Tony’s Blog

Nike is no stranger when it comes to controversy. They have been in the news time and time again about high profiled athletes being on the receiving end of controversy that has damaged the reputation of the brand and the athletes. In some extreme cases it has ruined the career for these athletes. A few of the most memorable controversys feature Lance Armstrong after a doping scandal and Tiger Woods in the midest of a sex and drup scandal. The most recent controversy that has been in the news since 2016 is the former 49er quarterback Colin Caepernick. 

Colin Caepernick, a civil rights activist, protested the country’s treatment of racial minorities as he refused to stand during the national anthem, deciding to take a knee instead. Colin Kaepernick stated “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.”

The protest by Colin Caepernick blew up like a ticking time bomb and just about everyone who could form words had an opinion on this. News outlets like ESPN, CNN and others were voicing their thoughts left and right. Some were feareated like Donald Trump who stated “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out! He’s fired. He’s fired!’”He also states  “I watched Colin Kaepernick, and I thought it was terrible, and then it got bigger and bigger and started mushrooming, and frankly the NFL should have suspended him for one game, and he would have never done it again.” 

With millions of people watching closely and monitoring the situation Nike made a brilliant move on their part creating an Ad campaign commercial called “Dream Crazy.” It is narrated by the quarterback himself highlighting a host of other pro athletes who made it to the biggest stage amongst all odds with athletes like Lebron James and Serena Williams. The message illustrates how athletes have defied expectations to make seemingly insane dreams a reality. “Believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything,” was one of the quotes that stood out along with “Don’t ask if your dreams are crazy, ask if they are crazy enough” to finish off the commercial. 

This ad was a major success, once turing a controversial topic into winning an Emmy for best commercial. Nike generated a whopping 6 billion dollars including 10’s of thousands of new followers on Instagram in the wake of the release. Nike’s online sales also soared jumping up a total of 31%.

References:

Abad-Santos, Alex. “Nike’s Colin Kaepernick Ad Sparked a Boycott – and Earned $6 Billion for Nike.” Vox, Vox, 24 Sept. 2018, https://www.vox.com/2018/9/24/17895704/nike-colin-kaepernick-boycott-6-billion.

Haithman, Diane, et al. “Controversial Colin Kaepernick Nike ‘Dream Crazy’ Ad Wins Emmy For Best Commercial.” Deadline, 16 Sept. 2019, https://deadline.com/2019/09/nike-dream-crazy-best-commercial-emmy-1202735455/.

TheUndefeated. “Colin Kaepernick Protests Anthem over Treatment of Minorities.” The Undefeated, The Undefeated, 3 Sept. 2016, https://theundefeated.com/features/colin-kaepernick-protests-anthem-over-treatment-of-minorities/.

Kelner, Martha. “Nike’s Controversial Colin Kaepernick Ad Campaign Its Most Divisive Yet.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 4 Sept. 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/sep/04/nike-controversial-colin-kaepernick-campaign-divisive.

Wilson, Ryan. “Donald Trump: NFL Should Have Suspended Colin Kaepernick for Kneeling.” CBSSports.com, 12 Oct. 2017, https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/donald-trump-nfl-should-have-suspended-colin-kaepernick-for-kneeling/.

Linnane, Ciara. “Nike’s Online Sales Jumped 31% after Company Unveiled Kaepernick Campaign, Data Show.” MarketWatch, 17 Sept. 2018, https://www.marketwatch.com/story/nikes-online-sales-jumped-31-after-company-unveiled-kaepernick-campaign-2018-09-07.

What is a Marketing Persona?
A persona is a typical type of profile or a person created to represent the target market for a brand/company. Persona marketing is used to identify the demographics, attitudes, and behaviors of a person who will potentially visit their site. This enables you to focus on selling to one customer rather than to a geographic region or vertical marketing.

Personas in Email Marketing

Personas are key for creating a strong and effective email marketing campaigns. Highly targeted emails that focus on a customers demographics, attitudes, or behaviors, will get more opens, clicks, and engagements. Targeted emails are also more optimized for lead generation and is likely to increase the conversion rate. 

