Super Bowl ad complements social media marketing

Posted under Personal Branding Strategies by Linda Griffin

The New Orleans Times-Picayune said it best – Amen! in 5″  high type. The road to their first Super Bowl appearance and victory for the New Orleans Saints was 43 years long and covered in bumps, bruises and set-backs. They played for twenty years before having a winning season. But  in 2009, the Saints set a winning record  and paved the way for their Super Bowl appearance.

In 43 years, a lot has changed in the way that football is played but even more so in the way that companies are spending their marketing dollars.The average cost for a 60 second spot is now $3M. Some companies, such as Pepsi Cola decided to pull out of the Super Bowl this year and spend their ad money on social media campaigns and other projects instead.

While I’m an advocate for social media marketing, there is still plenty of opportunity for traditional marketing channels such as print and TV. We have changed the way we watch television. We no longer sit and watch passively. We are browsing the web with our laptops and cell phones and posting comments in real time to Twitter and Face Book while we watch.

One very smart company, Homeaway.com seems to have figured that out. They combined the instant and widespread reach of a superbowl ad with an innovative social media strategy to extend the value of their spot and increase their return on investment.

The leader in online vacation rentals, Homeaway.com generated 1 million views to their website immediately following their ad which was based on National Lampoon’s Vacation movies.Visits to their web site continue to go up today and are currently tracking at 500% more than before the ad aired.

Homeaway.com did several things very well.

• They captured people’s interest with a funny ad which tapped into our common experiences of hotel stays gone horribly wrong.
• The timing of the ad was perfect because many people are starting to plan their spring and summer vacations.
• They tapped into an immediate  need for reliable and reasonably priced lodging and positioned themselves as the solution to that need.
• They combined the on air ad with a website campaign for consumers to share their stories of hotel horrors for the chance to win one of four $10,000 family vacations. They set up the campaign beautifully for widespread viral participation and sharing by inviting the public to vote on the worst stories.

We can incorporate these same strategies into our marketing plans regardless of the size of our budget. Let me know in the comments if you try any of these and how they work for you.

For more inspiration and examples check out the  Mashable blog which has a review of some other super bowl- social media strategies.

Technorati Tags: marketing, marketing strategy, social media, super bowl

Branding yourself with your business name

Posted under Personal Brand Definition by Linda Griffin

Photo Credit Brent and MariLynn from Flickr

 

You’ve decided to take the plunge and start your own business. Now you must decide how you want to name it. Start by brainstorming. Write down the words that best describe either your product or the problem it solves and try different combinations of those phrases.

 

The Write Express web site has lots of good writing resources and it also has a random name generator. Use it to kick start your thought process but you’ll have wade through a lot of nonsensical combinations that don’t reflect your brand or mission. ‘Branding yourself brainless’ was one of the suggestions that came up for this blog. I don’t think so!

 

Ideally, you want to make an immediate positive connection in the mind of your potential client and you want to make clear the benefit your brand will provide. Let your personality come through and make your business name memorable. Joe’s Pizza is totally unforgettable but Joe’s Taste of Italy invokes the potential customer’s senses.

 

In today’s Web 2.0 environment, you may have to try multiple business naming combinations as many obvious names have been snapped up and registered by people who are holding them to be used later or sold to the highest bidder. You may have to get extra creative assuming you want to have a corresponding web site.

 

In future posts, I’ll cover more aspects of this topic. If you have run across a particularly memorable business name, please share it in the comments.

 

Technorati Tags: branding, marketing