Latest trends in Digital Marketing! Are they worth jumping on the bandwagon for?

Hey there everyone, so this will be my final post on digital marketing so I figured I had better pull out my tarot cards, crystal ball, and horoscope to try and look in to the future and give you some ideas on where Digital Marketing is headed. In my opinion as a avid Iphone user companies need to tap into the fact that everyone has smart phones these days so ‘make an app for that’ it will get your business directly into the hands of your consumer instead of just in their homes, and places of work or school (Where their lap top is).
Privacy is going to become more and more important to consumers and so targeting audiences specifically and effectively will be key for companies to actually be able to reach their consumers. Also privacy will require companies to rely on brands and networking as they wont be able to spam or randomly ‘reach’ new customers through pop up ads etc. For the same reason digital marketing will also be game or incentive based this means that technology will become king as whoever has the newest interactive tool, game or app will dominate the market.
To get around the privacy issue many organizations will team up with affiliates to attract consumers to products or services that they other wise wouldn’t be interested. For example “BRAVO (CBS), has partnered with cosmetics retailer Sephora to reward Foursquare users who unlock the Bravo Real Housewives badge, with $100 Sephora gift cards at select stores in New Jersey and New York over the next four weeks”. An example of how digital marketing will use networking is through brands, (many org.'s are already doing this), by creating connections with each other to reach consumers on various platforms for example “Disney sells ToyStory tickets on Facebook” (Marsden, 2010).



11 trends in Internet Marketing for 2011 from Dave Chaffey

Trend 1: Content / Engagement Strategy
We all know that “Content is King” was the mantra through the 1990s and then “Context was Queen”. Today we realise that exceptional content is the key to acquiring customers through search engine optimisation and social media as part of inbound marketing. It’s also essential to keep customers engaged with a brand via different touchpoints like the website, “social outposts”, email marketing and apps.
And of course, it’s not just text content, video content, podcasts, apps all to match all preferences. It’s been good to see increased attention on content strategy in 2010 with several new books on the topic. Since I believe it’s so important to success online, that’s why it’s Number 1.

Trend 2: Digital Marketing Optimisation
In the beginning there was search engine optimisation, then conversion rate optimisation and social media optimisation (hate that term). The analytical tools available to digital marketers enable analysis and optimisation of performance as provided by many agencies in these fields. Integration of toolsets through APIs and XML feeds has supported the growth of a rich set of free and paid tools. See the Google Analytics Application Gallery for the wealth of tools available.

Trend 3: Right Touching
Our prospects and customers increasingly use multiple channels when selecting products and services switching between digital media and traditional media. So it’s important to understand their preferences and facilitate switching from print to online and vice versa.
Since outbound contacts are still vital in selecting the right print or email message frequency and message according to position in the lifecycle helps repeat sales. Smart companies have developed an automated email lifecycle with the right business rules to maximise engagement and sale.

Trend 4: Social Media Marketing
You may have heard of this… People don’t go online to “surf the web” today, they “Facebook”. Every company needs a Facebook strategy and the right resources to manage it unless their brand is so badly perceived it will do more harm than good. Nestle? For other companies, B2B? Twitter may be more important. We’ll look at some examples that show that success in an individual social media is achieved by understanding what you want to achieve from each channel, a clear idea of the value proposition and then resourcing it to deliver. But it’s underpinned by having the right content and touch strategies to integrate with other channels.

Trend 5: The Resurgence of Display Advertising
Resurgence may be overstating it but many companies have found the newer remarketing and retargeting options available through established ad networks and Google’s new Adwords Remarketing feature effective. Using weighted attribution studies can also help establish the value of the display advertising halo effect.

Trend 6: Mobile Strategy
The growth in use of Apple App store has been phenomenal, increasing by several billions of downloads in 2010. Meanwhile other handset manufacturers are achieving success with apps, although Apple still has over two thirds of the market by download. See my post about mobile app strategy which summarises the growth and the options of app strategy.

Trend 7: Googlization
In many countries, including the UK Google still drives the majority of traffic or it should if you get your SEO and PPC right. It’s increasingly important for generating awareness and display through the new Googled Display (formerly content) network too which in 2010 saw remarketing added. Google is so important for most pureplays that you could say you need a specific “Google Strategy”. A Google strategy requires an intimate understanding of your online marketplace or ecosystem. Oftentimes partnering, PR and contextual advertising can help you by thinking beyond your own SERPs position.

