GOODBUZZ™ JOINS Society of Digital Agencies (SODA)

‘JERSEY BOYS’ LEVERAGE MOBILE + SOCIAL MEDIA

Jersey Boys is a documentary-style musical based on the lives of one of the most successful 1960s rock‘n’roll groups, the Four Seasons.  The musical opened on Broadway in 2005 and won four 2006 Tony Awards. The show has had a North American National tour, along with productions in various U.S. cities including Las Vegas, the West End in London and Melbourne, Australia.

Jersey Boys marketing activities targeted visitors to Las Vegas, Nevada—specifically people who were in Las Vegas, but had a home town outside of the Las Vegas area. They were given a special offer to encourage them to buy tickets to the show. Redemption rates for the promotion exceeded two percent.

“Jersey Boys wanted to target visitors to Las Vegas to invite them to watch the show,” Mr. Linner said. “The campaign ran across SMS, mobile Web and in-app ad units.

“The campaign was focused on delivering real-world interactions, rather than interactions on the mobile handset,” he said.

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CHEVY GETS SOCIAL

Chevrolet, also known as Chevy, is a brand of automobile produced by General Motors Co. It is also General Motors' highest-selling brand. In North America, the Chevrolet brand offers a full range of automobiles, from subcompact cars to medium-duty commercial trucks.

Chevrolet targeted ads to people within three miles of a dealership on Saturday or Sunday afternoons. Chevrolet saw response rates between one percent and two percent based on the number of people who visited the dealership.

“Chevrolet wanted to drive people into its dealerships,” Mr. Linner said. “We have run different campaigns offering various incentives—free oil changes, a $25 gift card when you take a test drive, etcetera.

“The Campaign ran across mobile Web, SMS and in-app,” he said. “Each campaign was geotargeted to dealerships and time targeted to the most relevant day-parts.”

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JACK-IN-THE-BOX DRIVES CUSTOMER INTERACTIONS VIA SOCIAL NETWORK

Jack in the Box is an American fast-food restaurant headquartered in San Diego, CA. In total, the chain has 2,100 locations, primarily serving the West Coast of the United States.  Most of the outlets are in California (900), followed by Texas (560), Arizona (165) and Washington (132). The company also operates the Qdoba Mexican Grill chain.

Jack in the Box targeted ads to people within two miles of restaurants in the week following the launch of smoothies in each restaurant.  The smoothies launched in different places at different times, so the campaign staggered the ad campaign location by location. The campaign offered users an SMS coupon for a free smoothie.

“Jack in the Box was launching different menu items at different restaurants over a rolling time period,” Mr. Linner said. “As each restaurant launched the new menu items, we ran geotargeted campaigns to invite people into the restaurants. “The campaign used both SMS and mobile Web,” he said.

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NEWS UPDATE: GOODBUZZ™ EXPANDS SERVICES

Building a Participatory Brand that transcends Commerce

The Client Ask

At the beginning of (almost) every client engagement (for the past fifteen years) when we ask clients (high-level) what they’re hoping to accomplish—the response is always akin to wanting something “breakthrough”, “compelling”, and “game-changing”.   We’ve also heard “Cool”, “Apple-esque” and a slew of other descriptors.

We get it.  Everyone wants to be the next big thing.  Brands like Apple have established deep, lasting bonds with their customers and are archetypal emotional brands.  It's not just intimate with its customers; it is loved.  Who doesn’t want this?  It’s important to note that it wasn’t always like this for Apple.  Apple took a financial tailspin during the mid-1990s.   Its products were lackluster, it’s branding a mess, and the company looked in danger of going out of business.

What did Apple do?  They decided to rebrand.  Apple abandoned the old rainbow-hued Apple logo in favor of a minimalist monochrome one, gave its sleek computers a funky, colorful look, and streamlined the messages in its advertising.  They architected a brand that transcends commerce and evokes an emotional response.

Building an iconic brand

How did they do this?  A few ways.  Apple has a simple and unique visual (and verbal) vocabulary, expressed consistently across all product design and advertising.  Apple also projects a humanistic corporate culture (and a strong corporate ethic), characterized by support of good causes (and involvement in the community). Its founding mission was “power to the people through technology”, and has also established an emotional connection with its cult-like customers.

Apple's brand is one big tribe, and purchasing an Apple product makes you a member. Building this tribe takes several forms, from building trust to establishing a community around a product or service. Apple capitalizes upon the fact that people want and cherish a "human touch" and to feel like they're a part of something bigger (as it gives a sense of security and grounding).

