I saw this billboard advertisement in the O'Hare airport when I was flying back to school after Thanksgiving vacation. I took a picture of it because I think it is a great representation of social networking online interacting with social networking offline.
There has been such a huge push to get companies in on the social media bandwagon. From Twitter to Facebook pages to mobile applications like foursquare, companies and people are interacting on the Internet. While these interactions are important and provide a new and dynamic way to engage the consumer (or the business), it is important to remember that we do still exist in a real, non-virtual world where we interact with people face to face every day.
I think Marriott does a great job of bringing it full circle by associating their hotel lobbies with social networking, because it is. It was the original. The black-and-white movie era hotel lobby was a place of intrigue and romance, and it has been replaced by our virtual existences. By combining the two images into one advertisement, Marriott captures the attention of the consumer with a successful advertisement.
I agree with Jenn about the huge push for companies to jump on the social media band wagon. Just yesterday when I was watching Sunday football it felt like nearly every company or organization was making an effort to reach new audiences or reaffirm their current market using some form of social networking. My favorite is the new trend for the major automakers like Ford, Honda, and Chevy to end their advertisement with, "Ask a friend about their ford/honda/ chevy." The idea is that the best and cheapest PR is by word of mouth and they are using new social networking utilities to accomplish this.
ReplyDeleteSometimes in these types of ads you can see the facebook and twitter symbols in the bottom corner which I assume means that they are some how related to the sites or they have a page and they are advertising for the site. Another example of this is in the new Sears advertisement about a man who saves a lot of time by checking for the best prices online at the store. Sears also adds that you can find special deals by becoming a fan of their facebook page.
this is what I found on their facebook page...
http://cdn1.synapsegroup.com/sears/fanpage/exclusives/assets/images/BecomeAFan.jpg
I feel that in addition to capturing the attention of the consumer as Jenn notices in the Marriott advertisement, they are also making it easier for the consumer to access information about their company or product by attaching themselves to established social communities like facebook and twitter.
that ad is very creative. definitely like it! *little thumbs hand*
ReplyDeleteThe ad is very clever! I would like to build on the idea of despite living in physical reality (where we interact face-to-face) we are becoming more interactive "online."
ReplyDeleteI know that it might not be completely relevant to the class. However, it's my observation of the "change" of the world and the media, also.
Before, we used to have just stages and broadway play. Technologies made it possible to have film and movies. It used to only have movies shown in parks or carnivals, and then it transformed to movie theaters. Now, with television, there are TV series and shows (that we have to follow every week for (an example)a season long). Now, there are starting to have series ONLY be view online.
I am personally very interested in dancing. So, I came across this new series. It is called "The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers" or in short LXD. I thought it is just like other reality series. However, FOX's LXD is a series that bring out a new type to media - series online (ONLY).
If you are interested, this is their official website... http://www.thelxd.com/
You can see the preview of the series as well as a dance performance (on So You Think You Can Dance).
I think it is very interesting how we are moving toward to a completely online era. I am also very curious of what will happen to our behaviors or how we interact with each other more... in the next 5 or 10 years.