Trend 8: Online Channel Integration
With growth of importance of social media channels it has been suggested that email marketing is dead or less relevant. My belief is the two work best in an integrated way. To get ideas on the best strategies to achieve this I recommend signing up to Social Email Marketing.

Trend 9: Touchpoint Attribution
Since online conversion to sale may occur over several site visits, it’s important to analyse and attribute sale to all of the channels that contributed, not just the last click. Online marketers have been grappling with this for a long time, but in 2010 these cases show that more companies got on top of this.

Trend 10: Privacy Wars
Many of the keys to success online have a dirty secret – they rely on cookies. From Google Analytics to Remarketing to on-site personalisation, persistent cookies are needed to track and target behaviour.
But the media are intent on scaring consumers about threats to their privacy so unless marketers take action we’re going to lose some of the greatest benefits of online medias which will negatively effect marketers.

Trend 11: Digital Marketing = Marketing?
We can no longer call digital media new now. With an increasing amount of media consumption and media spend migrating online, some are suggesting we don’t need a separate discipline of digital marketing, we don’t need separate digital strategies, but integration is the name of the game. What do you think?

Well that's all folks! I hope you learned something from my posts I know that I definitely have.

How to deliver a winning a pitch!

To me the key to delivering a successful pitch is in the delivery, the presenter(s) need to speak loudly, clearly, and smoothly most importantly be confident. Being confident is more than just about what you are saying it is also exuded through body language thus it is important not to slouch, fidget, or lean on anything. Also maintain eye contact with your audience and keep hand gestures and movements to a minimum so that when they are used they enhance your presentation (Think Obama!).
Remember you are selling yourself as well as your idea so the minute you enter the room your audience will be judging you so dress appropriately nothing beats a crisp suit. Also be sure to dress appropriately for your field it is important to look professional no matter what you are wearing so don’t wear anything too revealing or disheveled.
When under pressure for example when you are being asked questions be sure to stay calm, but be prepared so that you can react quickly yet don’t get defensive also be sure to be consistent with your answers.
Once again as I said in my last post be passionate! Your audience can tell if you are truly invested in your brief, so be enthusiastic! Lastly be yourself if you present your pitch in too much of generic stiff manner the audience will either fall asleep or forget what you said. So let your personality shine through a bit, a little humor (when appropriate) and a smile go a long way!


Here are some tips from Alan Gleeson the managing director of Palo Alto Software Ltd. creators of Business Plan Pro 2007. He holds an MBA from Oxford University and is a graduate of University College, Cork, Ireland. As found on bytestart.co.uk ‘the small business portal’.

1. Know your audience
“Investors have a range of asset classes to choose from as they decide on the composition of their investment portfolio. Hence it is necessary to understand the backgrounds of the prospective investors and their motivations prior to presenting. Once you have done extensive research on the investors it is then possible to tailor the pitch accordingly.”

2. Tell a Story
“One of the most effective ways to pitch is to place the investment opportunity in the context of a story. Ideally, the story will focus on a problem encountered and the fact that the new idea being pitched solves this particular problem.”

3. Prepare to win
“Pitching to an investor is not a last-minute afterthought – it is the culmination of weeks, if not months, of planning. All too often, entrepreneurs do not plan accordingly and then find that the preparation of their business pitch suffers. Preparation for the pitch should commence as soon as the business plan process commences.”

4. Pay strict attention to the detail
“Your typical investor will have a good eye for detail and hence the plan and its pitch need to be mutually reinforcing and containing no inherent contradictions. From the outset, there should be one owner of the process who can oversee all preparations and is ultimately responsible for the content. This is particularly important if a number of disparate contributors have worked on the plan and where the pitch consists of numerous participants.”

5. Avoid death by PowerPoint
“While the average plan is produced in Microsoft® Word and Excel, PowerPoint tends to be the tool of choice for presentations. While it undoubtedly has advantages in terms of aesthetics, it can be misused when utilised at the pitch stage. The number of slides should be kept to the bare minimum, the content must be rigorously analysed to ensure relevance and clarity and time must be managed carefully.”

6. Get the numbers right
“Investors tend to be very focused on numbers, so all facts must be accurate. The numbers should be realistic and defensible and at least one of those pitching the plan needs to be prepared for in-depth questions relating to the projected financials.”


7. Practise the Presentation
“It is clear that many entrepreneurs have not practised their pitches before impartial observers prior to pitching. This dry run should be arranged well in advance of the presentation date with a panel of critics who have a carte blanche to critique the plan and pitch.”

