(This is a guest post by Daniel McLaren)
This is another side to Social Media that is often overlooked, when organisations plan their online approach yet can be as important, if not more so than having a Facebook/Twitter page.
A old approach that has taken on a new meaning and been opened up by social media is creating brand advocates and generating positive ‘Word of Mouth’. This is important because you as a brand can only generate a certain amount of trust in what you say to people.
July 1, 2010 was a date many basketball fans have had marked on their calendars for a couple of years now. The date marked the beginning of the National Basketball Association’s free agency period, one of the league’s most important summers ever. July 1 was the day that LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh, and a few other high-profile NBA’ers became free agents. Several teams, including the Chicago Bulls, the New York Knicks, the Miami Heat, and the New Jersey Nets, have made pitches to the big three free agents.
Just before July 1, the Nets began to unveil a 225 foot x 95 foot painted sign on the side of a building at 34th Street & 8th Avenue in midtown Manhattan. The wall features prominent images of the Nets’ new owner, 6’8″ Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, and part owner & hip-hop legend, Jay-Z. Above their faces is the phrase, “The Blueprint for Greatness.” The Nets feel strongly about the direction their team is heading, and the wall is a tribute to the positive growth this organization continues to make.
Following on from my last article, The World Cup Brings Big Opportunities Brands, I’d like to keep the focus on the World Cup and highlight another great marketing campaign revolving around the tournament.
Last week I had the opportunity to catch up with a few members of the team from 1000heads, a word of mouth agency here in London, and one of the (many) things we spoke about was their 32 Dishes campaign.
For this campaign, 1000heads teamed up with freesat to help spread the message that they will be broadcasting the World Cup in HD across the UK.
To kick start some intrigue, 32 satellite dishes were installed around the UK in unexpected places, from buildings and boats to bikes and trees.
(This is a guest article by Michael Coco)
We all strive on the ability to obtain information when and how we want it; and it is becoming more and more popular to receive that information through our mobile devices. Millions of people use Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and many other social networking sites every day. The question is, would we use them as much, or at all, if they weren’t available on our cellular devices? With the addition of 4th Generation wireless networks offering speeds that surpass traditional DSL Lines, we now have the ability to do more than we ever imagined. Although stringent mobile marketing tactics may seem like a distant thought for most, several organizations have already begun implementing them.
(This is a guest article by Anthony Alsop)
As of November 2008, India had a reported 81,000,000 users on the internet, which was an 100% increase from 2007, and they generated 4.54% of all internet traffic for 2008. With over 1.1 billion people, that’s only a mere 7% penetration level of the general population on the internet, and one can only imagine how many new users have started since then.
Not only is the country generating new users at a rapid, but there is a reported 350,000,000 mobile devices currently being used by Indian people as well. The country has long been a hot bed for technology development, but is one of the fastest growing general telecom markets in the world too.
How does sports play into this? Sachin Tendulkar is India’s greatest batsman in the game of cricket. He has scored the most runs in cricket history and is arguably one of the games greatest ever. In India, where cricket is considered a religion, he is the ultimate celebrity. Imagine if we combined the star power of athletes like Chris Johnson and Reggie Bush, then imagine that was just one man. Sachin Tendulkar is that man.
The World Cup is the world’s biggest sporting event, and I can hardly wait. There is something special about this tournament. It attracts a wide audience of people from different cultures and very few other sporting events can evoke such emotion and passion from across the globe.
This World Cup is also the first in the social media age, and is set to eclipse any event covered on social media previously – including the Super Bowl and US elections. Football (soccer) fans have never been shy to let their feeling be known and now social media has allowed millions of fans to come together on a common ground (Twitter, Facebook) and discuss the events unfolding.
(This is a guest article by Cord Pereira)
“On behalf of the Atlanta Hawks, I’d like to thank our ownership group for recognizing that for every dollar we give away, we get three in return!”‘
These were the honest words of an Atlanta Hawks spokesperson during an acceptance speech when the organization received the “Pro Team Community Award” from the World Sports Humanitarian Hall of Fame, back in the mid 90′s. The Hawks, like all pro teams, work closely with their community charities in a multitude of ways. After all, professional sports franchises are really quasi-public utilities that are emotionally owned by their communities, and therefore an organic platform to all kinds of community programs.
Super Bowl advertisements have long been one of the best ways to get your brand exposure and eyeballs. Take Go Daddy for example. The company, known for its racy advertising, began airing 30-second commercial spots during the Super Bowl in 2005. Since then, Go Daddy has become the largest certified domain registrar in the world, with more than 36 million domains under its management.
The Super Bowl is one of the most-watched television events on a yearly basis, with somewhere between 40 – 43% of households watching (98 million viewers in 2009). Two days ago, Nielsen released survey results that stated just over half of the audience that tunes into the Super Bowl enjoys the commercials more than the actual game. “This survey reinforces the value of the Super Bowl as a marketing bonanza, featuring one of the most receptive TV audiences in the world,” said Randall Beard, executive vice president of Nielsen IAG. “With so many viewers waiting for the pitch, the pressure is on advertisers to create and place ads that will have a lasting impact.”
As we turn the page and look ahead to 2010, let us address a topic most marketers have a strong opinion on: ambush. Whether you believe ambush marketing of official events is creative and cost-efficient or an unethical and illegal mortal marketing sin, the fact is 2010 will see more of it than many marketers care to envision. Global events such as the Olympics and World Cup will fuel the fire, as they have in the past, but this time the battleground may be waged on a relatively new frontier: social media.
Sure, some will attempt to solve ambush with legal claims such as trademark infringement and unfair competition. Last week Major League Soccer filed a lawsuit against Black and Decker for their Dewalt promotion around exhibition matches (competitor, Makita, is the official sponsor of MLS). However, ambush marketers – and their legal teams – will likely find new ways to skirt IP issues with the Olympics, especially in an environment without precedent like social media. When you’re spending 100 million for an official deal, both property and sponsor should probably be proactively identifying ways to mitigate ambush rather than (or at least as well as) relying on reactive legal remedies. Consider this, Coke spent an estimated $70 million to be one of the top 12 Olympic sponsors — and $5 million to $15 million more on the torch relay, but according to at least one study, up to 60% of consumers believed Pepsi was the official sponsor in Beijing. Scary stuff for CMO’s and properties.
There’s two co-workers in my office who love soccer. “That’s cute,” I like to tell them and accuse them of being unpatriotic for not liking football or America’s pastime more. But that poses the question. What if you’re trying to market soccer in America? Hockey in Texas? The WBNA anywhere?
Fans often don’t appreciate what they don’t understand, and while most of us play soccer when we’re younger (Our Dad’s just sign us up so they can stare at the soccer mom’s when our mom’s aren’t looking?) we often quit before high school and play the sports all our friends are playing.
