Last year, real estate company Century 21 made its first appearance during the Super Bowl, with a television commercial that featured celebrities such as Deion Sanders, Donald Trump and Apollo Anton Ohno, working with a super-competent Century 21 agent, who bests them in negotiations, house displays and speed skating. In this age of one-to-one marketing through digital channels, it might seem incongruous for a realty company to employ such old-school mass media tactics, but as CMO Bev Thorne explains, the significant investment (30-second spots are going for $3.8 million this year) is more than worth it. Q: Why return to the Super Bowl?A: We had a fabulous set of results in the 2012 Super Bowl. That return to the Super Bowl showcases our Century 21 agents in front of the largest television audience possible. What we really love about it is that those conversations and that showcase for our agents are in the American home, which is the center of the service we provide. Q: What’s the value in being on such a big event? Obviously, it’s a big investment you have to make.A: The value is -- it’s a lot of people to be in front of. It’s the largest TV audience of the year in a single day. Last year, it was over 111 million people, and so it positions our agents as “Smarter, Bolder, Faster” right in the center of the conversations in the home. There is no better opportunity or place for us to showcase our brand and our agent capabilities. Q: Is there value in big events, or is money better spent in digital or some other medium, especially when it comes to home buying, where a lot of research is done online? Would your investment not be better in one of those areas?A: We certainly utilize online as well. It’s a far more targeted approach. An advertisement on the Super Bowl is a brand play, and so we’re speaking not only for those that are in the process of buying or selling a home, but to the broader audience as well. It is a brand preference play. We follow that up with a 360-degree marketing campaign. We certainly advertise appropriately to those buyers and sellers who are active in the market. And they’re typically doing their shopping online, and we advertise in front of them as well. We don’t do one in lieu of the other. We do both. This kind of investment more than pays for itself in terms of the returns we saw in 2012. Q: What did you learn from last year’s appearance that you’re applying to this year?A: I think we learned a lot of things. We learned that there are really two audiences that we’re speaking to in the Super Bowl ad. One of them is the industry, and that includes our own system members. The second audience is consumers. We learned that the excitement and reaction of the industry players -- not only our own, but the industry at large -- can have a very, very important impact on consumers as well. Can you be more specific?A: The excitement and the re-energizing of the brand that begins with Century 21 agents seems to have spread to the rest of the industry as their looking at the brand. They’re saying, “Hey, it’s a little different than we thought it to be.” It creates a buzz. It creates a conversation, and those conversations spread. And for us, we’re gratified to tell you that those conversations led to leads, they led to appointments, and they led to Web searches. And they led to more closed transactions for us. Q: How will this year’s appearance be different from last year’s?A: Let me tell you one way it’s the same. We will absolutely utilize our same national campaign and theme, which is “Smarter, Bolder Faster.” We will again work to showcase Century 21 agents and their capabilities front and center, so that the consumer understands what they get, and why we’re encouraging them to reach to a Century 21 agent if they’re involved in a home-buying activity. One way that it’s different: Last year, we were at the tail end of the third quarter. In terms of making bets, that one paid off. But as you know, that’s [something] we couldn’t forecast in advance. We were very gratified that the audience peaked at the tail end of the third quarter, so we were right where we wanted to be. This year, we’re betting that it will be equally appropriate to be in the pod that comes shortly after the end of halftime. We will be at the end of the first group of ads that play after halftime. Q: Why is that?A: We don’t think lightning strikes twice. We think that’s when everyone checks back in. To be honest, they’re all safe bets, if you will. We’re in the Super Bowl. We’re breaking down to a finite assessment here. Q: A lot of Super Bowl advertising is about increasing the conversation during that run-up to the game and immediately after. What else are you doing to increase that conversation among the general public?A: That will become defined more and more as we get closer to the game. We will certainly reach out via social media platforms, and perhaps more importantly, we will reach out through our system members for local activation. We’ll magnify and multiply that impact in each local market, as independent brokers so choose to activate. Last year, we were gratified to receive a tremendous amount of coverage, perhaps in large part to the inclusion of celebrities in our ad. There are a lot of ways to do that, and we’ll seek to do that again this year. Q: Will you be using celebrities again?A: We are still in the process of weighing all of our options, and have made no decisions yet, other than the very clear decision -- and we will be there. Q: Are you planning to advertise during other event programming, such as the Academy Awards? Have there been discussions about the rewards of these event programs paying off in terms of advertising?A: That is literally our strategy. Our strategy is to position our Century 21 agents in the middle of what I call “iconic media events.” Those events are not only sporting events, but they are many times sporting events. Hence our engagement last year in the Olympics, our sponsorship of the U.S. men’s and women’s soccer teams. And yes, you cited another one of those iconic media events that absolutely we are looking at, but I have no announcements to share with you today.
