Salesforce Marketing Cloud launched its annual Big Game Social Tracker Wednesday ahead of this weekend's Super Bowl showdown between the Atlanta Falcons and New England Patriots.
The Big Game Social Tracker provides real-time insight into the types of conversations people are having online about the upcoming big game and advertising. Available data includes the number of conversations about the game and commercials, most mentioned terms and hashtags, the top brands and volume of mentions, social sentiment and conversations by region and gender.
The data is derived from the Salesforce Social Studio, a product within the Marketing Cloud that analyzes data sources across Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, blogs and news sites.
Rob Begg, VP of product marketing at Salesforce, says the tracker can be a valuable asset to marketers aiming to cut through the noise and connect with consumers during the big game. Since Super Bowl viewers are connected digitally, marketers of all shapes and sizes can benefit from the widely watched game.
“The good news for marketers whose budgets aren’t super-sized is they can still make an impact on almost as many consumers without spending millions of dollars on a TV advertisement,” says Begg. “Digital channels including email, social and mobile offer direct connections between a brand and its fans.”
Begg predicts that digital brands combining creative content with personalized experiences will be the most successful with their Super Bowl campaigns.
“People increasingly expect brands to know who they are and where they are in their journey with the brand,” says Begg. “A one-size-fits-all approach is the reality for a 30-second Super Bowl spot, but not for the digital journey that surrounds and extends the campaign.”
With regard to email marketing, Begg recommends that marketers remain topical while also maintaining relevance to their brand. For example, retailers could offer promotions for watching the game or in celebration of a team’s victory. Electronics of furniture stores could tie in to someone throwing a party, while dining establishments can offer promotions for food or takeout orders. However, Begg warns that “brands can fumble if they try to just add a game-related subject line or images” while the rest of the email has nothing to do with the game.
Seems like an awful lot of noise and data when the outcome is marketing direction that can be taught in a beginner-level class. Guerilla marketing - slightly more advanced, and digital offers more opportunity to infiltrate Super Bowl (I said it, sue me) related media. But this only measures whether it's being done.
The currently listed data, including which brand is mentioned most, is another "meter" on ad mentions, but not necessarily ad effectiveness. Nevertheless, the data itself make for interesting stories. So for Salesforce it's a good marketing hook.