unit 6 revision practice exam

The main objective of the campaign is to make sure that My Life TV has a successful launch with documentary and reality TV content that appeals to a diverse community. The social media campaign therefore needs to do four main things based on the brief:

1) Create awareness about the launch of the station, asking for volunteers (primarily students) to create UGC programming.

2) Promote the flagship programme ‘Search for a Star’.

3) Gain appropriate sponsorship and advertising from local businesses.

4) Create awareness about the USP of having two musicians from The Racers as key presenters.

In this breakdown, I am therefore going to demonstrate how social media channels can be used creatively to meet the objectives as part of a campaign, whilst demonstrating that I understand the wider issues, such as legal and ethical issues and social media measurement strategies, that need to be taken into consideration.

My Life TV launches in December. From my knowledge of social media campaigns I need to ensure that I start the marketing across social media channels six months in

advance. This means that I will start my campaign in June. The first social media channel I will use to actively target local audiences is Twitter. I will follow key local news outlets, radio stations and colleges in order to create initial awareness of the station. I will tag them in detailing that the TV station is looking for UGC documentary content with local people and issues as the focus of the programming. The hashtag on tweets sent tagging stakeholders and asking for content ideas will be #MyLifeTVsendyourideas . This is an example of folksonomy and how requests for information and early branding can go viral. This will also allow investigative local journalists, presenters and college students to start thinking about the ways they may want to contribute. After one week, I will measure the amount of success that the early tagging on Twitter has had. This is done by measuring the social media metrics of the channel. However, I would need to set myself a success goal, such as 500 likes of Tweets featuring the @MyLifeTV Twitter handle. To do this I could use a tool such as Sprout Social. Generating this initial interest and gaining retweets in this way is the first stage of the social media sales funnel.

A week after the first Twitter push to gain original UGC content, I will also actively start putting requests for contestants to sign up for the show ‘Search for a Star’. Owing to the video based and image based nature of Instagram and Snapchat, I will be asking for 30 second video auditions form wannabe singers tagging in @MyLifeTV on Instagram and SnapChat. There will be a link to the main Facebook pages for the Search for a Star programme and My Life TV where potential contestants can input their details and link longer YouTube videos to their musical performances. After a further two weeks, I would then use a social media aggregator, such as Hootsuite, to pull together the four major channels so that when I reply to comments and tags for My Life TV, it will go out across all the station’s social media. This is the second stage of the sales funnel as it builds a relationship and trust that the TV station is offering something unique and genuine through its social media posts. Again, I would set myself a metric goal – this would be over 2000 shares or mentions.

On YouTube during the month of July I will also ensure that the key presenters from The Racers complete daily vlogs, stating that they are watching some of the performances that people are sending as auditions for ‘Search for a Star’. They will be reviewing the best ones and giving tips on how to record a good audition for Instagram and Snap Chat. These YouTube videos will then be shared across their personal social media channels, The Racers’ social media and embedded on My Life TV website. This keeps the conversation active and current over the summer. As the presenters are well known locally, their input means that they help consolidate the sales funnel stages of buying into the idea and getting others to become advocates as users whose performances were picked will spread the work and retweet and share. This ultimately creates awareness for My Life TV.

A week after the daily vlogging starts by The Racers, I will be working with the founders of My Life TV looking at the ideas sent in for the documentary content. I will contact short listed and viable ideas during July via their social media handles asking them to complete a short video pitch of their idea and post it to My Life TV’s Instagram and Facebook feeds. Again this ensures that audience is engaging with the station and buying into one of the main objectives, which is to secure the production of content. During September and October the public will work with

college students to create the content and the rushes / sneak previews will be shared weekly across the social media channels by My Life TV acting as teasers. I would continue to set metrics, wanting to gain up to 5000 mentions, in order to continually evaluate the success and reach of my campaign content.

Working with the sponsors will be crucial and I will ensure that local business Audio Rack and the City Council are involved in the early marketing. For example, Audio Rack could offer a competition to win a guitar or speaker for anyone who sends an audition into ‘Search for a Star’ and they pay a percentage of sales made from the traffic of the links to My Life TV. This can be measured through the metrics tools, looking at the number of visits to the Audio Rack website from the My Life TV social media. The City Council could offer marketing and media internships based on the quality of the programming made when My Life TV launches, which gives college students an added motivation to create content for the station. Again the City Council will be tagging My Life TV into its promotional links and their social media managers will share the station’s online content.

In terms of ethical issues the age and ethnicity of the wider audience will need to be taken into account. Pitched content and performances will need to be appropriate for family audiences, likewise any ideas for documentary content should not be offensive or break Ofcom guidance. Legal issues include ensuring all content for the My Life TV logos is original, and that all video content shared by audiences and the station has the permission of the performers for it to be broadcast online. Therefore, model release forms will be distributed as part of the social media output and this could be reinforced by the members of The Racers in their YouTube vlogs.

Throughout the campaign I will also support all stages with traditional print and radio marketing as part of a blended approach. For example, flyers will be distributed in local youth bars advertising the launch of My Life TV, and there will be links to QR codes on these in order to direct audiences to the station’s website and social media pages. Similarly, advertising for the station in local newspapers will also reinforce the brand identity and logo. In terms of radio advertising, it would be a good way to advertise ‘Search for a Star’ in the morning and evening prime time slots.

Therefore, I have demonstrated the main ways that I would meet my main objectives through a discussion of creative content, the channels I would use and how I would measure the success of my communications based on the brief.

Task two/ Structure:

1. She has started the exam off by answering the question and she repeatedly comes back to this statement.

2. Backs up her points with examples and explains what they mean for the advertising campaign

3. Referenced different social media channels 

4. Ethics of the campaign 

5. Wider knowledge for other units to back up her answers