Digital Writing Skills Assignment 2

Unilever's passion

Unilever’s passion revolves around two main aspects: sustainability and positive social impact.

Sustainability
Sustainability lies at the heart of Unilever’s business. In their view it is the only acceptable model of growth in regard to a growing global population. Furthermore they promote sustainable living and intend to normalise it worldwide.
On Unilever’s Facebook page for example the organisation published a post in December 2015 with recipes for leftover Christmas food to fight food waste. Another Facebook post last December addressed deforestation and asked its consumers to sign a petition to prevent further destruction of nature.
On Unilever’s Twitter page the organisation posted a message in April invoking their followers to sign the Paris agreement, a global framework for collaborative action on climate change.
A video posted on Unilever’s YouTube channel in November 2015 informs consumers about how food banks can help tackle the issue of food waste.
Research shows that the theme of sustainability can be found on all social media platforms used by Unilever.

Unilever’s positive social impact can further be divided into three categories: health, promotion of confidence in women and support for future generations.

Health

Unilever has set itself the aim to contribute to a healthier future through their products. Their Flora/Becel margarine brands for example help reduce cholesterol levels. Furthermore Unilever supports research into skin conditions and helps people affected by them through their brand Vaseline.
Health is a theme that traverses Unilever’s social media platforms. In July 2015 for instance the organisation posted a picture on its Facebook page promoting cycling and keeping your body fit. On twitter Unilever posted a picture of a soap in April 2016 promoting its hand washing campaign. The health theme can also be found on Unilever’s YouTube channel: in March 2016 a video was uploaded showing a campaign where Unilever worked with school children to create innovative ways to remind parents/adults to brush their teeth regularly.

Promotion of Confidence in Women

Empowering women is one of Unilever’s main themes online. A facebook post from March 2016 explains how the unique SMS service NextDrop helps women in India to save time getting water for their families. On twitter on the other hand one of Unilever’s brands Dove has its own twitter page for the campaign “Dove Real Beauty” that aims to boost women’s confidence about their looks. The theme of supporting women can also be found on Unilever’s YouTube. A podcast from March 2016 addresses low body confidence within Dove’s Self-Esteem Project.

Support of future generations

Another theme that reappears in Unilever’s social media online activity is support for children. On facebook for example Unilever posted a picture of two smiling boys with a caption explaining how one of its brands Persil has been working with UNICEF to provide 10 million children with education in 2015. Another campaign by Persil related to children was promoted in April 2016: a caption stating “74% of children in UK play outside for an hour or less each day” accompanied with a picture that shows a prisoner next to a child and the phrase “children now spend less time outdoors than a prison inmate”. This captivating post promotes children playing outside and enjoying nature with the hashtag #dirtisgood. Another approach can be seen on Unilever’s YouTube channel: a video from November 2015 presents an initiative to help abused women and girls supported by Unilever.

Influencers

On the one hand Unilever works with famous celebrities such as musicians Coldplay, Ed Sheeran and Beyonce as can be seen on an announcement on Facebook about a Global Citizen Festival in August 2015. The statement “Who wants to see Beyonce, Coldplay and Ed Sheeran live in Central Park” is clearly meant to attract people to join the festival and get in touch with their campaigns 'global citizen' and 'bright future'. Unilever uses the popularity of these celebrities to create positive associations with their campaigns and convince people to join.
On the other hand Unilever works with its employees. In March 2016 for instance Unilever uploaded a video about its top female leaders and their career journeys. They furthermore have a Unilever Heroes program that promotes committed employees and regularly post YouTube videos presenting them and the positive impact they have.

Influencer Social Media Post

Being a water hero does not require a super power. It’s easy and effective: You save 17 litres of water for every minute you cut from your shower. Start building a better world for our children TODAY. #savingwaterperminute #brightfuture

Interactive Social Media Post

It’s finally summer! How are you spending the days at the beach? Join the #dontforgetsunscreen movement and share a picture of you and your friends in sunscreen. #vaseline #skindeep

Digital Writing Skills - Assignment 1

1. I chose the company Unilever.

2. Diagram of content creation

Focus

With my new online activity I want to inspire people

and appeal to their emotions. Therefore I am going
to use the storytelling writing style for the   

assignments. My goal is to improve Unilever's

branding, lead generation which in the long-term will

hopefully increase their sales as well.
As for the target audience I am going to focus on

international families.

