John Lewis makes the Brit’s cry again!

Wham, bam, boom! They have done it again and there isn’t a dry eye in the house!

John Lewis has swept the nation with a two-minute festive sensation, which creates a powerful yet emotional bond between a boy and a penguin. With last years, Christmas advert creating an enduring relationship not only between the ‘Bear and a Hare’ but the public and John Lewis; the only question to ask is whether the public’s love will grown even fonder this year?

With the perfect soundtrack (John Lennon’s song ‘Real Love’, performed by Tom Odell) and the love story of a boy and his penguin companion; viewers were happy to admit about the tears that rolled down their face when watching this two-minute advertisement as the young boy gave his penguin companion the best of all time… Mabel!

Every year John Lewis creates a theme to go with their Christmas advertisements, this year is ‘Give someone the Christmas they’ve been dreaming of’ opening up the eyes of millions to make sure that they give that extra special something to someone they love this Christmas. However, the clever thing about this uplifting experience that John Lewis brings every Christmas is how they show the desire, love and purity of the brand through a child’s eyes making it relate to every family out there, which just want that perfect Christmas.

Monty the Penguin, 2015 

John Lewis has spent £1million creating the ad, while £7million will be spent on the marketing campaign. With the digital world at its peak and still growing, John Lewis saw it best to share the ad on their social media pages before our television screens (which it will be doing on the first ad break of tomorrow nights Goggle-box, Channel 4). I have to admit, this was definitely an interesting move for such a big retailer pinning all its hope on whether consumers would share, retweet or take to it on a platform that people are still learning about. But whether you agree or disagree this is the best John Lewis Christmas advert to date and sharing on their social media sites first was a risky yet smart move because the buzz off social media is still growing and will continue no doubt through Christmas as well.

The £7million marketing campaign fund will be spent on the Christmas adverts merchandise. John Lewis always gives something back to its consumers and this Christmas they are creating ‘Monty the Penguin’ merchandise to sell in their stores; cuddly toys, umbrellas and even a book called ‘Monty’s Christmas’ will be sold; where proceeds will go to the Barnardo’s charity. If that’s not enough, consumers will be able to come visit ‘Monty the Penguin’ by going into store to check out ‘Monty’s Den’ which is fun for all the family.

Every year they do it bigger and better and every year, we as consumers don’t know how they will top it. Adam&EveDDB are the advertising agency behind the magic and every year, they find away that emotionally engages consumers to visit John Lewis at Christmas time. The creatives behind the magic are simply geniuses, who have learnt about the consumers wants and desires at Christmas and they play around with the power that is human emotions – Well Done to Adam&EveDDB!

As an aspiring advertising student I hope one day that I will be able to pro-create or help to make an advert that inspires so many people and creates such strong and devoted loyal relationship between brand and consumer.

Well Done John Lewis another heart-melting Christmas ad.

- Lauren xo 

You Haven't Seen It?Well... if you haven't seen this ad then get your tissues at the ready because its going to be an emotional one…. Check it out!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iccscUFY860

#Bendgate KitKat tweet kicks back at Apple’s iPhone 6.

“Have a break. Have a KitKat” is one of the most iconic slogans and brands in advertising, definitely a Lovemark to some the KitKat is known for either its two finger easy break, and it’s chunky peanut butter centre or its four-finger delight. With KitKat being voted ‘Brand of the Year’ back in May 2014, JWT has taken every opportunity to make the brand, bigger and better than its fellow choccy competitors on the market. But it’s not only the choccy competitors that KitKat have been up against… With Apple’s latest baby, hot and ready to fly off the shelves on its launch day; it wasn’t long because consumers found out that the iPhone 6 handsets bent into a 45 degree angle when they placed them in their pockets. This gave JWT an idea!

With KitKats brand equity being “Have a break. Have a KitKat” they were the perfect fit to JWT’s new social media campaign idea that would give KitKat the edge. Soon after the bending iPhone 6 was common knowledge, JWT London creative teams got on the case in creating a KitKat finger snapped into a 45 degree angle with a witty yet simple tagline: “We don’t bend, we #break.” If that’s not genius, I don’t know what is!

