◆+CCT+356+Online+Critique

1. Facebook page of Roger Federer
====As we have also talked about in the CCT 356 lecture, Social Networking Service(SNS) became crucial role when it comes to marketing strategy. I think one of the essential advantages of using SNS for marketing purpose is that it can avoid being too obvious and look too commercial to the target audience. In fact, Facebook became a perfect place to advertise without actually advertising. What does this mean?==== ==== Tennis is one of my favorite sports, and among the great players in my days, Roger Federer is my favorite. To a 16 year old girl who saw a tennis game on the television for the first time, he seemed like an unbeatable and invincible player who plays the sports so delicate and elegant. He may now starts to show that he is, in fact beatable thanks to Nadal or Djokovic, but to me he is still the "emperor", because "class is permanent." ==== ==== The point is, this was why I put his name to "like" his page when I started Facebook. This is another thing that SNS marketing is unlike any other strategies: it does not have to put much efforts to reach out for the audience; they will come find you. ====



==== If you type "roger" into searching box on the top, his official Facebook fanpage will automatically appear as a first choice. Once you "like" his page, his status updates will be delivered to you on your "News Feed". If you find interest in his specific status, you might even click to get to his page to look more, which would not be the low chance since you are the fan, and so as millions of other fans who have liked his page. (He has more than 9 million people following his updates.) ====



(I doubt that Federer in the picture is wearing NIKE shirt is just a coincidence.)
==== The most interesting thing about his page is that it runs as if the page personally belongs to Roger Federer himself. Other celebrity pages might indicate the page is run by fans or the agency that would update on the celebrities or the merchants they sell; however Federer's page regularly updates his "personal" pictures and videos, his statuses use "I" or "Me" which clearly indicates that he is writing on the wall himself, which, of course I highly doubt he is. However, whether or not the fans actually buy that the statues are actually updated by their favorite player or not, it gives essential impacts and affects to them. They enjoy the delusion they are Facebook "friend" with Federer and they are actually reading his private lives outside the tennis court. ====

==== While I am following his page, I came to notice something. The pictures and videos the page uploads, most of time include the brands or products he is contracted to advertise such as NIKE, Benz, and Wilson. At first I did not notice, because well, he wears them anywhere. I was so used to seeing him wearing NIKE clothes and holding Wilson tennis rockets that I completely forgot he was actually paid to wear them. ====



==== Sometimes, it is obvious as in the picture above. You could fool yourself that it is just another status of trivial lives of your favorite athlete filming a commercial, but you could not argue that he took a picture with the car that he is advertising, with the clear shot of a logo too, was not intentional. ====



==== Still, people love to buy that delusion. They somehow aware that the picture is subconsciously saying, "hey, your favorite player is advertising the car. Maybe you should buy it," but they don't mind falling into that obviousness of marketing. As you can see on the comments above, whether the fans actually mean that or just saying that because they think Federer might read their comments, the responses are clearly positive. Just one simple picture without any photoshop or fancy effects served as any other fancy commercial that Mercedes put money into, just like that. And the best part is they can actually "share" the pictures, which means they would put the picture on their own Facebook walls too. Without intentions, 1,640 people who have shared that status onto their walls participated in advertising the Mercededes for free. ====





==== I think this would not have worked so well, if all he post about on Facebook just seemed to advertising the brands. The page actually does well in terms of updating where he is about, where his next game will be, what his current stage is, etc. Also it posts pictures of him that actually look like a trivial without any visible brands every now and then, maintaining the feeling of "closeness" among the fans with him. ====

==== By liking his Facebook page, or any other celebrity fan page I am sure, they exchange the feeling of "friendliness" with the celebrities with the permission to basically send the brand advertisements directly onto their News Feed which they gladly accept and sometimes even "share". I think this is the whole new ways of marketing their brands and products for such a low cost that could only have been happen because of the existence of the SNS. ====

====I have chosen an international website of KIA Motors as an example. Although they do quite good jobs on their TV commercials too, I thought they built their websites in ways that offer more than what TV commercials or magazine advertisements can.====

====If you go into the website, you'll see the slides of cars that you can choose from. When you click on the name of the car you're interested in, the 3D picture of the car would appear. Then, you can click on the picture of the car, that will get you to another page that features the details of that car, and you can get even more interactive with the website once you go to that page.====



====The website des not just show you what the car looks like and how much they worth, they will let you play with the car you want. They offer a picture of a car that rotates 360 degrees. You can click on the car and drag it to move right side or left side to see the front, side, and the back side of the car. You can also zoom in to get the closer look. Not only that, it lets you see the cars in various colors that the car offers. You would not have to search for pictures for the color you want, you can just simply click on the paint box at the bottom to see the car in another color.====



====I had a fun time playing with changing the cars around. It felt like I was playing a flash game somehow.(Which is not entirely false since it is based on Flash.) And although I was just there to get materials for my assignment, while I was looking at all the features I began to felt like wanting the car.====

====Being able to use the Flash and get you to actually experience the product without look at them in real lives, is the unique way of advertising that the TV or magazines cannot offer. They can't explain all the features of the car in fast and effective ways that the websites can in the TV or print magazine, so they do not have choice but to sell the "images" or "ideology" of the car. (For example for Soul, young, colorful, cheerful and unique.) However in the websites, you can do both. You can still show the "images" and "ideology" of brands and the cars but you can also show how that car actually function; and what features they own in simple and easy ways through flash or banners the websites have.====