Selfies have been called “a symptom of social media-driven narcissism,” a “way to control others’ images of us,” a “new way not only of representing ourselves to others. In this E-Book we have captured the entire history of selfie, how the trend started, who started and how brands are leveraging this phenomenon.

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Prepared By:
Ambuj Gupta
IIFT Kolkata Intern @Simplify360
Designed By:
Nida Mohsin
Web Designer @Simplify360

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Contents:
Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….4
History Of Selfie…………………………………………………….…………………………………………………….7
Why People Click Selfies?............................................................................10
Some Famous Selfies….……………………………………………………………………………………………13
Why marketers are interested in the selfie trend?........................................17
Selfie for a Social Cause……………………………………………………………………………………………40

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Introduction
What is that one thing that celebs, girls getting ready in the bathroom and fitness fanatics do in common? Clicking a Selfie!
Included in and defined by Oxford Dictionary as “a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website”, selfies have become a rage especially with the younger generation with everyone eager to flaunt on social media.
Selfies have been called “a symptom of social media-driven narcissism,” a “way to control others’ images of us,” a “new way not only of representing ourselves to others, but of communicating with one another through images,” “the masturbation of self-image” and a “virtual "mini-me," what in ancient biology might have been called a "homunculus" – a tiny pre-formed person that would grow into the big self.

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Selfies have become the catchall term for digital self-portraits abetted by the explosion of cellphone cameras and photo-editing and sharing services.
Every major social media site is overflowing with millions of them. Everyone from the pope to the Obama girls has been spotted in one.
One of the advertisements for the new Grand Theft Auto V video game features a woman in a bikini taking a photograph of herself with an iPhone.
In a recent episode of Showtime’s “Homeland,” one of the main characters snaps and sends a topless selfie to her boyfriend.
Snapchat, a photo-based messaging service, is processing 350 million photos each day, while a recent project on Kickstarter raised $90,000 to develop and sell a small Bluetooth shutter release for smartphones and tablets to help people take photographs of themselves more easily.

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According to stats declared by Mashable, even though the first selfie was posted on Jan 16, 2011, the hashtag #selfie has been used on Instagram over 88 million times.
A quick search on Google Android Store of the word “selfie” reveals that there are more than 250 apps that serve various purposes for taking a selfie, out of which around 35 are paid.
So with so much being said and done around Selfies, we decided to take a look at what brands and marketers are doing to jump aboard the selfie bandwagon.

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History of the Selfie:
While self-portrait photography has been around as long as cameras have, Social Media Today attributes the birth of the selfie to MySpace, which requested that users upload a “MySpace pic” to their profiles in 2006. That was the time when selfies posted on social network dinosaurs like MySpace were actually uncool.
That all changed as smartphones arrived in the market along with the advent of new social networking websites like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Snapped in New York on the roof of the Marceau Studio on Fifth Avenue, across the street from St. Patrick's Cathedral, this selfie taken in December 1920 is assumed to be the first ever “modern” selfie and features five gentlemen who were the photographers of the Byron Company, a photography studio founded in Manhattan in

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Apple came out with the iPhone 4s featuring a front-facing camera and many other manufacturers joined in to make the most of the trend. When Instagram and filtered photos hit smartphones in 2011, the selfie exploded across social networks.
For now, everyone is trying to experiment with the trend and it is quite common to come across headlines such as these:

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Why People Click Selfies?
There are majorly two schools of thought on why people take selfies; one blaming narcissism for forcing people into taking selfies while the other praising people who take selfies as “self-confident”.
Going by the narcissism school of thought, the belief of psychologists is that people who post selfies on social media websites are craving for attention and are expected to have less intimacy in their relationships. These people are in need of approval and validation, whose self-esteem is based on ‘public contingencies’, how they are perceived by others. This group will often present themselves in a more sexualised way, geared towards gaining as many comments as possible to prop-up a more fragile sense of self.
A study in this regard was conducted where 508 Facebook users with an average age of 24 were asked to rank how close they feel to their friends, coworkers and relatives who also use Facebook. They then compared those answers to how many selfies those people posted. Overwhelmingly, the more someone posted selfies, the lower they ranked on the intimacy scales of the participants.

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The other thought of self-confident people makes sense – if the culture of selfies is instilled at a young age, then people are growing up taking photos of themselves. Theoretically, this will make them more comfortable with their own self-image, which could lead to a more resilient self-esteem overall.
Dr Aaron Balick, a psychotherapist who has written a book about the human motivations behind social networking, explains that we have both "active online identities" and "passive online identities". He says:
"A passive one is like when you search for yourself, or when friends post information about you - it's your online identity that you have no control over. Active online identities are ones you can control, like a Facebook profile. A selfie is an expression of an active online identity, something you have some control over. You might take lots, but you'll publish the ones you like - even if they are silly or unflattering."
Because selfies and photobombs are now a part of our collective culture, let’s not scorn the selfie. It is merely a newer method of self-expression, and one that we should embrace.