The tweet took the world by surprise achieving 100 retweets in the first 10 minutes but now with the popularity of social media, the tweet has been retweeted over 28,000 times, favourited over 13,000 times and collected a few thousand followers along the way. It is now bigger than Oreo’s famous Superbowl 2013 campaign “You Can Still Dunk in the Dark which only reach 15,000 retweets. Let’s be honest, in advertising timing is everything and JWT London did indeed, strike while the iron was hot! 

As a follow up to the witty yet brilliant tweet, JWT London came up with a second tweet “So what else bends or #breaks?” which links straight to the KitKat Tumblr account where the consumers can decide what bends and what breaks. It wasn’t long before brands latched onto the #bendgate idea such as: Pringles and LG Mobile who made their own versions but it was KitKat that led the way in punking Apple on one of its biggest mistakes yet.

WHAT DO I THINK?
Genius, just genius. I don’t think that JWT London could have had their finger on the pulse any quicker than they did. It was so simple yet it drove the world wild, I mean to have over 28,000 retweets and become bigger than Oreo’s “You Can Still Dunk in the Dark” is an achievement in itself but JWT managed to collect thousands of followers along the way showing that consumers loyalty to KitKat is at an all-time-high. As many know KitKat has an extensive brand arrangement with Android as JWT worked on the famous Android KitKat 4.4 last year but after bending the Internet out of shape, I think that the great Apple VS Android debate is about to become very interesting. I think the brand loyalty and the Lovemark status of our beloved brands maybe at loggerheads soon with advertising changing every minute, consumer perception isn’t always far behind.

- Lauren xo 

Is Social Media becoming part of your personality?

Did you know that 72% of all internet users have some link to social media?

It wasn’t long ago that people were picking up newspapers instead of iPads, Walkman’s and CDs instead of iPhones, books instead of a Kindle or even having a face-to-face conversation with someone instead of texting them when they are sat right next to you but times have changed. It’s true that social media and more-able technology has been a success; ideal for companies to deliver their daily message or perfect for those regular travel updates you need to get you home on time, instead of 2 hours late. But are people getting to use to it and growing accustom to it?

Social media is effortlessly becoming part of us, in what we say and what we do, every minute of every day. Every day we find ourselves tagging each other in where we’ve been today on Facebook or uploading a photo to Instagram of a Starbucks with friends but some more than others dedicate their lives to making sure that their friends and family know what’s going on. However, the rapid growth of technology in the 21st century is also starting to control the amount of access we have to our social media accounts when we are on the move or away on holiday. While having a portable device to access everything is ideal, it does stop us from showing our holiday snaps in person instead we put in on Facebook or Instagram for everyone to see or whenever we are ill, we tell everyone on social media first so that they can diagnosis us before we go to see our GP. Just last month I found myself discovering those outrageous life stories being told on Facebook, Twitter and even via Instagram, that I really didn’t need to know but social media has become this way of life that can’t be controlled, where everyone feels the need to share stories that leave readers amused or corrupted.

Social media is all around us even if you don’t want to be part of it; you’re connected in some way via your friends and family. Its open knowledge that the older generation didn’t grow up with smartphones, tablets or the worldwide web at their fingertips but most of them are fully functional to the way the web works and rely on it to keep updated with what their kids or grandkids maybe up too. I suppose the older generation didn’t have a lot have a choice in the matter, other than to adapt? Believe it or not, 57% of us using social media talk to more people online than in real life; making me think that social media really is becoming part of our personality? We use it to talk, send pictures, keep up-to-date, learn about local events and much more but no matter where you go now, you will hear someone go ‘I’m going to tweet that’ or ‘that is a definite Instagram photo’ but like all things, social media has created itself as part of a humans day to day life…

QUESTION TIME!
What is the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning? Grab a cuppa? Have a Shower? Get some breakfast?

I bet you don’t do any of that! You probably do what most of the population do, instead of getting your morning caffeine fix, you spend your morning scrolling through your Facebook or Twitter feed or catching up on what Snapchat’s were sent to you last night or the who has posted the most selfie on Instagram. Yes, I am one of the many that do that every morning, I think most of us our ‘one of them’ but some just don’t like to admit it!