Honda is joining the year-end sales mix with “Happy Honda Days.” The effort, which has an oddly ’60's color-TV feel, features the odd parent or two, with an obstreperous mother saying the wrong things to her son at the wrong time, among other wackos. Each ad has someone thanking Honda for a great deal. The effort, ending Jan. 2, features six TV spots that feature the Honda product line plus rearview camera, Pandora Internet radio and Bluetooth HandsFreeLink. Sarah May Bates, RPA's assistant creative director on the account, concedes that this isn't exactly buying season, though it's critical for automakers for a couple of reasons: it pulls sales out of the hat to make year-end volume. Automakers in recent years have moved away from hard-sell to humor, and Honda's no different. Bates points out that the Honda Days effort "pulls consumers in with a brighter, more fun approach than the screaming ‘buy it or die’ messaging,” she said. “These are humorous and relatable stories filled with colorful characters—mischievous kids, moocher roommates and hard-to-read fathers-in-law—that will hopefully be more entertaining for car shoppers this holiday season.” Spots will air on appointment shows like “Modern Family,” “The Good Wife,” “How I Met Your Mother,” “The Office,” “X-Factor,” and on ESPN, TNT and TLC. The company says creative will also be integrated on display ads running on car-shopping sites and network radio. There are also two Spanish-language TV commercials (the company has used La Agencia de Orci' & Asociados for years to handle Hispanic market efforts.) Print will run in magazines like Entertainment Weekly, People, Sports Illustrated, Time, Us Weekly, USA Today and Wall Street Journal. The company says there will also be Tier III elements that give dealers and, presumably, regional dealer groups access to customizable TV, print, radio, banners and social media assets.
The most social buzzed-about new TV shows this year are the ones that won't be around much longer.ABC's "666 Park Avenue" and "Last Resort" scored the best results with a 6.1 and a 5.4 scores, respectively, for the week ending Nov. 18, according to General Sentiment, a social media researcher that monitors news, social, and Twitter social media buzz. Those shows gained 15% to 16% from the week before.CBS' comedy "Partners" -- one of the better Nielsen-rated new shows -- also wasn't good enough, and won't get any new orders for more episodes. Social buzz still put it high on the list of 26 new shows, grabbing a 5.2 score up 22% week-to-week.This left NBC's "Guys With Kids" and Fox's "The Mindy Project" as the top two biggest shows in terms of social interactions -- both scoring a 5.2 number, with "Kids" up 25% and "Mindy" gaining 21% week-to-week.After these two shows comes ABC's "Malibu Country" with a 5.1 number -- virtually unchanged, up 0.3%. Fox's low-Nielsen rated "The Mob Doctor" was next at a 4.9, down 2.4% for the week. CBS' "Elementary" scored a high Nielsen rating with a 4.6, up 4.5% for the week.The biggest gainer was NBC's "Go On," which grew some 67% in social, Twitter and news buzz to hit a 2.1. Fox's summer reality show "Hotel Hell" also spiked well, up 52% to a 2.1.
Social media is a marketing conundrum similar in some ways to the dot-com bubble of 2000, when there were a multitude of possibilities for investors and advertisers in the marketplace -- but like the Pets.com sock puppet, there also was little bite behind the bark. Can social media move the needle for brands? Or is this new frontier destined to remain an online coupon service offering discounts, deals, sweepstakes and giveaways that essentially buy "likes" from consumers? A recent study by the research firm Chadwick Martin Bailey found that a significant 41% of social media users are persuaded to "like" a brand because of discounts and special offers. The brands that fare best in the social media sphere are entertainment-related, especially movies and TV series -- which account for 48% of social media users, according to a May 2012 study by Performics, a performance marketing company. Products that are not so sexy, like package goods and appliances, were liked by only 10% of respondents in the Performics study. These studies reflect the reality that in social media, historically, brands have rapidly grown their fan base by offering discounts and deals. This path, however, has resulted in companies cultivating followers that do not align with their core customer base -- rather, they are bargain shoppers that are highly inclined to jump to another brand for a better deal. A perfect example of the perils of relying on daily deals rather than on building a loyal fan base is the the social media sock-puppet Groupon, which is dying a slow death thanks to its dependence on attracting one-time discount hunters. So where does that leave the ten-percenters, the bread-and-butter clients who ask us for social media solutions but don't have the inherent brand charisma or dynamics to create a dedicated and motivated fan club? While true followers for these brands are harder to find, they are beginning to be created via rich, contextually relevant content -- not coupons. We are just now starting to see this trend turn as brands more effectively cultivate an "advocate base." It's possible that during this transition brands may see a loss of "fans" while things shake out. To encourage this evolution, brands need to be careful about how they manage deals/discounts/coupons. It's an easy trap to fall into when we as marketers are pushed so hard to prove an ROI associated with our online efforts. Here are five key considerations to keep in mind when planning a social media campaign for clients: 1. Don't continue the habit of an exclusive diet of discounts/coupons -- gradually wean consumers off the drug. 2. Consider how your “fan” base matches up against your customer base. If there are identifiable differences, work to cross-pollinate. Create content to get fans to become committed customers/advocates (via higher-value associations) and get customers/advocates to become fans (to engage socially). 3. Develop a comprehensive content strategy that blends channels. For example, what do you do in response to a “like”? Keep in mind that consumers see a “like” as a request to engage -- with you and other customers -- and they are willing to engage in other channels beyond social. They are not simply saying they approve of your content. 4. Improve social engagement with content that reflects customer ideals. Recent research from advertising research firm PhaseOne Communications indicates that the most socially successful brands deliver consistent messaging that taps into shared traits between them and the consumer. This strategic approach in guiding more effective content is referred to as a “me statement.” This statement conveys an idealized self image that the brand represents and that consumers wants to be associated with. For example, a working mother may grab takeout for her family multiple nights a week, but the idealized image she will associate with online is her love of gourmet dining. This is something she is willing to publicly acknowledge, follow and share -- keys to successful online engagement. 5. Consider how to get more value out of social by using it as a research and/or customer service channel. Getting an ROI on social efforts isn’t limited to converting sales. The good news: trends point to social media as a viable marketing tool with long-term prospects. After all, the sock-puppet notwithstanding, if it wasn't for the dot-com bubble we wouldn't have the digital evolution that has established business success stories like Amazon and Google and also is helping to reshape -- and digitize -- Madison Avenue.
