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Sunny Co. Clothing is a small company that was started by two friends from San Diego, California. The co-founders, Alan Alchalel and Brady Silverwood, are currently seniors in the school of business at the University of Arizona. Their brand has had success by selling apparel at more than 25 colleges country wide. Sunny Co. Clothing has only recently made it under the national social media spotlight because of their latest promotion on Instagram.

Female Instagram users went crazy when the company made a post saying that everyone who reposted the picture of their “Pamela Sunny Suit” would receive a special promo code. This promotional code would allow them to get a free Pamela Sunny bathing suit (after paying shipping and handling) from their website. The offer was made for a limited time and only lasted 24 hours. The stunt worked and took off like wildfire on Instagram. Ladies all over the country reposted the infamous image of Sunny Co.’s red Pamela Sunny Suit to their personal accounts and tagged the clothing brand in their posts. Many were happy after receiving a message back from the company and bought the bathing suit or other apparel because of the promotion. So much so, that many of Sunny Co. Clothing’s items are sold out on their website.

Their bathing suits typically are priced at about $65. So, it’s no wonder why so many participants reposted their photo in order to jump on the opportunity to purchase the swim suit at a discounted price. My roommate told me that she participated and received a promo code from the company and was willing to pay the low price of $12 to cover the shipping and handling. Many deemed the promo code as a scam because customers still had to pay a price to receive the suit but we must keep in mind that the company is still relatively new. Therefore, they may not be able to cover the cost of shipping for every free suit they sell.

This campaign was wildly successful for Sunny Co. Clothing and potentially more successful than even the co-founders could have predicted. Sunny Co. Clothing increased their social footprint with this promotion. Since it was required for users to post the image of their bathing suit along with tagging the company, it was a great way of growing their brand awareness. Our world is “Always On” and Sunny Co. Clothing made a great marketing decision by using that to their advantage for this promotional give away. Their gave consumers a chance to interact with the company and it paid off. The promotion even became a source for some of the following memes on Twitter!

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Volkswagen recently released their newest ad and it is definitely an emotional one. The ad released is for their seven-seater vehicle, the Atlas SUV. Since this is a larger vehicle, VW decided to go with a family theme for the commercial. The commercial depicts a grandmother, played by seventy-eight-year old Marie Gallagher, and her family going on a road trip across the United States. The commercial follows the story of the family that decides to travel cross-county in honor of their late grandfather.

The Atlas is the largest passenger vehicle that Volkswagen has ever sold in the U.S. so this ad is pivotal in making the sale for the vehicle go well. Other car companies like Chevrolet and Ford have been selling SUVs in the Unites States for years, so, this is a bold move for Volkswagen to take. Especially since Volkswagen is still trying to get over their emissions testing blunder from a few years back, this new vehicle may be difficult to sell. In efforts to try and reach potential customers, VW is reaching for tears with this commercial. VW’s U.S. marketing VP, Vinay Shahani, said that this commercial was meant to tell "Human stories," in a simple way in order to reach consumers.

This relates to our class because Volkswagen is trying to use ads to lead to sales. Although, Volkswagen wouldn’t release the amount of money spent on the campaign, they can use this information within the company to see if the end result of the ad equates to higher sales. They can keep a timeline of the campaign and track certain metrics to see if the ad was successful overall. A potential metric that Volkswagen would be able to use is number of Atlases sold across the country compared to the amount spent on advertising the Atlas. Once VW has collected this data, they can adjust production, amount of advertising and other variables that pertain to the Atlas.

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The newest craze amongst generation Z children and adults alike are toys called “Fidget Spinners.” They are a three-pronged toy that spins between your fingertips. To spin, all you must do is give it a flick. The toy has only received popularity after being invented about 20 years ago by Catherine Hettinger. They recently hit the mass market because Hettinger’s original patent for the toy expired. Now the toys come in many different designs and colors.

These toys were originally designed to help children who have ADHD, anxiety or a form of Autism. Although this was the initial purpose of the toy, many teachers and school systems are finding them to be distracting to students who are not faced with learning disorders. This has resulted in a dialogue online discussing whether or not the toy is truly appropriate for a classroom setting. Some schools have proceeded to take the toys from kids in efforts to stop the disruption.