BUT, all that aside—the one single thing that has allowed Apple (and some notable others like Nike and Harley-Davidson) to achieve what they have from a brand-equity standpoint is that they are no longer selling products. They are selling brands, which evoke a subtle mix of people's hopes, dreams and aspirations. Benetton used images of racial harmony to sell clothes, while Apple used great leaders -- Cesar Chavez, Gandhi and the Dalai Lama -- to persuade people that a Macintosh might also allow them to "Think Different."  People are drawn to these brands simply because they are selling their own ideas back to them, they are selling the most powerful ideas that we have in our culture such as transcendence and community -- even democracy itself.  Apple today is an ideology, a value set, and a symbol of counterculture -- rebellious, free thinking and creative.

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE brand

What we have learned from all of this is simply that brands are more important than products. Products have limited life cycles, but brands -- if managed well -- last forever.  Ryan Bigge, writing in Adbusters, said: "Our dreams and desires for a better world are no longer articulated by JFK’s, nor generated through personal epiphanies -- they are now the intellectual currency of Pepsi, American Apparel, and Diesel. We used to have movements for change -- now we have products. Brands befriend us, console us and inspire us”.

Apple’s Secret Sauce

So, you want brand equity like Apple has?  Here’s the secret.  Make the purchasing of your product and/or service the equivalent of belonging to an elite club. Hip, righteous “outsiderism” with an ample dose of rebellion against injustice. 

If you’re looking for additional information on building an emotional, transcendent brand like Apple, read http://mygoodbuzz.blogspot.com/2009/10/branding-taking-page-from-organized.html

A Brave New World: Social Media and the Economy of Trust

If Facebook were a country, it would have the sixth largest population in the world.  It's hard to imagine, but what's clear is that the Internet (and Social media communications specifically) are changing the way we do business, primarily by extending a platform for real dialogue with our consumers. Traditional “Push” marketing is also being replaced with collaborative, conversational and content-driven communications that effectively put consumers back in the driver’s seat---effectively making “trust” the most valuable online currency.

Social media has changed the marketing game forever. Online word of mouth and the powerful influence of peer groups have already made many traditional business strategies obsolete.  Why? Simply because advertising is less effective at influencing consumers than are the opinions of their peers, making direct-to-consumer marketing messages less valuable each day.  The bottom line is that you must stop pushing your message out and start pulling your customers in. 

Traditional "outbound" marketing methods like cold-calling, email blasts, advertising, and direct mail are increasingly less effective because people are getting better at blocking these interruptions out using Caller ID, spam protection, TiVo, etc. People are now increasingly turning to Google, social media, and blogs to find products, services, and direction. If you're a marketer or business owner, the big question is whether you'll keep up with those changes?   

Need some help navigating this Brave New World?  We’re here to help.  Visit www.Goodbuzz.ca.

Social Media | Q&A

What are the most common mistakes brands make when it comes to social media?

Many Marketers suffer from the "me too" syndrome. If a competitor is doing something special, they feel the pressure to do the same -- even if it is out of sync with their brand or their customers. This pressure comes from the marketer's bosses, the social media specialists, the analysts, the advertising agencies and the media.  It is therefore extremely important to recognize that as a brand, you can only participate successfully when you have permission to do so with your customers (or have a way to create that permission). Along those lines, it's important to start with strategy and do something that makes sense for your brand, is in alignment with your business objectives and resonates with your customers.

What's the key difference between Social Media marketing online and via mobile?

Social media marketing can take place on any digital platform or device.   Digital is digital.  However, mobile as a specific platform has the added benefit of increasingly being location-aware.  This allows information to be served to the user with more relevance and context.  On the flip side, mobile platforms don't allow for experiences as rich as others, but it doesn't mean they still can't be immersive and incredibly social avenues.

 Bottom line is that you’ll need to start with a social strategy and then examine how it translates to different platforms and devices -- whether that be your company Web site, a platform like Facebook, or a device like an iPhone or Blackberry. 

Are Facebook and Twitter the only properties that really matter for social media marketing?

Absolutely not! Facebook and Twitter are both certainly the tip of the spear, but I've seen many companies have significant success with the other social platforms, their own community sites and even mobile-specific social solutions. It all depends on your specific business objectives, what your competitors are doing, where your customers are spending their time and how you want to differentiate yourself with what ideas. The blogosphere, for example, cannot be ignored. Bottom line though is that you’ll need to evaluate the various social platforms and select based upon those best positioned to help you achieve your business and marketing objectives.

