Posts tagged buzz marketing

Having Words…Words with Friends

April 29, 2010 · Filed under Emerging Media, Interactive Advertising, Mobile Marketing, Social Media, Word of Mouth (WOM) Strategies · Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,

Technological capabilities and restrictions, along with evolving audience preferences and media capabilities has required marketers’ to find new ways to reach target audiences, has led them to explore the possibilities with mobile marketing and advertising.

“Mobile advertising remains one of the most exciting developments in the mobile market today and one which opens the door for marketers to target their customers and prospects more directly through an entirely new channel…” –Cristy Burgan, VP of Marketing Solutions, Acision

One form of mobile advertising is advergames –also known as mobile games, which are designed “to feature specific products in starring roles. The primary benefit of advergames is that they can create extremely immersive experiences for key demographic audiences.” WVU, 2010

- As discussed in a previous post on mobile marketing - Marketing on a mobile phone has become increasingly popular since the introduction of SMS (Short Message Service). And mobile marketing has certainly reached beyond kids and teens: “Given a choice of consumer electronic devices, boomer Internet users overwhelmingly chose PCs over mobile phones (51% and 21%, respectively), while the opposite was true for Gen Y and Gen X (47% and 38%), according to Accenture.” FuorDigital, 2008

More than a year after launch, there are 74,031 apps in the iPhone App store. Not exclusive to the Apple iPhone either, makers of competitor “smart phones” now offer a variety of cellular phone models that allow users to access cell phone applications.

Recently, I have become acquainted a cell phone application that has integrated mobile gaming, advertising and socialization through the Scrabble-inspired game, Words with Friends—that many call “the best word game application of today”.

The best part for marketers is that the FREE version allows third party advertisements to interrupt game play.

For users, compared to its competition, Words with Friends has some distinct differences and some lacking features; however, the speed of the application and the bounteous player group are enough to create a buzz and explode its popularity.

After registering (presumably for database marketing purposes), you are matched with a random opponent or you play a friend. Game play is essentially identical to Scrabble—creating words and scoring points.

Push notifications, offered by the mobile nature of the game, contribute to the active nature of the applications’ users—it creates a fast-pace that induces users to move quickly.

To be honest, I never really liked Scrabble—but for some reason, I cannot get enough of Words with Friends. 

If you can’t wait to try it, my player name is MizzBowe—it could be fun…and I need the practice.

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Keeping It Real

April 27, 2010 · Filed under Emerging Media, Interactive Advertising, Social Media, Word of Mouth (WOM) Strategies · Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The focus of our lesson this week was marketing via social media. Companies, following consumers are present on social networking sites now more than ever.

In fact, in 2006 marketers spent over $280 million on advertising and marketing on social networking sites in the U.S., and an additional $70 million internationally.

In light of the economic downturn, however, marketing dollars have reduced across the board. What is not slowing is the increase in market share internet marketing is taking away from more traditional marketing media. In a new report, PriceWaterhouseCoopers estimates that internet marketing with be 36% of all marketing dollars spent by 2013.

And while marketing dollars toward social media increases, many companies still lack the necessary tools and understanding of how to effectively position themselves in the growing digital environment.

In terms of Facebook, the most common mistake is whether to create a profile, a group or a fan page—in general, profiles are ideal for regular users with an individual identities and should never be for commercial and marketing purposes—and actually, this is a direct violation of Facebook’s TOS. Experts have differing opinions about fan pages versus groups. There are certainly pros and cons of each.

My boss, Skip Lineberg and I got into a brief conversation on this very topic. It is vital for companies and non-consumer entities to grasp the most valuable methods in reaching audiences on social networking sites—in Skip’s own words, they need to work on “Keeping  it Real”.

Along these lines, research for this week’s discussion post uncovered Sarah Evans’s opinion business’ online identity—

“…your online personality is not only part of your overall brand, it becomes an interactive experience for you and your business… Just as you create branding guidelines and key messaging guides, so too should you dedicate time to creating your social media personality. There are multiple combinations that you can use to increase your brand visibility and converse with your customers.”

First on the list of “do’s and don’ts”—Keeping it Real. The entirety of the list includes a list of steps companies can take to efficiently utilize their online presence:

  1. Be transparent and authentic. Be human: Social media for business is about return on engagement. Connect with people, build opportunities through dialogue which would not have otherwise occurred, then connect them with your business.
  2. A profile pic is worth a thousand tweets: A major part of your social media personality is your avatar and your profile bio. The first rule for avatars and bios is to stay consistent across social platforms. If you’re sharing information from your business account, decide whether you want your avatar to be your company logo or the face of the president. Each sends a completely different message and requires a different messaging and branding approach.
  3. Leaving a legacy: Your social media personality becomes part of your brand’s legacy. Don’t brand your personality for the day, the month or the year. This is serious stuff. What you post stays around for a pretty long time and the information (good and bad) isn’t too hard to find. This means what you share today should reinforce your brand tomorrow.
  4. Don’t be a social schizo: Multiple personality disorders do not work well in social media. If you confuse, you lose. If you are a business expert one day, a media maven the next and live news feed after that, people will ultimately stop connecting. The same concept applies across multiple networks—Keep the same personality for each
  5. Social climbing not the best approach: It makes sense to engage the “big dogs” of social media, but it’s even better to connect with other quality audiences. Spending too much time looking for the big fish may take away from an entire school passing you by. Go grassroots and begin to build your personality one social media platform at a time.
  6. It’s not a one-stop shop: There is no one-size fits all personality for your brand…social media isn’t an opportunity to reinvent a brand, but to widen the reach. People should get the same experience offline as they do online
  7. Return on Engagement: tracking traffic, RSS feeds, subscribers, fans, linkbacks

Like any other measure to expand a companies’ presence—be it online or offline, extensive research, careful planning and continual evaluation will ensure a more successful, valuable and significant execution and meaningful outcome.

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Q: Is buzz marketing effective?

March 26, 2010 · Filed under Social Media, Word of Mouth (WOM) Strategies · Tagged , , , , , ,

A:

One source defines the overall objective of buzz marketing is to “create grass-roots excitement for a product or service.” NPR

A fundamental goal of any marketing effort is to increase product and/or brand recognition. Buzz marketing, if executed efficiently, is incredibly effective in generating publicity, exposure and promoting brand awareness. Bringing big ideas to the public in even bigger ways.

Especially with the advent of social media and its increased applications, everything is buzz—made possible by Web 2.0.

While many companies come up short in their attempts to create a “buzz” using social media efforts…there are those that actually get it. Utilizing the power of social media to create a buzz, one company certainly took a viral approach to its buzz marketing efforts—BlendTec.

Beginning as an inexpensive alternative to traditional advertising (as the company had no budget for high dollar television advertisements)—When BlendTec began, “it was a small company that didn’t have a big brand. They had great products, but not a big brand Barone.” The solution: YouTube.

The company’s practice of testing was to put the blenders on full speed with hard objects inside to investigate their durability and effectiveness.  Thus became the premise of the big idea for BlendTec—the “Will It Blend” campaign. Everything from wood board, to marbles, to an Apple iPhone have been tested—over 90 videos, and so far everything they’ve tried to blend has worked. In fact, the company has gotten so much recognition for their marketing efforts that they have even gained national publicity, including being featured on The Today Show.

So you ask “Is buzz marketing effective?”

When executed as it should, you be the judge:

Nationally recognized product and brand awareness: The Will It Blend videos have received 65 million views, Willitblend.com gets 120 million views. They have more than 200,000 subscribers and the company has experienced a 700 percent increase in sales.

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