Brand Manager of UnMe Jeans

What Benefits and risks are there in each of the three social media plans? Can the risks be mitigated?

As a Brand Manager of UnMe jeans, Margaret Foley is aware of the change in trend of advertising from traditional mediums to the current dynamic internet advertising. By 2007, average consumers were devoting 23% of their media consumption to online channels. Online advertising was classified into banner or display advertisements, classified advertisements and search advertisements. Online advertising emphasized on consumer co­creation, social affiliation, digital self expression and sharing. The objective of UnME jeans was to do less “talking at” and more “talking with” the consumers. From the many online advertising platforms, Foley chose to lead with the following:

ZwinkTopia: This medium focused on digital self expression in that it allowed people to express their identities online by creating digital representations of themselves called Avatars. ZwinkTopia’s main target market was girls aged 13 to 24 and the focus of the site was on music and fashion. As an advertising strategy, with every special edition line of jeans that was released, UnME launched a virtual version of it to generate an online buzz of the product. This provided an online experience for the consumers to embody the brand’s aura. Zwinkies, as the avatars were called, would be allowed to show their creativity by designing their own virtual UnME jeans which, if selected, would be launched in the real world.