Sean T.

My brother is a JEEP person, so I shall be sending this to him — thank you!

From a brand perspective, I wonder who it helps… loyalists? Newbies? And wonder what they’re marketing and CX plan is to unveil and create a journey for folx!?

First off, I’m a big fan of Hidden Brain and downloaded that episode for a later listen.

I’m a Jeep owner and was excited when I heard about the “Easter eggs” that the manufacturers hide in window etchings, wheels, etc. (mine is in one of the front lights).. Apparently the brand has been doing this for decades, since before social media, so what a prescient added touch to create word of mouth buzz and build the loyal following for which Jeep is known.

Chipotle is another brand that’s effectively used gamification tactics. For example, to promote its new rewards program, Chipotle launched a video game contest experience where the player with the highest score won a Tesla (https://thewisemarketer.com/loyalty-strategy/chipotle-leverages-gamification-to-promote-rewards-exchange/). Chipotle also gave away $100K in bitcoin on National Burrito Day, and this on-trend, lottery approach got them a ton of earned media that an average sweepstakes or food holiday promo would not.

I definitely see the use of “gaming” or stimulation models with the medical students at my work – and at my last job the students worked on optometric stimulators where they were given patient cases they needed to solve all through a stimulator – I found the use of this in educational really important – it gives the lower classes a chance at patient care before they see real patients. As for Jeep, I think this definitely aligns with their brand which is built around adventure-seekers, drivers looking to go off the beaten path for the next big thrill. I feel like a gamification feature fulfills that need as well.

In my opinion, gamification (when done right) is an awesome Marketing tool! This makes me think of the Nike case that we read and how the SNKRS app used a combination of mobile marketing technology and gamification to boost sales. A completely different example would be in Taylor Swift’s promotion of her new version of the album Red. To announce her new “From the Vault” tracks, she put on a cryptic message and fans had to unscramble the names of the songs: https://mashable.com/article/taylor-swift-red-fan-theories. People love to compete and do puzzles – especially in a community (online or off) where they can work together and chat about the experience. Because of this, gamification can be a really powerful tool when it comes to building hype around a product or service!

Thank you for sharing Sean. As someone who never really got into gaming, I have been seeing gamification pop up alot recently. I remember studying the strategy in undergrad and the way many brands were using it via their social media platforms. It helped create excitement about a new launch, created a community (for scavenger based games were customers can communicate clue to one another) and the it helped brands stand out or ‘stop the scroll” It is interesting to see how Jeep is using it in a different way other than social media. I also agree it is smart on Jeep’s part since they are able to control the user experience and emphasize scenerios that highlight the products best features.

Come on Sean, You know those cornfields have some type of military tech hidden underneath! LOL
Although I’m not much into games, I can totally see how this can trigger an increase in sales especially if they offer the option for users to customize the Jeep with legitimate upgrades that a dealership would offer.

I often think about the gamification of marketing tactics within the Healthcare B2B space, but with our company (ResMed) acquiring new customers is a challenge since we have (just about) every customer in the HME sector. However, we could use gamification to simply increase sales with the customers we do have. Or, The most likely use of gamification for us would be to increase awareness through the patient audience. It’s definitely a topic I see creeping more and more into the B2B sector.

This gaming stimulation is one of my preferred marketing methods because it is so unique. Check out this video I found:

Here is the website to a great gamification tool that can actually make games unique to the company’s need. Their games look awesome! If you want to read more about them here is their link.:
https://gamesforbrands.com/

Great point Sean! I was stressed about the exercise too, but overall I did find the experience pretty interesting. I work for a civil engineering company, and, for us to win work, we often have to go through pretty intense contract negotiations like the one we did in class. Luckily, we have two lawyers on staff who handle all of this for us (for the most part). It was fascinating doing this exercise because I got a better idea of what kind of process they go through with our clients. I for one am very glad that I’m not a lawyer and do not have to read through long contracts!!

I think another interesting cross-over exercise would be something with accounting and pricing and how that process effects us in a marketing role. Are there any other business units (not directly related to marketing) that you’d be interested in learning more about?

At first, I was not a fan. I was very on confused on what was happening even though I read the case and answered questions about it before class. But, once our group started to argue on our stances versus another, I started to understand the jargon and was actually interested on what the outcome would be. I would do it again. My only issue would be if we did this on another week. I think everyone was just too stressed out with all the deliverables that were due that week.

I really liked this event, but then again, I really liked Business Law back in school. I think the biggest issue, despite all the deliverables that were due, is that we were not given enough time to meet with our groups. I would have liked to have a planning meeting ahead of time and given more context for our simulation. Like what is the average royalty fee for the industry? How many influencers do we work with? What are their levels (micro, macro, and mega)? I just felt extremely under prepared

At first I was not super into the assignment and had to ask my sister who is pre-law to explain some of the verbiage in the document. Though during the Learnathon as we were discussing with the other teams to come up with an agreement that was beneficial for both parties, I started to see the appeal and I enjoyed the exercise. I do think that an exercise like this is beneficial to our program as many of us may have to work with influencers. I do wish that is was more visible in the readings; it seemed like it was more of an add on, as the main agreement was between the company and its distributor. Overall, I wouldn’t mind doing this again.

