags can contribute to large conversations and help the audience to dig deeper into a topic.

Audiences can also follow and engage with particular or specific hashtags to stay updated on a current topic or trend. They can also create their own hashtags to promote any product or service.

The key to a successful hashtag strategy is understanding the target audience and which hashtags they follow.

Here are some reasons to justify the utilisation of hashtags:

1. Increase the organic reach of the post

Hashtags are essential on sites like Instagram, Facebook and Twitter since they help gain visibility on social media networks. Hashtags help reach more audience organically and can also keep a track of the reach and engagement numbers. It also makes a social media post attractive and influences people to like the brand or page for more updates.

2. Branding and Visibility

Leveraging hashtags to elevate branding is a great idea. If a brand is new, then hashtags can be utilized to expand the audience reach and increase brand awareness.

When users search for a brand, they’ll see the relevant hashtags that the brand is using; or when they search for specific hashtags, they’ll see the brand’s posts in the results. This usually results in the brand gaining new followers and potential customers.

Be it new or established, a brand can create its own hashtag for a product, service or an event promotion. Brands can encourage followers to use their hashtags when they purchase or use a product, or when they’re at an event hosted by the brand.

Creating a unique hashtag gives the brand a chance to dominate that hashtag. Continuously including that hashtag in posts not only helps increase visibility but also helps users to associate with the brand, thus encouraging brand loyalty.

3. Promotion

A primary reason why hashtags have become so important on social media is because of the advantages it brings for targeted campaigns. A social media version of the “word-of-mouth” method, it helps create visibility by encouraging followers to use the campaign hashtag, which is further used by their followers and the cycle continues.

Moreover, if one is aware of the hashtags that the target audience is already following, creating campaign hashtags along the same lines can further increase visibility.

Promoting an event, contest or giveaway with hashtags helps connect a brand with its followers and also their followers with each other. The traction a hashtag can promote before, during and after an event is indeed substantial.

4. Improve click-through rates

According to research, tweets or posts with hashtags receive more engagement than those without hashtags. Therefore brands can increase their customer engagement and click-through rates by just adding hashtags to their posts. But too many hashtags should be avoided in a single post as it may seem like spamming and thereby dilute the original message.

5. Effective and easy communication

Brands use hashtags to make their marketing campaign memorable, unique and relevant to their audience. Systematic and effective use of relevant and distinctive hashtags makes a brand memorable. Brands can integrate hashtags with an easy call to action to help them communicate efficiently and reach a larger audience.

With its quintessential ability to gain visibility and reach millions of users around the world, hashtags are a crucial part of any successful marketing campaign.

Whether it’s a new business looking to increase brand awareness, a well-known brand launching a new product or a brand looking to give back with a charitable campaign, hashtags are a certain way for businesses to get their voice heard on social media.

Posted under: Social Media

5 Easy Ways to Rank your Blog

Posted on December 17, 2019 by ittisa-admin

Every successful blog is built on the foundation of solid content, but it’s the consistency that matters for effective ranking on search engines. According to reports, brands that are consistent with blogging are 13 times more likely to get a positive ROI.

As an inbound marketing strategy, blogging can generate qualified leads and drive traffic. According to a recent study, brands that produce blogs on a regular basis may acquire 126% more leads than those who do not.

For starters, brands can create a WordPress blog and begin creating high-quality, compelling content. However, in order to rank well on search engines, the implementation has to be better with correct keyword research, on-page SEO and etc. All of this needs to be initiated properly in order to help a brand grow, reach its target audience and build its search engine ranking.

Below are some ways that can help a blog rank well on search engines:

Keyword Research

Basic keyword research will help identify the most searched keywords by a brand’s target audience and also find words that have a higher chance of ranking. Focus on one or two long-tail keywords that match the intent of the target reader. Include these keywords in specific parts of the blog.

Using the Google Keyword Planner, look for highly-relevant keywords that get a decent number of searches and low levels of competition.


Source: https://www.shoutmeloud.com

On-Page SEO

The most important aspect of on-page SEO is using the selected keywords strategically in different parts of the blog. Use the chosen keyword in the meta title or meta tag to help the search engine better categorize the blog post based on consumer search query phrases.

Some of the most popular areas of using keywords are:

Creating blogs that have practical value

Readers now demand blogs that are relevant and useful which not only answer their queries but also nudge them to implement what they read.