This relates to our class because we have begun to see the social impact of the toy across multiple social networks. On Twitter, there are users tweeting about the hectic experience of buying the toy. On Facebook, users are selling the toy in the market place and discussing the social impact of the toy in our school systems. Even on YouTube, there are users who are posting videos on how to preform tricks with the toy. Fidget spinners have produced many mixed emotions but, for now… let’s wait and see if the trend spins/spirals out of control!

A post shared by Stres Carki (@stres_carkcisi) on May 3, 2017 at 3:44pm PDT

This is a post from Instagram showing what the fidget spinners are all about!

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Many Twitter users have been getting enjoyment out of Tweets from Australian police forces lately. Victoria Police and New South Wales police have been making twitter funnies as reminders for the community to obey local laws. In efforts to get the community to notice their tweets, they have even gone so far to use current memes, trending online jokes and even pranks to potentially catch criminals.

Their efforts have been quite successful. Some tweets from Victoria Police have even gained more than two thousand favorites. Tweets from New South Wales Police have also gained thousands of Twitter engagements. I have attached a link to one of their most popular tweets for you to see!

This relates to class because these police forces moved their presence online to start conversation with the local community. Since they have been able to use online standards of behavior correctly, tweeting has worked in their favor. The online norms of using memes and gifs regularly is what made the tweets from these police forces so awesome. If they continue this trend, both Victoria Police and New South Wales police forces can possibly strengthen the relationship between them and the surrounding communities.

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Hendrik Jonkers, a Dutch microbiologist and professor at Delft University of Technology, has developed a special concrete that is self-healing. This “bio-concrete” concrete is a mixture of concrete with bacteria and a food supply for the bacteria. The bacteria can remain dormant for up to 200 years. At the same time, when the bacteria encounters water, it reacts by making limestone (calcium carbonate) which fills in gaps of the crumbling concrete.

It only takes about three weeks for the bacteria to fill any existing holes in concrete. This could save billions in construction costs in the long-run. There has already been a structure successfully made with Jonkers’s “bio-concrete.” He is also trying to develop a liquid that would fill the cracks of existing traditional concrete structures.

I discovered this sustainable “bio-concrete” when I noticed it was a trending topic on Twitter. Although bio-concrete has been around since 2015, social media websites like Twitter helps spread awareness of the amazing development. This free publicity is helping to shed a light on Jonkers’s creation. 

The reason this applies to class is because it is a case of earned media. The only thing that was done for bio-concrete to start trending was for one person to find it interesting and share the article with a friend. As soon as the content was “seeded,” it began to flow from social networks to blogs and to other communities and forums. This sort of chain reaction is what led someone, like me, to stumble on this amazing creation that is bio-concrete.

http://mashable.com/2017/04/27/bio-concrete-fixes-cracks/#0o18T4bi805J

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Rappers and recording artists French Montana and Swae Lee collaborated to make a single named “Unforgettable.” They recently released a music video, shot in Uganda to go along with the song. As of now, the song visual has almost 20 million hits on YouTube after only two weeks of being released. The song itself is climbing the Billboard Hot 100 charts. Last week the song was 74 on the list but is currently at number 59.

The song may be catching on because of the dance that comes along with it. French Montana began the hashtag, #UnforgettableDanceChallenge, when he posted a video of himself and Travis Scott (a fellow rapper and producer) dancing to the song on Instagram. People around the world have joined in and taken him up on the challenge. Montana has even gotten responses from a few other fellow celebrities such as Swizz Beats, DJ Khaled, Drake, and Juelz Santana amongst a few others.

This is a smart move in promoting the song on French Montana’s part because he was the one to initially start the movement behind the #UnforgettableDanceChallenge. This case relates to class because French Montana has taken on the important role of being a content creator. With his creation of content, users of social media have latched on because of French Montana’s Instagram post. This post was an “influence post” that got ball rolling. All that’s left to do is sit back and enjoy what Montana’s social network provides as further entertainment.

