Adweek has this great case study on how French televison network NT1 used social to promote the premiere of "Walking Dead" in a tough market for crazy-ass TV shows (video above).
The effort, from an agency called Darewin, involved a #WalkingDeadNT1 hashtag that people were advised against using. To which thousands promptly did just that, subsequently finding themslves attacked by zombies via Twitter, Facebook and blogs.
According to Adweek, this er, viral campaign infected 30,000 users in under two weeks, with 550,000 exposures tallied.
Then again, are tweets like "Aaaargh" any more brain dead than most of the other posts you read these days?
But what's your view: Is this one lively campaign - or is it DOA?
It's 2013: Do you know what your digital marketing's up to?
Here are five quick resolutions for the new year. Like lots of behaviors, these are practices we know we should keep - like eat less, move more - but rarely do. All of us are guilty of bypassing these common sense rules from time to time.
So if we do just five things this year, let's resolve to:
5. Not Ask How - Ask Why
I said this in a recent post on social media trends for 2013. But it's really true of anything we do. If you've heard it once, you've heard it a million times at agencies and client-side brands throughout the land: Let's do "X" - insert your digital buzz word du jour here - not because "X" is central to a brand's objectives, but because it's considered cool. But saying "we need a mobile/social/viral strategy is akin to saying "we need a brochure strategy," or a radio strategy, or a signage strategy. These are channels & platforms, not strategies. First figure out what you have to accomplish, then decide which approaches and channels will get you there. It's so simple, yet we all get caught up in coolness from time to time.
4. Know thy customer - and thy channels
On that note, as I write in my book THE ON-DEMAND BRAND, insight comes before inspiration. Today's most successful digital marekting initiatives typically don't come from a great idea for some hip new experience, or a me-too approach to major trends. Instead, they start with consumer insights culled from painstaking research into who your customers are, what they're all about, how they interact with consumer technologies, and what they want from the brands they know and trust. Just look at the work Unilever's done over the last few years with the Dove brand's "Campaign for Real Beauty" and all its crazy ass work for Axe - including everything from QR code peep holes in bathroom bars to faux "Shower Together" PSAs. These marketers have a firm read on their customers and the channels with which to reach them. In 2013, look for social + mobile + local to be a key to accomplishing this.
3. Always commit multi-plat-fornication
Innovate through as many channels and platforms that make sense for your strategies and audience. It's what MTV calls "multi-plat-fornication." As I show in the book, MINI USA has made an art form of this, using insights on its "fun-tech" loving audience and how they congregate online to use numerous approaches - branded games, especially, but also things like RFID-based key fobs that enable roadside billboards to call out to passing drivers by name - to actually enlist customers to market the cars for them. And Coca-Cola has raised the bar over the last year, with everything from branded iPhone apps to the Polar Bears' social stunt at the Super Bowl to its Kinect-Powered Vending Machine, to a magazine-ad-turned-mobile-stereo-speakers and much, much more. Small wonder the brand has been named "Creative Marketer of the Year" for the 2013 Cannes International Advertising Festival.
2. Honor traditional as the sizzle to digital's steak
It's heresy these days to point out the obvious. In a fragmented media universe, the channels that still attract any semblance of "mass" are more powerful than ever - with TV being exhibit A. For all our gadgets, we're watching more TV, not less. And whether it's "Walking Dead" or "Dancing with The Stars," TV has communal power like nothing else. As a result, many of today's most innovative integrated campaigns use traditional advertising - old school TV, print, radio, etc - to build awareness and then point consumers to deeper, richer, more meaningful experiences online, or via mobile and other digital platforms. Again, Coca-Cola's Polar Bear stunt at the Super Bowl immediately comes to mind, attracting over 9 million consumers who spent an average of 28 minutes with the brand. And Doritos has effectively done all this in reverse every year, with its Crash The Super Bowl user-generated ad contest - with the chance to work with director Michael Bay at this year's bowl.