Last year, real estate company Century 21 made its first appearance during the Super Bowl, with a television commercial that featured celebrities such as Deion Sanders, Donald Trump and Apollo Anton Ohno, working with a super-competent Century 21 agent, who bests them in negotiations, house displays and speed skating. In this age of one-to-one marketing through digital channels, it might seem incongruous for a realty company to employ such old-school mass media tactics, but as CMO Bev Thorne explains, the significant investment (30-second spots are going for $3.8 million this year) is more than worth it. Q: Why return to the Super Bowl?A: We had a fabulous set of results in the 2012 Super Bowl. That return to the Super Bowl showcases our Century 21 agents in front of the largest television audience possible. What we really love about it is that those conversations and that showcase for our agents are in the American home, which is the center of the service we provide. Q: What’s the value in being on such a big event? Obviously, it’s a big investment you have to make.A: The value is -- it’s a lot of people to be in front of. It’s the largest TV audience of the year in a single day. Last year, it was over 111 million people, and so it positions our agents as “Smarter, Bolder, Faster” right in the center of the conversations in the home. There is no better opportunity or place for us to showcase our brand and our agent capabilities. Q: Is there value in big events, or is money better spent in digital or some other medium, especially when it comes to home buying, where a lot of research is done online? Would your investment not be better in one of those areas?A: We certainly utilize online as well. It’s a far more targeted approach. An advertisement on the Super Bowl is a brand play, and so we’re speaking not only for those that are in the process of buying or selling a home, but to the broader audience as well. It is a brand preference play. We follow that up with a 360-degree marketing campaign. We certainly advertise appropriately to those buyers and sellers who are active in the market. And they’re typically doing their shopping online, and we advertise in front of them as well. We don’t do one in lieu of the other. We do both. This kind of investment more than pays for itself in terms of the returns we saw in 2012. Q: What did you learn from last year’s appearance that you’re applying to this year?A: I think we learned a lot of things. We learned that there are really two audiences that we’re speaking to in the Super Bowl ad. One of them is the industry, and that includes our own system members. The second audience is consumers. We learned that the excitement and reaction of the industry players -- not only our own, but the industry at large -- can have a very, very important impact on consumers as well. Can you be more specific?A: The excitement and the re-energizing of the brand that begins with Century 21 agents seems to have spread to the rest of the industry as their looking at the brand. They’re saying, “Hey, it’s a little different than we thought it to be.” It creates a buzz. It creates a conversation, and those conversations spread. And for us, we’re gratified to tell you that those conversations led to leads, they led to appointments, and they led to Web searches. And they led to more closed transactions for us. Q: How will this year’s appearance be different from last year’s?A: Let me tell you one way it’s the same. We will absolutely utilize our same national campaign and theme, which is “Smarter, Bolder Faster.” We will again work to showcase Century 21 agents and their capabilities front and center, so that the consumer understands what they get, and why we’re encouraging them to reach to a Century 21 agent if they’re involved in a home-buying activity. One way that it’s different: Last year, we were at the tail end of the third quarter. In terms of making bets, that one paid off. But as you know, that’s [something] we couldn’t forecast in advance. We were very gratified that the audience peaked at the tail end of the third quarter, so we were right where we wanted to be. This year, we’re betting that it will be equally appropriate to be in the pod that comes shortly after the end of halftime. We will be at the end of the first group of ads that play after halftime. Q: Why is that?A: We don’t think lightning strikes twice. We think that’s when everyone checks back in. To be honest, they’re all safe bets, if you will. We’re in the Super Bowl. We’re breaking down to a finite assessment here. Q: A lot of Super Bowl advertising is about increasing the conversation during that run-up to the game and immediately after. What else are you doing to increase that conversation among the general public?A: That will become defined more and more as we get closer to the game. We will certainly reach out via social media platforms, and perhaps more importantly, we will reach out through our system members for local activation. We’ll magnify and multiply that impact in each local market, as independent brokers so choose to activate. Last year, we were gratified to receive a tremendous amount of coverage, perhaps in large part to the inclusion of celebrities in our ad. There are a lot of ways to do that, and we’ll seek to do that again this year. Q: Will you be using celebrities again?A: We are still in the process of weighing all of our options, and have made no decisions yet, other than the very clear decision -- and we will be there. Q: Are you planning to advertise during other event programming, such as the Academy Awards? Have there been discussions about the rewards of these event programs paying off in terms of advertising?A: That is literally our strategy. Our strategy is to position our Century 21 agents in the middle of what I call “iconic media events.” Those events are not only sporting events, but they are many times sporting events. Hence our engagement last year in the Olympics, our sponsorship of the U.S. men’s and women’s soccer teams. And yes, you cited another one of those iconic media events that absolutely we are looking at, but I have no announcements to share with you today.
