Communications Corner

Burger King's Whopper 388 Words | 1 Min 38 Sec Since the dawn of the fast food industry, I feel it has become customary to produce and distribute hyperbolic communications content. To name a few popular franchises, KFC and McDonald's partake in this devious exercise where they share mouthwatering images of their food. However, when it's reached your hands, it bears no resemblance. I would assume it captures the same feeling when you're meeting someone you've been speaking with online and they look nothing like they are in photos (I haven't been there personally). If you have fallen victim to this, then do not fret as a lawsuit has been filed against Burger King for this very reason. Consumers have identified that their adverts portraying a disproportionate, albeit favourable, burger-to-condiments-to-bun ratio fail to live up to standards and are smaller in real life.  Someone Better Call Saul (for advertising) The class action lawsuit filed against Burger King a...

Thumbnails from prominent YouTubers: JorRaptor (white) and AndyReloads (black). 477 Words | 2 Min Read Does anyone remember much of 2021? I mean Covid was still a 'thing' and society was incrementally adjusting itself to normality. But I recall being invested in Assassin's Creed Valhalla's (2020) extensive post-launch roadmap. Ubisoft was pumping money just like people were towards GameStop stock in early 2021 - this ultimately paid off for Ubisoft since  Valhalla made them $1 billion , a monumental success for the company and franchise. Before I deviate to the financial performance of video games, how was my thirst for Assassin's Creed Valhalla's post-launch roadmap quenched, given that marketing for the roadmap was minimal? Inorganic content marketing made by passionate prosumers (if you have read my blog posts so far, I would assume you know what a prosumer is, if not read here ) who have access to insider information and leak the information to eager people ...

  Barbie (2023) 713 Words | 3 Min Read It would be rather incompetent of me, as a marketing student, to neglect an analysis of the ubiquitous marketing campaign, movement, phenomenon, or whatever you like to describe it, of the Barbie movie released on July 21, 2023. For a household name, reputable to a predominantly female audience and millennials, and can be commonly encountered defaced (at times) in a toy box or charity shop, we weren't expecting Greta Gerwig's Barbie, featuring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling to create a historical impact this summer.   Whilst the movie's production budget was around $145 million, the marketing budget was reportedly $150 million. Since Margot Robbie strongly predicted the film will make a billion dollars in an early pitch meeting, the distributors, Warner Bros., had to ensure this vision came to fruition - and oh boy, it certainly did.   After researching Barbie's marketing strategy, it was clear there were two core elements: (1) Pa...

  I don't know the credibility of the above statistic. It's merely used as a stock photo. So I've been going to the cinema often this year, more than I usually go. I don't know, 2023 has been a great year so far for movies. Up until now, I've seen Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, The Little Mermaid (it was an axiomatic decision, I had no choice, but it wasn't as bad as I anticipated), Insidious: The Red Door and recently Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer. And if God wills it, I shall be watching a few more this year.  But as we know, before the movie starts rolling, we have subjective tedious adverts to watch. Now I say subjectively because they are objectively the most enjoyable aspect for me based on my recent experience at the cinema.  I've been exposed to so many that I'm weirdly unable to recall any, but they are equally intriguing in their own unique ways. Organisations mainly comprising Samsung, Royal Marines, The Open University, Indeed, Co...

Contextual Notes Video game marketing is a fascinating and intricate domain, far more complex than I initially realised. As someone who aspires to work in this field, I felt compelled to resurface the Cyberpunk 2077 incident in 2020 from a marketing persepctive. This blog post strongly originated from a thought-provoking YouTube video titled " Video Game Marketing Needs to Change " by a publisher called Burback. In this video, Burback critically scrutinises the fundamental relationship between developers, publishers, and audiences, shedding light on the "false relationship" established when audiences are captivated by a barrage of enticing promises through marketing efforts that ultimately fail to materialise. Notably, the video takes a well-deserved shot at CD Projekt RED's once highly anticipated title, Cyberpunk 2077 (2020), which strongly exemplifies this issue. So, why does the delivery of video game marketing often fall short? The challenge lies in promoti...

To my loyal Communications Corner readers, I'm alive and well. I've just been busy with a lot of things which I'm thankful for. I plan to disclose my absence in future blog posts, but for now I'm in the process of researching and writing a long-form blog about video-game marketing. 👾🎮 Unfortunately, it has taken longer than expected but I plan on getting it completed by Monday 24th July. Only once that is posted, I will return to my short-form and constant blog postings. I wanted to try writing a long-form and in-depth blog post but given my busy schedule nowadays, it's best I stick with shorter blog posts. 📝 This epitomises the notion of trying new things out and seeing whether it is effective or not. In this case, I tried planning and writing a longer blog post and learned it doesn't coincide well with my schedule. Don't worry though, I'm still looking forward to posting it. 🌳 See you all soon, Nima Shiralizadeh Communications Corner, Founder