8. Excite them
Entrepreneurs pitch to investors to sell them an idea. There must be something unique about the idea, and it must be pitched with conviction, so as to grab the attention of investors who deal with hundreds of business plans every month. This was summed up by former Dragons’ Den investor Simon Woodroffe in a BBC2 show, when he said, “You got to make me feel like I’m going to miss out””.

9. Learn the Lessons
“Do not get too downhearted if a pitch is unsuccessful. The investors are likely to give clear reasons for their lack of interest, and this feedback must be considered carefully as it may shape improvements in subsequent pitches.”

10. Remember the purpose of the pitch
“Finally, while the emphasis may well be on an idea, it is important to remember that the pitch has a very specific purpose. This must not get lost in all the details.
If an offer is made, the presenter must have a full grasp on whether it meets his requirements, and options if not. So as to maintain credibility, the presenter needs to consider all the various eventualities before undertaking the pitch so that the pitch does not go flat at the end when the issues of substance need to be agreed.”

*While this example is based on businesses looking for funding I feel it translates well and can be applied to how to pitch a Digital Marketing campaign.

Need to improve campaign performance? Look no further!

After several weeks of looking at ways to create, reach, engage, and promote digital marketing campaigns I can’t help but feel that this week it is time to look at this week's topic question from a different angle. If I look at the topic at face value it looks like the same question as all of the previous weeks but with a different spin therefore my aim is to answer, “Finding meaningful measures to improve campaign performance?” in a different way.

The first thing that comes to mind is passion, people won’t be interested in your campaign if you truly aren’t, they can smell right away that there is no heart behind the idea. So make sure that you really believe in or are interested in whatever campaign you are working on. Passion is infectious if you love the idea and are putting energetic ideas into it others will notice.

Which brings me to my second point, be creative passion and energy is best displayed through a creative idea, or if the idea is old put your own unique spin to it. If you don’t find your campaign truly interesting and don’t think your friends will like it then it is not likely to perform well.

But don’t forget to do your homework!!! Make sure you put the time and effort into your campaign, do the research and do it properly the worst thing is to have a great creative idea but forget to keep the content up to date and relevant it like serving dinner without the meat!!

Lastly keep it simple, people are busy with their own jobs, hobbies, families…. You know their lives! So say what you're going to say already! Make it clear and concise no one like to watch a YouTube video for more than three minutes, or wait for a million images to load.

Keep in mind the old adage “you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink”. As Brad Bender points out on IMedia Connection targeting id great for bring people to your site (bring the horse to the water) but the real challenge is determining which people will be engaged enough to participate, return, or buy (or drink the water) to do that you have to start thinking about optimization. He goes on to say, “Optimization is a systematic method of outlining your goals, challenging your assumptions to select the best media to reach those goals -- it's not always intuitive -- and modifying ad delivery accordingly. In the end, you will have a measurable output for how well your campaign performed against your original objectives.” Here are four steps he suggest to follow for better optimization:

1. Define goals
2. Segment the audience
3. Optimize, and
4. Review, assess and improve



Another great site that includes optimization but also emphasizes segmentation, integration, automation is The Top Line. Here is a summary of what author ‘bbmarketingplus’ suggests to do in increase campaign performance.

Segmentation
“focus on one segment at a time to better discern patterns” or try “work[ing] backward from the achievement of the goal to identify the behaviors that led to those actions. In so doing [you can identify] ways to improve marketing performance.”

Integration
”to improve the efficacy of your marketing efforts, it can be helpful to integrate multiple marketing tools”. For example “[Dave] integrated his CRM system, email marketing, and web analytics to identify which of 40,000 inactive prospects were the most promising.”
Another example of segmentation is “using social listening to develop your editorial calendar. You might use Tweetdeck to identify what people care about, or who is active in complementary areas, by searching on terms related to your space.”

Automation
“The next step to is automating a part or all of the process to scale your efforts and/or reduce the time you’re investing in digital marketing. You may get email-marketing software that shows you open and click-through rates. You may get sales enablement software that provides a better view into prospects’ behavior, or a tool that automatically extracts the data you require from your CRM system to prepare your campaigns.”

Optimization
“refers to the ongoing experimentation that digital marketers perform, to identify the best combination of marketing strategies and tactics for achieving their goals.”

And my personal favorite…

Talent Beats Tools
“most successful marketers will be generalists who are creative, expert at analytics, possess strong writing skills, and have a large personal following.”

In my mind this last point relates back to the beginning of my post because it shows that if you are creative, invested, and passionate about what you are doing it is going to show through your campaign.