Thank you for sharing Sean. I agree with you that the in class negotiation activity was definitely useful. It shined light on a topic that has been discussed before but in a much simpler way. We have discussed extensively how most people do not read the long contracts before pressuring “agree to the terms and conditions” but I have always been curious how those terms are created especially between two parties. There was so much back and forth that went into it that I would have never thought of.

My hot take is that this is a “good thing”.

The issue to me is that the echo chambers were allowed to form in the main platforms. “Free speech” applies primarily to public platforms, as I understand it. Commercial entities are freer to regulate what they deem acceptable and no one has a “right” to access a commercial platform (as I see it).

The danger as I saw with content on the “main” platforms is how easy it leaked (or was optimized) into random people’s streams because they were (however distantly) associated with people who found it “relevant”.

The challenge with moderating any content is that users are smart and will adapt their language to parallel norms or similar “code” if pressured with moderation.

By splintering the network, in many ways it could dilute the effect of the content. Niche message boards, etc. always existed, but they weren’t directly connected to the hives of all our other conversations. This naturally limited their growth as discoverability and accessibility were more cumbersome.

Facebook is “powerful” because of its scale. Gab, GETTR, TRUTH or whatever the liberal/progressive equivalent might be will never rival Facebook in size simply because they’re intentionally designed to appeal to a niche population and (more than likely) the nature of the conversations will deter many from joining. This is, of course, ignoring the factionalism that will no doubt form between audiences on similar platforms (Gab vs. GETTR vs. TRUTH, etc.).. You could be on all platforms, but outside journalists, celebrities and super users, most people don’t seem to have the energy or desire to nurture infinite accounts.

If the conversation moves off Twitter or Facebook and becomes “contained” on a niche platform, on any topic, do you agree the effect could be diluted?

Of course, such a network needs to exist and scale first. In our day and age, that’s no sure thing as fates can change quickly (see Parler). An app doesn’t exist on its own and needs many business partners to host and sustain it. In the case of TRUTH, the collaborative nature of the Internet may well present obstacles they did not anticipate.

https://www.theverge.com/2021/10/22/22740354/trump-truth-social-network-spac-mastodon-license-software-freedom-conservancy

I share your concerns that niche social media platforms like TRUTH could exacerbate the echo chamber problem, but at the same time, are the people who join fringe channels open to hearing the other side anyway? I think Greg makes a great point that there are limits to how impactful a non-major social platform can be.
I also don’t think TRUTH is likely to take off. Trump’s blog lasted 29 days, and the reasons given were that it wasn’t getting as many views as Trump’s team had hoped (https://www.politico.com/news/2021/06/02/donald-trump-blog-fail-491667)… Even though a social channel is more likely to drive engagement, is it really going to be enough to satisfy egos, advertisers, business partners, etc.? I suppose whether TRUTH succeeds or fails depends on what its intended goal is, but if it’s to influence others, isolating your voices on a contained platform is a questionable way of doing that.

Great post Sean! I have actually been looking into this new social media platform for awhile now. I just read an article the other day saying that this social media platform was actually going to be put on hold. Something that really caught my eye when reading your post is the part about pre-ordering. Social media platforms are free so I wonder if he is going to be charging to be on this platform?

I don’t blame him for starting his own platform. Social media was mainly created to give people a place to talk and share their opinions but now “Cancel Culture” has become a thing and these large platforms think they can ban people from their platforms. I don’t think it is right at all. Everyone has an opinion, you can agree or disagree but that doesn’t give you the right to take someone off a social platform.

I am interested to see how this new platform shakes up the other top dogs in social media platforms.

The site looks almost like a Twitter clone: A user can post Truths, like tweets, or Re-Truths, aka retweets. There’s also a news feed, called the Truth Feed, a notification system so users can know “who’s interacting with your TRUTH’s,” the social network’s App Store profile states. However, the site’s technical woes and uninspired design might not deter new users because Trump isn’t trying to win over the market by creating a unique media experience. Whether his base finds the site to be a tolerable experience remains an open question.

Social media outlets to me is all about intent. What are their intentions? Is their intentions really to keep in impartial or to try to suppress the popular or least popular viewpoint?

Facebook now shows you what you want to see in a bubble of information which can grow perception bias’s. What scary algorithmic back-end will TRUTH develop to keep what you want to see on it? I find it hard to believe the intent of TRUTH will be to keep progressive viewpoints when the audience will be geared for more conservative or even “Trumper” perspectives.

I have heard about this and it is definitely an interesting concept. To echo what some already said, social media is for everyone to share opinions and exchange ideas whether they agree/disagree with those ideas. However, some might feel better posting when they are among a group of like minded people. This is where an app like this can be beneficial. To Dan’s point, it will be interesting to see if this will be another Facebook where the algorithms are made to be divisive.

In the future, this same concept may come to fruition for other audiences. For example, this app essentially serves as an exclusive group or messaging board. Moving forward, there may be something similar for people who solely follow homeopathic medicine or have a vegan lifestyle among other niche groups. It will be interesting to see what will set the app apart from already existing sites, groups and boards for niche topics.

That’s also a return to the old ways in some respects. TV was originally just the big 3 networks before fragmenting with the arrival of cable. We saw the same as Netflix became the dominant player in the video space before that space fragmented as well.

Seems the way of things, but it does serve the benefit of forcing advertisers to put a little more thought into their approach.