Today, the guest speaker Ana Lopez came to speak to our class. She is a 36 year old 
who got her start as a cultural anthropologist. She did this for 2 years and then decided to take a job in Public Relations. At first, her job consisted of traditional Public Relations before the social media era. Following this job, she decided to get a Master of Communication in marketing, which she then used to get a job at at Estrella Damm.
Estrella Damm is known for being the beer of Catalunya. She told us that this company represents Mediterranean Culture. It has a reputation of being related to friendship and joy. This beer is different than others because it focuses on the street culture of Catalunya; enjoying everyday moments, friendship, artists, museums, and the Mediterranean lifestyle.
Ana was promoted to Brand Manager and then Digital Marketing Manager. At this point in the company, there was no digital marketing at Estrella Damm Beer. Ana, alone, created the digital marketing department in 2009. She used the ideals of friendship, street culture, and Mediterranean way of life in order to make the first commercial in 2009.
This 3 minute video got 2,500,000 views and it is estimated that there are around 6 million views due to parodies made. The song in the video, Tonight, Tonight, by a Swedish band that was not popular, became th song used most frequently that summer in Spain. This is all happened despite the fact that at the moment, Estrella Damm had no social media, such as Facebook or Twitter for the brand. This video debuted as a commercial with short versions lasting 1 minute and 30 seconds.
After this overwhelming success, Ana set a goal to be the biggest social media user in Spain. She told us that “It is important to have a clear idea of what you want to tell people that matches their interests.” In order to do this, she created their instagram account focusing on landscapes because that is popular on that media platform.
Their twitter account is a magazine of culture and things going on in Barcelona. Damm Beer uses their twitter to promote the agenda that they are sponsoring. It isimportant to remember that you have to match 
the interest of the brand with the interest of the target. If twitter is used for news, the company uses their twitter to specifically advertise events that their products are being sold. On each platform, you choose what you talk about.
#AgendaLive: momento aperitivo de la mano de @tomasitooficial, @leparody y @coranovoa en @LaCasaEncendida. ¡Salud!… https://t.co/WXycVh8VSC
— Estrella Damm Es (@EstrellaDammEs) March 12, 2017
They also began sponsoring and selling the beer in restaurants in 2006-2009, adding to their success. Collaborating with partners such as festivals and sports teams increased awareness of their brand. The company continued to make music videos year after year, and each of the videos location impacted tourism in the area. While they had their one big summer music video, over the rest of the year they had ongoing small campaigns they promoted on other social media platforms.
In 2015, they decided to globalize. The new target: Not just Spain, the World. A commercial launched with Dakota Johnson bringing in 6,500,000 views and award best campaign in Spain by YouTube. She now had 1 million people working inside and out the country for her.
Overall, Ana has had extreme success by utilizing social media to propel her company forward. She learned coming from traditional media that it is important to realize that people from traditional marketing think about things in a certain way. However, in the new digital era, there is now bidirectional communication. Remembering that a few bad comments don’t change the goals of the company is vital. From her, I learned that one person can start something huge with dedication and determination.
Abroad Adventures 