The Aloft unit of Starwood Hotels asks PR agencies to respond to an RFP via Twitter. Marketer seeks creative solutions from agencies who can quickly get to the point. –News item To: Marketing team, North America From: Your CMO Subject: Leveraging “social” “media” Since I took over mid-Q2, you have heard me ask more than once how we as a company and as a corporate brand can leverage the dominant platforms in the social space. As I’ve mentioned, it’s all about the “conversation.” We must organically grow authentic connections, and in some ways we have made strides. The Facebook page is looking very good, IMHO, thanks to the incremental growth in Likes during our successful “’Like’ Us and we’ll send you $100 in cash” promotion. The entire team was very responsive to my June 3 group-wide email “Tell me about Pinterest” and my June 4 follow-up, “No, seriously, what the hell is Pinterest?” And I am flattered to see so many LinkedIn endorsements from folks throughout the organization! If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were trying to find me another job! The reason for this memo, however, is to ask the team to take it to the next level, such as the gang over at Aloft hotels (see attached news clipping). An RFP via Twitter! That’s what I call taking it up a notch. Bam! I am reaching out today to remind you that we must constantly push the envelope in these ways. It is critical that as an organization we are aligned on this going forward. Why should it take another brand in another category to leverage Twitter so ingeniously? Anyone can seek PR help by sending out an RFP through the usual channels and reviewing detailed proposals in an environment of deliberation and non-disclosure. It takes vision to reduce the process to 140 characters or less -- including spaces displayed in public for competitors, and the entire world, to see. I have no doubt that the skills associated with creating an eye-catching tweet are fully aligned with the job of building out a PR apparatus, including publicity, crisis communications, marketing communications, etc. My kids “tweet out” their whole lives, so…. Some internal voices have stubbornly insisted that social is a matter of painstakingly forging and cultivating genuine relationships based on shared values and interests, just like in actual “life.” But frankly, that doesn’t sound too buzzworthy to me. We have some hot new technologies here, and we should have some sizzling hot leveraging going on 24-7. It’s a team effort, but the purpose of this communication is to “prime the pump.” So here are some “conversation starters” from the 31st floor: * RFP for new PR agency via Instagram * SlideShare bomb! We send out our 2013 strategic-plan deck till it trends * Q1 “Follow us and we’ll send you $100 in cash” SlideShare promotion * Tweet Q4 SEC filings * “Viral” lobby security-cam feed * Start a Tumblr tracking and documenting our social media * Recall email: “What the hell is a Tumblr?”
Honda is joining the year-end sales mix with “Happy Honda Days.” The effort, which has an oddly ’60's color-TV feel, features the odd parent or two, with an obstreperous mother saying the wrong things to her son at the wrong time, among other wackos. Each ad has someone thanking Honda for a great deal. The effort, ending Jan. 2, features six TV spots that feature the Honda product line plus rearview camera, Pandora Internet radio and Bluetooth HandsFreeLink. Sarah May Bates, RPA's assistant creative director on the account, concedes that this isn't exactly buying season, though it's critical for automakers for a couple of reasons: it pulls sales out of the hat to make year-end volume. Automakers in recent years have moved away from hard-sell to humor, and Honda's no different. Bates points out that the Honda Days effort "pulls consumers in with a brighter, more fun approach than the screaming ‘buy it or die’ messaging,” she said. “These are humorous and relatable stories filled with colorful characters—mischievous kids, moocher roommates and hard-to-read fathers-in-law—that will hopefully be more entertaining for car shoppers this holiday season.” Spots will air on appointment shows like “Modern Family,” “The Good Wife,” “How I Met Your Mother,” “The Office,” “X-Factor,” and on ESPN, TNT and TLC. The company says creative will also be integrated on display ads running on car-shopping sites and network radio. There are also two Spanish-language TV commercials (the company has used La Agencia de Orci' & Asociados for years to handle Hispanic market efforts.) Print will run in magazines like Entertainment Weekly, People, Sports Illustrated, Time, Us Weekly, USA Today and Wall Street Journal. The company says there will also be Tier III elements that give dealers and, presumably, regional dealer groups access to customizable TV, print, radio, banners and social media assets.
