Advertising – Jack Tells All

I won’t lie, not to you – oh not to you at all. When I was a young lad, 16, 17 I carried the name @Jafolad and an Instagram following of over 2,500. Ronan, another lad in my year carried the name @Roozoca and had a following count similar to mine.

Followed by a short suit of untraceable gloom, I began to realize how toxic social media could be. I dialed back gradually, unfollowing people I had once glorified and measured my own self-worth through their eyes. Deleting all posts and eventually removing the account in its entirety.
I’d honestly say I was addicted to both Facebook and Instagram. I cared more about the number of likes I was getting than the grades I was receiving in school. Signs on, I did end up repeating.

Years later, I keep a close circle on social media. Friends and family mostly. The only form of influencers or “brands” that I follow are game journalists and actors.
That being said, I would consider Kevin Hart and The Rock to be major brands. Both at international levels, Kim K wouldn’t have much of a hold on the Chinese market you see.

Now, I already spoke about the idea of brands using social media to build communities and relationships with consumers and fans in my tribes blog. Here lets take a lot of brands that stand out when it comes to Instagram.

1) Marvel

Marvel Entertainment, the official Instagram for Marvel comics, movies, games and more currently has 25.9m followers as of the 3rd of December 2018, having posted a new poster for their upcoming film Captain Marvel, the brand has seen 49,049 new followers.
They post teasers, promotional clips of upcoming films and dvd releases, comic book sneak peaks and of course some fan content such as cosplay and art work.

2) Netflix

Netflix, the official Instagram for media streaming platform, currently has 11.6m followers. The page is known for also posting promotional clips and sneak peaks but also enagages in fan activity posting the likes of memes and gifs. The page is extremely relatable and receives a lot of engagement via users tagging their friends in said memes. What there doing is encouraging engagement, but they’re really doing is creating awareness.

3) The Rock

Dwayne ‘The Rock‘ Johnson, former professional wrestler, turned Hollywood mega-star has a staggering 123m followers. He’s up there with the best for fan engagement. He’s always replying to top comments on his posts. His content is mostly of him thanking his fans for their loyalty. He posts endless videos discussing the importance of loyalty, had work, patience, self believe and respect. Other posts are of him promoting his gym-wear, work-out sessions and his notorious cheat meals where he’s known to devour absolute rakes of feed.

4) Kevin Hart

Kevin Hart, the (what I personally refer to him as) ‘rags to riches’ actor (Click here for a larger explanation on that). This man has gone from playing the “token black guy” in film to becoming the leading actor in billion dollar franchises. The man plans to be a billionaire by 45. Similar to the Rock above, Kevin seems a bit more genuine in his posts. He always has that smile on his face as he preaches about positivity, motivation and the importance of love and family. Posts again include press tours, promotional material and some fitness updates.

It’s safe to say these brands rock Instagram at this moment in time. Marvel films don’t seem to be slowing down at any rate, Netflix is only growing and the Rock and Kevin Hart are at their absolute peaks as of right now.

Its nice being connected to the world with so many people on platforms such as Instagram, buts it’s very also important to know that you are not better than anybody else and no one is better than you. You can only try to be better than yourself for others.

UPDATE: 05/12/2018
While recently talking to Ronan about this blog, he sent me an old Instagram of mine.. It was all he had (fortunately). Looking back now, good god I was some wipe…

Ah YouTube, the cabbage to my bacon and the sugar to my tea. Honestly, I spend at least three hours a day on the video sharing platform. From watching vloggers like Casey Nesitat and film makers like Dan Mace, to videogame walkthroughs with Call Me Kevin and Funhaus.
From a marketing standpoint, I feel that YouTube still has a whole lot of potential that we will see more off in the future. From unboxings to reviews, the platform is home to many influencers and tech shows.
Now, although I could go on for days without an end about my love for YouTube, I am going to explain the concept of the YouTube bumper ad instead.

Bumper ads are a short video ad format that let you reach more customers and increase awareness about your brand by using a short, memorable message

-Google Support

Be they famous or infamous, these six second ads have been in existence since 2016 although it feels like they’ve been around for longer. Early testers included ads from companies like Audi Germany and Atlantic Records.

What was noted that these quick-shot bumper ads helped enforce brand awareness amongst consumers. Created with mobile devices in mind, these ads are for viewers who are on the go.

