Part 1: Framing the Challenge
The following post is part of the #TeenVibe project for the #CocaColaChallenge by the team Market Games of the Startup Lab of Panteion University in Greece.
Research is the Alfa and Omega of a project. We searched on the web, the AppStore and the PlayStore platforms, in order to find out whether there were any other similar applications, to evaluate our competitors and to rule out any concerns or copyright issues that could occur in the future.
We based our research on two separate pillars: 1. applications made by the same or other soft drinks companies that offer customers a similar experience or not, and 2. independent applications or websites that are centered on digital media and influencer’s content or information.
During our research we were able to find out that in general, an application such as the one that we are proposing does not exist yet, since its suggested features are never all concentrated in one app. On the contrary, some of them can be found in various separate applications, thus making it hard for the users and fans of social media influencers to use just one application.
- Applications that were produced by soft drinks companies or other related organizations.
We searched on PlayStore and AppStore to find various other Coca Cola apps such as the “Coke Drink” where the smartphone screen fills up with coca cola allowing the user to pretend that his/her phone is a real glass of coca cola. Another example of an application constitutes the “Coke Studio” where the users can listen to radio and playlists, “Coke Scan” where the users can scan bar-codes and win items and “Coca-Cola Happy Shopmate” which allows customers to receive rewards, discounts,coupons and passes for exclusive events.
Similar applications have also been produced by other companies, for instance, Fanta has created the “Fanta FunTrap”, a simple game that does not allow many options to the users. Furthermore, Dr. Pepper has released an application called “Doctor Pepper Park Roanoke Events”, in which the users can find information about festivals and events in a certain area, while Pepsi has introduced the “Pepsi Selfie” where the audience can take selfies and add different frames as well as stickers with food that matches with Pepsi.
2. Independent apps that offer content produced by social media influencers.
This type of applications are first and foremost the most popular social media platforms:
• Facebook, where many digital influencers create pages to share content and gain followers and likes.
• Instagram, where instagrammers post photos, videos and stories, often accumulating large amounts of followers and great endorsement deals.
• Twitter, in which bloggers and vloggers share more easily and with a larger audience the content that they have posted on other websites.
• YouTube, where YouTubers thrive, posting videos and vlogs of various issues, subjects and events.
• Other very popular social media constitute SnapChat, BlogSpot, Tumblr, Blogger.com and Blog.com.
Apart from these platforms there are also other applications and websites that focus on allegating content from various digital influencer sources and gathering it all in one place that catalogs the existing social media influencers without mentioning or entailing any of their content. Examples of such carriers are simple ‘’news’’ websites like BuzzFeed.com and cataloging websites such as Klout, BuzzSumo and HootsuiteStreams.
Therefore it can easily be concluded that when it comes to social media platforms, there is such a variety, which leads digital influencers to choose around 1–3 separate platforms to distribute their content. This makes it more difficult for teenagers and people in general to find new digital influencers and discover new content, something that we hope to solve with the application that we are proposing.
Through this research we arrived to the conclusion that such an application does not exist and teens have to download several, different apps to achieve that goal. Therefore, we offered the idea and prototype of this application as a solution that combines all of the teenager’s interests in one simple, interactive application. In other words: An all-in-one app.
The fact that we didn’t find any identical application to our app didn’t stop us there. We had to be sure that such an application would be able to deliver content correctly and satisfactorily to our target teenage audience. We also had to make sure that the content would respond to their expectations, interests, habits and needs. Through the interviews we requested information related with how they use the Internet, focusing on mobile technology and applications. We asked them their opinions on brand marketing and promoting, content developing, social media influencers, handling of their applications and their thoughts regarding exclusivity.
Regarding the application’s target audience, we aimed at teenagers aged from 13 years old to 19, mainly students from the start of middle school until the end of high school, which marks the changing period between childhood and adulthood. This new and future generation is centered on technological gadgets, social media uprising, multimedia and interactive content marking them as the first generation of people living with the existence of the Internet since the start of their lives.
What is more, we targeted people of various backgrounds, mainly from the central, west and east countries of Europe (Germany, Sweden, Poland, UK, Greece, Italy, etc.); so as to create a platform that supports all kinds of interests and preferences. Multiculturalism and diversity are the corner stones, as well as the main values of our targeted teenage audience. From enthusiasts of technology, fashion, photography, cinema and music, we aim to support any kind of taste and combine them altogether.
Team: The Market Games
Team Leader: Daphne Diapouli
Team: Amanda Voulgari, Daphne Diapouli, Frossw Karpozilou, Katerina Constanta(Konstantinopoulou) , Anastasia Σηλια Συμεωνιδη
University: Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences
Department: Communication, Media & Culture
Professors: Betty Tsakarestou, Spiros Kapetanakis, Katerina Vlassopoulou
