Lessons of Social Media
We are very aware of bad social media. Stuff that we are embarrassed by and utterly surprised that individuals post, thinking they are clever. Who knows, this blog may be one of those examples. With all of the really bad videos on youtube and even large companies posting ridiculous content as well, because they have no clue, and they simply post anything, and trust others to create content simply because they don’t want to be left behind and forgotten; I wanted to illustrate a few examples of good viral video.
These first few come from Evian Water. In my humble opinion, these Evian Water commercials are classic. They take an upbeat song, add either creative animation with a young voice, or very innovative and talented babies with a youthful message of Live Young and voila instant viral. Their cute, funny, addictive, and let’s face it, who doesn’t like dancing babies?
We were told that no babies were harmed during the making of these very creative Evian Water commercials.
This for me is just contagious. The song, the two kids, it just puts a smile on my face. The video associated their brand with kids and fun which is a good fit, since it’s chocolate and candy. In my opinion, it didn’t need a traditional call to action. It’s just about brand recognition. The two things they missed, however; is that the video on youtube doesn’t have a link to the Cadbury site and the Cadbury site doesn’t have a link to the youtube spot or have the Cadbury Eyebrows on their site.
Now this was definitely more involved as T-Mobile incorporated 400 dancers interspersed in the crowd at Liverpool Street Station and not only filmed the choreography but the dancers involved the individual people in the crowd and eventually had most of the station dancing to the music. Talk about interacting with the brand! This scored big on two fronts. It’s a catchy ad that is fun to watch and shareable and the crowd interacting with the dancers created a personal event to be shared with their friends and family and even strangers via youtube. The brand gets tied in at the end with the tagline – Life’s for sharing.
well done.
There is no brand or company here but it is very creative. A lot of work went into it and is fun to watch.
You will have to figure out what works with your brand. These are just three examples that I liked and thought worked well for creating a buzz and getting the brand in front of people. The one thing these three videos have in common is that they bring a smile.
Start there.
Nice post. creating social content for big brands can be difficult. They still want so much control and treat it like regular media. Cadbury and T-Mobile get it as well as Carnival Cruise Lines from your previous post.
Thanks for sharing.
Social media has come a long way but it has been abused by marketeers. When I log on Twitter all I see is desperate tweets promoting the products nothing wrong in that but there has to be a fine line on what constitutes a meaningful message and marketing propaganda.
The 3rd video was removed to violation of TOS. I LOVE the 2nd one. The first one was a bit creepy for me. I do think it is an innovative way to advertise though. The UK always seems to be ahead of the US in that department. We need to step it up.
As marketers we need to find creative ways to reach out to customers – and there is nothing wrong with a marketing pitch – as long as it’s not being disguised as something else. People do watch ads – and make purchasing decisions based on them. Let’s not forget that advertising is a form of communicating and stop being so upset when we see advertisements within the social media sphere. I’d dare to say that most of the ads are much more interesting than many of the banal tweets I’ve read.
Social media is a tempting low cost method of sharing your idea, concept, product, and service but I believe it is limited in its approach for a pure marketing campaign. The difference between industrial media and social media is the difference between being “spoken to” and discussing.
While many unsolicited (positive) responses to planned and strategic topics can bolster any marketing campaign, negative responses will do the opposite. It would take a very courageous and secure organization to launch a marketing campaign that is primarily responses and interface from user and consumer generated media forums.
It is that lack of control and ambiguity that keeps companies on the edge, pushing the limits of hybrid marketing that includes both industrial and social. Perhaps moderated forums are the answer, but rest assured the low cost and scalability of Social Media will find its way into mainstream marketing.
There is a lot of resistance to change even in our current economic situation. People on LinkedIn understand the value but people who don’t understand it fear it. This is consistent in all parts of our society, government etc. It is the people who are willing to change, try new things and take some chances that will be rewarded.
Great post Richard.