Engaging audiences to create deeper relationships

PR Newswire: The Age of Engagement
Uploaded by multivu. - Check out other Film & TV videos.

Creating a blog. Website, or digital marketing creative is only half the battle it’s engaging you audience so that they come back time and again to view, interact, laugh, forward or even just click on your site that is the real challenge. This week I am going to look at some tips on how to engage your audience in a way that creates a deeper connection with them.

The following is a combination of my ideas and ones from Zoomerang.

First it is important to reach your audience where they are so find out what websites they frequent and what social media they use most. Are they tweeters, bloggers or facebook-aholics.

Great ways to reach your audience is to blog and add to your blog a space where your readers can rate your posts, add comments, and even post discussion topics. Even try planning events or parties, identify trends and make use of them (of course with your unique twist). For your twitter audience engage existing followers and attract new ones one way to do this is by re-tweeting, create a multi-way conversation. Try using incentives with surveys to get people involved.

Second grab their attention!!!! Focus on hot topics to spark conversation like: industry news, product enhancement, new website design, event or party venues, status/wall posts.

Finally ask short relevant questions from your audience; gather the info you need in a concise way no one wants to take the time to read long winded questions or a million of them. After wards share your results, your audience put the time and effort into participating in surveys, polls, commenting, ranking so the least you can do is share. Do it the easy way by posting a share link on the Thank You page of a survey. Post real time results to questions by adding a widget on your website or blog. Post results on Facebook or Twitter feeds.



Another way to look at creating deeper relationships is by remembering that content is king. Ardath Albee a B2B Marketing strategist and CEO of Marketing Interactions suggests that the best way to engage with your target audience is by building credibility through content marketing. Here are the stages she says to follow I found them useful because they show the practical issues that have to be tackled.

Stage 1: Define Digital Marketing Mission

“This stage is about setting goals about what you want your digital strategy to achieve. If you define the mission of creating customers, for example, the underlying question is just how you can use digital means to accomplish this level of conversion. That means content. For digital doesn't exist without content.
It is during the goal stage that you must take a deep dive into the types of customers your strategy should create, come to understand their needs and priorities and how they conduct themselves within the digital environment.”

Stage 2: Derive the Digital Strategy

“Armed with the information you developed in Stage 1, you're now ready to determine how to fulfill your mission by selecting the core elements for inclusion in your digital marketing strategy. Once you have specified the delivery vehicles (e.g. website, social media platforms, email, etc.), prioritized your channels and metrics for accountability you'll have the insight you need to determine what type of content to develop.”

Stage 3: Derive the Interaction Strategy Across the Customer Lifecycle

“Based on Stages 1 and 2, your task is to develop content storylines based on the goals you're tasked to achieve and the fulfillment components you've selected. This is the critical impact point for content marketing. In addition to consistent messaging, with digital, all components must be integrated to work together in achieving your goals.”

Stage 4: Measure and Improve ROI

“This stage is all about measuring the performance of your content and the interactions it generated for your digital marketing strategy. Based on goals and the metrics you chose, how well did your content perform? “

Review Existing Capabilities

"Before you start investing in content marketing, you must determine what overall processes exist, the resources available and the obstacles to using them. Here are a few things to consider:
• Can you update the content on your website and blog, as well as create and send emails without IT assistance? Or, do you need to plan for a 3-week wait in the queue to get a new content resource coded and posted? Timing is important, so make sure you can plan appropriately.
• What are the capabilities of your email marketing tools? Are they integrated with other reporting or will you need to manually compile results from other analytics tools to attempt to prove the outcomes you've achieved?
• Do you have lead and customer management processes in place that the technology and tools will support in execution? What about editorial processes and branding guidelines? Must legal review and approve content before it can be published?
• What resources do you have available to develop content? At what capacity?"


Finally just like any other relationship the best way to engage someone else is through communication and shared interest. Therefore make sure you know what you are talking about, so do the homework to back up your ideas or campaign. Also usually people don’t want to hear only what you have to say they want to put in their two cents, so listen! Open up the floor and let them comment and contribute because in the end people feel engaged when they feel involved.

Engaging audiences to create deeper relationships

PR Newswire: The Age of Engagement
Uploaded by multivu. - Check out other Film & TV videos.

Creating a blog. Website, or digital marketing creative is only half the battle it’s engaging you audience so that they come back time and again to view, interact, laugh, forward or even just click on your site that is the real challenge. This week I am going to look at some tips on how to engage your audience in a way that creates a deeper connection with them.