Why don’t we have a look at the range of social media that is out there at the moment and see how actually it has become part of our personality and life without realising it… I bet there is at least 1 thing, you do from this list and take part in on social media:

1. FACEBOOK
Since its arrival, Facebook has done something different, it’s created this open forum where we can share, like and comment with people that we don’t really know but we have let into our circle of friends. While social media has become a catch up with friends for some; it’s become a natural addiction for others, you end up telling Mark Zuckerberg you’ve moved up to Manchester before telling your friends, it’s just one big vicious cycle! Either way people are using Facebook instead of talking face-to-face.

2. TWITTER
After the invasion of Twitter, social media became a platform for news, politics, travel and gossip, making the information gets to people as soon as it happens and before the traditional newspapers went to print. Twitter gave people the option to retweet, favourite and follow people like celebrities or companies that would tweet about their findings or experiences of the day. While, this is one of the benefits of Twitter, people have now started to use it as a way of complaining to companies that don’t answer emails or phone calls, knowing that the complaint can be see publicly to all that follow them on Twitter, companies act quickly. The famous #Hashtag came from Twitter which gives people a chance to pick areas around what they are talking about or something which is starting to trend because everyone else has used it in their tweets.

3. INSTAGRAM
Soon it will be law that no photo can be uploaded to any social media without a filter, thank Instagram for that one! Anyway, Instagram has become a way people can show images that mark a special event with things like a ‘selfie’ or family group shot but like Twitter, Instagram has become a personal way that people can privately link to celebrities. With Instagram able to connect to other social media so everyone can share, like or comment on your photo; people are using images not words to keep up-to-date with everything that they are up too.

4. SNAPCHAT
Here is another reason to take 5 second ‘selfie’ shots that you can send to anyone you choose! It’s a way to show your night out in the moment and not waiting to upload to Facebook or Twitter the next morning. Alternatively, Snapchat can be seen as positive tease for some companies as they can use it to give clues and information about what’s coming up without giving it all away, Hollyoaks is an example of this.

5. LINKEDIN
So we have our social media that can be for fun like Instagram and Snapchat but we also have our sites that can be used seriously and for fun like Twitter and Facebook. LinkedIn is something different and used a bit more seriously - it can help to connect people in industry together, which may help with questions, job enquiries or just as a relevant connections to their work. LinkedIn offers the chance for people to promote themselves by showing a person’s details like work experience, education history and a personal statement to relevant employers.

6. ABOUT ME
About Me is similar to LinkedIn with the way it can be used to spot potential employees or connections in your industry but About Me is connecting all your professional social media sites like Twitter , Blogger, LinkedIn and more into 1 place making it easier to access and employers find this a great benefit when hiring.

7. PINTEREST
Finally, Pinterest does what it says in the title, you pin your interests! You can create relevant interests or hobby boards and groups of picture which people can then view and pin themselves if they want to. You could maybe link them to your work industry or you may just use it for fun and pin some ideas for your perfect summer or bucket list but either way it is more of a low-key social media site that only a few people tend to use but it is growing every day and more people are pining their interests.

So there you go! Did any of them sound relevant to you? Of course there are loads more that can be accounted for like MySpace, Foursquare and even Blogger. While social media maybe good in one sense as it keeps people interacting with each other, the news, politics and day-to-day life; there is going to be a tipping point where doing too much of one thing can’t be good for you.

As a user of social media myself, I love having the ability to group chat with as many friends as I want or uploading a photo with a filter to make myself look a little better than I do but there are times where I think that I have too much on social media sites and I may be using it slightly too much. I will admit I check my social media accounts more than once a day; mostly on my lunch breaks, when I’m stuck in bad traffic, before I go to bed and probably a lot more. Maybe there are some benefits to social media and the ever-growing technology we have, I suppose we save on the amount of paper used as fewer newspapers and books are being printed because we are accessing it on our iPads or grabbing a book on our Kindle. But are we now using social media to determine the good and bad things in our lives and personality a little too much?

