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QUESTION: How does your brand utilise its network of consumers via social media, or how does it plan to in the future?

1

Barry Money

Corporate manager marketing services, Toyota

Toyota’s customers, enthusiasts and prospects are having conversations online with or without us. As such, we’ve entered this emerging medium as an extension of our marketing communications.

We’ve established a presence in mainstream platforms such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and YouTube, and we’re in the process of rolling out further initiatives.

Toyota’s direction is one of initiating and contributing to conversations in the social environment. The breadth of our brand is reflected in the diverse conversations taking place, ranging from Hybrids to Formula One.

We believe that it is through this authenticity that individuals are able to relate to our brand, connecting in a human way to Toyota’s community. This emotional influence strategy has traditionally been something that standard above the line campaigns have been unable to provide. 

Recently we’ve taken this a step further by connecting with some of the top blogging personalities in the country. By providing bloggers with access to what was previously reserved for traditional media, we have broadened our social influence and helped develop more relevant, targeted and appropriate content for our customers and prospects.

This is a natural facilitation of content that allows us to share our messaging around launches, products and events in a more diverse manner.

Our vision is to nurture authentic conversations with our customers, prospects and broader online audience.

We’re aiming to ensure that our conversations are intimate, genuine and informative. It’s through these conversations that brand to consumer connections can be established with an unprecedented ability to influence brand loyalty and advocacy.

2

Jordana Kirby Jensen

Digital marketing director, Village Roadshow

Village Roadshow has a few brands we are working into the social media wave. Overall our objective is to engage our customers and continue to drive the fashion of going to the movies and entertainment attractions.

The medium will be used to extend our reach of our brands, bringing customers back to our online ‘homebase’ for sales where we can provide security and link into the clubs. Both our cinema and theme park clubs operate through our websites and we are looking into extending the awareness on the benefits, particularly special events and exclusive competitions.

Village Cinemas has a huge customer base with our movie club and we are looking into new applications within social media to expand the club benefits into Facebook. Our theme park and attractions business is leveraging our online portal ‘MyFun’ with profiles in Twitter and Facebook, and we’re listening and searching for the most engaging way to increase share of voice.

We are looking at Facebook and Twitter profiles for our property brands (including Sea World, Warner Bros Movie World, Wet‘n’Wild Water World, Australian Outback Spectacular, Sydney Aquarium and Sydney Wildlife World), and possible profiles for characters and in-park guests.

There is also an opportunity to link with photo-sharing sites and YouTube for all those fantastic family holiday moments and develop some channel-unique promotions.

Roadshow Films has done some work with MySpace and Facebook to spread the news on new film releases, and gain audiences for preview screenings.

For our products, half the joy is sharing your experiences with others, so this medium provides us with a great opportunity when we harness it right.

3

Stephanie Phillips

Supporter insight/campaign manager, World Vision

Most recently World Vision has been able to build effective social media networks with people under 25 through MySpace, Bebo, YouTube and Twitter by the popularity of the 40 Hour Famine and the youth video content available.

The team at World Vision would not be classified as ‘social media experts’, but place emphasis on taking the time to listen to what our supporters are saying about us, what is important to them and respond accordingly. World Vision has found that if it makes itself visible, available and seemingly in it for the long haul, people tend to respect that.

World Vision aims to have genuine conversations with people about world poverty and their own life choices. It continues to raise awareness of the issues of global poverty through encouraging conversations within social networking platforms.

We intend to give consumers content-based resources to begin their own conversations, to explore the ideas and to question the issues surrounding poverty and injustice.
We believe that the ideas that flow from these conversations help to form common goals that motivate action.

That action, that belief, and that change can come from a united group of individuals, can manifest in several different ways that inspire our supporters to learn more, to discover, to volunteer, to make a lifestyle change or to give financially.

4

Michael Entwisle

Director, Genero.tv

For us as a start-up, social media sites have played a critical role in getting awareness for our brand among music fans and film/video makers internationally. It’s amazing to watch it grow via Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and blogs from Amsterdam to Brazil, the UK to Poland and right here in our own backyard.

With online you can legitimately create an international brand in weeks where previously it would have taken years to create the same level of awareness, coupled with a huge marketing budget.

Genero.tv is a social media site for local and international artists where fans compete to make the official music videos for featured songs.

There is a real opportunity today for deeper engagement between artists and their fans, where the power of online lets the world create, watch and spread content virally.

We look to foster that engagement by helping the music industry improve its use of social media through creative involvement of fans and the power of online video. The current model of producing one official music video has limited viral potential and doesn’t take advantage of the growth in online video being produced or consumed.

We aim to increase the amount of online video content for our featured artists, which can then spread virally, primarily through social media.

As well as having our own social media platform to share those videos, we’ll ensure our content spreads through existing social media sites to promote our featured artists and their music, as well as Genero.tv and our brand partners.

5

Sarah Curtis

National marketing manager, People Telecom

We’ve adopted a social media strategy whereby we focus on listening and engaging our customers within the social media backdrop. We use these interactions to improve our understanding of our customers and therefore improve our business dealings.
We’re implementing a customer lifecycle model to assist in achieving strong customer loyalty to enhance customer retention. This model is about encouraging one-to-one customer interactions in order to gain a deeper trust and customer relationships that prosper and grow, so social media plays a significant part in our strategy to achieve customer loyalty.
There’s a global conversation going on out there and consumers are discussing our brand, products and services online via blogs, forums, interactive micro blogs such as Twitter and friends on networking sites including Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn.
Our customers are more informed than ever as a result of social media, which is why we’re committed to connecting with them this way.
Listening is 21st century marketing. Adopting social media strategies, including listening posts, allows us to listen to our customers and utilise this information for research and development purposes. We’ve found that our customers want to talk to us; they want to engage and provide feedback.

1 Comments

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  • Wrote on 11 Feb, at 04:10PM

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