According to a report, over half the marketers feel that high-quality, unique and relevant blog content are the most vital types of content. This increases the search traffic, community engagement levels and leads.

Building Inbound links

Link building is the spine of SEO as it supports optimization tactics and strategy. Trusted, quality incoming links dictate up to 20.94% of what ranks and what does not. When there is an amalgamation of the right links and useful content, the result is a significant increase in search rankings.

Some ways to get these links include:

Promotion on Social Media

For more engagement and audience views, bloggers need to use social media platforms keenly. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other online forums can be great places to share blog posts and increase the number of click-throughs, likes and shares. Social sharing triggers audiences to visit the online blog and this, in turn, helps increase the ranking fast.

Creating blog posts can be very time-consuming. If a brand is going to invest time and money, then they want to make sure those blog posts continue to drive traffic and views in the long run. Follow the above-mentioned ways and to rank your blog organically!

To know more, leave us a comment and we will get back to you!

Posted under: Content Marketing

Instagram Hiding Likes – What does it mean for your business?

Posted on December 13, 2019 by ittisa-admin

“Starting today, we’re expanding our test of private like counts globally. If you’re in the test, you’ll no longer see the total number of likes and views on photos and videos posted to Feed unless they’re your own,” – Instagram, 14th November 2019.

Social media apps often roll out changes and updates, but Instagram hiding likes came as a sudden blow to many marketers. The reason for such a step was to depressurize the platform and reduce competition to prevent ‘adverse effects on mental health’.

Instagram is the most popular social media platform with 65% Gen Z users. The pressure of getting enough likes could take a toll on the young minds and is the primary reason to bring this change on the social platform.

Adam Mosseri, CEO, Instagram announced that “It’s about young people. The idea is to try and depressurize Instagram, make it less of a competition, give people more space to focus on connecting with people that they love, things that inspire them.”


Source: Later

The test was first implemented in Canada and has expanded to countries like Australia, Brazil, Italy, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand and the United States. However, the test is soon to be applicable on a global basis.

This latest development is surely to affect businesses, with many brands contemplating the option of changing the platform and moving to other popular youth platforms like Snapchat and Pinterest. However, marketers can embrace this change and use it to their advantage in the following ways –

1. Track more relevant metrics

For a majority of brands, getting likes for each post has been a top priority. However, likes are only one way to measure the popularity of posts. It does not necessarily mean that your marketing efforts, sales of your product/service or your brand messaging are reaping the same results.

Track more relevant metrics
Source: laterblog

According to Sprout Social, there are 7 main Instagram metrics that need to be tracked that are more important than likes –

2. Enhance content quality & authenticity

If likes are no longer viewable, brands now have to focus more on creating a robust strategy that involves producing high-quality genuine content and efforts to get discovered.

Being authentic is the best way forward when it comes to Instagram marketing. Moreover, with the algorithm update, being consistent with producing likeable content that would interest the audience is all the more important. This is because as the algorithm recognizes that your content resonates with the audience, your posts will be put in a better position and even shown to new audiences.


Source: tlbb.com

Being discoverable on this popular social platform is another crucial step for brands to get success. The ‘Explore’ tab on Instagram features relevant posts to users who may be interested in your content. This provides a chance to get exposure in front of a wider target audience. Using relevant hashtags is known to be the best way to find your place in the Explore tab.

3. Invest in Story Ads

“62% of Instagram users are known to become more interested in a brand – or its product and services – after they watch Instagram stories.”

In order to reduce reliance merely on ‘likes’, many marketers are now making a shift towards sponsored story posts and measure the impact. Moreover, people are more active on the Internet via mobile devices and are more interested in formats that are convenient, easy and engaging. Full-screen vertical ads/videos are ideal for this kind of content consumption.

Here are 7 marketing objectives that can be fulfilled with Instagram Story ads


Source: Strike Social

The bold move of hiding likes for users across the world will definitely bring a great change in social media marketing as well as influencer marketing. However, this step can also be perceived in a positive way for brands as it also means less competition and more focus on strategy and quality work.

To know more about how to use Instagram to get more value for your business, leave us a message and we’ll get back to you!

Posted under: Instagram

5 Ways to Create a Great Customer Experience Strategy

Posted on December 6, 2019 by ittisa-admin

“60% of customers are willing to pay more for a better experience.”