1. Never put "buzz" before "business"
Obviously digital marketing is about endless and innovative experimentation. If it were as easy as creating any old viral video, branded game, or mobile app to generate enough buzz to bring in business for our brands, we'd all be rich. For many lifestyle brands, this kind of experimentation is enough - especially in categories where an aura of hipness is a prerequisite for sales success. But while there is obviously a lot of fun and games in all this fun and games, it's important - critical - that we approach digital initiatives with specific objectives in mind (see resolution #5).
As Harley-Davidson's global CMO Mark-Hans Richer puts it to Ad Age, "This is a new gold age for marketers. The shackles are off, and the possibilities are nearly endless. If we aren't conducting radical experiments, trying new ways to engage our targets and adding value to them, then we're not doing our jobs."
But, he adds, "It's not about chasing the buzz; it's about chasing the biz." Marketers who get this formula right - by fueling innovation through substantive consumer insights - weill thrive in the on-demand era.
Those who don't will have to settle for some fun - but ultimately fruitless - experiments.
We know some people are going
to disagree with our list. Indeed,
in some quarters, the fact that we didn’t include Kony 2012 is going to be enough
to send some in the socialsphere over the edge.
It is, after all, arguably
the most astonishingly successful social media effort ever. And everyone is reverse engineering the campaign to see if they can replicate it.
It’s just that ultimately, we found certain aspects of the effort unsettling for
reasons we haven’t quite taken the time to fully puzzle together in our own minds.
But the other, far more
important reason: This particular list is for brand-oriented social initiatives
versus cause-oriented efforts (or political, for that matter - which would have resulted in the Obama campaign's inclusion).
And in that regard, like a few of our Top 10 lists so far this year, it is one that is dominated by Coca-Cola. It's no wonder the brand has been named the 'Creative Marketer of the Year' for the 2013 Cannes Festival.
So: Here’s our list. If you agree, let us know. If you
disagree, make your own list and share.
Move over social celeb-crazy
Old Spice Guy. Comedians in this campaign impersonate consumers who Like the
brand, based their sure-to-be-embellished Facebook Profiles
Why go to all the trouble of building social media buzz when you can just fake it and achieve the same thing?
That's the genius behind this new campaign from DKNY to promote the launch of its newly renovated London store in the run up to the Olympics.
Aliza Licht, SVP of global communications, created a video touting the spectacular sensation sparked by the party to celebrate the opening. Recruiting celebs and fashionistas, the video chronicles the Twitter storm and social media squall that never was - thus creating the real thing in an instant.
As Licht tells the Wall Street Journal, such fakery is fair game in promoting an actual event.
“Through persuasive arguments and Q&A's with the major players in advertising, Mathieson makes an excellent case for greater creativity and outside-the-box thinking backed up with solid ideas."
Can't wait for next week's big Marketing Edge 2012 in Houston, where I'll be talking trends in social media, mobile marketing, branded games, augmented reality & more!
If you're in the area, this is one event you won't want to miss - not just because of me. Take a look at the great line up here, and get your tickets today.
Is it time to hang up the Mustafa machine for good, for goodness sake?
Old Spice is decking the halls with yet another outing in this aging campaign. And in what has become expected of the Old Spice/W + K partnership, it's another winner.
You know the drill, of course: Old Spice Man delivers personalized video clips to bloggers and other digerati. And this time out, it's all part of a push from Mustafa to bring gifts to all 7 billion people on Earth, one at a time.
Alas, it only feels like he's already done 7 billion videos.
But so far this looks fresh in that it's holiday-centric and will, hopefully expire right around the time the glitter ball descends on Times Square.
I'm a big fan of the campaign - but it needs to be trotted out less often or allowed to go away for a good, long while.
“Through persuasive arguments and Q&A's with the major players in advertising, Mathieson makes an excellent case for greater creativity and outside-the-box thinking backed up with solid ideas."
I like this video infographic for the state of social medias in 2011.
Admittedly, however, like a lot of these video infographs, its style suggests more than it actually signifies.