A post shared by Shoker🃏 (@theshiggyshow) on Apr 17, 2017 at 8:19pm PDT

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If you’re a music fan, you probably have heard about the Coachella Music and Arts Festive that takes place every year in Indio, California. This year, major artist such as Lady Gaga, Bon Iver, Lorde, Radiohead and others gathered to perform for the festival. Of course, as artists make their way to California, they choose to stay for the eventful three-weekend event.

Multiplatinum rapper and recording artist initially choose to stay The Madison Club in Palm Springs. He quickly complained about his stay, saying that the staff was very selective with who they served. He concluded that there was racial profiling involved.

Amid the drama, Airbnb decided to step in and offer Drake a free stay at a $10,000 per night mansion. This led Drake to publicly thanking Airbnb for the gift via Instagram. This was a bold move on Airbnb’s part, but it leads us to wonder if they collaborated with the rapper as a way to gain positive notoriety. Especially since Airbnb previously was in the news when a California woman said a host flat out denied her as a guest because she was Asian.

This relates to class because Airbnb is possibly using social influencers, such as Drake, to get customers to begin a herding behavior. Of course, this herding behavior is to get consumers to use the service that Airbnb provides. Only time will tell if a major shout out from the rapper increases the company’s number of customers who book with the vacation rental service.

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Last Tuesday, the British fashion company TopShop decided to release a new pair of jeans. What made these jeans so different? These jeans are not made of denim, cotton or nylon but clear plastic.

As soon as TopShop posted the “MOTO Clear Plastic Straight Leg Jeans” to their website, social media users began to bash the product. The product costs 55 Euros or about 100 U.S. Dollars but the ridicule from most Twitter users comes from the fact that the jeans are so revealing.

Some users amongst social media outlets even went on to saying that the pants are more of a publicity stunt than a true fashion statement. Either way, people are talking about Top Shop and their brand because of the product. TopShop has yet to comment back to any of the disapproval of the jeans. 

Although there have been many negative comments on the clear jeans, some still say that no publicity is bad publicity. This relates to the class because TopShop uses Zone 4: Social Commerce, to help push product sales. In this case, their product ended up being picked up by users in Zone 1: The Social Community, who create a dialogue about the product. Since this is the situation, TopShop may be reaching more individual users than normal but the interactions with the product online may not necessarily result in product sales as much as it pushes brand awareness. Either way, TopShop may be benefiting from the online slander once the buzz dies down.

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World renowned tennis champion Serena Williams took to the Snapchat app to reveal her pregnancy to the virtual world. The internet went crazy, especially, since this will be Williams’ first child. Williams is currently engaged to Reddit co-founder, Alexis Ohanian. 

In the Snapchat post, Williams showed off her baby bump while wearing a bright yellow bathing suite in mirror-selfie. The picture, which she posted to her 24-hour Snapchat story, was deleted shortly after it was posted. This did not keep the word from getting out on social media. Fans of the tennis superstar screenshotted the snapchat post and shared it on social outlets like twitter. 

Members of social media even pieced it together that Serena Williams had to have been pregnant while competing in and winning her 23rd grand slam tournament in the Australian Open.

This story is fascinating because it shows how powerful word-of-mouse really is. Even when Serena deleted the post, the online community still managed to make it news with a simple screen shot of the post.

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The revolution never ends. 

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A survey with 1,000 participants, conducted by McCann's Truth Central unit, brought it to light that customers do not trust brands nearly as much compared to decades ago. According to the article from Ad Age, 42% of Americans answered that they believe companies are less truthful than they were 20 years in the past.

 What Marketers learned from the survey takers is that Americans want companies to stay separate from politics unless it relates to a social cause that is important to the brands identity. Otherwise, making political statements as a company can make the brand’s identity and social goals unclear.  The study was not purposefully conducted to learn about how brands mix with politics. Chief strategy officer of McCann North America, Steve Zaroff said "the people in America would not let us" ignore it and that politics have "risen to the level of popular culture."