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Rather than dismissing the trend as a side effect of digital culture or a sad form of exhibitionism, maybe we’re better off seeing selfies for what they are at their best — a kind of visual diary, a way to mark our short existence and hold it up to others as proof that we were here. The rest, of course, is open to interpretation.

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Some Famous Selfies:
They have been retweeted hundreds of thousands of time. People have spent their valuable time talking about them and the social media cannot get enough of them. Here are a few selfies that got people talking:
President Barack Obama sandwiched between Bill Nye and Neil deGrasse Tyson
Selfie with Pope Francis!
Koala Selfie by Australia.com

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The Space Selfie by NASA astronaut Aki Hoshide
The Gross Selfie by Ice Hockey player Mitch Callahan
Your Pain, My Gain selfie!
Plane just crashed Selfie!

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THE Oscar Selfie!
I so Cute Selfie!

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The Seductive Selfie!
The Funeral Selfie!

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Why marketers are interested
in the selfie trend?
As is evident from the above examples, a selfie has the capacity to go viral on the Internet. All it takes is some creativity and a little bit of planning.
If you look up ‘#selfie’ on Instagram you’ll be bombarded with millions of matches to scan through – more than 88 million to be precise. It is estimated that in 2014 the number of selfies being taken could exceed 250bn, so clearly marketers have the right to sense an opportunity. And with so many selfies being taken, it’s a no-brainer for brands think about how they can utilise that trend for exposure.
As with all aspects of social media, understanding your audience is critical to success. This requires listening, monitoring trends to know what your audience will and won’t engage with. But it also necessitates an understanding of the psychology of selfies, of why people engage in this activity in the first place.
While sectors such as FMCG have found it easy to approach the customer with this trend, there are a few sectors which have found it difficult to come up with campaign surrounding the trend of selfie. But one cannot just wake up one morning and start a selfie campaign. Like all marketing activities, the judicious use of this trend requires a firm planning and precise approach.

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Here are a few suggestions on how marketers can utilize the buzz around selfies for their own good:
• The first thing to consider is your audience. Will they be aware of selfies; will they appreciate this new digital marketing tool?
• Secondly, ensure that there is a strategy behind this. Don’t just embark on a ‘selfie’ campaign without strict guidelines. Make sure you have a solid objective for your campaign: what do you want the end result to be viz. increased brand awareness, website traffic, social followers, etc.?
• Create a separate landing page on your company website that spells out the rules of engagement for the campaign in question possibly setting limits for what’s appropriate.
• Incorporate a few mentions of the campaign’s hashtag so that a conversation is likely to flow around it.
• Also, brands need to be aware of any legal issues involving selfies and user-generated content in general.
• Marketers should also make sure to review selfies for any inappropriate material that they do not want associated with the brand.
Apart from that, many innovations in the product itself have also been made to accommodate the trend of selfies; selfie-specific phones and cameras being the prime examples.

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In the next section, we have handpicked ten campaigns that brands have executed commendably around the selfie:
CAMPAIGN #1:
The #DoveSelfie:
Unilever’s Dove has been amongst the early adopters of the social media marketing on the whole and as the selfie trend came into existence, they were amongst the first to devise a marketing campaign around the buzz.
In their month long #DoveSelfie campaign, women were invited to play with their hair, take a selfie of their best hairstyle as per the theme of the day and post it on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #DoveSelfie.

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A ‘Dove Selfie’ app was also created on the Dove Facebook page for the same. On International Women’s Day March 8, 2014, Dove ran the hashtag as a promoted trend on Twitter.
The brand handed out daily prizes of exclusive styling kits and brand hampers to the winners, while there was one grand prize of a pass to an exclusive event by Dove for the participants.
The message of “Shed your inhibitions. Take a Selfie and show the world how beautiful you are” that was given out with this campaign was one that Dove has been trying to promote for years now – one of belief in one’s own beauty.
On a global level, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of its “campaign for real beauty,” the Unilever PLC-owned brand launched a short film (a.k.a. an eight- minute ad) at the Sundance Film Festival, called “Selfie.” It featured real teenaged girls and their mothers talking about their insecurities, and about debunking beauty standards.

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CAMPAIGN #2:
Max Bupa’s #FamilySelfie
Max Bupa highlighted its insurance plan for the entire family in this campaign that combined the trend of selfies along with some smart planning and goodies. Max Bupa encouraged Twitter users to post a family selfie with loved ones.