The following is a combination of my ideas and ones from Zoomerang.

First it is important to reach your audience where they are so find out what websites they frequent and what social media they use most. Are they tweeters, bloggers or facebook-aholics.

Great ways to reach your audience is to blog and add to your blog a space where your readers can rate your posts, add comments, and even post discussion topics. Even try planning events or parties, identify trends and make use of them (of course with your unique twist). For your twitter audience engage existing followers and attract new ones one way to do this is by re-tweeting, create a multi-way conversation. Try using incentives with surveys to get people involved.

Second grab their attention!!!! Focus on hot topics to spark conversation like: industry news, product enhancement, new website design, event or party venues, status/wall posts.

Finally ask short relevant questions from your audience; gather the info you need in a concise way no one wants to take the time to read long winded questions or a million of them. After wards share your results, your audience put the time and effort into participating in surveys, polls, commenting, ranking so the least you can do is share. Do it the easy way by posting a share link on the Thank You page of a survey. Post real time results to questions by adding a widget on your website or blog. Post results on Facebook or Twitter feeds.

Another way to look at creating deeper relationships is by remembering that content is king. Ardath Albee a B2B Marketing strategist and CEO of Marketing Interactions suggests that the best way to engage with your target audience is by building credibility through content marketing. Here are the stages she says to follow I found them useful because they show the practical issues that have to be tackled.

Stage 1: Define Digital Marketing Mission

“This stage is about setting goals about what you want your digital strategy to achieve. If you define the mission of creating customers, for example, the underlying question is just how you can use digital means to accomplish this level of conversion. That means content. For digital doesn't exist without content.
It is during the goal stage that you must take a deep dive into the types of customers your strategy should create, come to understand their needs and priorities and how they conduct themselves within the digital environment.”

Stage 2: Derive the Digital Strategy

“Armed with the information you developed in Stage 1, you're now ready to determine how to fulfill your mission by selecting the core elements for inclusion in your digital marketing strategy. Once you have specified the delivery vehicles (e.g. website, social media platforms, email, etc.), prioritized your channels and metrics for accountability you'll have the insight you need to determine what type of content to develop.”

Stage 3: Derive the Interaction Strategy Across the Customer Lifecycle

“Based on Stages 1 and 2, your task is to develop content storylines based on the goals you're tasked to achieve and the fulfillment components you've selected. This is the critical impact point for content marketing. In addition to consistent messaging, with digital, all components must be integrated to work together in achieving your goals.”

Stage 4: Measure and Improve ROI

“This stage is all about measuring the performance of your content and the interactions it generated for your digital marketing strategy. Based on goals and the metrics you chose, how well did your content perform? “

Review Existing Capabilities

"Before you start investing in content marketing, you must determine what overall processes exist, the resources available and the obstacles to using them. Here are a few things to consider:
• Can you update the content on your website and blog, as well as create and send emails without IT assistance? Or, do you need to plan for a 3-week wait in the queue to get a new content resource coded and posted? Timing is important, so make sure you can plan appropriately.
• What are the capabilities of your email marketing tools? Are they integrated with other reporting or will you need to manually compile results from other analytics tools to attempt to prove the outcomes you've achieved?
• Do you have lead and customer management processes in place that the technology and tools will support in execution? What about editorial processes and branding guidelines? Must legal review and approve content before it can be published?
• What resources do you have available to develop content? At what capacity?"


Finally just like any other relationship the best way to engage someone else is through communication and shared interest. Therefore make sure you know what you are talking about, so do the homework to back up your ideas or campaign. Also usually people don’t want to hear only what you have to say they want to put in their two cents, so listen! Open up the floor and let them comment and contribute.

Brief... ready, plan... set, now..... go!

Most of us think that transforming a clients objective into a creative idea is the hard part of creating a digital marketing campaign. While the thought of coming up with a unique idea that will capture the target market is definitely a daunting task the next step of actually implementing the idea on time, on budget and making sure it stays true to the original objective can be even more difficult.

5 tips to deliver a project successfully taken from Method are:

1. Be Honest
“It may seem difficult but be totally honest and upfront with your customer right from the start. Tell them if their project is not feasible or if you don’t have all of the resource, money and time needed to deliver it successfully from the outset. Set their expectations by telling them what you will deliver and by when… By having an “open book” policy, you’ll gain your customer’s trust. And if you involve them early enough, they will be more supportive to your cause.”

