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When branding met social media

Social media is bae for your advertising

Confession: even our use of the word bae is skimmed from social media. While we are aware of the actual ghetto meaning of the word, very few of us shy away from using it to show our affections. Social media is all pervasive; we have built it around our lives in such a manner that not using some form of social media in the whole day makes us feels incomplete.

While Facebook helps increase our friends whether or not we meet them in real life, Instagram has become the latest arsenal for photographers or pseudo-photographers. Snapchat is well; we are still trying to find what it actually is.

The daily dose of social media has become so important that even brands have realized its importance. A presence or use of social media means that the brand continues to be the talk of the town. Social media for popularizing a product or a service is used by a number of brands. They have consequently banked upon social media to up the popularity quotient amongst the consumers.

IKEA-Lets relax

The furniture company is known for its comfortable space solutions as well as weird ads for promoting the brand. This time it takes on social media head on and criticizes the overpowering and often unnecessary presence of social media behaviour in our private lives.

The commercial provides us a glimpse of what ‘acceptance’ might have meant long before the arrival of the internet. A noble family won’t start its dinner until a painting of their platter gets enough appreciation from others. The same applies in modern times when people are constantly uploading pictures of their food, even during family meals. Telling us that dinner is a family affair, IKEA pitches itself as a part of the household along with requesting people to go offline for the sake of others. After all, it is just food.

Netflix has got the chills

An online streaming site, Netflix is an entertainment haven for many, especially those who love characters more than people. Ever since ‘Netflix and Chill’, the site has been soaring in its popularity and there seems to be no sign of stopping. The site has pitched itself to audiences by spoofing the very movies it is a repository of.

Given that it is trying to promote its latest series The Crown, the site decided to make the royal drama more appealing to youngsters: by imagining the Queen using Instagram in 1953.The PG Wodehouse style approach on the Queen’s picture combined with real life Instagram filters makes for a fun Queenstagram story.

Riding the tide with Super Bowl

We are all familiar with Super Bowl. Not because we actually follow the IPL of America but because of its plethora of ads. For brands, Super Bowl is the field where they battle each other, more recently by using social media. The match is not just in terms of video campaigns. A well-timed tweet during the event etches the company name for a long time to come.

Take the case of Oreo. One of the most popular cookie brands of all time took advantage of a power-cut during the Super Bowl and came up with a witty tweet. Their ‘You can still dunk in the drunk’ went viral and set the pace for real-time marketing.

Troll to win the internet

After the iPhone 6 rumor about #Bendgate was released, many brands jumped on the opportunity trying some real time marketing. Amonsgt the half-hearted tweets, the KitKat one stood out. Without deviating from its tagline of ‘take a break’, it trolled Apple with ‘We don’t bend, we #break’ with an image that hinted a smiley.

The Gatorade Bath

When Facebook and Twitter rule the market, can Snapchat be far behind? Gatorade, the famous energy drink fulfilled everyone’s (really?) of having a Gatorade bath. Utilizing a customized Snapchat lens, Gatorade continued the Super Bowl tradition of having stuff dumped on heads. Isn’t that a cuter and safer version of ice bucket challenge?Albeit virtually.

Using social media has become the new platform to reach bigger audiences. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat are rich with business opportunities. Marketing through them makes the brands seem more up to date. It also makes it easier for people to connect with the brand, especially for those whose lives revolve around social media.

With the presence of social media not abating, it is up to the brand marketers to raise their game.