Email Campaigns

Email marketing is a very effective way to reach your target market and get them informed/interested in the product your are trying to sell. After you get a following or a list of emails there are many ways to increase your chances of them converting into customers but it is very important you write engaging emails to keep them around. When writing emails keep in mind to keep in short and sweet. The longer then email the better the chance the reader gets bored and disengaged. Make sure to not write like a robot and keep it interesting by adding some personality into it. Make sure to be interactive and ask questions. The goal is to have the reader feel like they are reading an email from their best friend and not from a corporation. 

My Persona – Nike

For my project I decided to focus on a persona based on Nike. This person is in his early 20s who just graduated college and has a full time job. He is very active as he enjoys lifting weights, running, and playing basketball. He believes living a healthy, fit life is very important for his mental and physical health. He values his comfortable shoes for running and his clothes for the looks. Nike is a company that can support this customer as they offer the best workout clothes and shoes on the market. They have shoes designed for running that offer comfort and cushion with every step. They have next level clothes that have a very appealing look and are made out of dri fit material for enhanced workouts. 

References:

Duistermaat, HennekeHenneke, et al. “37 Tips for Writing Emails That Get Opened, Read, and Clicked.” Copyblogger, 11 Oct. 2018, https://www.copyblogger.com/37-email-marketing-tips/.

“Using Buyer Personas in Email Marketing Campaigns.” Mojo Marketing – Cloud, IT, & Telecom Marketing, 7 Mar. 2019, https://gimmemojo.com/2018/01/15/using-buyer-personas-email-marketing-campaigns/.

Have you ever been sitting on the couch talking to a friend about a certain subject and then a few moments later you check your social media and an ad for that subject pops up? Well same, and this is due to an algorithm called “Voice Sniffer” which allows for smart devices to record and analyze your audio data. It picks up on keywords like “love”, “bought”, “dislike”, and a few others where advertiser or content creators can use the keywords to select or customize content that is likely relevant to the user. 

This has led to companies acting unethically and illegally by breaching customers privacy and sending that data along to other companies. An example of this would be with Facebook and Cambridge Analytica where they were able to access over 17.5 million data sets from only 56,000 installs as each of which provided access to an average of 332 friends. Another example, the companies that provided the popular game, Angry Birds, have been using this app to track users movements 24/7 and passing this information along to other companies acting as mini tracking devices. These apps collect information about where people travel throughout the day.

I believe that this current model of online advertising is dangerous for our society. Overall I would give it a 4 out of 5 on the scale of dangerous because I think it is causing more harm than good by violating our privacy and listening to our smart devices. Marketers are able to convince that a customer needs a product by showing them only bias review. They are also able to look at our search history to get a better understanding of who we are and send advertise us products based on those searches. I think that this could lead to unethical and even worse illegal activity which could hurt customers and brands. 

Code of Ethics for Digital Markers:

• Honest 
• Transparent
• Know your audience
• Don’t be Bias
• Privacy
• Reputation
• Maintain a high standard
• Imagine the impact

References:

Miller, Rea. “Amazon Patent Reveals ‘Voice Sniffer Algorithm’ That Could Analyze Conversations.” ABC News, ABC News Network, 3 Apr. 2018, https://abcnews.go.com/Business/amazon-patent-reveals-voice-sniffer-algorithm-analyze-conversations/story?id=54175793.

Boote, Tim. “What Have Ethics Got to Do with Digital Marketing?” Digital Marketing Magazine, 17 Jan. 2017, http://digitalmarketingmagazine.co.uk/digital-marketing-features/what-have-ethics-got-to-do-with-digital-marketing/4031.

Samuel, Alexandra. “The Shady Data-Gathering Tactics Used by Cambridge Analytica Were an Open Secret to Online Marketers. I Know, Because I Was One.” The Verge, The Verge, 25 Mar. 2018, https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/25/17161726/facebook-cambridge-analytica-data-online-marketers.

“The End of Privacy.” Philosophy Talk, https://www.philosophytalk.org/blog/end-privacy.

