Westjet Christmas Miracle Videos Analysis

1155 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: An essay on effects of popular culture

STEPPS to Contagion: Applying Berger’s Principles to WestJet Christmas Miracle Videos Anyone connected to social media has, at some point, had a video or photo appear in their feed that the entire world seems to be watching. The infamous dress that ignited a global debate on its colour, the Old Spice man stepping out of the shower, or Susan Boyle belting out I Dreamed a Dream. These are all moments that humanity has shared over digital space by means of rapid social distribution, or by ‘going viral’. Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, Jonah Berger has spent a decade researching what makes content go viral. In his 2013 book, Contagious, Berger contends that six basic principles drive content to become infectious. Known as STEPPS, the application of one or more of these principles, comprised of Social Currency, Triggers, Emotion, Public, Practical Value and Stories, should increase the chances of a campaign becoming viral. To examine the efficacy of Berger’s STEPPS to contagion, this paper will apply three of Berger’s principles to Christmas videos produced by one of Canada’s best known brands, WestJet. I posit that while STEPPS may be a useful guide in developing …show more content…

1) with the relatively modest goal of reaching 200,000 video views. Featuring a Santa wearing a WestJet-blue suit, travellers on 3 select flights from Calgary, Hamilton and Toronto were asked, via a real-time digital command centre at the boarding gates, what they wanted for Christmas. After the flights had boarded, employees communicated these wishlists to a team of their peers in the destination cities, who immediately bought gifts for every passenger. The gifts were wrapped and delivered to the landing gates, ready to surprise each disembarking passenger with a personalized

Show More
Related

  • Life In The Hall Of Mirror By Andrew Lam Summary

    909 Words  | 2 Pages

    For most everybody in the world, people tend to have two identities: one in reality and one online. Andrew Lam wrote an essay, called “I Tweet, Therefore I am: Life in the Hall of Mirrors”, in which he described how people are posting videos or statuses which is making social media take a turn. Instead of social media being a place to share very little information, people are now tending to post weird updates. Lam was describing an example where a boy that was going to surgery asked to have his picture taken because his arm got taken off by an alligator. Another example is when Bill Nye was speaking and collapsed from exhaustion. Most of the crowd took their phones out and recorded videos instead of helping Bill Nye out (540-541). With the power of the internet at everyone’s fingertips, most everyone is trying to make the most of it. With all

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Tipping Point

    558 Words  | 2 Pages

    To understand how things reach a tipping point, you must first understand the three rules of epidemics. Gladwell defines the three rules of epidemics as the law of the few, the stickiness factor, and the power of context. The first rule, the law of the few, explains how individuals with the gift of connections and persuasion make a difference in pushing epidemics to the limit and spreading a useful message wide and far. It most certainly takes talent to be that person or persons to make something reach its peak. The ...

    Read More

  • Seal Fights Culture Essay

    476 Words  | 1 Pages

    Your professor wants to upload a video of talking horses, and he wants it to go “viral” (i.e., spread very quickly to many people). Based on the different factors that cause ideas to spread, give examples of what the video would need to include for it to have the highest likelihood of spreading.

    Read More

  • The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

    748 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell looks at a number of social epidemics and analyzes their build up to the point where they tip. “Tipping” is that point where an epidemic booms, or grows, to its maximum potential. Gladwell begins defining “tipping” with a literal example of the famous shoes, Hush Puppies. Once considered old-fashioned, Hush Puppies experienced a social boom in the mid-90s when hipsters in New York made them trendy again. Gladwell continues explaining “tipping” with a medical epidemic of syphilis in Baltimore. Gladwell introduces us to three essential rules of epidemics: the Law of the Few, the Stickiness Factor and the Power of Context. The Law of the Few says a key factor in epidemics is the role of the messenger: it spreads through word-of-mouth transmission. Gladwell explains this theory with an example of how Paul Revere managed to spread the news of British invasion overnight. Gladwell continues to explain that there are several types of people that create these types of epidemics. They are called Connectors, Mavens and Salesmen. Connectors are those people that are very social and can literally connect with people with as little as two degrees of separation. Mavens are those that know a lot about a lot of different things. They may recommend a certain restaurant and you must go because you know what they told you about it is true. And Salesmen are exactly that: people that are easily social and persuading.

