Advertising gets social.

[Michael]

Over the past year we’ve started to challenge some of the traditional marketing paradigms in our hunt to find ways to truly engage people though social media. We’ve always known in Habbo Hotel that interruptive formats based on the old school way of gaining attention have little relevance or place in a social realm. In our search for an alternative we’ve discovered ways to involve and engage people that we believe can be applied equally well in a service like Habbo Hotel as well as Facebook or Youtube.

Social media is challenging the fundamentals of marketing communications, seeing established models like Awareness Interest Desire Action (A.I.D.A) evolving to fit this new marketing environment. In its place we are starting to see the emergence of a new model that puts the consumer at the heart of the communication and provides a means to spread the message to peer networks and beyond. We term this model A.I.R.A, which stands for Awareness, Involvement, Recommendation and Amplification.



As before, the process starts by raising Awareness but the way in which this is done today is much more viral in nature and requires some thought upfront. As humans we love discovery and by creating a way to discover your brand, it will likely result in much higher levels of engagement and word of mouth rather than just shouting from the sidelines for attention.

Discovery leads to interest and in turn greater brand Involvement, which can come in many forms. For example, teenagers in Habbo Hotel like to dress their avatar with a branded effect that they can wear around the hotel. For the recent Sims 3 launch this included introducing the iconic green plumbob to our community, which was worn by teens at many of the parties organized by friends in Habbo Hotel.

An involved consumer is much more likely to lead to Recommending the message to their friends. This recommendation today is often a conscious action though in the near future it’s just as likely to be automated as the tools for using the social graph develop.

These recommendations are Amplified across people’s friends networks, which in turn raises awareness to more people activating the same cycle spreading the message further afield.

This is all interesting theory but what does this really look like in practice? At Habbo we’ve developed the 3 P’s model of Engagement Advertising to deliver great results for our advertisers.

The first P is for Person, who we place at the centre of a promotion in the form of giving them content we know they will be interested in. For example with the recent release of Paramount’s Megamind movie we seeded the Habbo community with an avatar effect that allowed teens to change their head to that of Megamind himself. What started out with a few blue heads popping up in Habbo Hotel quickly spread throughout the community.

Creating the optimal environment for brand discussions is done in Habbo Hotel by creating a meeting Place, the second P of our model. This is either sponsorship of an existing high traffic place in Habbo or a fully customized environment designed to reflect the core brand values.



The final P is Peer Influence, which we generate through initiating events and activities that truly engage the target audience. You’ll notice that I say initiate and not organise, the beauty of social media is that it’s infinitely scalable though you have to give the network effect a little nudge to get it going.

At Habbo we’ve used this new model to great effect. Not only is it simple to understand it delivers great results for our advertisers. Remember that Megamind blue head effect? We published it in the Habbo catalogue without telling the community and it was used over 9 million times globally in one weekend.

Millions of teenagers roamed the hallways and rooms of Habbo Hotel wearing the Megamind blue head and having fun in the process. What was perhaps even more impressive were the many discussions going on along the lines of ‘hey that’s cool, what is it and where can I get one?’

Now if that isn’t social advertising, what is?

Taken from sulakes website, posted today.

[tylermunjkt]

Im not reading all that... But the picture looks cool. Seems that habbo is really growing... But costing aswell..

[Michael]

basically they are just saying they will find more ways to advertise more lol.

[user130523]

i took part in an event with uk office staff + puffin last week about social media

me, frisc0, habtaz & vanilla.bear got interviewed all about social media (how we use the internet, celebrities, social networking etc)

[Mathew]

I find this odd. I feel like I'm being used, almost like a guinea pig in order for Habbo to experiment their latest advertising techniques and latest ideas on us. They can just throw advertising onto us and we accept it - but it's fun in the process. It's so weird - it's actually enjoyable advertising. Damn, how innovative!

[e5]

Anyone want to make that short and snappy? As I can't be bothered to read it.

[AgnesIO]

Anyone want to make that short and snappy? As I can't be bothered to read it.

To me the last paragraph suggest that by releasing effects etc based on certain things habbos use them. Other habbos then ask "hey, what is that effect and where can I get it?" The user then tells them and the users are now socially advertising things without habbo staff having to do it.

So I guess in the future companies could pay habbo to release effects etc based on their products, and allow habbos to use them - and socially advertise the product - without even realising they are doing so!