Mediaboss Marketing

Steven Althaus's moment of digital truth came this past spring. BMW's global director of brand management stood in front of top management, telling them the automaker was about to use a drift mob to help market their new car, the M235i.

Five professional drivers were set to go behind the wheel of the M235is and driftor drive at high speeds, hit the brakes, and turn the steering wheel to spin the car abruptlyaround a traffic circle in Cape Town, South Africa. Their aim was to simulate a flash mob; a staged but seemingly spontaneous performance.

BMW executives fired off questions to Althaus that veered toward disbelief. I presented the idea of a drift mob and they said: 'Is this really going to work?' I had to say, I dont know. Nobodys done it before, Althaus recalls.

BMW wouldnt launch the video as a commercial, but pushed it out through /DRIVE, a popular YouTube channel dedicated to cars. The drift mob was part of a proposed new social media marketing strategy for BMW. Up until that point, the company had done a reasonable job with the first wave of social media tools.

Of course were on Facebook, Twitter . . . says Sebastian Schwiening, a 29-year-old digital marketing manager. He started at BMW in 2010, fresh out of the University of Kiel business school in Germany.

The German automobile company has more than 19 million Likes on Facebook, 602,000 Twitter followers, and a YouTube channel with more than 400,000 subscribers.

But as of early 2014, the company hadnt so much as put a Twitter hashtag into its advertising. Schwiening occasionally found himself having awkward conversations with senior marketing management over social media tactics he was trying, like a short video of two BMWs kissing that went up on Instagram. The video didnt fit in with BMWs self-image, but it did draw 70,000 hearts, Instagrams version of a like.

Hearts werent in upper managements lexicon, though. Normally, we just report use on things like our channels and website, Schwiening says. For me its tricky to explain that its better to have uplift in social engagement than clicks on our sites.

Althaus says he was intrigued by what Schwiening and BMW's online marketing department head, Florian Resinger, were trying with social media. Althaus had noticed during the 2014 Super Bowl that almost all of the other advertisers14 out of 20were using hashtags in their commercials. He wanted to see BMW adopt hashtags in its branding.

How could BMW explore this? Companies know the risks of engaging on social mediathey can damage their brands by pandering to trends, while consumers can say damaging things about brands that go out over a specific hashtag. Adopting hashtags meant BMW would loosen control of its brand messaging.

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The Man Who Convinced BMW To Rethink Social Media

MAINSTREAM MEDIA CONTROL - CFR (US) - RIIA (UK)
COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS has a HUGE Influence on those linked to the President OF The US (POTUS) - Vice-President (VP) and the Cabinet - Chairman Emeritu...

By: youHumanRights

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MAINSTREAM MEDIA CONTROL - CFR (US) - RIIA (UK) - Video

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Beijing (CNN) -- In a rare, joint news conference with the global news media inside the heart of Beijing, U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged cooperation on a range of common interests as they concluded an unusually colorful economic summit.

Asked about anti-American rhetoric in Chinese state-run media which accused the United States of backing recent democracy protests in Hong Kong, Obama brushed off the criticism as "part of being a public official."

"The United States had no involvement in fostering the protests that took place there," Obama insisted.

Xi appeared to grimace when asked by New York Times reporter Mark Landler about international press access in China and whether he viewed Obama's "pivot" to Asia as an authentic component of U.S. foreign policy.

In a sign of clear annoyance with the setting, Xi initially did not answer the question and moved to hear instead from a Chinese reporter. In response, Xi appeared at times to read a prepared statement.

US, China reach historic climate change deal

"We don't see eye to eye on every issue. Both sides should respect each other's core interests," Xi said, adding the two nations should manage their differences respectfully.

Xi, however, went on to take note of international criticism of China's human rights record.

"China has made enormous progress in its human rights. That is a fact," Xi said, conceding that his nation's work in that area is not "mission accomplished."

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China vs. U.S. media at rare new conference

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. - Social media is becoming the new focus of school policies as districts that embrace technology try to balance adult and student contact on and off campus.

Incidents of teacher and student encounters gone wrong via social media are growing. In February, a former New Rochelle school librarian, was sentenced to three years probation after admitting to trying to seduce a 16-year-old student. It was text messages the boy's parents saw between the two that broke the case, police said.

A 14-year-old Connecticut teen was charged last month with harassment for posting inappropriate pictures of a teacher on line.

"Social media has become part of everyone's everyday life," said Carl Korn, a spokesman for New York State United Teachers. "Teachers are struggling to find the right balance - or deciding not to participate - because while there are rewards, there are also risks."

As schools bring technology into their hallways and classrooms, districts have been driven to craft a patchwork of policies to delineate what has long been a gray area.

School administrators want their teachers to interact with students and parents and encourage them to use social media to send homework reminders or post student work. They also want their teachers to maintain a professional distance, increasingly asking them to sign an "acceptable use policy" or "code of conduct" that forbids them from "friending" students on Facebook or following them on Twitter.

"Any time there are kids involved, there are protocols," said Nyack schools Superintendent James Montesano.

Byram Hills school district's policy limits teacher-student contact to the district's email system or website.

"So it's traceable," said schools Superintendent William Donahue. "In that regard, we can put limits on that part of their professional life."

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Schools draw social media line between teachers, kids

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University students across Sydney have been paying other people to write their essays using a website called MyMaster. Lisa Visentin and Amy McNeilage report.

NSW universities are in damage control following a Fairfax Media investigation that revealed hundreds of students across the state were engaging the services of an online essay writing business.

On Wednesday, the Herald exposed an online business called MyMaster, run out of Sydney's Chinatown, that had provided more than 900 assignments to students from almost every university in NSW, turning over at least $160,000 in 2014.

Yingying Dou, who is the director of the MyMaster website, has taken the site down. Photo: Dominic Lorrimer

A number of universities were holding emergency meetings when Fairfax Media called for comment this morning and most have declined requests for an interview.

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Professor Andrew Parfitt, the deputy vice-chancellor of the University of Newcastle, said the institution was "disappointed" but denied the cheating was systemic and said that there were mechanisms in place to catch offending individuals.

"I can't guarantee we can identify individual cases all the time. But we can identify across the course of a full course somebody who is systematically doing this sort of thing," he said, speaking on ABC Newcastle radio on Wednesday morning.

The MyMaster website received at least $26,410 from students at the University of Newcastle who submitted 123 requests for ghost written assignments - the second-highest number of requests from the 16 universities affected.

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Universities in damage control after widespread cheating revealed