November 24 marks the third annual Small Business Saturday, a day in which the nation is encouraged to "shop small" -- and in fact, does just that. Nestled between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, SBS is a powerful example of “Marketing as Service” from American Express, a company that has been taking this approach successfully for the past 25 years. But look carefully at Small Business Saturday, and you will also see a work week full of marketing myths busted, one day at a time, before you can tweet “#MarketerMonday.” Monday's Child: Big Ideas Take Time Most marketers are nothing if not deliberate -- taking months to conceive, strategize and ultimately execute their ideas, big or small. And given the audacity and complexity of establishing SBS as a new holiday, it is reasonable to assume a lengthy planning cycle, right? Wrong. According to Scott Krugman, director of communications at American Express, SBS went from idea to execution “in a matter of a few weeks." Tuesday's Child: It’s About My Brand Naturally, marketers want to put their brand at the center of their communications, expecting it will be the shortest route to an effective program. With SBS, American Express asserted the counterintuitive brand position: “It’s more than just about us.” By putting their customers at the center of an entire program, AmEx “created a solution to help spur more business for small businesses, and small business owners really took to it,” Krugman reported. Wednesday's Child: Social Media Just Happens In some naïve marketing circles, there is a wishful notion that social media success (like its cousin “viral success”) just happens organically. A careful look at SBS, which became huge on social media by any measure, including reach and engagement, reveals that AmEx kickstarted every social channel with paid media, along with a carefully orchestrated PR effort that generated a surge of earned media. Facebook even threw in free ads for small businesses on their network to encourage even more social promotion. Thursday's Child: Partnerships Must Be Controlled Some marketers spend as much time trying to control partnerships as they do setting them up. AmEx took the opposite approach, allowing anyone and everyone to participate in SBS. Explained Krugman, “For small businesses to participate, they don’t have to accept the American Express card. Seventy-five other companies -- including FedEx, Facebook and Delta -- ended up joining the “shop small” movement in its second year and many more will be doing so in 2012. Friday's Child: Doing Good Doesn’t Pay Out Mention a “do good” program and most marketers will discourage discussing its ROI, as if ROI is a bad thing that could somehow diminish their altruistic intentions. Even AmEx’s Krugman tried to convince me that as long as small businesses felt good about SBS, that was good enough for AmEx. He let slip, however, that “card transactions were up 23 percent for merchants that accepted the [American Express] card” on SBS 2011. Sounds like ROI to me. It isn't news that the U.S. Congress is more divided politically now than at any other time since the Civil War, which makes their unanimous resolution to support Small Business Saturday all the more remarkable. In fact, officials in all 50 states embraced SBS, and President Obama's personal effort to "shop small" on SBS in 2011 also made the evening news. Final Note In addition to talking to American Express’ Krugman, I also caught up with Denise Yunkun, FedEx’s director of alliance marketing, who helped me get a sense of the program’s scale. Yunkun reported that in 2011, “More than 500,000 small business owners leveraged an online tool or promotional materials for SBS.” For my enlightening interviews with Krugman and Yunkun, please visit The Drew Blog.
The most social buzzed-about new TV shows this year are the ones that won't be around much longer.ABC's "666 Park Avenue" and "Last Resort" scored the best results with a 6.1 and a 5.4 scores, respectively, for the week ending Nov. 18, according to General Sentiment, a social media researcher that monitors news, social, and Twitter social media buzz. Those shows gained 15% to 16% from the week before.CBS' comedy "Partners" -- one of the better Nielsen-rated new shows -- also wasn't good enough, and won't get any new orders for more episodes. Social buzz still put it high on the list of 26 new shows, grabbing a 5.2 score up 22% week-to-week.This left NBC's "Guys With Kids" and Fox's "The Mindy Project" as the top two biggest shows in terms of social interactions -- both scoring a 5.2 number, with "Kids" up 25% and "Mindy" gaining 21% week-to-week.After these two shows comes ABC's "Malibu Country" with a 5.1 number -- virtually unchanged, up 0.3%. Fox's low-Nielsen rated "The Mob Doctor" was next at a 4.9, down 2.4% for the week. CBS' "Elementary" scored a high Nielsen rating with a 4.6, up 4.5% for the week.The biggest gainer was NBC's "Go On," which grew some 67% in social, Twitter and news buzz to hit a 2.1. Fox's summer reality show "Hotel Hell" also spiked well, up 52% to a 2.1.