For instance, does it really mean much that there are more Facebook users than there our cars? I assume they mean cars in US. And either way, does that mean anything, since the barrier or entry is a click versus tens of thousands of dollars.
And LinkedIn having more users than the population of NYC is cool, but likely includes duplicate and unclosed accounts against a global user base. Likewise, having an account and really using it in a meaningful way are two very different things. That's true of all social media platforms.
And some data points are simply dubious. "More video is uploaded to YouTube in 60 days than the 3 major US networks created in 60 years." What is the definition of "more"? Minutes of content? I'm doubtful even that's true - "created" is different than "broadcast" - and even then, if there are billions of minutes of video that nobody's seen on YouTube, does that mean anything compared to TV content seen and enjoyed by billions and billions of people?
Still there are some fun insights. I am always amused by the lack of adoption for LinkedIn among people over 55. People in that age group are the fastest growing segment of social media users, and yet LinkedIn simply has no appeal to them. Ask anyone that age and they simply do not understand why LinkedIn would be of value, unless they're looking for a job. Just an interesting dynamic for a demographic that's as all-in - maybe more so - than even 18- to 24-year-olds.
Anyway: Some really good stuff, though some of it - like a lot of hype around social media - needs to be taken with a grain of salt.
“Through persuasive arguments and Q&A's with the major players in advertising, Mathieson makes an excellent case for greater creativity and outside-the-box thinking backed up with solid ideas."
Who needs a pop-store when "blog-up" stores get influencers to do the selling for you?
In an effort to promote its new online store, interior design retailer Lagerhaus invited six leading bloggers in the category to create their own storefronts on their blogs using a special app.The bloggers then could invite readers to come meet them at physical world stores.
The results have been spectacular.
The brand's Facebook fans have increased 226%; interactions have surged 360%; and 13,000 readers turned out for a fan-only online store launch.
Needless to say, the blog-up store has become a permanent distribution channel for the brand.
And something tells me other brands will be be joining them soon.
“Through persuasive arguments and Q&A's with the major players in advertising, Mathieson makes an excellent case for greater creativity and outside-the-box thinking backed up with solid ideas."
Most brands only dream of grassroots publicity like this - but Coca-Cola got it, thanks to Duane Perera of Edmondton, Canada.
The story goes something like this: Dude gets dumped by his girlfriend on the eve of his 30th birthday. So he takes off to see the world, and films his year-long journey to share with friends and fans on YouTube.
Here's the kicker: Each video features Perera drinking Coca-Cola in the exotic locations he visits. We're talking 48 different cities across 36 countries - sparking 400,000 YouTube views.
"I remember going to remote villages in Africa, and Asia, they didn't speak English at all, but they still knew what Coca-Cola was," said Perera in an interview with CTV Edmonton, as by reported Yahoo News.
The cost to Perera: About $27,000 in credit card bills. The cost to Coke: Zip, of course.
Which makes this story amazing - a global icon so universally recognizable, and so beloved, that a guy will travel the world capturing his escapades and the one thing that ties it all together is this ubiquitous brand.
As to be expected these days, Perera is in talks with the company to possibly use video from his adventures in TV spots - which could easily defray his costs - but there's no news yet on a deal.
What's your take?
Should Atlanta deliver a Coke & A Smile? Or say, "So long, sucker"?
“Through persuasive arguments and Q&A's with the major players in advertising, Mathieson makes an excellent case for greater creativity and outside-the-box thinking backed up with solid ideas."
Some final moments from my recent conversation with Jonathan Becher, SAP's interim CMO.
This time out: His advice for B2B marketers at large companies hoping to make the most of digital marketing and social media - and some important ways social media is being integrated into CRM.
Q&A: JONATHAN BECHER - 'IT'S NOT B2B, IT'S PERSON TO PERSON'
“This is an essential read for those of us tasked with connecting and engaging with the elusive 'I want it right now' generation. Anyone interested in not sucking at their jobs should pick this book up immediately!"
Jordan Atlas Vice President, Group Creative Director Digitas
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