Kraft Foods’ Capri Sun is today launching its biggest social media activation to date. The “Seize the Day” campaign, which is kicking off with a sweepstakes, aims to engage moms by helping them ensure that their kids stay busy and make the most of each day. A dedicated area/tab on Capri Sun’s Facebook page -- “powered by” its new Super V beverages line -- offers entertaining, educational videos featuring an adventurous, idealized kid, “Jack.” The boy portraying the character speaks directly to viewers (moms) as he takes them through a variety of ambitious activities, including arts and crafts, outdoor explorations, “thrilling challenges,” sports, volunteering and more. The videos were directed by Jared Eberhardt, of Burton Snowboards and Puma fame. The brand also had popular “mommy bloggers” produce accompanying informational content about fun activities, including their own experiences with their kids. An important element is an integrated “Local Fun” sidebar, through a partnership with Yelp. The user selects location and activities preferences, and the tool populates educational and fun events and destinations in the user’s locale, plus ratings, reviews, distance and other information. Parents who “like” the official Facebook destination and share photos of their kids engaged in “extraordinary” activities earn chances to win cash prizes intended to be used to help their kids engage in further adventures and activities. The sweepstakes has one grand prize of $2,500, and 30 prizes of $500. “We wanted to go beyond just offering a coupon, and really engage moms on Facebook and keep them coming back,” Matt Smith, senior associate brand manager for Capri Sun, tells Marketing Daily. The brand’s Facebook page currently has nearly 380,000 likes. The Super V line, which offers one combined serving of fruits and vegetables in each pouch, has been performing well since its launch last spring, according to Smith. In addition to Capri Sun original juice drinks, the brand also has a 100% juice line, a Sunrise line (100% daily value of vitamin C, plus calcium), and Roarin’ Waters (low-cal fruit-flavored beverages with no artificial colors or ingredients).
Nevada's tourism challenge is not boosting Sin City, but Nevada itself. The problem is that most people think the former is the landing strip for the latter. A new campaign by communications firm Burson-Marsteller and BuzzFeed is about changing that perception with a digital road show involving two BuzzFeed editors tooling around the state, reporting on different attractions and general Nevada must-sees. The effort includes tweets, video and images of such things as Nevada's ghost towns and ski resorts. Michael Bassik, chair of U.S. digital practice at the agency, says the campaign's limited budget required a rather imaginative approach that wraps interactive ads around the editors' travels. "We looked back at research from TNS that shed light on the effectiveness of their previous online ads." He says the agency found that the effectiveness of their efforts had begun to decrease as time went on. "We could no longer rely on banner messages alone to determine that an integrated campaign was necessary." That meant partnerships with content providers who would marry content with ad opportunities. "We selected BuzzFeed as a partner because we had envisioned a perfect marriage of paid content and advertising working with a story of Nevada reaching a target that includes younger travelers," he says. There are a number of other sites but, among them, BuzzFeed is the only one working to produce original content to surround the ad experience, per Bassik. The ad buy for the interactive portion includes sites like TripAdvisor.com, the Weather Channel and a roster of travel and other Web sites, as well as sites for young children that also cater to moms making travel plans. "The beauty of BuzzFeed is the percentage of people there who share content elsewhere," says Bassik. "And there are thousands of others who have visited the content and shared that content with their social network. Also, BuzzFeed shared that content on their own social channels." Burson-Marsteller designed the ads, and Burson-owned Proof Integrated Communications did the digital elements, including interactive banner ads. Bassik says the agency is in talks now to take it to spring and summer. "Ultimately, we measure ad effectiveness based on tourism revenue per ad dollar spent."
Kraft Foods’ Capri Sun is today launching its biggest social media activation to date. The “Seize the Day” campaign, which is kicking off with a sweepstakes, aims to engage moms by helping them ensure that their kids stay busy and make the most of each day. A dedicated area/tab on Capri Sun’s Facebook page -- “powered by” its new Super V beverages line -- offers entertaining, educational videos featuring an adventurous, idealized kid, “Jack.” The boy portraying the character speaks directly to viewers (moms) as he takes them through a variety of ambitious activities, including arts and crafts, outdoor explorations, “thrilling challenges,” sports, volunteering and more. The videos were directed by Jared Eberhardt, of Burton Snowboards and Puma fame. The brand also had popular “mommy bloggers” produce accompanying informational content about fun activities, including their own experiences with their kids. An important element is an integrated “Local Fun” sidebar, through a partnership with Yelp. The user selects location and activities preferences, and the tool populates educational and fun events and destinations in the user’s locale, plus ratings, reviews, distance and other information. Parents who “like” the official Facebook destination and share photos of their kids engaged in “extraordinary” activities earn chances to win cash prizes intended to be used to help their kids engage in further adventures and activities. The sweepstakes has one grand prize of $2,500, and 30 prizes of $500. “We wanted to go beyond just offering a coupon, and really engage moms on Facebook and keep them coming back,” Matt Smith, senior associate brand manager for Capri Sun, tells Marketing Daily. The brand’s Facebook page currently has nearly 380,000 likes. The Super V line, which offers one combined serving of fruits and vegetables in each pouch, has been performing well since its launch last spring, according to Smith. In addition to Capri Sun original juice drinks, the brand also has a 100% juice line, a Sunrise line (100% daily value of vitamin C, plus calcium), and Roarin’ Waters (low-cal fruit-flavored beverages with no artificial colors or ingredients).
