Portfolio Project: Social Media and Alternative Advertising Plan for Westfield Century City | CSU-Global MKG 350 - May 2015

Running head: SOCIAL MEDIA AND ALTERNATIVE ADVERTISING PLAN 1

Social Media and Alternative Advertising Plan: Westfield Century City

Julieta Randall

MKG350 – Promotion and Public Relations

Colorado State University – Global Campus

Warren, Shalonda

May 1st, 2015

SOCIAL MEDIA AND ALTERNATIVE ADVERTISING PLAN 2

Social Media and Alternative Advertising Plan: Westfield Century City

Executive Summary

Building a social media strategy for a shopping center like Westfield Century City would

create even more revenue for the business that is Westfield Corp., the encompassing company. In

this paper, social media and alternative promotional strategies, key points, copy examples,

competitors’ numbers and analysis, hypothetical expenditures, and a strategic plan for the

company will be mentioned.

Background History

The Westfield Group—now split into Westfield Corp. and Scentre Group—is a 55 year-

old international company that has been creating top-of-the-line retailing and social spaces that

stand out the test of time, always adapting themselves to changing environments and economies.

The core of their philosophy is "retailers serving customers," and it shows in its operations in

Australia, New Zealand, United States, and United Kingdom (2015, Westfield Corp: History).

It’s one of those “success” stories that started as a small business: “Frank Flowy and John

Figure 1: Westfield Century City (credit: Julieta Randall)


Saunders opened a delicatessen in 1955 opposite the railway station in Blacktown, a Sydney

suburb… the pair switched to land development…the United States, with its growing suburban

population and consumer mind-set, would be the next major target (Lacter, 2012).” The fact is

that the Century City shopping mall is one “of the most profitable” and the year of 2014 was

significant to Westfield Corp. because according to Peter Lowy (2015), the "A-IFRS profit was

$582 million for the six month period" and things look good for 2015 (Fair Disclosure Wire).

Monetary allocations to the promotional department should consider how social media could

boost these numbers even more.

Marketing Objectives

To increase social media communication’s department expenditures to be at par to the

competition

To provide immediate support to visitors of these channels, focusing on Instagram,

Twitter, and Facebook.

To engage the audiences in conversations that are relevant to their target market age, with

hashtags and catchy phrases congruent to the existing traditional promotional of the

company.

To promote social and family events that create in the audience a need to keep engaging

in the social media world, following these events.

To make a place for cultural events that are relevant to our changing times, with

comfortable seating and lounging spaces.

To promote visitor engagement within the premises, installing the Westfield official

smartphone app.


To produce consumer promotions such as sweepstakes, contests, and coupons that are

redeemable via the phone app or special codes sent via social media.

Competitive Media Expenditures Analysis

It is important for the communications departments to allocate a significant amount of

funds towards alternative ways of promotion. Salesforce polled 5,000 marketers for the 2015

year and found out that 70 percent of respondents planned to boost it and 66 percent said that

social media was core to their business (2015, Bennett). This trend is not changing anytime soon,

study finds (2015) that social media spending is to rise 150% by 2020 (Coffee).

Social media includes many platforms, but the ones relevant to this study are Twitter,

Facebook, and Instagram. Facebook is the most popularly known, housing “over 800 million

users worldwide…with the largest source of display ads of all social networks, with 17.7 percent

share (Clow & Baack, 2013, p. 255).” Twitter is a micro-blogging service that provides concise

messaging with the possibility of viral hashtag trending and retweeting/re-blogging. Instagram

allows mobile photo and video sharing with the possibility as well for trending with hashtags and

gathering followers and loves/likes.

In order to start to understand what Westfield Century City needs to do to increase their

business via engagement in social media, it is important to compare it to other similar

companies. The examples that will be mentioned are the Houston Galleria (Simon Malls owned)

and The Grove Los Angeles (Caruso Affiliated).

Data Comparison: Effective Reach Levels (as of 2015, April 30 th )

Twitter Account Tweets Following Followers

Houston Galleria 5,053 582 12.4KWestfield CC 4,760 867 2,115The Grove LA 13.5K 736 118K


Facebook Account Likes Visits

Houston Galleria 125,021 449,668Westfield CC 72,529 83,298The Grove LA 111,069 701,285

Instagram Account Posts Followers Following

Houston Galleria 453 2,390 319Westfield CC 695 1,651 509The Grove LA 1,188 41k 204

Observations: Reach Levels. It is abundantly clear that Westfield Century City social

media and alternative advertising is not quite happening. The best numbers are displayed by

Caruso Affiliated: The Grove Los Angeles. It seems that their strategy is to turn to “online

influencers” who are “people who shape purchasing decisions by providing the information or

criteria utilized in evaluating alternatives, such as engineers,” according to Clow & Baack (2013,

p. 68). As Dave mentions (2015), companies are resorting to giving store credit and offer perks

to influencers, such as the case of Chriselle Lim, and Instagram influencer who ended up posting

her recent buy and gathering 12,000 likes for The Grove LA (LA Times). An advantage to this

location is the existence of the Barnes & Noble which holds celebrity signings as well as their

famous “Farmer’s Market.”