- Lauren xo

Work Experience at Big Wave Media, Exeter

Over the summer, I complete 2 weeks worth of work experience at Big Wave Media, who are Digital Marketing agency, based in Exeter, Devon. I learnt a whole range of new skills, met loads of great people and furthermore expanded my knowledge ready for third year. Here is a bit about my work experience with Big Wave Media...

Eager to learn and fresh from second year, I was ready to find some work experience within the advertising/digital marketing industry that I so long to work in. Big Wave Media were kind enough to offer me, 2 weeks of work experience with their hard-working, friendly team. Whilst I was nervous, I was also very excited to see what it was like working in that type of environment.

I began working with Big Wave Media’s Digital Account Executive Hayley, who taught me about the social media management platform, Hootsuite. Whilst Hootsuite wasn’t something that I had heard of, it didn’t take me long before I was composing over 300 tweets and Facebook posts that would endorse a company’s offers, discounts or events that were happening in the up-and-coming month. Soon I was bulk uploading, managing and scheduling those tweets and Facebook posts on Hootsuite with no help needed. With the tweets and Facebook posts ranging from 5 days in the month to everyday for a month, I was soon comfortable in making tweets and Facebook posts suit different target audiences, ranging from tots to teens and onto adults as well. Condensing a sentence with all the relevant bits of information into only 140 characters was difficult, especially if you needed to squeeze a URL into the tweet as well. I understood what was important to leave in and take out of the tweet; helping my knowledge of copywriting grow and hopefully this skill help me in my future.

My aim of coming to Big Wave Media was to learn and understanding about what a Digital Marketing team does in the field and to brush up and develop on skills that I already had or needed to learn. Seeing the dedicated and friendly staff of Big Wave Media work hard every day has made me more determined to complete my degree and get into the industry. I started 2 weeks ago feeling nervous yet excited but I have left feeling stronger and more knowledgeable than before.

Thank you Big Wave Media, you’ve been great!

- Lauren xo

About: Lauren Marie

‘Lauren Marie’ blog is about a coffee loving, cocktail drinking, Converse-wearing busy-body Devon girl; who has just graduated with a First Class Honours in BA (Hons) Advertising from Southampton Solent University. Whilst being described an interesting combination of nerd, girlie girl and tom boy (which come to think of it, is a pretty good description); Lauren is a regular outgoing, ambitious yet dedicated and very organized individual, who is living one day at a time to it's fullest. A nail polish enthusist and full-time dreamer; this chick loves nothing more than having long country walks on the beach and moors and always having a smile on her face. Lauren is not a fashionista or make up artist and she likes to think of herself as a "traveller not a backpacker" and a keen social media enthusiast.  After that brief little introduction, I thought I would give you a few more extra facts about who Lauren Chamberlain really is? So lets begin...

• I’ve just graduated from Southampton Solent University with a First Class Honours in BA (Hons) Advertising.
• Originally, I’m a born and bred Devon lass but I went to university somewhere on the South Coast.
• Organized, enthusiast and honesty are my middle names.
• I aspire to be something in Advertising, happens something in digital, social media or even radio. 
• Apart from loving Advertising, my true loves are: photography, travelling (ambition to go), reading, social networking and blogging. 
• American television series are my weakness, I can never just watch one episode. Pretty Little Liars and The Vampire Diaries are my current faves (or weaknesses). 
• I’m in love with Social Media by following the latest brand crazes.
• I completed the IP EUTA – European Teams in Advertising in 2014, where I travelled to Alkmaar, The Netherlands to work with an international team on an advertising campaign (Only 6 people were selected to go!) 

So that’s a wrap! All you need to know about Lauren Chamberlain, I hope you continue to follow my blog where I will be discussing new and exciting things in advertising; as well as my work experience and my latest units I have been studying at university, including my dissertation.

- Lauren xo

Connect with Lauren Marie

Connecting with people just got a whole lot easier, so why not try it with me! 

I'm guessing you've checked out my blog posts and now you're on this page to get to know me even better! Well, why not take a look and connect with me on my social media accounts below…

Enquiries
Want a bit more information or fancy a chat? 
Email me on: lmchamberlain@btinternet.com

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