Crash the Super Bowl

5 years ago Doritos had the idea of crowdsourcing their commercials on the biggest stage possible, the Super Bowl. At over $3 Million per thirty second slot, that was quite a risk. Proving that risk has its rewards, Doritos commercials have been consistently rated as the most loved for the past several years. Congratulations to our friends at Doritos, Frito Lay, and all the agencies involved in putting this together and allowing us to play a part. Read a great article about this HERE.

The Pinterest Craze

Every few months something in the social media space raises its hand and demands to be considered for the “Next Big Thing” award. Last year we saw Instagram, Google+, and Quora make a run (none of which have crossed over just yet). Right now Pinterest is the rage. What is Pinterest? Simply put, you see an image on the web you like, you “pin it” and it uploads to your Pinterest page where you compile them into themed “boards.” We fell in love with it early last year and found it great for keeping track of our travels, recipes, fashion, art, and much more. Recently we’ve heard reports that Pinterest is driving more web traffic than Google+, LinkedIn, and YouTube combined. For brands, we recommend that you think of Pinterest as a place to propel conversations around whatever you make or sell. Read more HERE

Valentine’s Day

As Valentine’s day approaches it is interesting to see the various social media integrations and promotions that brands are using to sell more products. Jeweler Swarovski launched a mobile site called the Sparkling Valentine’s Day Assistant and Heineken created an interactive Facebook page allowing people to ask each other out on dates. Meanwhile for those without dates February 14 doesn’t have to be lonely, that’s the day Angry Birds debuts on Facebook!

Five Trends from Super Bowl Advertisers

Altimeter Group studied the brands that advertised during the Super Bowl and below are some of their findings:

• Trend 1) Brands heavily invested in promoting traditional websites
• Trend 2) Many did not promote a Call-to-Action
• Trend 3) Only a sixth of ads explicitly promoted social media
• Trend 4) Hash tag marketing emerged to stimulate continued engagement
• Trend 5) Cutting edge marketers teased with new marketing tactics

You can read the detailed analysis HERE.

Pepsi, FedEx and GM have all pulled out from Super Bowl commercials this year, while brands like Doritos hope to repeat the success of their Crash the Super Bowl campaign.  At the 2010 Winter Olympics, Visa, one of the event’s largest sponsors for more than twenty years, is expanding their advertising to a multi-platform strategy with a heavy digital focus.  Sony Ericsson, the official mobile sponsor of the 2010 World Cup, has forgone all traditional advertising in favor of a fan-centric approach that reaches out through online channels.  If 2009 was the year that big companies began embracing social media, then 2010 looks like the year that they will be getting engaged in social matrimony.

As the official soft drink of the NFL, Pepsi made a drastic and progressive decision to forgo all Super Bowl television commercials in favor of their $20 million Pepsi Refresh Project digital advertising campaign.  After voting on the site goes live on February 1, the project will give grant money to the winners with the best ideas to “refresh” their community.  This marks the first time a major NFL sponsor will not be airing commercials during the Super Bowl.  Even in a deflated market, 30-second Super Bowl spots are selling for $2.5 million to $2.7 million, making the reach and measurability of digital word-of-mouth strategies that much more appealing.

Just days after the Super Bowl winner is crowned, the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games will commence.  This year, major sponsors like Visa have developed campaigns that encompass a variety of digital channels.  They will be utilizing microsites to showcase interviews and personal stories of athletes, along with downloadable athlete widgets and posts on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.

From a news media perspective, Web 2.0 and social tools have allowed nearly anyone to become a “reporter.”  For that reason, the IOC has created a rule that only accredited media members may act as journalists with rights to publish audio and moving pictures from the games.  There will apparently be a few exceptions to this rule though as the Vancouver Organizing Committee launched a competition for area students to become a reporter during the games.  Using social media tools like videos, web invites, blog posts and photo journals, the winning students will be filing stories, conducting interviews and hosting an interactive website with other participants from around the globe.  The project, called Students Live, can be followed on Twitter @studentslive.

Sony Ericsson, the official mobile sponsor of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, has followed the suit of Pepsi, Visa and others by going completely with an online approach to customer engagement.  As a truly global event, the audience of the World Cup is hard to target by geographic region and television broadcasts don’t draw the same amount of viewers as the Super Bowl and Olympics.  This is where social media and online channels step in, providing Sony Ericsson with the ability to engage customers and generate conversations that penetrate national and social borders.  Sony Ericsson has already launched a Twitter-based competition between fans of each participating country, a ticket giveaway promotion and a World Cup branded search engine termed the Worldcupopedia.

Adoption of new marketing strategies will always lag years behind the technology itself, but the recent moves by Pepsi, Visa, Sony Ericsson and others indicate that companies are adapting to the changing landscape in full force.  These shifts in advertising budget are merely the precursors to an entire paradigm shift that will continue to see more large companies incorporating word of mouth strategies and social media as a genuine part of their marketing mix.

But how much of it is based on tapping the creativity well as opposed to just trying to drum up some much-needed publicity? Not that launching a promotion to generate PR is anything new, and in fact it’s a great idea to remind consumers about a brand while in between product launches, but I think it’s important for marketers to consider the ultimate goal. Doritos wants to sell more Late Night: Tacos at Midnight chips (you can actually taste the lettuce), Visa wants you to open more credit cards, Kodak wants you to buy more cameras, HP wants you to buy more printers and Marriott wants you to stay in their hotels.

So if this UGC contest generates two entries per brand, does it matter? If the entries are terrible and uninspiring – will this promotion be a failure? In the end will the brand care as long as the press and advertising around the contest makes them look like they are on the cutting edge of social media? That they are passionate about involving their consumers in the decision making process? It’s a question that agencies and their clients deal with regularly – but it’s safe to say that if this contest bombs horribly (and I’m not saying it will), Doritos won’t be out of creative ideas. They won’t suddenly stop making commercials. On the other hand, they may walk away with a ton of free press and a more positive brand association – which would ultimately make this promotion a solid success.