Browsing Tag

Marketing

Social Media Strategy

Missing the MySpace boat?

January 26, 2007

I’ve blogged about the opportunities on MySpace before, but the other day I was looking to see if I could find the World of Coca-Cola here in Atlanta on MySpace.  What I found was Pandora’s box – a box filled with missed opportunities for Coca-Cola.  Not only did I NOT find the World of Coca-Cola, what I did find was unbelievable.

Just for one second, go and check out www.MySpace.com/cocacola.  Or how about www.MySpace.com/coke.

Yeah – unbelievable!!!  Two American teenagers were first to the punch and got them.  Wow!  But it gets better.  Do a search on Coca Cola, Coca-Cola, etc. and you won’t believe how many profiles are on the site that presumably have nothing whatsoever to do with the brand.  It really blew my mind!

Remember back in the 90s when everyone was snatching up URLs for their companies?  And the lucky ones got the .com for their company before someone got it first and charged them out the wazoo to buy it at a ridiculous price.  But what about the MySpace URLs?  Small businesses have been taking advantage of this incredible resource for years now, but why not the big guys?  Just last night I walked down to the local pizza joint in my neighborhood and handwritten on a paper plate was their MySpace URL – www.MySpace.com/villagepizza.  Granted they are just starting out and don’t have much on the page, but man – they got it!  They understand that most (if not all) of their customers have MySpace accounts.

So back to my boat analogy – perhaps the decision makers at the big companies think of MySpace as a ‘kids site’, or let’s say a Disney Cruise.  But in reality, it’s probably a mix of a Disney Cruise and a Carnival Cruise.  Either way, people are having fun with it and the big guys are missing out.  The ‘All Aboard’ was sounded long ago.  Are you on board?

Social Media Strategy

Target

November 27, 2006

Besides being a really cool store, Target is a word that should be posted on a sticky note on top of every marketers computer screen so that it’s always top of mind.  It surprises me how often I run across promotions that are so broad, or worse yet, totally misdirected that it’s almost unfathomable how they could be very effective.

Thanks to technology and the seemingly endless resources to slice and dice demographic and psychograpic data, there is really no excuse for untargeted Marketing (particularly in the online world).  The catch is that in order to properly target your message, you have to understand who you are talking to in the first place.  This sounds obvious enough, but you don’t have to look very far to find examples of untargeted messaging gone awry.  This usually happens when a decision maker ‘thinks he or she knows.’  It’s one thing to know that you don’t know and ask for help, but when you think you know but don’t, you are in jeopardy!

Of course, this is more pronounced in the Youth segment.  Since most marketers are well outside of this demographic, it is even more important to do some serious homework on what is going on in the minds of these consumers.  Pardon my frankness, but Youth can smell bullshit a mile away.  Over the years, I’ve seen some pretty weak attempts to be ‘cool’ and often it turns out looking like a joke to the people it was intended to win over.  Bad execution can be worse than doing nothing at all, so pay attention and don’t be afraid to ‘not know.’

Use the resources that are available to you!  If your product or service offering crosses over multiple demographic groups and lifestyles, take a more focused approach to each segment.  Check out Pepsi’s approach on their home page.  Notice they don’t ask you a million questions or make you dig through a bunch of pages to get into a zone that you feel comfortable.  They have a few people representing different lifestyles that rotate through the screen.  Depending on which character resonates with you, you can click on the pictures and the site takes you to different promotions that the brand is actively engaged in.  Nice!  One click, and you are escorted into an area that makes sense to you.

Consider creating microsites that speak to the different segments that your product or service is aimed at using language and tone that the each segment will understand and respect.  Use targeted advertising to drive your consumers to the right place.  Don’t rely on your home page, especially if your offering is so general that you have a home page that doesn’t really speak to any specific vertical very well.

Slice and dice!  Get engaged and see how much better your results can be.  It’s addictive once you get started.

Social Media Strategy

How many marketers really ‘get’ MySpace?

September 29, 2006

It occurs to me that MySpace is still an enigma to most marketers.  Sure, everyone knows that there are a bazillion people in the network, but how many people know how to use it effectively?

Talk about a wide open field – MySpace is perhaps the biggest resource for social anthropology that exists on earth, at least for the youth market, and it’s free to use!  What makes this such a unique treasure trove is that everyone on it freely volunteers a detailed window into their minds.  But how do you capitalize on it?  There’s always the ‘easy’ way with standard advertising, but is this the most cost-effective?  I suspect not.

This morning, I saw a clever use of product placement/ad that was tacked onto the end of a video, which was distributed via a MySpace bulletin.  This particular clip was so well done that it almost seemed like an extension of the video itself!  The product didn’t beat me over the head or make me wait to see the video that I was there to see.  Instead, they made the message so relevant that I was engaged enough to watch it through to the end without losing interest.  How many brands can say that about their interruptive advertising?

There are endless ways to use MySpace to spread the word about your brand, but you have to really work it!  Get creative.  Think about how your target is using the site and get in the game!  You’d be surprised how level the playing field is in this medium.

Social Media Strategy

How many marketers really 'get' MySpace?

September 29, 2006

It occurs to me that MySpace is still an enigma to most marketers.  Sure, everyone knows that there are a bazillion people in the network, but how many people know how to use it effectively?

Talk about a wide open field – MySpace is perhaps the biggest resource for social anthropology that exists on earth, at least for the youth market, and it’s free to use!  What makes this such a unique treasure trove is that everyone on it freely volunteers a detailed window into their minds.  But how do you capitalize on it?  There’s always the ‘easy’ way with standard advertising, but is this the most cost-effective?  I suspect not.

This morning, I saw a clever use of product placement/ad that was tacked onto the end of a video, which was distributed via a MySpace bulletin.  This particular clip was so well done that it almost seemed like an extension of the video itself!  The product didn’t beat me over the head or make me wait to see the video that I was there to see.  Instead, they made the message so relevant that I was engaged enough to watch it through to the end without losing interest.  How many brands can say that about their interruptive advertising?

There are endless ways to use MySpace to spread the word about your brand, but you have to really work it!  Get creative.  Think about how your target is using the site and get in the game!  You’d be surprised how level the playing field is in this medium.