Nevada's tourism challenge is not boosting Sin City, but Nevada itself. The problem is that most people think the former is the landing strip for the latter. A new campaign by communications firm Burson-Marsteller and BuzzFeed is about changing that perception with a digital road show involving two BuzzFeed editors tooling around the state, reporting on different attractions and general Nevada must-sees. The effort includes tweets, video and images of such things as Nevada's ghost towns and ski resorts. Michael Bassik, chair of U.S. digital practice at the agency, says the campaign's limited budget required a rather imaginative approach that wraps interactive ads around the editors' travels. "We looked back at research from TNS that shed light on the effectiveness of their previous online ads." He says the agency found that the effectiveness of their efforts had begun to decrease as time went on. "We could no longer rely on banner messages alone to determine that an integrated campaign was necessary." That meant partnerships with content providers who would marry content with ad opportunities. "We selected BuzzFeed as a partner because we had envisioned a perfect marriage of paid content and advertising working with a story of Nevada reaching a target that includes younger travelers," he says. There are a number of other sites but, among them, BuzzFeed is the only one working to produce original content to surround the ad experience, per Bassik. The ad buy for the interactive portion includes sites like TripAdvisor.com, the Weather Channel and a roster of travel and other Web sites, as well as sites for young children that also cater to moms making travel plans. "The beauty of BuzzFeed is the percentage of people there who share content elsewhere," says Bassik. "And there are thousands of others who have visited the content and shared that content with their social network. Also, BuzzFeed shared that content on their own social channels." Burson-Marsteller designed the ads, and Burson-owned Proof Integrated Communications did the digital elements, including interactive banner ads. Bassik says the agency is in talks now to take it to spring and summer. "Ultimately, we measure ad effectiveness based on tourism revenue per ad dollar spent."
Facebook’s announcement of Graph Search, its revolutionary new search tool, has set the online marketing community atwitter. Talk of Graph Search being a “Google killer” seems premature, but it will have a significant impact on online marketing, particularly within search and SEO. Graph Search has major implications on the amount of ad revenue Facebook can potentially generate. It opens up new opportunities for Facebook to serve paid search results similar to those in the major search engines, in addition to its display-style ads. As Graph Search evolves, brand marketers will have to adjust their social media marketing strategies to capitalize on search marketing opportunities. Opportunities for Brands The biggest new opportunity for brands brought on by Graph Search is specific to those with physical locations of businesses. Since users can filter their results by location, it’s important that marketers ensure the business address is up to date. Graph Search returns a number of different types of results, including people, Pages, apps, places, groups and suggested searches. Brands can own multiple results for the same search, limiting the presence of competitors. From a paid advertising standpoint, it’s likely that Facebook will introduce sponsored search results in Graph Search. To date, paid its advertising consisted of display-style advertising, serving ads to users based on their demographics, Likes and the content they click on. This is a passive form of advertising. Graph Search opens the potential for advertisers to bid on keywords that users search, similar to the way the major search engines leverage paid search advertising. This allows advertisers to use Facebook to target people who actually have intent to buy. Challenges for Brands Graph Search does not return results external to Facebook. Because of this, brands must build and maintain a sustainable and proactive social presence on Facebook to capitalize on this new breakthrough in search. Because Likes and engagement of a business page play an important role in a brand’s Graph Search visibility, marketers must develop new ways to incentivize consumers and integrate their social media efforts across all digital marketing channels. This also affects the internal structure of cross-channel marketing teams. How Brands Can Leverage Graph Search The first step is to help Facebook find a brand’s business page. Connections, Likes, check-ins and other data Facebook has collected about a business play a role in how a page can perform in Graph Search. In order to increase a business page’s visibility, marketers must understand the algorithm and optimize the pages. Business pages (and other Facebook assets) must be up to date for maximum visibility and sustainability. There are four main areas to optimize: business name, category, vanity URL and the About section. Graph Search will place a strong emphasis on endorsements. Specifically, the more Facebook users “Like” a brand’s business page, the higher the brand’s page will rank in search results, especially when a higher percentage of those liking the page are within the user’s personal network. It’s important for digital marketers to allocate resources to increasing a brand’s number of Likes. Target existing customers because they already have a relationship with the brand. And it increases the likelihood of their friends finding the brand’s page. It is unclear when Graph Search will begin to roll out to all Facebook users, but there is currently a beta version that can be tested with an invite. In order to gain access to the beta version of Graph Search, an invite can be requested by clicking the “Join Waiting List” button at the bottom of this page. Graph Search isn’t the Google killer some predicted. But it is a powerful new tool for search marketers. Welcome to the first iteration of the social-search era of online marketing.
