All questions in this quiz refer to the reading, "Advertisers Join the Search for Friends Online". You are allowed to refer to this reading as you answer these questions.

What techniques do advertisers use to target audiences online?

4 people lined up look at their cellphones

"Casual Addiction" by Rawpixel via Pixabay is licensed under Pixabay Licensing

Walk down a street in Singapore, a country in Southeast Asia, and you will see a lot of young people glued to their smartphones. They're sending tweets and text messages. Some are even using Facebook to tell the world their exact location.

Tod Gimbel works in advertising at Levi Strauss & Company. The company makes jeans and other clothing.

He notices how the young generation is always connected online. Levi's should be connected to them, he thought.

This past August, Levi Strauss released its new Denizen line of clothing in Asia.

Usually, beautiful models will show off the newest Levi's clothes. Instead, Levi's chose 10 young people from Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea, and India.

These young people are masters of social media, like Facebook.

The Buzz-Makers

Bright is a writer, salsa dancer, and blogger from Bangalore, India. Levi's found her, she says.

Bright now spends a part of her day answering questions and talking about Levi's clothes online.

Her friends are asking her more about the clothes and where to get them, she says.

"I think they respect my opinion about things and products," she said.

Risk Versus Reward

Levi's gives free clothes to its young social media team. The young bloggers post about Levi's clothes once per day.

Levi's still makes commercials for TV. The company also advertises in magazines. Those cost more money for the company.

It doesn't cost much to use social media.

Still, promoting Levi's on Facebook is working. It might even work better than TV commercials.

Fewer people are watching TV, says David Michael. He's a scientist who studies how people use the Internet. People do not trust advertisements, he says.

More people are using social media than ever. In China, more than 100 million people are using social media. Facebook is also getting more popular in Indonesia and India.

More people around the world are now getting smartphones, says Michael. They are on the Internet more.

Signs Of Success

More companies are using social media to talk about their products. One such company is Procter and Gamble. It makes the body wash and deodorant Old Spice for men.

Old Spice asked people online to send in questions. The company's humorous spokesperson, Isaiah Mustafa, answered the questions on YouTube.

The company says 1.5 billion people have now seen this advertisement. The company's sales have increased. Old Spice is now the No. 1 body wash in the United States.

Mike Norton works for Procter and Gamble. The advertisement was entertaining, he says. It made people think about Old Spice differently.

It was very different from the old advertisements. Before, people just watched advertisements on TV. Now, they are talking to and interacting with the company.

Tapping Into Passion

Will social media advertising get popular around the world? Maybe, says Brian Sheehan. He teaches classes about advertising at a college.

Sheehan has worked in many different countries. Every nation has different customs, he says. Companies need to send different messages to connect to the different people in each country.

Hitting Home

Levis Strauss thinks that Facebook can act as a bridge. It connects the company to people who might not have thought of Levi's before.

Levi's asked Yinou Wang to talk about its Denizen line of clothing on social media. Yinou is from China, but she is living in Singapore.

She says she likes Levi's clothes, and her friends in China do, too.

Glossary

jeans (n) - durable pants made of cotton, typically blue

salsa (n) - a spicy sauce combining tomatoes, onions, hot peppers, and cilantro

a blogger (n) - a contributor to a blog or online journal

humorous (adj) - funny

spokesperson (n) - someone who speaks for an organization or group of people

© 2019. Advertisers Join the Search for Friends Online for the AE ETeacher Program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and administered by FHI 360. This work is an adaptation of Advertisers Join the Search for Friends Online by Voice of America. Adapted content is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License, except where noted. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/