2. Hand it over
“Managers often fall into the trap of believing that they can do things more efficiently than staff… a smart project manager always tries to delegate as much as possible to staff. It gives them the time needed to monitor the project and support their team.”

3. Become a leader
“When you save time by delegating your tasks, you have free time for leading and motivating your team. Do this by regularly communicating the project vision to your team, rewarding them for progress and recognizing their achievements. Gain their respect by showing them you care.”

4. Expect the unexpected
“Always expect things to change and be ready for it when it occurs. People have ideas, your customer may want changes, and the industry and technology change over time as well. It’s not the change that’s important, it’s how you react to the change that counts..”

5. Work smart, not hard
“Try not to start from scratch. Give yourself a head-start wherever possible by using tools like project management templates. These templates boost the quality of your deliverables, while saving you time and effort.” *I think the idea behind this last one is good but also that it is a plug for this organizations books/products.



Another way to ensure your project is delivered on time, on topic and on budget is as suggested by Ron Rosenhead author of 'Deliver That Project: A Step-by-Step Guide'.

1. Define your project
“If you have a brief take it away and spend some time ensuring you fully understand what is wanted. Discuss with your manager what is expected and turn these into realistic objectives.”

2. Clarify project roles and have a clear project management structure
“We have found that having clearly prescribed Project Management roles really helps in delivering what is required.”

3. Identify and reduce risks
“Many projects are derailed because something “unexpected” happens. Do a risk assessment exercise to identify the most likely events that could affect the project.”

4. Don’t forget the people
“Many people involved in projects get very heavily involved in project process. These processes are very important, but, you need to build in the people element as well. Don’t forget to identify and manage key stakeholders – people who have an interest or will be affected by the project.”

5. Build the Project Team
“Start by identifying the skills you need to ensure successful delivery of the project. Then, identify those people in the organisation who have the required skills.”

6. Develop a robust project plan
“Ensure your project plan is credible. Identify all of the activities you need to carry out putting cost and time estimates against them.”

7. Deliver what you say you will deliver
“Your project plan should point to what you will deliver, when you will deliver it and even who is responsible for delivering it…Develop a monitoring and control system early in the life of the project…Use simple highlight reports to show progress. Hold brief project meetings and challenge and support each other to ensure you are going to deliver when you should.”

8. Dealing with project changes
“Have a system in place for dealing with project changes. Ensure you are clear who can agree to any major changes e.g. in budget or objectives.”

9. Lessons learned
“Identify as you work your way through the project what you have gained, what others can learn from you.”

10. Stop “project dribble”- project closure
“The trouble is we never seem to finish projects here. They keep dribbling on and on …”


In the end I think the most important thing to keep in mind, to ensure that you deliver your project on topic, on time and on budget, is that things will always happen that you don’t expect so it is so important to be versatile and able to react and stay focused no matter what happens. Having a clear plan and knowing how to delegate is important too and as I am a Virgo I can’t help but also add that a good dose or organization always comes in handy.

My favorite Digital Campaign!

My favorite digital marketing campaign is the Dove evolution one that came out in 2006 and went viral at a unprecedented pace. The campaign was a video on YouTube and showed the transformation of a regular looking woman, who in my opinion wasn’t very attractive in the first place was made to look like a model. The video shows how make up, hair stylists, and photo shopping are used to make her and the subsequent photo model quality or ‘beautiful’. The idea behind the campaign is that the images that we see selling cosmetics on billboards, magazines and other forms of advertising are completely unrealistic. This in turn shows that women and girls are trying to live up to or emulating false ideas of beauty which in the end encourages women to have a unhealthy relationship towards their body. This can lead to low self esteem, eating disorders and other destructive practices like drug use and bad relationships.

The Dove debate is about the impact of unattainable images on self-esteem and they have information on their website that shows many studies about how women and girls view their bodies. The site also has quizzes, articles, tips and advice for women and girls on a variety of topics from skincare, haircare, to perspiration shaving and moisturizing. While the end objective for Dove is to increase profits as any other organization the fact that they are encouraging a healthier view of beauty that is less stereotyped than all of the other health and beauty products gives me hope that companies can make money and be social responsible at the same time. Here is another great video about the dove campaign for real beauty and the impact the campaign has had on young women.

Besides the fact that the message behind this campaign spoke to me I feel it was a great digital marketing campaign because it was short and to the point. It got the message across without the usual marketing hot sellers like sex, explosions, celebrities, humor or blood. It didn’t even need full narration or a spokesperson. This shows that in this day and age an image or a video is truly worth a thousand words.