I have 3 points:
1. The Business Case for Social Media.
While most intuitively believe they should use social media, they usually need hard data to justify the investment of time, energy and resources (people). And in this climate, few are going to stick their neck out to try something that isn’t embraced by CXOs. FYI – there’s a highly rated preso on SM Business Case at http://tinyurl.com/d7kuru
2. Limited Understanding and Resources
Many (maybe most?) brand marketers are overwhelmed and confused by SM. They usually don’t know what to do, where to start or how to plan and budget for it. Ask 5 members of your team where you should start in SM, and you’ll probably get 5 different answers. In better times, brands would hire an agency to help them figure this out, but when dollars are tight and risk threshold is low, it’s easy to push this off until the business climate improves.
3. Lack of Expertise and Capabilities
There is a lot of noise in the SM space, and no shortage of self-proclaimed SM experts. Great players are not necessarily great coaches. While there are thousands who have used SM to build their own brand, they are usually tactical in their approach. They can create a Twitter account and show you how to Tweet, but few have the knowledge and skills to develop a strategic plan that defines the audiences, objectives, resources, tactics, tools and metrics for measuring and optimizing results.
As the market matures and the economy improves, more will dip their toe in the water. This creates opportunities for those who can secure C-level support, develop a solid plan and execute against defined objectives. IMHO these cases are quite rare.
Hope this is helpful!
Steve Latham
http://twitter.com/stevelatham
>
Links:
http://blog.spurinteractive.com/category/social-media/
http://tinyurl.com/d7kuru
I have been direct marketing for 28 years. In that time, every time there has been an economic slump, businesses moved a larger percentage of their spend back into direct marketing. That’s because direct is one of the only channels that lets marketers track every dollar they spend back to a tangible lead or sale. All the above comments are excellent and make perfect sense, but I suspect the biggest reason is that social media is not yet that quantifiable.
Richard,
I think that the real reason that more big brands don’t utilize social media as they should is that no one is sure who’s job it is. Is it media, PR, event marketing, etc? It seems ridiculous, but it’s a serious problem in a big organization.
One interesting aspect of all this is that the ad industry has been breaking down into specialties for the past 30 years. Where there used to be one “ad agency,” now there are creative agencies, media agencies, BTL, events, and on and on. This is wholly unsuitable for the digital world where things change quickly and a more holistic approach is required.
The funny thing is now all of those “specialist agencies” are launching full service digital subsidiaries:-)
Some of the reason Why big brand involvement is still in the main tentative and sporadic.
Social Media is often viewed as just another marketing channel
It does not fit into current structures
Communities and content are global
Social media needs a long term approach
No guaranteed results
The metrics are new
On the Other Hand BIG Brand are on SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM
As we battle a global recession, corporations are looking for new ways to sell their products and engage their consumers. Many have turned to the Internet, with Social Media in particular, to market their goods.
Some of the Companies that have done a phenomenal job of taking advantage of social media platforms are :
Blendtec leveraged YouTube’s subscriber base and tried something fun and original. The campaign was a success and continues to entertain and sell.
Burger King has really been pushing the envelope with their marketing. They first started with whoppervirgins.com, then entered the social space with the “sacrifice ten friends” facebook application. The campaign quickly went viral and was adopted by over 20,000 users, sacrificing 200,000 friends for free whoppers.
Starbucks did just that with “My Starbucks Idea.”The site allows users to submit suggestions to be voted on by Starbucks consumers, and the most popular suggestions are highlighted and reviewed. Starbucks then took it a step further and added an “Ideas in Action” blog that gives updates to users on the status of changes suggested.
You could learn a lot from Sun Microsystem’s CEO blog. Jonathan Schwartz’s blog received about 400,000 hits a month.Sun Microsystems also has a network of blogs, friends on Facebook (Facebook reviews), friends on Twitter, and their own Twitter account as well.
IBM With Lots of Blogs
Zappos on Twitter
Comcast on Twitter too
Ford and Social Media PR
Graco Uses Pictures on Flickr
Dell didn’t shy away from these obstacles, instead they’ve gone above and beyond, truly cultivating a cross-platform community. They’ve created multiple Twitter handles, a network of blogs, and are very active on Facebook.
Regards,
nitin@maximumhit.com
http://www.maximumhit.com