    Read More

  • History: Airdrie, Alberta, Canada

    811 Words  | 2 Pages

    The festival is a must for visitors visiting the Airdrie during the Christmas holiday. The festival offers a spectacular collection and magical display of light work. Every year the festival witnesses a footfall of more than 50,000 visitors. It is also among the top 10 holiday light show in Canada. Christmas is brought to live with the spectacular display of

    Read More

  • Internet Fame

    889 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the article ‘The Flip Side of Internet Fame’ by Jessica Bennett; in this article the author Bennett, gives the reader her insight on the negative side of the rise of social media.Although, some may see social media as a harmless outlet. Bennet gives some detailed examples of how even making an innocent video like dancing to one of a favorite television show, while no one is looking, and thinking no one will ever see your funny moments. Anything can happen, and once it’s out there it’s now in the hands of the world and the judgmental mindsets of millions. For example; Bennet described a young boy named Raza who recorded himself dancing to Star Wars, while his intentions were never for this video to get out. Some students viewed the video without his permission and decided to share it online.

    Read More

  • Viral Marketing: Word-to-Mouth-Marketing

    1717 Words  | 4 Pages

    Viral marketing is a form of word-of-mouth marketing that aims to result in a message spreading exponentially and campaigns work when a message is spread exponentially and it results in a desired outcome for a brand (Stokes, R., 2010). Viral marketing uses the internet to disclose and spread the company’s products or services. It harnesses the electronic connectivity of individuals to ensure marketing messages are referred from one person to another (Stokes, R., 2010). There are two types of viral marketing. Organic viral campaigns spread with no input from the company who wants to advertise. The message or product/ service being sold by the merchant are passed around in a viral nature without any intention from the marketer (Stokes, R., 2010). In organic viral marketing, no planning was done on how to broadcast the products or services and those who expose the products or services made a choice just to pass it around by word of mouth in the internet. Amplified viral marketing on the other hand have been strategically planned, have defined goals for the brand being marketed, and usually have a distinct method of passing on the message (that can be tracked and quantified by the marketer) (Stokes , R.,2010). To go viral, sellers or services provider have to define the aims of the campaign. Sellers or service providers have to decide if the company wants brand awareness, drive traffic or make sure customers avail of the products or services. Secondly, the company should plan the message it wants to go viral. The message has to be unique and easily noticeable by consumers. Third, the message you want to convey must be passed on to others efficiently. The company has to provide incentives for sharing. The greatest ince...

    Read More

  • Nike Report

    962 Words  | 2 Pages

    Share of mind is achievable through an appropriate media mix. Since media reaches a fixed number of consumers, it then becomes a matter of what reaction they will have once they are aware.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Old Spice Campaign

    1782 Words  | 4 Pages

    Channel is the method or medium by which communication travels from a source or sender to a receiver. Channels of communication can be categorized into two types, nonpersonal and personal. Nonpersonal channels of communications in terms of advertisement carry a message without direct, interpersonal contact between the marketer and the target audience. Personal channels involves direct communication between two or more persons and can occur face to face or through social media. The campaign used personal channels to have communications with the consumers through social media. For Old Spice to build buzz, they invited consumers to submit questions through social media and it would be personally answered by the Old Spice Guy. “Digital is perfect because you can quickly gauge the reaction as people are very open to providing feedback to the advertising (D&AD)”, said branch manager of Old Spice James Moorhead. Consumers were able to go online onto Facebook and Twitter to submit questions to be answered by the Old Spice Man, “The idea was simple: the Old Spice Guy would personally respond to fans’ messages and comments posted across a variety of social media, including Facebook and Twitter, through a series of video messages accessed via YouTube (D&AD)”, the problem was how are they going to be able to do this. Another problem was the cost, content and how they were going to message the script approval. They were able to