Houston Galleria and Grove LA have a lot of followers and user engagement within

Twitter and Facebook. The Grove excels in all of the three social media networks. The Grove

creates customer engagement by creating tags like #WeRunTheGrove2015, seasonal tags like

#summer, #mothersday, or retweeting significant and relevant people who are engaged in the

conversation. They produce outdoor screenings and free yoga events. It seems that what they’re

trying to do is to create a destination, a place to hang out and engage socially, while consuming.


Data Examples: Reach and Frequency. Westfield CC’s reach has several problems: Their

Instagram posts average at 30 likes and 1 comment, their Facebook has poor likeability levels and posts at

seldom times (35 times in the month of April, 2015), and the tweets that come out of their Twitter account

have almost zero likeability (twitter.com/westfieldcc). Their posts look corporate and not retouched with

friendly colors/tones that are inherent to social media posts. To contrast this, let’s look at The Grove: their

Instagram averages about 30 posts per month with 500 likes and 19 comments (with bright contrasting

colors and pictures that “look” like they were done on the spot), their Twitter (in average 20 likes and 10

retweets) engages in conversation with “tweeties” while it also retweets pretty much anything that is

relevant to the brands in the mall. Finally, the Grove LA’s Facebook has significant likeability, with

plenty of shares, about 300 likes per post, and reposts Instagram user’s photos, crediting them like “photo

via Instagram user @paigediaz (facebook.com/thegrovela).”

Media Objectives

The proposal for Westfield Century City branch is to hire a team of four social media

experts, with one director surveying the operation. The manager will take over, directing the

most imperative messages to be sent out in a monthly basis and his/her duty is to pass out

company memos for this location in particular and handle advertising accounts that need the

most attention, while handling SEO and buzzmetrics of trending keywords, timing, and helping

find media influencers. The idea is to create a close relationship with the businesses located in

the shopping mall. The keyword that will always be mentioned is #westfieldcc. One of the

experts will handle customer service and related themes, notifying followers about the hours of

operation and other imperative messages, as well as encouraging people to “check in” unlocking

freebies or promotions in special dates. Another expert will be in charge to find the media

influencers and spokespersons that can help boost the company. Finally, the other expert will

handle events that are taking place in the location, integrating them into the conversation.


Analytical Tools. In order to boost social media performance, website activity and

performance can be analyzed buzzmetrics, demographics investigated in order to be segmented,

and influencers found to increase re-blogging, word-of-mouth, and exposure in all channels.

Finding Target Audiences. Target audiences can be reached better if they are treated as

“personas” who simplify the concept into demographics, constraints (language barriers, internet

access), and needs/wants Many marketing firms opt for seeking out services from people trained

in Nielsen PRIZM segmentation systems. What Claritas' Prism system does is dividing American

households into lifestyle categories according to geographic segmentation (Urban, Suburban,

Second City, Town/Rural, Town, and Rural), life stage group, social group, income producing

assets, age, education, employment, race/ethnicity, household composition, income, household

tenure, and urbanicity. PRiZM applied to the zip code of 90067 works well for our

marketing/advertising concerns. Century City displays these segments of home-owners and

rents: Young digerati, city roots, urban achievers, cosmopolitans, and close-in couples. It

produces an individual median income of $94,107 (PRIZM). It is obviously a wealthy city

surrounded by Beverly Hills, Westwood, and Beverlywood. Tourists and entire families come in

as well as city natives. These are people who can spend their entire day in the open air mall as it

has all the services they need, including child-care and recreational or lounge spaces.

Finding Key Media Influencers. There are many tools in the market to find media

influencers. Sentiments Metrics is a monitoring service that provides sentiment, influencer, and

demographic information. Klout is a popular one which helps discover, research, segment, and

manage influencers, engaging them in “perks” programs. Other top paid services are Traackr,

Linkdex, Little Bird, or PeerIndex (2014, Odden).