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With many influencers joining in, the campaign attracted 2.44 lakh participants and 500 targeted followers within four days.
The campaign managed to generate buzz in its desired target group
Max Bupa encouraged fans to share as the entries came in large numbers

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CAMPAIGN #3:
Hooters #StepIntoAwesome
On the eve of its 30th anniversary, Hooters came up with a new advertising campaign that seeked to showcase recent innovations in the restaurant chain, including expanded menu choices and the remodeled restaurants’ “more contemporary, comfortable” surroundings.
This rebranding exercise also included a series of TV commercials which were developed through consumer research and insights from chain franchisees.
The campaign managed to generate buzz in its desired target group

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Digital media provided opportunity for viewers to interact with one of the world’s most iconic and vibrant brands by sharing their personal awesome moments at Hooters via Twitter and Instagram with a #StepIntoAwesome hashtag campaign and the “Step Into Awesome” website, where fans will be able to vote for the most awesome moments at Hooters.
Hooters managed to get over 10,000 user-posted photos within first 30 days of the campaign. Hooters even added a "Miss Social" category to its swimsuit pageant for the contestant with the most social activity.

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The campaign managed to generate buzz in its desired target group

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CAMPAIGN #4:
Turkish Airlines’ “The Selfie Shootout”
Starring two of the most popular athletes in the world in the form of Lionel Messi and Kobe Bryant, the advertisement showed them sweat it out in the epic battle of selfies.
The message that the company sent out to the viewers was loud and clear – we fly to more countries than any other airlines. The duo were shown trading selfies from exotic locations across the world including Red Square in Moscow, The Great Wall of China, the Maldives, Bangkok and Mount Kilimanjaro.
In the ad’s final shot, Messi takes a “selfie” in Sultan Ahmet Square in Istanbul – only to be photo-bombed by Kobe. All this in a one-minute video!
The video has received over 137mn views on YouTube owing to the global popularity of the duo and the reach of Turkish Airlines on the Social Media.
The extent of its popularity could be estimated by the fact that the next most popular video on YouTube from a carrier has just 30mn views (WestJet’s Christmas Miracle).

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By concocting a mixture of exotic locations, popular celebrities and the trend of selfies, Turkish Airlines scored a winner with this advertisement.
The video was followed up by a #SelfieShootOut contest where people were encouraged to share photos on either one of Facebook, Instagram or Twitter and the one which received the most likes was chosen as the winner of a round trip flight ticket.
The campaign ran over the duration of three months and three winners were chosen.
With 61% of buzz being generated by people of 40+ age, the #SelfieShootOut campaogn seems an anomaly

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CAMPAIGN #5:
The Walking Dead: Dead Yourself App
You can do a lot if you log into AMC’s website for the show. From watching full episodes to playing interactive games on the computer and downloading apps like “The Walking Dead: Dead Yourself”, you get to feel whatever happens in the original TV series.

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With creative use of hashtags and involvement of cast and crew in the conversations, Walking Dead is able to connect to its viewers at a more intimate level on the social media.
The Walking Dead:
Dead Yourself app has been a major success and has been downloaded millions of time on Google Play Store. It is also available on the iStore.
This fun photo app is a way for fans to transform themselves into one of the walking dead zombies. Just click a selfie and zombify yourself by modifying various features of the face.
Users are also able to then share those photos to social sites. The Walking Dead Team didn’t get lazy on this feature as the app has been updated with new photos and props to celebrate the new season. A great way to stay connected with your viewers.

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CAMPAIGN #6:
Beggin’ Strips #BegginSelfie
US company Beggin’ that produces dog treats got even the canines into the selfie trend. With their #BegginSelfie campaign, they encouraged dog owners to share photos of their dog’s selfies to be featured in their #SelfieSunday roundup on Twitter.
The campaign was adjudged the most engaging selfie campaign on Twitter for the year 2013.
The campaign proved to be more popular amongst the females and also in the people of age group 13-20

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Another similar campaign that pulled the canine into clicking selfies was undertaken by Brazilian pet salon Pet Beauty.

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CAMPAIGN #7:
The Cape Times Newspaper
Under the tag line 'You can't get any closer to the news', the Cape Times Newspaper tried to recreate iconic images from the past as if the world famous subjects had taken the photos themselves.
As well as Churchill getting the 'selfie' treatment, Jackie Kennedy, Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu and even Kate and Will's memorable wedding balcony kiss are all used.
The campaign got covered by almost all major digital marketing websites and blogs and earned The Cape Times many new followers over various social networking platforms.
The agency had this to say about the campaign, “Every journalist knows the key to a great story is getting it, as they say, straight from the horse’s mouth. A first-hand account. Not from bystanders or passersby, but from the person, or people, who are at the heart of the story.
In this way journalists are able to provide much more detailed, in-depth and insightful accounts, which consequently means readers are better informed. Every story deserves a first-hand account.”

