Author: brennalindsay

IMC – Social Media – Creating long-term value?

/ brennalindsay / 28 Comments

By Brenna Lindsay and Tristan Garthe (Group 100)

Social media provides abundant opportunities for marketers. As part of the integrated marketing communications mix, social media can strengthen and expand relationships through targeted brand building in a fast and cost-effective way. Increasingly intelligent web/online data analytics assist marketers in obtaining immediate feedback on the product and enables corrections to be made as required. But is there a right way to use the dynamic channels that social media provides and what are the ethical dilemmas faced by social marketers?

Lets look at the following video was recently published on Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKz3l8wM_JE

It is a video of a young French tourist claiming to be looking for the Australian father of her unborn child.   The video was published by leading news agencies around the world and the original clip attracted more than three million views.   An accompanying Facebook page included posts from Amyot about her distress and even suicidal thoughts. Shortly after it went viral, the videos and Facebook pages were revealed as a viral marketing campaign devised by the owner of a Sunshine Coast digital marketing agency (Sunny Coast Digital Marketing), for a local real estate business (Holiday Mooloolaba).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uv4wyfmheLY

Holiday Mooloolaba says it has generated the equivalent of $10 million in advertising for the town – and market awareness with a global audience.

Discussion questions:

  1. Do you think this was a successful use of social media in the integrated marketing communications mix?
    • If it meets the marketer’s original goals isn’t it then a success?
  2. What are the ethical dilemma’s of social media as part of integrated marketing communications?
  3. How can social media be used effectively as part of the integrated marketing mix?
  4. Can social media create long-term value?

References:

Iacobucci D (2014) Marketing Management (MM), South-Western, Cengage Learning, Mason

Keating E (2015) ‘SMEs under fire for ‘pregnant French tourist’ marketing hoax’, Smart Company, Thursday, 03 September 2015 1:57, http://www.smartcompany.com.au/marketing/48259-smes-under-fire-for-pregnant-french-tourist-marketing-hoax.html