Marketing by hashtag: Advertising goes online

The world pretty much moved online and any smart business will always look for a way to follow their target audience wherever they are and market their products or services to them.

Today, businesses are investing more on social media platforms and turning them into their new marketing tools.

To complement their traditional advetising platforms like newspapers and television, they are adopting marketing strategies whose messages “trend”, thus provoking conversation.

“The first reason why people are leaning towards advertising on social media is that it shapes conversations which will lead to sales. Besides being cheaper than advertising on print or television, it is easier to quantify and analyse how many people saw the ad through clicks” says Digital Strategist Stephen Musyoka.

Kenya-based corportates have not been left behind in the uptake of social media platforms for marketing. From Heinneken to Aromat, Weetabix to Jameson to Coca Cola, brands are turning to social media influencers to try and generate a buzz around their products and services.

While the numbers are unavailable for us to tell whether this strategy is working or not, the fact that more and more corporates are embracing social media platforms could indicate positive results.

Digiday, an online media company, quoted Adam Tucker, President at Ogilvy and Mather Advertising, New York as saying: “The Internet has changed everything and more and more brands are looking for deeper, two-way conversations instead of one-way communication”.

Mr Tucker was further quoted: “In this new era where consumers own the relationship with brands, they have to be very open to new partners and new technologies and embrace them.”

Whatever is considered hot, exciting, cool, funny or weird will make rounds from Whatsapp, find its way to Facebook, get retweets, and by the time it surfaces on Instagram it is a hilarious meme that will also once again have a boomerang effect. It will come back as many times as people put it out there.

Coca-Cola’s widely popular “Share a Coke” campaign, where they stick people’s names on Coke bottles and cans, landed in Kenya this year and it has generated a lot of interest and conversation.

The company launched the campaign by targeting several social media and entertainment “bigwigs” and putting their names on the cans. They would then share the images on their various platforms.

Memes, humorous images slightly altered or hilariously captioned have helped brands like Aromat push their campaigns to greater heights.

Originally, Coke tried out the “Share a Coke” campaign in Australia with good results. The excitement that comes with hunting for one’s name and finding someone to share it with is what they are hoping for and it is happening. And while people put some importance on the meaning of a name, Coke is hoping to see its sales soar.

According to Forbes, “User-generated content and crowd-sourcing is attractive for brands for obvious reasons: It makes the brand more approachable, its campaigns more authentic and builds greater loyalty among its fans. It allows them to cash in on the eagerness of its customers to be co-creators, co-innovators and even evangelists by launching new campaigns on Twitter, Facebook or Instagam every other day. All it takes is a hashtag.”

 Ripple effect

Often times, a product’s visibility on social media will depend on how much people are talking about it.

The more they do, positively or negatively, the more waves it creates though many companies would rather they generate only positive conversation.

And if perhaps influential people post or tweet it, the more likely their minions will pass it on.

Businessman Chris Kirubi is among public figures targeted with a Coke bearing his moniker, DJ CK on a can. Kirubi shared the photo with the caption “I assure, I taste very nice,” with his 291,000 followers on Twitter and 31,315 likes on Facebook.

However, being an influencer or social media “bigwig” with thousands of Twitter or Facebook followers does not necessarily guarantee adoption of the product or service.

It just guarantees creation of awareness on whatever product they are advertising.

It is highly unlikely that corporates that have embraced social media will stop using traditional media, which reach a more diverse audience, to market its products.

Mr Musyoka, who has worked with some of Kenya’s big brands, says traditional advertising is here to stay, social media is just an evolution and people cannot afford to be left behind. But, it is only winning in areas where people can access it.

“It’s the in thing because the target audience has changed as well. Traditional media has also gone the online way by asking for opinions through hashtags.

Social media advertising has the interactive element to it: people engage in heated debates and discussions and they give their opinions in real time,” he says.