Buzzmetrics. One way of measuring the reach of a message is by: the number of likes,

views, and comments on Facebook; retweets, mentions, and likes on Twitter; and

likes/comments on Instagram. Hashtags help to get noticed beyond the existing followers

because everyone can find it and realize that they would like to follow the particular user. Big

companies like Westfield Corp. can afford services from specialized companies that can measure

buzz reach. Nielsen Buzzmetrics is one of them ($40, 000 a year) and they handle all reports

themselves in a quarterly or monthly basis, specializing in engagement, measurement, and

analyzing consumer-generated media, opinions, preferences, reputation, image, issues, and

coming trends (Barker et al, 2012, p. 310). Radian6 ($500 a month) helps to listen, measure, and

engage in ongoing conversations in social media.

Media Plan Details and Documentation

Manage accounts with stores in the mall directly, communicating the need for

promotional information.

The team must inform itself about seasonal and one-of-a-kind events, producing a

calendar for each month.

Reach out to news sites, blogs, and micro-blogs that cover Los Angeles events in order

to notify them as well of events happening in the location.

Find relevant artists via social media that can perform in the premises and can be

useful to the communications department team

Keep monitoring trends via the certified Nielsen, Radian6, and Sentiments evaluation

tools available.


Improve the communication of the social media department with the promotional

department and suggest trending topics that could be turned into events that are

relevant and hip (Example. A yoga event/talk featuring Gap products).

Copy Strategy Statements

Writing copy for social media is difficult to understand in the beginning, but once one

gets the ball rolling, it becomes easy. It is about being congruent with company’s traditional

advertising messages taken to another level. Biddu (2009) mentions how one should ask the

question “What’s in it for me?” and to “make the call to action at once compelling and easy for

the potential buyer to execute.” Social media copy should be timely (right place and right time),

genuine, with purpose beyond pushing the brand, determined with call-to-action, diverse (with

different strong headlines), according to current trends, easy read, and keeping a consistent voice

(Wong, 2014). Moreover, it should stay simple, it should know its audience, and should keep

attention to correct spelling.

Copy Strategies for Westfield Century City.

Re-tweet relevant stories and promotions happening in the location.

Re-post pictures from users who check in and "trend" with these pictures in social

media.

To produce relevant hashtags that are trending next to in-store stories, for example:

#helpnepal #earthday #mothersday #coachella #musicmonday #FlyBackFriday

#throwbackthursday #taxday

To produce fun inspirational quotes that transfer mentally to the customer.

Always sign #WCC when it comes to a communication from the staff to the public


Criteria for Determining Media Values

Financials for Campaign Boost. Social media expert and manager salaries range

between $40,000 -$63,000, which is depending on experience and seniority in the position

(SimplyHired.com; Glassdoor.com). Considering that four employees will be needed, let’s say

that the manager/director of social media earns $63,000 and the two others are at $45,000 (a total

of $198,000 for the department to open, plus company money to spend on social media related

expenses). As previously mentioned, SEO programs in media influencer research and

buzzmetrics would needed, so an account with Nielsen Buzzmetrics would be opened at $40,000

a year (which could serve for all social media sites in the company, not just Century City), the

Radian6 is at $500 at month, and the Sentiments Metrics is at about $570. This totals $250,840

for a yearly social media operation (plus other expenses, as mentioned). Eventually the Nielsen

account can be dropped once the trending ball gets rolling (only if the company finds it costly).

Current and Future Trends. Westfield Labs, or the digital

arm of the Westfield Group, is creating what will be the future

of shopping malls inside the beta testing lab in their San

Francisco Centre (2014, Johnson). They created their

smartphone application that can be downloaded from the

Apple store. It was nominated by Fast Company's "50 Most

Innovative Companies (2015)," creating phone apps like "Dine

on Time." Another development is the creation of Bespoke, a

start-up company that will aim to create a space for creation

and interaction in the retail and tech community with: working

Figure 2: Westfield US App 1


spaces, large event venues, public demonstrations, and pop-up

spaces (2014, McDowell). Westfield Labs will eventually

work together with all shopping centers and their motto is

"converging digital shoppers with physical retail

(www.westfieldlabs.com).

Conclusions

Westfield Century City has good ideas in term of innovative design spacing and

traditional marketing moves (as we can see with their own WestfieldLabs), but it lacks in vision

on how to expand their business to a younger and Internet-savvy audience. With a dedicated

social media and alternative marketing department, they could do so much more with their

shopping towns, engaging the customer in conversation, and wanting to create dialog. Customer

service is key to success and as more people are opting for social media to communicate their

frustrations, needs, and hopes, Westfield Corp should adapt to this trend.

References

Figure 3: Westfield US App 2


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Education

Portfolio Project: Social Media and Alternative Advertising Plan for Westfield Century City | CSU-Global MKG 350 - May 2015