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CAMPAIGN #8:
Toyota Don’t Shoot and Drive
Toyota Cyprus took the initiative to create an advert with the slogan “Don’t Shoot and Drive”.
The advert touches upon the growing trend of people taking "selfies" while driving and publishing them on social media networks.
The main goal of the advert is to prevent millions of drivers from taking pictures of themselves and posting them on social media, while driving, as it may be dangerous or even fatal.
The ad features several thumbnails of the image of a smashed up car, presumably taken with Instagram and edited with all of its 12 filters.
Evidently, changes in tone and lighting won’t make a wrecked car look any better. The campaign was a hit and was featured on NBC's news as well as on national sites such as CNN and Daily Mail.

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The advert has been a huge success in social media and blogs alike drawing hundreds of comments, especially on Twitter. It is very important to note that this initiative started in our small country, Cyprus, and became a worldwide media success.

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CAMPAIGN #9:
AXE #KissForPeace
On global level, people were invited to share a picture of them kissing with the hashtag #KissForPeace and a few lucky ones ended up on the giant Times Square screen. The best concepts were also given cash prizes.
In India, however, the company took a more conservative route and asked its followers to share a photo of them kissing an AXE product. The lucky winners were then given hampers.

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The campaign was a part of “Make Love, Not War” campaign that the company doled out on the eve of World Peace Day. Various television advertisements were also released and managed to gain enough eyeballs and mentions on the internet.
With people of all age group getting involved, the campaign could be considered a successful one

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CAMPAIGN #10:
AT&T #BeTheFan
AT&T tried to capitalize on the popularity and passion of college football amongst the fans and launched a season long #BeTheFan campaign featuring Modern Family star Eric Stonestreet as “Coach”.
The coach then issued gameday challenges to fans which involved posting selfies from the venue or wearing the team’s jersey over various platforms with the #BeTheFan hashtag.
The best submissions win a trip to "College GameDay" and tickets to the show’s featured game. The popularity of the campaign was beyond the company’s expectation.
The campaign increased the twitter handle’s engagement rate by around 80% and had over a 400% increase in sweepstakes entries over the past year. The social buzz went up about 271% over the previous period.

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With people of all age group and both gender getting involved, the campaign could be considered a successful one

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Selfie for a Social Cause:
Not all selfie campaigns from the marketers have been aimed towards generating profits in some way or the other. There are a few examples of campaigns that have a social message attached to them. Here we take a look at few of them:
CAMPAIGN #1:
#WeAreAllMonkeys
Sports have always been marred with the problem of racism. In a recent incident of racism in Spanish football, Brazilian international Dani Alves was attacked with a banana while he prepared to take a corner.
Alves showed maturity and ate the banana that was hurled at him. However, by the time the game got over, social media was abuzz with a new trend #WeAreAllMonkeys.
Many football players with fan following of millions on social media posted photos of themselves eating a banana. Film celebrities joined in as well and the trend went global in no time at all.

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CAMPAIGN #2:
#NoMakeUpSelfie
Out of nowhere, women started posting natural photos of their face (without makeup or the duck face or other gimmicks we hate!) accompanied with messages like “cure cancer”, “cancer awareness” etc.

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The trend soon spread globally and proceeds to Cancer Research, UK (which had no part in the campaign) increased manifolds.
The research agency claims the campaign was not an orchestrated one. They however managed to get donations worth £8mn and thanked the Twitter-family for their support.
CAMPAIGN #3:
#BringBackOurGirls
On April 15th, 230 School girls were kidnapped from the Chibok Government Secondary School by Boko Haram Terrorists in Nigeria.

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People of Nigeria are marching in the streets to demand the rescue of the 300 school girls that were kidnapped.
Meanwhile, celebrities worldwide joined in the movement and posted selfies holding message #BringBackOurGirls to put pressure on Nigerian authorities to act quickly and efficiently on the matter.
The girls are yet to return but the pressure created has forced Nigerian government to accept help from US, Britain, France, Israel and several other countries in their rescue mission.

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CAMPAIGN #4:
#DoGood Selfless Selfies
As thousands of people flocked in Austin, Texas to attend the South by South West event, MasterCard encouraged the attendees to post a selfie on Twitter with the hashtag #dogood and #SXSW.
The card company would then donate $5 and school lunch for a month through the UN World Food Program for every selfie uploaded.

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CAMPAIGN #5:
Johnson & Jonhnson “Donate a Photo”
On a dedicated website, the company defines this campaign as, “for every photo you share, Johnson & Johnson donates $1 to a cause you want to help - which does things like fix up a public park, get medicine for an infant, or help kids play sports safely.
You choose the cause you want to help; Johnson & Johnson makes it happen. You can donate one photo a day, every day.

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With a photo a day, you’ll make a difference by raising money and awareness for causes you care about.
Share with your friends and you’ll help your causes meet their goals faster.”
A separate mobile app was created for people to upload their selfies.

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