Research

I. Target Audience
The target audience I am going to focus on is international families. By

this I mean academic, middle-class families from different cultural

backgrounds with access to the internet and global community.

 II. Organisation's current online activity

 Unilever is active on multiple online platforms. First of all, their website

 unilever.com provides the most important information about the company   

 such as their vision, mission and the brands they own. The layout is

 modern and one can easily get an overview of Unilever's activities.
 
Furthermore it uses the social media platforms facebook, twitter,   
YouTube and LinkedIn. On Facebook for example Unilever has
3.402.905 likes and regularly posts articles, pictures and videos about

multiple topics in an uplifting and friendly manner to involve their
consumers.

III. Competition online

Among Unilever’s greatest competitors are The Procter & Gamble     

Company and Nestlé. The Procter & Gamble Company is also active on
social media platforms and like Unilever provides numerous worldwide
corporate websites for different countries in their national language.
Next to the most used social media platforms Nestlé is also active on
Pinterest and Flickr. Its website has a similar style as Unilever: modern,
informative and adapted to individual countries.

IV. Online news about company and market

Recently Unilever has been in the news because of concerns about the
economic consequences of a possible Brexit (Britain leaving the EU).
Furthermore many news sources such as The Guardian report that
Unilever has pledged to quit using coal energy in the next five years and
to only use renewable energy sources by 2030. About the consumer goods
market in general journalists write that the industry growth has decreased from
11-12% in March 2015 to 5-6% in January 2016 due to a sinking consumer
confidence.

VI. Online Trends

Among the trends that might influence Unilever’s online relations are: content  
will become more interactive for consumers, Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
will align further to content marketing and design and speed will be considered
a necessity by consumers. Another

VII. Readers responses

VIII. Favourite Subjects
One of the recent favourite subjects on facebook is a post about the Chinese    
New Year, accompanied by a picture of an Asian toddler with almost half a

million likes. Another popular facebook post. On YouTube a video about

Unilever’s top female leaders who talk about their careers is most liked by

consumers with over 5,000 views.

Improve    
Judging from the number of views and retweets it can be said that Unilever is    

not successful in involving their consumers on YouTube and Twitter. Thus I

would suggest an endorsement or campaign with a well-known public figure.

Moreover increased use of interactive media tools such as might differentiate

them from the competition.

Write  
I. Paid Post
The advertisement by Unilever is in celebration of Walmart’s 50^th anniversary.

Although the slogan has a relevant message the design hinders its

effectiveness: the ad is overloaded with pictures of products which makes it look

unprofessional and unappealing to the eye. Furthermore the colour of the

slogan is hard to read. Instead I would focus on the three most popular and
successful products and their development throughout Unilever’s foundation. 

(Link to ad: https://www.behance.net/gallery/3969953/Three-Page-Unilever-Ad 

for-Walmarts-50th-Anniversary)

II. Owned Post

The Twitter Post by Unilever promotes the increase of comfort in fabric
conditioner. First of all, the picture is unfavourable because it does not show the

whole product but only the caption “comfort intense”. Furthermore, the text is

not engaging and the topic is not framed in an interesting way. An alternative

approach might be to involve the consumers by asking rhetorical questions or

asking them to share their experiences with the product. Besides, the picture

could show the effect of a product without comfort in fabric conditioner and

Unilever’s product to emphasize its superiority.

(Link to ad: https://twitter.com/Unilever/status/720518819173822464)

III. Earned

The blog entry by Ian Cairns is an interview with one of Unilever’s employees.

Although the content is highly qualitative it goes down in the unfavourable

design. A picture of the interviewee would be useful to give a face to the

statements. Furthermore, pictures, videos or links about topics discussed in the

interview could catch and keep consumers’ attention.
(Link to ad: https://blog.twitter.com/2015/how-unilever-became-a-pioneer-in-social-analytics)

Sources
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jan/19/unilever-prepares-for-tougher-global-market-conditions

http://www.pg.com/en_UK/

http://www.nestle.com/aboutus

https://www.unilever.com/

https://www.facebook.com/unilever/?ref=br_rs

http://www.livemint.com/Money/5u19i0oTdpk4WfnMabV8vI/The-curious-case-of-high-consumption-growth-projections.html

http://www.inc.com/dan-scalco/5-digital-marketing-trends-to-watch-for-in-2016.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_NyGpmsdFM

https://www.youtube.com/user/Unilever/videos

https://twitter.com/unilever

https://blog.twitter.com/2015/how-unilever-became-a-pioneer-in-social-analytics