Is "earned" media more important than paid media in the social realm?

Building authentic relationships that provide meaningful value exchanges with customers, (and especially those customers that influence others), is most important. That can happen in a variety of ways, whether through paid or earned media, or with those efforts working collaboratively. In the social realm, there's nothing better than true engagement between customers and brands.  That said, earned media is more important, although it is hard to always earn the attention, (and that's where paid and even owned media help jump start any engagement.)

Goodbuzz™ encourages you to submit all of your questions.

WHAT YOUR AD AGENCY WON’T TELL YOU: CORPORATE MONOLOGUES ARE DEAD

In our experience, we’ve found that Brands adverse to Social Media are typically also adverse to the democratizing nature of the Internet in general.    They just can’t get used to the fact that the world is no longer their soapbox!  For the past fifty years getting consumers attention was based on a simple formula; “he who shouts loudest wins.”  However, a convergence of forces has rendered this simple formula for success completely obsolete.  We just wanted to be the one to tell you in case you didn’t know.

Today’s time-starved consumers are increasingly seeking individual attention and they no longer value simple goods and/ or services.  Instead, they value experiences through which they are directly engaged, and this directly affects the way you communicate with your customers.  

The hard and simple truth is that the days of corporate monologues are dead.   We live in a world today where brands cannot simply push messages anymore. Today, brands must do. They must engage with their customers (and across every platform, channel and device). In this new online world — actions speak louder than advertising— and a ‘one-size fits-all’ message or offer only alienates today’s savvy consumers.  The bottom line is that we all like to feel ‘special’ and want to engage (and be engaged) individually and on our own terms (based upon our unique interests and characteristics.)  

This is the beauty of brands leveraging Social Media tools as they extend an opportunity for earnest two-way brand dialogue (where the actual conversations are taking place.) 

Social Media allows brands to actively engage consumers directly on there terms in real-time.  By so doing, brands can affect the entire (associated/extended) community (and every search result thereafter.)  This is because of a number of reasons, primarily the power of group psychology.  Psychologically, ‘sense of community’ is one of the major tenants of self-definition. To be part of the group gives meaning and association with a larger group provides emotional safety and a sense of belonging and identification. The influence is also bi-directional. This sense of belonging to a larger group or community can involve many things ranging from language, to dress, and/or rituals.   Why is this so powerful? Simply because we enjoy watching and empathizing with, people just like ourselves. 

Brands therefore need to socialize online today in ways that increase their relevance and value in the eyes of their consumers.  Brands must ensure a credible social voice is extended and consumers sense a symmetrical (two-way) relationship.  This is where we come in.  What can we help your brand accomplish online?  

For more information, please contact Andrew Giles (andrew.giles@goodbuzz.ca)

SOCIAL RELEVANCE MEETS SOCIAL NETWORKING | FINDING THE INFLUENCER

When most of us think “social media marketing” we initially jump to notables like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and MySpace. This stems to reason given their mass appeal and broad user-bases.  However, deciding where to invest your time and energy depends entirely on your objectives.  As demonstrated by the Hitwise data, there are a number of other communities that you may be overlooking. 

A recent article with Scott Monty (who runs social media efforts for the Ford Motor Company,) identified that they (Ford) use social media essentially because a.) That’s where discussions are taking place that are relevant to them, and b.) Ford need to be a part of these conversations “in a way that humanizes the company at every turn.”  To ensure they remain relevant, the Ford Motor Company uses Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, Scribd, and Delicious (amongst other social properties), and constantly monitors new emerging platforms and user-communities to see where people are going and the latest trends online. 

Have you considered sites like Tagged or Yahoo Profiles/Groups to find your influencers? Are you considering forums (and other segmented groups) that specifically pertain to your niche? Forums and focused communities can in some cases prove to be more valuable tools than much larger user-groups like Facebook or Twitter.  This is because you’re extending the right message to the right person at the right time.  Over and over again it's been proven - - in this new media landscape one needs to be thinking more sniper-rifle and less shotgun. ;)

NOTE: This [September 2009] Hitwise data from which MarketingCharts compiled the above graph is based on US market share of visits - -as defined by the IAB, which is the percentage of online traffic to the domain or category, from Hitwise's sample of 10 million US Internet users.