An Obama 2012 campaign promise to emphasize education has already been fulfilled in some respects: The president’s team schooled Romney’s on how to run an effective, analytics-driven campaign, and educated marketers on best practices for analytics-enabled marketing using Big Data and social media. Whatever your political affiliation, if you’re a marketer, it’s worth studying how the Obama team leveraged analytics to win the election. 1. Treat analytics as a creative force. It takes creativity and broad thinking to consider whether a phone call from a local person versus someone in a non-swing state makes a difference, then analyzing the impact. This was one of many ways that the Obama team was creative in the application of analytics. Since your competitors are likely to have similar data, software, and analytics expertise, the game-changing difference is in uncovering key insights by thinking broadly and creatively about how the world works and how to influence consumers. 2. Target customers with highest potential. The Obama team was masterful at identifying the swing voters who could be persuaded in granular key battleground geographies. Who are your most persuadable “swing voters”? Which customers offer the highest upside potential? Marketers too often focus investments on their current most valuable customers, which often is not where the real opportunity lies. Developing detailed customer profiles, predictive models, and experiments reveals customers who should be targeted for their potentially greater share of wallet and responsiveness to marketing. 3. Drive relevance through analytics to win. The Obama campaign understood the relevance equation. Its robust customer database and profiles guided all marketing tactics. Which target voters got phone calls, emails, or door-knocks? Which social media channels are most relevant? What was the right content in terms of messaging and creative? Aligning with Sarah Jessica Parker engaging on Reddit, and highly targeted television ads further showed the campaign had answers to the who, what, when, where, and how of communications and engagement. 4. Make testing part of the culture. When you have office pools about whose email will perform best, as Obama’s team did, testing is imbedded in the culture. World-class, analytics-enabled marketing programs incorporate testing in every facet in two ways: Experimental designs that answer fundamental questions about resource allocation and test a broad set of ideas. Ongoing A/B tests drive continual performance improvements around individual tactics such as email. 5. Set clear, measurable objectives for social media. The Obama team demonstrated this with its creative use of Facebook, where photos of users’ friends were posted in swing states to influence such behaviors as registering or voting early. It’s critical to have clear business, brand, and marketing goals for each channel across paid, owned, and earned media. A holistic measurement plan will account for cross-channel interactions tied to these objectives. 6. Use robust data and apply context to improve models. Those looking at more robust data did not believe the election was a toss-up -- including both Team Obama and New York Times blogger Nate Silver. The Obama team's predictive accuracy was rooted in very large sample sizes and analysis of very granular but key geographic areas. Having less data to work with, Silver filled the gaps by incorporating judgment and context. The lesson for marketers is that the right Big Data plus simple algorithms can be a powerful predictor. And filling in data gaps with smart, informed assumptions can result in highly accurate predictive models. 7. Leverage analytics across all stakeholders. The Obama team leveraged analytics to drive both fundraising (raising $1 billion) and voting behavior. Similarly, marketers and businesses should consider how they can leverage analytics broadly across stakeholders to drive overall results. For example, analytics can also be leveraged for internal employee engagement to segment employees and target them for increased engagement, skill development, and a variety of other objectives. Clearly, Team Obama has set the bar for analytics-driven campaigning. It took outstanding analytics as well as a multidisciplinary approach to help achieve the victory.
Regardless of your political affiliation, one can’t help but admire the Obama campaign’s relentless and successful marketing strategy. In the next few months, marketers of all stripes will be scrutinizing what worked and what missed the mark. As marketers, we can all learn more about our craft by studying this recent election cycle. In the following, let’s examine how some of these lessons can be applied to green marketing strategies. 1. A social strategy: As in the 2008 election, social media was just as – and probably more important -- to both candidates’ strategies. Many of us woke up on Election Day to find a flurry of posts on Facebook from friends announcing that they had voted curtesy of an “I Voted” app that Facebook installed. Was it lost on anyone that the newly re-elected President used Twitter to make his first communication once it was clear that he had won? In a now iconic image of the President embracing First Lady Michelle – it was a message heard and seen around the world. For the green marketer, it’s a reminder that social media continues to be a vital communications tool – but also a reminder that social media continues to evolve and that we must evolve with it. Understand the current channels, be flexible to embrace new channels that emerge (hello, Pinterest!) and remember that a picture speaks 1,000 words. 2. Consistent messaging: In the eyes of the majority of the public, Mitt Romney was perceived as flip-flopping on positions and lacking a clear vision. Being inconsistent ultimately eroded public confidence, and may well have cost him the election. The lesson for green marketers is that you can’t authentically be for something after you’ve been against something. It means that clear, authentic and consistent messaging should be ever present – from the sustainability reports to internal memos and blog postings on the company website. Much like the voting public, sustainability stakeholders are hungry for transparency. 3. Data is hot: “Knowledge is power” has never rung so true since Nate Silver stunned pundits by near perfectly predicting the election’s outcome. As Ad Age noted, Obama’s team “built the largest data team in political history to integrate data gleaned via social media and the web with offline data, such as shopping information and voter-file data.” Marketers have long embraced and lived by data, and for now, the public is in shocked agreement. Sustainability reports are treasure troves of information not only for external stakeholders, but also for internal decision-makers. Now is a good time to take a close look at what you’re measuring, how it’s being captured and of course, take a long, candid look at the results.