    Read More

  • Public Discourse

    988 Words  | 2 Pages

    Public identity and opinions are formed through the rapid circulation of information. The emergence of new forms of communication have profound effects on society by drastically shaping the social landscape though rapid information transmission. Gabriel Tarde described the formation of publics as resulting from accelerated information transmission following the introduction of the railroad, printing press and telegraph which “perfected instantaneous transmission of thought from any distance” (31). Similar to the innovations described by Tarde, social media has communication to a new level by spreading information rapidly and on a global scale. Social media has the power to modify public discourse through the impulsive dissemination of emotionally

    Read More

  • Social Media And Our Perception Of Others

    1525 Words  | 4 Pages

    Every day we meet a lot of people have seen their behavior, listen to what they say, think about them, try to understand them. We feel that we not only see what color eyes and hair of a person, tall or not, thin or full, but also sad to him or fun, smart or stupid it, solid or not and so on. Over the past decade, social media has seen growth to the point where it is reflects in our daily lives and even the lives of those who choose not to use it. Anywhere we go online, there are always buttons to click so that you can share something on Facebook or pin it to your Pinterest account.

    Read More

  • Identifying Potential Genres of Viral Videos

    2301 Words  | 5 Pages

    Viral video is hard to define, but it is quickly becoming its own genre. I had a college professor once, in an attempt to define poetry, say this: ‘Poetry is like pornography. It’s tough to define, but you know it when you see it.’ Substitute ‘Viral Video’ for ‘Poetry’ and you have a definition o...

    Read More

  • Research Philosophy

    745 Words  | 2 Pages

    More specifically, epistemology also contains three philosophical positions: positivism, realism and interpretivism (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2009). Positivism stance usually supports investigating or studying an observable social reality and the final production could be “law-like generalisations similar to those produced by the physical and natural scientists” (Remenyi et al. cited in Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2009, p113). It is effective to generate a research strategy to collect the creditable data which comes from observable reality therefore contributing to developing hypotheses (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2009). In this study, we aim at exploring the creditable and measurable results from individuals in order to understand the influence of surprise on viral marketing via social media in perspectives of message characteristics. Thus, the philosophy of positivism will be adopted in this study for collecting creditable data from the subjects to produce some “law-like generalisations”. However, it is always difficult to decide whether interpretivism should be applied to conduct a deeper analysis relating to subjects’ attitude for the sake of enhancing the precision. More complicated, such a dilemma would often lead to the reflection of realism, which is divided into direct realism and critical realism (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2009).

    Read More

  • Black Mirror Reflection

    1159 Words  | 3 Pages

    In this “Digital Age” that we currently live in, it becomes very easy for an individual to become infatuated with the amount of social media outlets available on the internet. Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat all revolve around the idea of showcasing one’s personal life for the sake of receiving positive feedback or attention by peers and strangers from the outside world. An episode of the Netflix sci-fi anthology series, “Black Mirror,” decides to tackle this topic in a surreal yet imaginative way. The episode in particular, “Nosedive,” investigates a hypothetical future or alternate universe where social media profiles and star ratings have become the norm. The plot revolves around a young lady named Lacie, who

    Read More

  • Internet Marketing Essay

    723 Words  | 2 Pages

    Technologies are increasing rapidly and shaping not only the traditional marketing but internet marketing as well. That is why marketers are facing a great global competition in terms of modern marketing. Marketers should know this thing that new technologies can help them by making their work simple, so they should shift to latest technologies and some new things. Business gets success when it comes with something new and interesting. That is why marketers must change their strategies as the tradition, trend, and environment changes. When we talk about changes and technologies, we can’t forget viral marketing, which is a form of fresh marketing. Many advertisers and companies are moving towards it. (H.B Klopper, 2002)

    Read More

More about Westjet Christmas Miracle Videos Analysis

Open Document