In present times, competitor brands provide almost the same features and product differences are minimal. Moreover, technology has made it possible for customers to easily compare prices of multiple brands before making a final purchase. The dynamics of brand loyalty have also changed, where customers can easily switch to another brand if they have a bad experience. This is where lies the importance of good customer experience.

most exciting business opportunity
Source: superoffice.com

A study by Oracle found that “74% of businesses believe that customer experience impacts the willingness of a customer to be a loyal advocate.” The better the experience, the more are the chances of them being loyal to your brand and helping you outperform your competition.

Here are the 5 best ways for devising a great customer experience strategy –

1. Understand your customers

Before building a strategy, it is important to be very clear about the target audience, identify their problems that need a solution and how you can help in the process.

Customer segmentation and creating buyer personas is one of the best ways to understand them better. With information like age, location, interests, problems and buying behaviour, customers can be segregated into different categories and you can provide services accordingly. For example, a group of tech-savvy people may be able to follow a set of instructions you publish on your webpage, but for an audience group that is not so well acquainted with technology, you may have to put up a video tutorial for better understanding.

element of persona analysis
Source: Influitive

By creating such categories, you can recognize your customers better, which in turn will help you give them a better experience.

2. Map your customer journey

When you have a clear idea of the target audience and have segmented your buyer personas, the next step is mapping the customer journey. This includes every interaction that customers will have with your business and the experience they gather in this process.

When visitors come to your website, especially for the first time, it is imperative that they have a seamless experience. Glitches, error pages and longer load times can prove to be a hindrance in the journey. A report states that “70% of customers consider connected processes to be an essential factor for a smooth experience, such as seamlessly going from page to page or making suggestions based on previous searches.”

customer journey road
Source: Thematic

Understanding the mindset of your customer at every stage of the funnel is the key to success. Figure out what would motivate them to go from one level to the next while they interact with your brand and the probable pain points they can face. All of this can help map out an efficient customer journey.

3. Build an emotional connect

“Businesses that optimize emotional connections can outperform competitors by 85% in sales growth.”

Present-day customers are smart enough to know that if they are not appreciated in one place, they definitely will be somewhere else. Therefore, as a brand, it is important to build a personal and emotional connection to make customers feel special and help them to stay loyal.

Know the 5 emotional motivators that consumers need, from Harvard Business Review:

● Stand out from the crowd
● Have confidence in the future
● Enjoy a sense of well-being
● Sense of freedom
● Sense of thrill

Take these feelings into account while creating the customer experience strategy to meet their emotional needs. Emotionally engaged customers are 3 times more likely to repurchase and recommend your product.

emotionally engaged customers
Source: High Definition Banking

4. Focus on the ‘voice’ of your customer

Do you know that “companies that actively engage in a voice of customer programs, spend 25% less on customer retention than those that don’t?”

Voice of the customer lies at the core of every customer experience strategy. Implementing it well can create a great difference in customer loyalty and can help you create better product offerings.

VOC can be identified by analysing direct and indirect input. Direct input is what your customer says, which includes social media monitoring for product/ brand mentions, customer interviews and collecting feedback. Indirect input involves what the customer does, which includes data collected from web analytics, market research, monetary transactions and product usage. Analysing data from both these inputs can help detect a pattern or trend which will help your brand in the way forward.

Getting feedback in real-time is important to ensure you’re delivering good customer experience. Using live chat, follow-up emails, surveys and even outbound calls can help get more insightful feedback and meet customer requirements.

5. Measure ROI

Lastly, the best way to understand if your investment and efforts are paying off is by measuring the ROI. However, before calculating the ROI, you have to decide if you’re going to choose the business side, the customer experience side or the middle ground between the two.

It is important to decide on a metric for measuring customer experience and how it affects your business. For example, your customer experience strategy may not lead to an increase in the number of purchases but can increase the amount spent on each of them.

Softwares like Net Promoter Score, Customer Effort Score or Customer Satisfaction Score can be used to conduct surveys and collect feedback from customers. The main purpose of customer experience ROI is to improve customer lifecycle and expedite your business growth.

measure ROI for customer satisfaction

Customer experience is an integral part of business that requires constant nurture and care. As a brand, focusing on your customer experience strategy will reflect a positive impact on loyalty, lead to higher retention and more revenues.

To know more about creating the best experience strategy, leave us a message and we’ll get back to you.

Posted under: Digital Marketing