Tag Archives: campaign

Digital Promotions + Targeted Advertising = Success

16 Feb

This is a great presentation on digital promotions and the role they play in the marketing mix for CPG brands.  The key takeaways here that I have also observed from own experience include:

1. Now more than ever, consumers are responsive to online promotions.  All the data I have seen supports this reality.

2. Integration, integration, integration — into the broader media plan, into mobile, via social media, onto packaging.  The digital promotion carries the conversation beyond the initial dialog.

3. Online promotions can be messy and wrought with legal complications.  Hire a good promotion attorney to keep you out of hot water.

Thanks to Team Digital for posting this to SlideShare.

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Brand U.O – The power of influencers on consumer brands

26 Dec

I’ve become a fan of David Armano, author of the Logic + Emotion blog and VP, Creative / Design Evangelist at Critical Mass.  He has an uncanny ability to distill complex thoughts into really simple, informative visuals.

David recently posted a presentation (embedded above) on the social movement of personal brand builders who can influence large spheres of followers.  Think Guy Kawasaki and Seth Godin as two prime examples.  This introduces some real opportunities in the CPG marketing community, as outspoken  individuals who have achieved “micro-celebrity” status online have the power to quickly and efficiently influence a defined market.

Perhaps the strategy for CPG folks is to cultivate relationships with the right micro-celebrities to help proliferate market test opportunities and evangelize new item intros to their vast networks.  I’m thinking Phil Lempert can play that role quite well.

A very interesting topic delivered through an easy-to-digest presentation.

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Nature Valley doubles down on consumer-generated content

21 Dec

I’m really digging this interactive contest that the Nature Valley team at General Mills recently wrapped up titled “Where’s Yours?”.  Consumers were asked to record a video about their favorite outdoor destination and then post to YouTube to receive votes.  There were some pretty elaborate and entertaining entries from a passionate group of Nature Valley consumers.  The brief video overview pasted above does a nice job of laying out the contest rules and dream vacation prizes.

Two things really impressed me with the design and execution of this activity:

1. How well the brand engaged a group of loyal advocates to literally sing about and praise the brand in such a public way.  You can’t buy this type of advertising.

2. The large scale of online media used to support the contest.  According to BrandWeek, Mills invested nearly $3MM in display ads to support the campaign and related sweesptakes.  The results were equally as impressive, with 1000% increases in search queries and website visits.

We’ve entered an era where big brands are engaging consumers in more meaningful ways and are supporting these activities with pretty sizable digital media investments.  It’ll be fun to see how the Nature Valley team follows up on this successful campaign.

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Guns N’ Roses / Dr Pepper drama: Where do we go now?

3 Dec

gnr_dpsgThis story hits home for me on many fronts:  At SoftCoin, we executed multiple interactive promotions for the Dr Pepper brand over the course of several years.  Dr Pepper Snapple Group has a great group of folks with a lot of passion for their business.  They embrace interactive marketing in a big way.  DPSG is also a DemandTec customer.  And I happen to really like GN’R (my high school rock band covered a few of their tunes!)

This story is a painful, yet important reminder about the power of viral marketing.  Long story short, DPSG ran a wildly attractive, time-bound consumer offer for a free bottle of Dr Pepper due to GN’R releasing their new album, Chinese Democracy.  The registration site apparently couldn’t handle the rush and lots of consumers became upset.  Guns N’ Roses is now threatening a lawsuit against DPSG, arguing that this misstep has damaged the release of their new album.  We’ll see how this sorts out in the coming weeks.

I can’t speculate why the server crashed, or what could have been done differently.   But this saga underscores just how powerful the groundswell of consumers can be with an attractive promotional offer.  Social networks can compress campaign awareness from days to minutes.  Literally overnight, a campaign can “go viral” and take on a life of its own.  Use this reality to your advantage, but wherever possible plan your interactive for massive scale.

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