 Personally, I believe that companies should take this information seriously when changing policies or formulating advertising stunts because they may backfire. A primary example for a company quarreling with politics is Starbucks. After Trump’s executive order banning travel for specific countries, (mainly of Islamic cultures) Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz decided to make a statement saying they pledged to hire 10,000 refuges in the next five years. Once this announcement was made, it caused a split between regular Starbucks customers. Only 50% of Starbucks customers agreed with the CEO’s opinion and it sent Starbucks’ brand perception in a downward spiral.

 This is important because companies can ruin how their customers perceives them by taking a stance on social argument. At times, it may be best to stay silent in situations like these because the United States is still so divided. In the case of Starbucks, this was announced with an open letter to employees and quickly spread to social media platforms like Twitter. The risky announcement provoked divided comments from customers and non-customers alike. People went so far to start the hashtag, #BoycottStarbucks. All in all, companies must stay on their tip toes when it comes to politics because it can spread online quickly, change how consumers feel about their brand and even cripple sales in the long-run.

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Usually, we check YouTube.com if we are curious to see what the newest user generated content is but not on February 28th. This is the day that YouTube developers unveiled its Newest feature, YouTube TV. YouTube TV, which has yet to officially launch, is a streaming service for major live broadcasts and cable channels. For the $35 a month, subscribers can receive the 40 networks that have joined in on the project.

The developing project has many networks but nevertheless, there are some major networks missing. These networks include MTV and Nickelodeon, which are controlled by Viacom. Not to mention that Time Warner cable networks such as TNT and CNN are also missing from the deal.

This could be caused from the dilemmas that YouTube has encountered with copyrights that their users sometimes infringe upon. Even with these copyright troubles with music labels, TV studios and movie studios they have still manage to strike a deal with many major network providers. 

Some of the features that have been acknowledged about YouTube TV are: Never-ending DVR storage, availability of networks, the ability to search for shows, the fact an account can be used on 6 devices at once and mobility as an app for portable devices.

As YouTube TV has gotten more buzz, I wonder… Will the lack of user generated content will turn-off regular YouTube users to subscribing for the service? When speaking about social media we cannot neglect the so-called, 5th P in the marketing mix: Participation. If YouTube only allows the network providers to generate content for YouTube TV, it will lose the ‘social’ aspect to ‘social media.’ My suggestion is that YouTube TV provides a comment section under each program so views can add their thoughts, much like YouTube already features. This type of Synchronous Interaction between users will really help create a strong socializing platform for YouTube TV.

My number one impact to keep track of from YouTube TV is how many subscriber actually sign up for the service. After all, I could really change the way we tune into our favorite shows and TV networks.

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Typically, I would find my social media news on social media but this week was different. My boyfriend has gained sudden curiosity in the U.S. stock exchange. In turn, he has been nonstop in informing me about the ever-changing stock market. He sparked my interest during one of our most recent conversations. He told me that Snapchat is possibly venturing out of their comfort zone and becoming a public company.

After hearing this… I had to learn more. It turns out that Snap Inc. (Snapchat’s parent company) is indeed going public. It took 24 investors to collect Snap a Total Equity Funding of 2.63 billion (yes… with a ‘B’) dollars. This leads me to the fact that their IPO (Initial Public Offering) was announced to be $3 Billion. That’s a hefty number for a company that has been in operation for only five years.

Snapchat is a dominant social media platform for mobile devices. Most Snapchat users range in ages from 18 to 34. While the core number of users are under the age of 25. So, this scenario can possibly change the game for what we, as users, get out of the application. There is a possibility that the money that flows into the company could help to fund research and development for future projects. There is also a chance of Snap Inc. trying to satisfy the demands of shareholders. It is possible that going public could make or break Snapchat. As a Snapchat user myself, I have noticed the increasing number of advertising content. When Snap goes public, they must find other means of generating revenue in order to please shareholders. Otherwise, there could be a downhill spiral for the application. I am hoping that the company does well in the stock market. If they do not exceed expectations, I hope they can at least keep a steady trend for their stock price. Until Snap’s IPO, we do not know what the future holds for Snapchat and its user interface.

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This looks so delicious 😍

smashed potatoes with pesto

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Most of my paychecks go to Sushi restaurants 🍣🍙🍤