Like all things in life, there is the good, the bad and the ugly and this can be said with the use of bumper ads as well. Some are good, some are bad and well, some are just downright ugly.

The Good

I once watched a pre-roll ad on YouTube that had a 6 second teaser before playing a full advert that lasted 6.03. Why I did this? Because I was being entertained. I was hooked. Have a look for yourself.

Since first watching this, I have watched all three of these “Jameson First Shot” films. Was it because of my interest in whiskey? No, in fact the drink didn’t make one appearance in the whole short. I watched it for the story. It had comedic elements and I was enjoying it. Since then, I have become an avid customer of Jameson. Once that 01:00 appears on my phone – I am hitting the Jameson faster than an alcoholic in Wetherspoons on a Monday.
The take away from this is – bumper ads have to be appealing. They have to be creative. They have to give a reason for the viewer to remember them. Be it the audio, the art style, the animation or even the colours. Take Oreos & Cadburys Chocolate Covered Cookie ad for instance.

The idea is making big impact with small stories. You get the idea. Here is an Oreo. Here is Cadburys Dairy Milk Chocolate. They are now one. Any questions? No, I thought just as much!

The Bad

Too much of anything is bad for you right? The majority of consumers are not the biggest fans of advertising. Throughout the years we have discovered ways to avoid advertising. In a recent survey by HubSpot Research, 83% of respondents agree that not all ads are bad, but they want to filter out the really obnoxious ones. 77% agree that they would prefer to ad filter rather than completely ad block.
In conclusion, what we can take away from this is that people do not hate adverts. They hate bad ones. And boy, so do I.

My absolute worst enemy is the online store Wish and their painful bumper ads but more on them later.
The bad side of bumper ads in my opinion is the overuse of them. Take for example when I’m playing music from my playlist and after every single song ends, an ad decides to play. Often I have the phone out of reach – be it I’m studying or in the shower – and often it’s an advert that goes on for another two minutes after the initial six second window. Now, I either have to get a hold of the phone to skip or I have to suffer and listen to nonsense I have more than likely listened to more times than I can count.

Playlists aside, YouTubers aside have control of ad placement in their videos. Of course, advertising = revenue. Most YouTubers will enable ads at the start of their videos and of course why shouldn’t they? They’re more than entitled to make money for the creative efforts. My problem however, is when YouTubers decide to push it.

YouTuber LegacyKillaHD places 9 bumper ads to his much anticipated walkthrough of Red Dead Redemption 2

YouTuber Call Me Kevin places 5 bumper ads in a daily 8pm walkthrough video

Be it for need or greed, the above YouTubers, Micheal and Kevin have placed between five and nine ads all in one video. Not alone is this extremely intrusive, but it also has an impact on the actual quality of the videos themselves. To have the video regularly interrupted is an absolute downer and ruins the experience.

The Ugly

Now this is the downside of YouTube, this where AdWords and Team YouTube need to come together and work as one. As of right now, YouTube does not give the user an option to report bumper ads. Now, this may be out of pure laziness. I believe them to be [too] confident with their monitoring of bumper ads – if they even monitor them that is. My main concern for YouTubes lack of monitoring Adverts is that many aren’t safe. Lets [finally] talk Wish. They have a never ending film of YouTube bumper ads that for some reason are solely focused on following me into the depths of my music playlists.

The ads do nothing but attempt to up-sell their products. Their poorly produced and cheaply sold products, that is. The use of visuals is poor and lackluster. The audio is overbearing, repetitive and at this stage, like nails screeching on a blackboard.
Others agree.

SMM Youtube Reddit on Wish 1 — Reddit user u/Disney/Vader complains about the repetitive placement of Wish bumper ads

Now while the actual product itself of course has nothing do with YouTube Bumper Ads, the YouTube community has also had its say on Wish.

Whats ugliest about this whole mess is; YouTube still allows these businesses to promote themselves. Despite the warning signs being out there:

And the worst of the worst when it comes YouTubes lack of concern with scams is the recent surge in Fortnite VBucks.

Anway back on the track that is YouTube Bumper Ads. Overall, my impressions of YouTube Bumper ads are that I do like them. I do hate the bad ones – especially when their upbeat and overbearing and play in between slow beat songs. My personal favorites are all the Irish ones. Having no where to actually find them – from the top of my head, my most memorable ones are by Aviva, AIB and Centra.
They can be used cleverly enough but they can also be done the dog on and it reflects a lot on the business itself.