January 22nd, 2009
We all know from our own experiences that the more you give, the more you get. This is true in our personal lives and this is also true in advertising. In traditional advertising, ads that give the audience some type of reward for watching, like entertainment value or some type of personal benefit, tend to do very well and ads that offer nothing to the audience tend to be ignored (check out this hilariously boring Tax Masters commercial). This is equally true for nontraditional and social-network advertising.
Recently, the comedy troupe, Monty Python, uploaded all of their skits online for free with the hopes that people will buy their movies. The videos spread virally and the results were an astounding 2,300 percent increase in sales.
Starbucks is another company that has been a leader in this new trend with their free cup of coffee for everyone who voted on Election Day and more recently, a free cup for everyone who pledges five hours of community service. The Pledge 5 campaign has not only created a huge buzz with over 1.3 million service hours pledged, but it has also branded themselves as a socially responsible company in a very genuine way.
Mr Youth, a New York based interactive and experiential agency, has done its part to help define this rule with the Neutrogena Wave campaign. High school students nationwide were incentivized through a Facebook application to go to the Wave’s website, watch commercials, download a coupon, and tell their friends about the Wave. The school that had the most people actively participate won a free concert. 25 percent of all high schools participated and the Wave has since become the fourth most popular product on Amazon.com for facial skincare products – proving that ‘tis better to give than to receive, but best to do both.
Tags: monty python, neutrogena, social network, starbucks, wave
Posted in Campaigns, Social Media | No Comments »
January 13th, 2009
When two old acquaintances and Facebook friends sacrificed me for a lousy Whopper, I knew Burger King was onto something big… and that my feelings were just a little bit hurt. Burger King had created a successful Facebook application called the Whopper Sacrifice, which rewarded people with a free Whopper for sacrificing 10 friends. A brilliant concept that I wish I’d thought of. It’s so great because it has everything a successful Facebook app needs. It has an incentive, it has a viral component, and it’s useful.
There’s currently an oversaturation of Facebook applications out there. Many companies see that Facebook is the new thing but they haven’t figured out how to use it yet. A lot of companies force applications or features, regardless of whether people want them or not. Part of the success of the Burger King application is that it came out of necessity to let people do some spring-cleaning to their buddy lists. Using caution to not make the application seem mean spirited, it was given a lighthearted spin with the message, “Todd likes you but loves the Whopper. Todd sacrificed you for a free burger at Whopper Sacrifice.” 184,000 sacrifices later, it’s still going strong.
ADDED: 1/22 – In a sad moment for marketers, Facebook removed the Whopper Sacrifice from their website, but not before nearly 234,000 friends were scarfificed. Facebook claimed that the application violated their policy that people cannot be notified when they are unfriended. A modified version of the app is expected to go live shortly.
Tags: app, applications, apps, BK, Burger King, facebook
Posted in Campaigns, Interactive Marketing | No Comments »
December 19th, 2008
Every recession in recent American history has consistently shown ad budgets decline. We’re already seeing evidence of this in the current economic downturn. However, history also shows us that when the economy goes south, those who maintain their budgets or even increase them have far greater results compared to spending levels when the economy is doing well. The lesson here is, when competitors are decreasing ad budgets, pounce.
In the last advertising slowdown, companies like Netflix, Expedia, and Zappos managed to grow over $100 million in revenue by taking advantage of cheap media. The current recession, however, is not only going to lower the cost of media, it will also lower consumer confidence. People will be saving more and buying less so companies will have to step up their game to stay competitive. Many companies have turned solely to online campaigns like Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Optimization and viral campaigns, seeing much better results at a fraction of the cost. Because people are saving money by getting rid of cable, driving less, and spending more time online, people aren’t seeing TV spots, billboards, and print ads like they used to. Today, everyone is online for everything, which is why this recession is the perfect time for traditional companies to try nontraditional advertising.
Tags: advertising, economy, marketing, online, recession, viral
Posted in Consumer Insight | No Comments »