If you are trying to grow your business or increase sales it is very important to make sure your webpage has a high rank. The higher the rank, the higher your webpage will be listed as most people only click on the top few web pages off of Google or any other search engines. Here are a few helpful tips to increase your web page ranking.

Key Words

To start if off arguably the most important factor is the use of keywords. In order for a customer to find your webpage you need to have keywords that are associated with your page. Your keywords cant be random they need to be strategic, specific,and have high traffic. Your keywords should go hand and hand with the product you are trying to sell. Use a moderation of long and short key words as this will give you the best chance for your webpage to appear on the first page and get traffic. If you don’t know what keywords to use there are many websites out there that can help you find the right words with the highest traffic. 

Content

Quality of quantity. Your content needs to be high quality, relevant, and recent. A factor that affects your SEO ranking is called dwell time. This relates to how much time people spend on your webpage so it is important to bring them value and keep them entertained. Just think for a sec and put yourself into the shoes of someone who is reading boring content. They will immediately close the page, never return and possibly give you a bad review killing your traffic and rank.  

Improve Your Page Loading Speed

It is important to make sure your webpage loading speed is fast. Not only does Google recognize this and will punish your ranking but research shows that 40% of individuals will adbanon a page after 3 seconds if it doesnt load. And to make things worse, research shows that 80% of the people won’t return to that page ultimately killing your traffic. If your page loads fast then people will keep coming back and Google algorithms will recognize your popularity and adjust your web page accordingly. 

Outbound Links

The last little helpful tip is to make sure you use credible links as linking to internal and external resources will help increase your rank. Make sure all of your data claims are trustworthy and linked to authoritative sources. Internal links will direct visitors to other pages of your web page. Overall I hope you enjoyed these few tips that will help you increase your landing page rank.

Sources

• “Create a Website.” Quicksprout, https://www.quicksprout.com/ways-to-improve-seo-ranking/.

• Fishkin, Rand. “How to Rank: The SEO Checklist.” Moz, Moz, 31 July 2019, moz.com/blog/rank-in-2018-seo-checklist.

What is a conversion? A landing page conversion rate is used to see the performance of your landing page and tells how well your audience is responding to your call of action. After reading this blog you will get an understanding how 5 simple steps will increase your conversion rate and have a more successful landing page. 

1 NBALPWACG – never build a landing page without a campaign goal. The first step to increase your conversion rate should happen before you actually start to build a page. Before you can start building and putting the pieces together you have to make sure you or your company has a solid plan or an achievable goal. If not then you could really be doing more harm than good because your landing page may be rushed or missing an essential part.

2. Low Attention Ratio – The next step to increasing conversion rates is to have a low attention ratio. An attention ratio is the ratio of the number of things you can do on a page to the number of things you should be doing. An ideal attention ration is 1:1.This is very important to have a low attention ratio because the shows that your page is simple and effective. Having a high attention ratio would represent a landing page with way too much content or information that would ultimately leave the viewer discombobulated. 

3. Context – It is important that the ads displayed on the site match the information that is being displayed. If you ad displays a discount then make sure that when a viewer clicks on the ad it will take them to a page that displays a discounted product. Another part of context is to have a header that grabs the viewers attention and matches up with you call to action. This is important for drawing in viewers. If your context does not match your CTA than viwers may get confused or lose interest. 

4. Congruence – Making sure that every element on your landing page lines up with your campaign goal. It is important to only show the viewers content that line up with your campaign goal because if you have an incongruent page than viewers will click on an ad that will take them to a different page. The goal is for the viewers to stay on your page. 

5. Closing – The last step to increase your conversion rate is closing which is applying positive click triggers and eliminating negative impulses. It is important that your closing does not lead viewers to get anxiety or think anything is sketchy about your page. This will lead them to rethink their decision about buying your product. 

References:

Stukent, https://www.stukent.com/expert-sessions/the-7-principles-of-conversion-centered-design/.

MRKT 484 Ryan on Testing Landing Pages.” OSU MediaSpace, Oregon State University,                        https://media.oregonstate.edu/media/t/0_j1xoorhb