In June of 2009, something unique happened in the world of health news: That’s when the Mayo Clinic “announced the imminent release of a study on celiac disease, specifically an immune system response to gluten,” according to Forbes.com article. While these kinds of releases are commonplace in the health community, what made this news event different was that the Mayo Clinic chose to share the announcement over Twitter and tracked which of its followers retweeted it. The Mayo Clinic later shared an embargoed copy of the study with select followers, each of whom had celiac disease, who were permitted to blog about the study once it was released to the public. That same month, the search term “celiac disease” experienced one of the most significant spikes since 2004. Lee Aase, Mayo Clinic's director of social media, attributed some of the success to having an established connection with the community, as Aase had been tweeting about celiac findings prior to this release. The Mayo Clinic skillfully enabled its target audience to control the conversation by granting them special level news access, a status traditionally reserved for the "media." Although perhaps not surprising today given how Twitter has changed the flow of political and social history, in 2009 it was incipient technology. Case in point, the “celiac” search spike crashed 30 days later with the news of Michael Jackson’s untimely passing. Today, Twitter, Google+ and Facebook are entwined in our collective worlds, and regularly relied upon for news and events -- a reality often not mirrored in our marketing plans. If any question remained about the validity or necessity of the social sphere, Hurricane Sandy confirmed its reason for existence. Key communicators from FEMA Director W. Craig Fugate, to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, to Newark Mayor Corey Booker, to the Huffington Post used social media to convey essential information. Twitter enables coverage to spread, and marketers will reap rewards by embracing social media’s expansion with an equal eagerness. As it did for the Mayo Clinic, Twitter can significantly boost search demand. So too can blogs. The skeptical may rightly surmise that while the country is no doubt on course to “Rise Up,” Bruce Springsteen style, in the event of a true zombie apocalypse, blogs could continue to be run only by marketing bots. Sure, they may encounter a readership issue -- but for sure, the tweets will be far less entertaining than: “I hope we don't find out this blackout is just a big promo for that show ‘Revolution.’ Jim Gaffigan, #sandy." The idea is to harness social media’s massive marketing power for good. During Chicago’s Social Media Week, leading B2B panelists espoused the necessity of understanding the intersection of search and social. We were told not to rely on the vanity metric of Twitter followers but rather to examine who actively engages with our brands and what these folks do to promote them. Specifically, what do they intend? Seems like sound advice. Get started by tweeting a body of data and then listen as fans re-tweet and react to it. When you deliver curated content, your followers will help you understand their activity through search data, and it’s important to prepare to capture search demand. As demand rises, the right content and SEO resources can combine with paid search to help marketers reap big gains in search and acquisition KPIs -- but overlooking this important step can quickly position the competition as benefactor. Panelists during Social Media Week reiterated that content creation can be as simple as a Google alert. Step 2 is to assign a hierarchical structure or otherwise make sense of the trends and extend this knowledge to the search channel. (Data-based) marketing drives the business. Using keywords and content as the seed, take a cross-channel approach to bucket and reach customers as efficiently as possible. The idea of informing constituents in real time is on par with a societal expectation. It feels intuitive to share the most important news with your best supporters and trust that they treat it responsibly. The key is to decode searcher intent and fulfill needs across channels with a unified and coherent strategy.
