3.5 Learning Goal 5: Be involved in the process of creating an online presence for current agency clients

Strategies and Resources:

1. Be involved in the development of an online strategy for a current client of the agency.
2. Write a creative brief based on my understanding of the clients needs.

A cocktail website is a project that Shifted Pixels is working on to showcase their online services offered and was a good way for me to learn how social media can be used as a form of advertising on the internet. Nick from Shifted Pixels gave a general outline of the type of website they wanted to develop and three potential target audiences they were considering for the campaign. This task was extremely beneficial to me as I needed to understand the types of online techniques that Shifted Pixels use in their advertising campaigns.

This website was an internal agency idea so the creative brief was not written for a current client of Shifted Pixels but I was able to use Shifted Pixels as a client and I needed to understand their needs and was able to get detailed feedback from agency members and understand if the creative brief I wrote demonstrated that I understood their needs. The creative Brief has been included in the Appendices of this report. (Appendices 8.3) The brief includes an online strategy that will be used to execute the online social media advertising. This campaign did not make it past the development of the brief and strategy as I then started working on real agency client campaigns but this was great to get a feel for what Shifted Pixels does as an agency. An advantage of not working on an existing client campaign was that I free to develop my own strategy with out any boundaries. Shifted Pixels may use this brief and strategy if they decide to continue with the website in the future.

3.5.1 Research and Initial Plans for a Cocktail Website

The initial briefing given to me by Shifted Pixels was to research existing cocktail blogs, videos and websites. Three target audiences were given as a possible choice for the website and this research will determine what target audience the campaign should communicate to and then the research will be used to write a creative brief for the campaign. The research gave me an understanding on the material that is currently on the Internet and ideas for how the website can use social networking to create an online presence. The campaign will use the internet as a social media tool and will communicate to the target audience with blogging, online videos on websites such as YouTube, Facebook, MySpace and emailing lists. The website will need to connect to the target market and give them the sense community with an open communication channel where the target market feels they can freely interact with the website. This will include allowing the target market to contribute and talk to each other on the website.

3.5.2 Target Market

Three target markets were researched and considered for the website: Bartenders, Hospitality Students and Female Target Market aged 18 to 35. A Female Target audience was chosen for this campaign. The cocktail website will be a social networking site targeting a female target audience between the ages of 18 to 35. The website will have a community environment where the target market read and have their own blogs and forums about cocktail ideas and recipes. Online videos demonstrating how to make cocktails as well as quick and easy cocktail recipes would be included on the site. Liquor companies and related products could be advertised on the website. This target market has been chosen for the campaign as they would be more receptive to a cocktail website and the website could potentially be more profitable as it is a large target market creating a potential for more internet traffic and in turn more advertising.

3.5.3 Campaign Brief and Strategy

“A fun night in with your friends, for a fraction of the cost of going out to a cocktail bar” Have a website that gives simple and easy cocktails ideas and recipes that readers will use to have a great night in with their friends but still have the luxuries of drinking cocktails. The website will link to a website called MyInvites.com so the target audience can send out online invitations to their friends. The target audience need to feel empowered to make their own cocktails instead of relying on a bartender in a cocktail bar to make it for them. The advertising campaign will be implemented in stages that will be synchronised with the launch of the website.