In a previous blog post, I covered the issue of “quality not quantity” when it comes to effectively engaging with fans and followers. Large volumes of fans can add credibility to your social media assets, but it’s the interaction with those fans that is the most effective driver of enhanced customer experience and online advocacy. However, a recent campaign by the health group Simplyhealth highlighted an approach that seems to achieve the best of both worlds. It is a very simple and effective way of boosting likes, while simultaneously growing your CSR credentials through charity and research. This, in turn, further engages potential customers and gets them talking. Simplyhealth ran a digital and terrestrial TV ad campaign between 17 September and 2 November. The premise of the campaign is that Simplyhealth believe there is a clear link between dental health and cardiovascular disease. They have conducted research to support this link and posted findings and health guides for visitors to view on their website. So far so good, but how do you get people to visit? To draw people to the website is where a well-thought-through social media campaign comes in. The ad highlights that for every “like” the Simplyhealth Facebook app achieves, Simplyhealth will donate £1 to Heart Research UK. Visitors can use the app to access the research, health guides, videos, competition and quiz. Heart Research UK is a charity which promotes heart-healthy lifestyles, and has also produced a ‘Dental Care and your Heart’ leaflet, so it is a very good fit as a partner. The campaign was a great way to attract visitors to the site, get them engaged with the content and, of course, contribute to charity. The initial target of 30,000 likes (£30k to charity) was surpassed in just four weeks and now stands at over £60k. Because of its success, Simplyhealth has now increased the donation target to £150k and is re-running the TV adv campaign from 14 January to 10 March 2013. This will help fund further research into how dental health can affect the heart and so becomes a virtuous circle. Simplyhealth have dramatically increased their Facebook presence and promoted a good cause. By using an altruistic incentive rather than hard cash to generate “likes,” it has created a fan base with a genuine interest in both the issues and the charity, which will further drive online discussion around the campaign. Given that Simplyhealth now has a large pool of engaged fans at its disposal, perhaps it is missing a trick by not recruiting them into a private online community. Those people who have clicked the “like” button have already engaged with the campaign and seem open to charitable incentives. Therefore, they would appear to be ideal type of candidates to get more involved in the campaign and share their views online. Through further charity donations they can be incentivised to provide richer, more detailed feedback via bulletin board discussions or video diaries. Add in the fact that people show a natural interest in discussing health issues, but may prefer to discuss certain matters in a more private setting with like-minded members – then you have the perfect set-up for a community that could flourish. Through getting involved with the research and sharing their experiences, participants may even be able to co-create ideas for improvements in dental care and help with the research going forward. Using social media research to gain customers, while also potentially saving lives, really is the ultimate win/win.
