Food for thought: The spy who sold out
Forgiving a pretty face
Facebook to agencies: how will people share your story?
Is “The Pitch” an accurate reflection of our industry?
For every million marketers throwing their hard-earned resources at social media, there are a few lucky players who just seem to get it right from the start. Somehow, someway, they’ve found a way to engage legions of fans with their ongoing brand story.
For your consideration, here are a few of my favourite social media mavens:
@THE_REAL_SHAQ
Celebrity: Shaquille O’Neal
Platform: Twitter
Key Points
• Funny
• Free ticket giveaways
• Enticing commentary and a candid view into his life
Why do I like it?
• Goes against the mold of athletes who don’t want to connect with their fans
• Open, honest communication
• He will tweet back to his fans
• It’s a real connection: he’ll show up at a random location, for example, and tweet his location, offering up free basketball tickets to the first person who connects with him. The winners then tweet about seeing him and winning tickets.
• It’s just cool
Barack Obama’s Drive for the Presidency
Platform: Facebook
Key Points:
• More than 7.4 million Facebook fans
• Raised $500 million+ in donations for his campaign through Facebook
• End result: he became America’s first black president
Why do I like it?
• He knew where his audience was
• He showed a willingness to take risks and reach out to us
• Quick reaction time to crises and celebrations
• He made me want to hope for a better world
Total Blender
Platform: Youtube, Twitter, Facebook
Key Points:
• Hilarious BlendTec “Will it blend” YouTube videos
• Premise: a blender that can blend anything
• Showed videos of blending iPhones, sneakers, glow sticks, etc.
• Exponential increase in sales
Why do I like it?
• Silly, easy to remember
• Daring
• Great demonstration of product benefit
• Novel idea in taking a calculated risk
• Very shareable with my friends
#shitmydadsays
Platform: Twitter
Key Points:
• Featured on Jay Leno and David Letterman
• Celebrity followers, cult following
• Started August 3, 2009
• 1,134,762 followers in less than a year
• Only 98 tweets to date
Why do I like it?
• It’s open, honest and feels real
• Simple and funny
• I can share it with my friends.
• There’s no corporation tied to this campaign – it’s just a regular guy who became popular by simple fate, luck, and the power of a good idea
• Gives me inspiration that anyone can be successful if they just try out their ideas
Maybe these approaches to social media aren’t right for all brands, but there’s much to be said for watching the pros in action.
Scott
February 10, 2010 @ 10:22 am
A good recent example is the DEWmocracy campaign that Mountain Dew is currently executing. It involves the consumer in every step of the typical innovation process that would normally occur within the walls of the company – from selecting a new flavour, to naming the new flavour, to designing the packaging and even including the marketing that goes into it once the product is complete. Their goal of course is consumer collaboration and utilizes many social media touchpoints along the way – 12seconds.tv, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube are all pieces of the campaign.
This installment is a beefed up version of the campaign they ran back in 2007 where the Voltage flavour materialized. Pepsi Co. seems to be executing well on these programs as they also had the Doritos Guru campaign which developed the Scream Cheese product.
Ian Mackenzie
February 10, 2010 @ 6:34 pm
Have you tried that Doritos mystery flavour? They should have called it “Chemical Burn.”
Anyway, I like your social media maven examples. Each of them offers value for the consumer that goes beyond offers and prizing. Instead, it’s a chance to connect with a celebrity. An inside look at a political campaign. The fun of seeing random stuff get blended. Funny quotes you can share with your friends.
Give value and they will follow, apparently.