Critical Approaches

1. Task 4
Critical Approaches

2. Coca Cola Share a Coke (Overview)
Coca Cola's share a coke campaign was considered by many as pure marketing genius. This allowed
their audience to come closer and share opinions with other fans of the beverage. This campaign saw an
increase of 7% in coke consumption and allowed the brand to grow as a company. Coca Cola was able to
turn this into a hashtag campaign by encouraging drinkers to tweet their own stories with the hashtag
#shareacoke. This campaign hasn’t just got thousands of tweets, but it has also given coke the
opportunity to create new sub-campaigns. For example, submitting a bottle or can with the name “Ryan”
on it could win you a chance to #shareacoke with Ryan Seacrest.

3. Coca Cola Share a Coke (Participatory)
There is a huge amount of participatory audience response in this. Social
Media has enabled this move towards participatory media. Coca Cola use the
hashtag #shareacoke to bring their audience closer to the brand and feel that
they are more involved. This allows people to not only interact with Coca Cola
but also fellow drinkers to get their thoughts on the campaign and the product
in general. Like i previously mentioned it also gives the audience a chance to
meet famous celebrities which raises Coca Cola's profile.

4. Coca Cola Share a Coke (Cultural Competence)
Although this campaign does not really require any cultural competence for it to
be a success, people will still need to be aware of certain endorsement deals
and different people to be able to take part. For example you will probably need
to know who Ryan Seacrest is and what he does if you want to #shareacoke
with him. You will also need to undertake some research into who you could
potentially meet by using this hashtag. In terms of the language used, it will be
basic which the vast majority should be able to understand. There should be no
real problem here.

5. Coca Cola Share a Coke (Fan Culture)
This campaign also has a bit of fan culture. For Coke to print bottles with
someone’s name on it makes that person feel special and appreciated. They will
buy bottles for their friends and will ig out to try and find their own name. There is
also a likelihood that they will post this on instagram as well to try and be
recognised by Coca Cola. A whole range of different name tags are available for
people to buy.

6. WWE Smackdown (Overview)
The WWE has a few different twitter accounts and the wrestlers also have
accounts. They use hashtags for wrestlers when they enter the stage and they
often build up a lot of tension through voting on twitter as well as the other social
media sites about who will win the next match. Fans love to keep up with all of the
twists and turns as they watch live from the venue or even from home while they
use the WWE iPad/iPhone app. YouTube is another important aspect of their
campaign as they have thousands of videos and 12 network channels.

7. WWE Smackdown (Participatory)
There is a lot of participatory media involved in this campaign. People can vote on
twitter and on their official website to influence the show. They can also tweet their
opinions using the official hashtag #wwesmackdown to interact with the show and
other wrestling fans.

8. WWE Smackdown (Cultural Competence)
There is a fair bit of cultural competence that is required to understand WWE and
to be able to take part in the discussion on social media. You would need to have
an inside knowledge on judges, current and past wrestlers as well as knowing
certain specific wrestling terms. These could include Titantron, Turnbuckle and
Gimmick.

9. WWE Smackdown (Fan Culture)
In terms of fan culture this is also present in this. WWE offer fans chance to get in
touch with their heroes through social media and allow them to buy props or
pieces of clothing that are worn by wrestlers.