Digital Vibes – The type you can trust.
Very recently and shockingly we all learnt of a alleged scandal involving the previous minister of Health and a company called Digital Vibes. If you were out of data for the last 6 months or forgot to turn on any TV or Radio, here is a short recap.
Digital Vibes had allegedly delivered services to the Department of Health during the Covid-19 pandemic. Services were related to digital marketing. Ran up bills worth millions of rands. All we have to show for it is a clip-art image of a cow using a stethoscope.
As controversial as that was or is, the idea of using a full digital marketing plan or even a hybrid plan makes sense for a lot of other reasons. Perhaps the reason why it took so long to stop the alleged cyphering of government money is because it has become normal practise to employ or consult with some sort of digital agency. Perhaps Digital Vibes could have warranted the exorbitant costs…. if they were successful in this campaign? Nah, still a no!
There are several tools used to build a digital marketing campaign, but before we do how, let’s look at why?! I will lead with an example……
Why do brands have Throw Back Thursdays posts on their sites?
It could be a picture of the ninja turtles with a clever caption. Based on the amount of likes. they will instantly know, we have a captive audience of 35- to 40-year-old, from South Africa, looking at Twitter at 09:00. What cars would they like? Family Cars. The next morning there will be a post about a reduced price on a new SUV just before 09:00.
Relatively low cost. Our target audience to actual cost is a lot less that traditional marketing – or advertising costs more specifically. Subscription to email forwarder or subscribing to social media is a far cry from the TV, Radio adverts we were used to hearing. In our example, we had to download a picture and write some words, posting it was free. (The example was free of charge.)
Measurable. Nothing worse than swinging and missing. Digital marketing gives marketers the ability to know results of campaigns without having to wait for some quarterly results. This also gives the opportunity to tweak campaigns while they are still ongoing. We know how many people liked the image, immediately. Next week after Wednesday there is another chance to mix it up, use The Powderpuff Girls picture and see the results in 24 hours. Repeat.
Client can easily be segmented by just changing the image, we can determine age, race, gender, social stature and so much more from one silly picture and a caption.
Rich content. Because of the wide selection of mediums and platforms we can mix and match campaigns. Use infographics and images to have a detailed overview of product or process. Instructional or demonstrative videos. Technical data on the product for geeks. Options are limitless, building a hybrid campaign with several mediums based on the preferences of client engagements. If the YouTube is going off like a banana in a hot car… stick to it.
Development of the Brand. We have seen some interactions from social media persons acting on behalf of brands create some of the most memorable moments on social media platforms. Brands are almost personified by using the medium as a disguised voice. This creates loyalty and trust in a brand or product by following, liking or even being friends with it. Okay last one sounds weird, but it is happening everywhere people. Your “friend” from the vehicle brand will reply to the comment, just to keep you engaged for the next week.
From the example made, if we sold one extra car every week our return on investment will be massive.
So, the real question is, how many Tesla vehicles were directly sold by Elon Musk by being a Twitter superstar using this exact same method? I’m going to guess it’s more than one a week.