Brand Loyalty from Hopeless Romantics

Our society loves to put love on a pedestal. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are flooded with #RelationshipGoals, and heart-eyed emojis can be found in the comment sections of every couple's latest profile picture. We love love. If you're in a relationship, you want to be those hashtag relationship goals. If you're a hopeless romantic, you dream of a day love will come your way as you eat potato chips in bed at 10:00 pm watching the latest RomCom on Netflix. (No judgment)

Extra Gum took note of society's obsession for sappy romance and released an ad in October of 2015 depicting the budding love story of a young couple with Extra Gum playing an integral role in their relationship.

This two minute video immediately went viral on social media after it was released, and it now has over 92 million views on Facebook with another 20 million views on YouTube. It's been over a year since the video came out, and it's still on the homepage of Extra's website today. Viewers comment on how an ad has never made them cry before and how this is "the one ad I will never skip over." Extra Gum succeeded getting through to the click-through generation, which is no easy feat.

From a marketing perspective, I absolutely loved the Extra Gum commercial and what it accomplished. The video came across more as a romantic short film with obvious product placement instead of just a typical commercial. Extra had me bought into the story, not the gum, and because of that, I choose to buy Extra Gum rather than their competitors. They got me hooked through the sweet story of Sarah and Juan, but I stayed loyal for the quality of their gum.

Obnoxious Advertisements: Who Do They Really Benefit?

Repetition is one of the many marketing tactics that businesses use in order to keep their products and services easily remembered by consumers. If I said, "Like a good neighbor..." or "Geico. Fifteen minutes..." I am positive that anyone with a television could finish the statements with the proper slogans for the two popular insurance companies. They are clear and concise, and they tend to conclude their witty, 30-second commercials. These companies use repetition to their advantage, however, others across other platforms, cannot say the same.

Spotify, the popular digital music streaming service, has both free and premium versions of their application. Their free version is paid for by various sponsors who place advertisements to promote their products periodically between songs or when the listener uses one of the coveted 5 skips per hour. I used the free version of Spotify for about a year before breaking down and purchasing the ad-free subscription. This was not because of the presence of the ads, but the constant repetition of the same, horrendously annoying ads that I could not seem to ignore anymore.

The most obnoxious of them all was the Fuze tea ad with Mr. T. He almost blew out my speakers when he came on every 12 minutes yelling about how fresh both he and Fuze were. The more the advertisement played, the more I began to resent Fuze, and I concluded that I would never purchase the tea because I was so irritated with their ads ruining my relaxing playlist of evening acoustics. Their repetitious advertisements caused me to act completely opposite of what Mr. T and his marketing team wanted from me.

c/o The Coca-Cola Company

Naturally following my rage and disdain for this butterfly man and his tea, I purchased a $4.99/month subscription for Spotify Premium (shoutout to that student discount) without a single regret. The business promoting themselves on Spotify ironically turned me away from their product and in turn benefitted Spotify with additional revenue from my premium subscription.

Don't thank me, Spotify. Thank your obnoxious sponsors. 

Wendy's has Gone Savage on Twitter and it's Working

Whether I'm riding on a campus bus across campus, or sitting in a large lecture hall waiting for class to start, I like to aimlessly scroll through my Twitter feed to pass the time. I smile as I like an adorable video of an owl snuggling with a kitten, I laugh as I watch a practical joke go horribly wrong, and I always make sure to hit retweet when I see the Dawgs get a big win. For me personally, Twitter is a source of entertainment, but countless firms use social media to promote their products.

Social media has significantly altered the way in which businesses and organizations stay connected with consumers. Dissatisfied customers can easily tag businesses in tweets expressing their concerns, and the companies' social media specialist will respond to these issues quickly and efficiently to attempt to solve the customers' problems.

I primarily use my Twitter for entertainment. Companies use social media to promote their business. One big corporation--disguised as one little red headed girl--was so creatively able to bridge this gap and catch and keep my attention while aimlessly scrolling one day... and that company is Wendy's fast food chains.

Wendy's has been entertaining young social media users through the use of quick-witted digs at their competition and playful banter with users that tweet at them.

One user even asked Wendy's to roast them. Wendy's happily obliged. 

It was this particular tweet that got my attention. I wanted to see what all of this madness was about. The more I read through Wendy's tweets, the more I wanted to be a part of the conversation. I ended up following the restaurant chain. I laughed at their memes, their gifs, their sense of humor. I wanted Wendy's to roast me. I mean, what an honor, right? That's when I realized the genius behind Wendy's social media presence. They're both entertaining and communicating with millennials who use social media as a platform for these two purposes. They're making themselves stand out compared to other fast food chains (I peeked at McDonald's twitter and it was a total snooze-fest in comparison) and easily recalled to younger consumers who want a midnight snack after a basketball game or a night of studying. 

When given the choice between a McFlurry and a Frosty with a side of good humor, you can bet I'll be getting myself a Frosty.