The research firm IDC estimates a shortage of technology and analytics experts resulting from the mound of data produced by online technology, devices, and cloud computing. Labor constraints, or lack of qualified search marketers who can analyze data, could derail search engine marketing campaigns both for optimization and paid search. Nearly 70% of companies participating in an Infogroup Targeting Solutions and Yesmail study plan to invest more in data-related marketing initiatives in 2013, with a heavy emphasis on hiring. More than half of the respondents surveyed said they plan to add employees, including analysts, to oversee data efforts. The survey of more than 700 marketers attending the DMA 2012 Annual Conference and Forrester Research eBusiness Forum analyzed impacts of big data on budgets and hiring, influences of data on marketing campaigns across channels, roles of real-time data in marketing, and challenges from data-driven marketing. It found that 68% expect to increase data-related expenditures greatly or slightly in 2013, while 3% said they expect data-related expenditures to decrease. Some 56% plan to hire new employees to handle data collection or analysis, of which 20% will go toward data analysts, and 5% said they plan to hire an executive to oversee data initiatives. The survey also finds that most marketers have successfully implemented data-collection tools, but this year plan to focus on putting technology and people in place. For example, 45% of marketers identified analyzing or applying customer information as the biggest data-related challenge they will face this year. Only 11% said data collection will become the most difficult task. It turns out that email and social media have become the dominant channels for generating customer data. When asked what channel creates the best source for customer data, 49% said email, followed by 19%, email; and 12%, social. Nearly half of the respondents said analyzing or applying data will become their biggest data-related challenge in 2013. And more troubling, about 25% of marketers can't remember the last time they performed quality control on their customer data, although nearly 80% plan to make greater use of customer social media data to drive marketing campaigns in other channels in 2013. Less than half of marketers said they use customer online data to drive marketing campaigns through the offline channels of direct mail, at 47%; print, 32%; and telemarketing, 30%.
The start of a new year brings with it the promise of new opportunities. So, let’s take a moment to explore this idea of opportunity and our relation to it. Is an opportunity really something that presents itself to us, as in “when opportunity knocks…”? It could happen. But as marketers, we understand that most opportunities arise from proactively knocking on doors, not the other way around. Most “opportunities” are actually the result of someone’s insight, ingenuity, and perseverance. In other words, opportunities are made, not born. It’s our job to recognize potential opportunities and to make something of them. And, likewise, we can help consumers discover and take advantage of opportunities. Help them reframe what they may see as challenges—or even obstacles—to become opportunities instead. How do we make opportunities happenwith health and wellness? When you think about things from a patient’s point of view, there are two ways they might engage opportunities: either proactively or reactively. Proactively might be a person deciding on their own that they are going to take better care of their health. They might focus on nutrition and eating healthier or activities and a fitness goal, for example. Reactively, imagine a patient who, upon learning they have early-stage diabetes, decides to take the news as a wake-up call and engage in a vigorous change of lifestyle to improve their overall health. Or, at the other end of the spectrum, a patient who, having suffered a mild heart attack, begrudgingly agrees to follow “doctor’s orders” to quit smoking. All these patient types, either proactively or reactively, are engaged in an opportunity to improve their health. And technology is playing a key role for both patients and their caregivers. Technology: a powerful enabler for better health outcomes. Most opportunities are really about commitment. Making a choice to pursue something and then sticking to it. Seeing it through. We speak of “missed opportunities” as if they inhabited one instant. But actually, an opportunity is fulfilled (or not) over time. The opportunity for someone engaging in a new fitness program isn’t realized the day they begin working out. It takes all the accumulated workouts that happen on the days thereafter. And, thanks to technology, “opportunists” everywhere are finding the support and encouragement they need to fuel their commitment. Digital communities and apps abound for all kinds of personal tracking, as well as portals for encouragement and reinforcement by peers. MyFitnessPal is one example of a digital app that includes calorie counters, food and exercise diaries, and sharing communities. Another example is Nike+, which provides a communal experience for very determined people to get motivated, be challenged, and stay connected in their pursuit of fitness. Users can track their activities, map their runs, set goals, share their progress, see how others are doing, and even send and receive real-time encouragement to and from peers through their audio feedback. An integrated system of apps and devices—like the Nike+ FuelBand, a wrist band that measures daily movements—provides limitless metrics and data on an individual's activity levels and energy expenditure, which provides a steady stream of motivation throughout the day. The role social media plays in changing behavior. Thanks to platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube, people are finding increasingly more ways to share, connect, and inspire each other when it comes to health- related goals. A quick search on Meetup.com revealed groups for meditation, weight loss, smoking cessation, nutrition, and of course a wide variety of fitness interests, from running to mixed martial arts to Zumba. The potential for these platforms to impact behavior is huge. It’s all in how users interact with the information they are posting and viewing. We may ask ourselves whether the social media explosion is always such a positive thing—“no texting at the dinner table!”—but there’s no denying it can be a powerful enabler for opportunities. We are a lot more likely to take our commitment seriously if we feel accountable to a group of peers who are in it with us or watching our progress. And who are also accessible and responsive on a daily basis. The truth is that opportunities rarely knock on someone’s door. An opportunity occurs when someone consciously takes advantage of circumstances to make something happen. Typically it’s the proactive person who will recognize opportunity and do something with it. The beauty is that today's technology can be a strong motivator and enabler for anyone who is ready to take on the commitment. Andrew Marvel, associate creative director, copy at Cement Bloc, also contributed to this article.