Instagram is most definitely its own beast. Businesses thinking they can parlay a Pinterest strategy into Instagram will be sorely mistaken, thanks to strikingly different user engagement styles on the two platforms. Without clear “transactional” support, Instagram is proving to be much more about brand building and brand allegiance. If your company doesn't hold the term "brand" highly, simply stay off Instagram for now -- there are other platforms more worth your transactional-based time. However, for the brand-conscience, recent metrics show Instagram might be a worthwhile marketing tool. According to comScore, Instagram surpassed Twitter in daily mobile users during August 2012 -- 7.3 million daily users on Instragram mobile versus 6.9 million for Twitter. While not monstrous numbers, they show the critical mass Instagram is gaining. Also consider: In September, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Instagram had 100 million users. That points to two important facts. First, Instragram is adding users at a rate of around 10 million per month (since it had 80 million in July). Second, and quite important, the math shows 7.3% of Instagram's user base is active on a DAILY basis. On MOBILE. Surely this is an enormously good sign. So, you might not be on Instagram yet. But how can you be thankful for Instagram come Thanksgiving time next year? 1. Make your C-Level “real.” Consumers are increasingly distrusting of the faceless corporation, and much more attracted to (and, in times of trouble, tolerant of) companies with a more human face. Use Instagram to show the real, human side of your company’s executive suite. This is a lesson the normally digitally savvy Obama campaign could have employed with the recently viral photo of the President with U.S. Olympian McKayla Maroney. McKayla capitalized on the photo in her Instragram feed, receiving more than 100,000 likes on the photo. Obama used the photo on Facebook, but not Instragram. Just be careful of the lesson in #2… 2. Make line employees “real.” Same story, different people. Sure, #1 and #2 could have been combined. However, it’s very different humanizing line employees -- with whom everyday consumers can probably already relate. Showcasing the humanness of a $30,000 staffer tends to be about making sure the scenario is on-brand. For a multi-$100,000 CEO, it’s about ensuring the CEO doesn’t look out-of-touch. 3. Crowdsource marketing photography. Let’s be clear. I don’t mean print ad photography. Resolution alone probably won’t make Instagram photos conducive to standard print ads. However, your business likely needs photography for Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, digital banners and, of course, Instagram. Your customers can help you fill this seemingly neverending need. Just be careful of how you showcase and use the photos. Ben & Jerry’s is in the middle of an Instagram campaign called Capture Euphoria. Problem is, the company has photos auto-streaming based on hash-tags. Without a human approval-filter on the photos, some quite inappropriate content is making its way through. 4. Invigorate employees. Instagram feeds don’t have to be public. Consider making a private feed that your company only allows current employees to access. Use the feed to share motivational messages, successes, highlight employees, and generally motivate your team. Of course, make sure you don’t mind any of the content making it out into the general community -- because it will. Quickly. However, if the content is done right, the leaked photos only help to strengthen your brand positioning. 5. Another PR arm. Create a feed specifically for bloggers. Use the feed for visual teasers, early announcements, product photography, etc. for the ever-expanding blogger audience. Speak to the bloggers on a platform that is unique, that bloggers can embrace while mobile, that impacts them visually. Bloggers need photos just like you (See #3), so you’ll be helping them feed the beast as well. Bonus tip: Expect to change your strategy in the next six to 12 months. The Facebook purchase of Instagram will undoubtedly mean a turn to monetization. With monetization will come different marketing opportunities. Just be thankful these new marketing opportunities will most definitely be complementary to the brand-marketing groundwork you have already laid. You can also be thankful you’ve already secured your brand’s handle (aka name) on Instagram. Hint, hint.
Can you endorse me? One of the most enjoyable developments in recent digital history is the arrival of a new feature on LinkedIn where you can be “endorsed” by your colleagues for various skill sets. LinkedIn scans your profile to identify “skills” you may have and then asks your colleagues to endorse you when they log in to their page. I think this could be really accurate if used correctly. The tactic is an obvious ploy to create page views, upon which you can sell ads, so I can’t knock LinkedIn for that. However, the execution does make me wonder. In the last month I had two different people send me a note asking if had actually endorsed them for obscure derivatives of what they do for a living, or if what they'd received was just spam. I responded with “Yes, I did endorse you, but I think there are more accurate ways to describe you.” I tend to run past the various pop-up messages embedded in LinkedIn very quickly, because most of the time they’re simply asking me to update elements of my profile. For more than seven years now my profile has been between 85%-95% complete, and it’s kind of a challenge to get to 100% without being in market for a job. They want to have you post a resume, which would seem unnecessary or even redundant if you are A) not looking for a job, and B) on LinkedIn in the first place, since the site is basically a digital resume. So if you’re like me, you tend to breeze through and click stuff to see if it will go away. However the “endorsement box” is now something of a game for me. It’s more of a “match the face to a job” game, where I try to see if the endorsement accurately matches the person who pops up! In some cases I have to say no because it’s clear some people have embellished a bit on their profile, overstating their expertise in certain areas while underplaying others that may seem less “managerial”. For me, I think it may be time to add endorsements that are more accurate, and even a little bit more fun in a character-building kind of way. I have gone in and added two skills to my LinkedIn page: “Being a pretty cool guy” and “smiles ‘good.’” I think these two skills are accurate. I try hard to be a pretty cool guy, and I think I smile pretty good, too. Do you agree? If so, then endorse me! Let’s see if I can be more accurately described in these ways than I am in the areas of Advertising or Marketing Strategy (which I certainly do appreciate). After all, in 50 years when I’m old and gray, I certainly want it be known that I was good at my job, but I also want to be remembered for being a “pretty cool guy” who “smiles good” and LinkedIn will surely outlast me at this rate (and yes – I know that is poor grammar not to say “smiles well,” but I never wanted to be seen as pretentious, either). What about you? What do you want to be remembered for? I see no reason why we can’t all add some key skills to our LinkedIn profile that would most accurately describe us as well as our careers, right? What do you want to be endorsed for?