Location, Location, Location: foursquare is Everywhere!

Is the dream of one-to-one marketing finally “reality”? With more and more smart phones in the hands of consumers, geo-location-based marketing seems to be the industry’s flavor du jour. The most talked about platform is foursquare.

Foursquare is part friend-finder, local city guide, and interactive mobile game. Using the GPS locator on your phone, foursquare allows you to “check-in” at various venues in order to earn badges or the coveted “mayorship” at a given location after you’ve checked in the most.

The question then is how can foursquare (and its ilk) draw from the vast audience who; albeit, see no use for ”badges” in their lives?

ANSWER: 10% off, just for loitering in front of our store. Now that’s something even the laziest social networker can buy into! We are entering into a new shopping age equipped with geo-selective couponing, instant promotional offers and real-time statistics for all!

foursquare’s stars have aligned but they’re not prepared to move at light’s speed anytime soon. Having boomed so big, so quickly foursquare has hired staff for the specific task of responding to their 3 month backlog of email. For awhile, it seems, they’ll be working retroactively on business’ email requests to become featured or offer specials when users check in at proximate locations. We can agree that this is a very good problem for a fledgling company to have.

Recently, our clients have been asking how to tap into the realm of geo-based marketing accessing a customer base by their proximity to retail. Take sweepstakes to the street and add a level of physical participation in your promotional marketing activities. Talk about driving user engagement!

Guest post by Jenna Hanlon. Jenna is a Promotion Coordinator in Marden-Kane's NY Office. Jenna can be reached at jhanlon@mardenkane.com.

Using Ustream to Streamline your Brand Connections

Is your company in search of a dynamic, personalized brand experience that your customer will remember for a long time to come? Read on:

MK recently worked with a client who was sponsoring a major event. They wanted to include their customers who weren’t able to make the trip out to attend. The answer was to integrate two emerging social media platforms – Ustream and Twitter to provide virtual participation. Ustream is a social networking site that offers a company friendly tool that broadcasts streaming video from anywhere to anyone who has an Ethernet connection. It has incorporated Twitter as a staple on their platform with a feature called “social stream”. Social stream enables users to login into the site with their Twitter account information and participate in a real time – chat room like discussion with other users and the channel moderators (who are usually broadcasting live from the event) while watching live video.

Ustream hosts everything from P. Diddy in the studio to a nest of an owl about to hatch. Our client's promotion went better than anyone could’ve anticipated proving there is a hidden audience out there ready to engage your brand. Artists, like Bon Jovi and celebutants like Tila Tequlia use Ustream effectively as a means to provide face-to-face access and hold conversations with their fans. What are you offering your viewers?

Is it talent/performance? Make it exclusive – something they can’t see anywhere else. Is it information presented at a convention? There needs to be value – no one wants to watch your company picnic (we’re sure it’s fun).

An impromptu discussion with your CEO, COO or social media guru?

Additional features like polling provides free consumer feedback and real time results. One to one dialogue gives insight. Learn about what your users like, dislike, what is important to them and what is not. Fans of your brand will remember the unique opportunity you’re giving them, access to something they couldn’t participate in otherwise – due to location, age, etc. – not to mention, Ustream lends itself to valuable “time on site” that is linked back to your brand – that’s a Win-Win!

But watching a concert on your laptop at home, alone in your room is probably about half as exciting as physically being there and rocking out with 10,000 of your closest friends – so this is where MK’s experience can help. You want to engage your online audience with a task that will keep them tuned into your Ustream brand channel. Perhaps run a Twitter-based Trivia game contest?

Finally, analysis of previous programs shows you can’t leave it up to the virtual gods to find interested individuals to attend your party from inside their living rooms and stay the whole time. Advertising support needs to be in place prior to your event and continue throughout. Ustream is not a “set it and forget it” type promotion but it is one that will raise the bar and establish lasting relationships with your audience.


Guest post by Jenna Hanlon. Jenna is a Promotion Coordinator in Marden-Kane's NY Office. Jenna can be reached at jhanlon@mardenkane.com.

Meme-orable Marketing

Lately, your company has been in think tanks discussing ways to deliver in the realms of social media. Your Facebook page and Twitter accounts aren’t driving the interest you anticipated. Seeding viral content on a regular basis is difficult. You need a next step and searching for a new social media platform seems redundant (and it is). But before you go running to re-departmentalize your PR division to have them solely focus on exercising a major viral campaign, consider – viral marketing campaigns have no set formula or recipe to ensure their success. The measurables of digital marketing are still being quantified. Metrics include everything from hits, time spent on site, retweets, sharing, forwarding, digging, liking, views etc. And so far, marketers are unsure how many YouTube views = a Twitter retweet. So, before you spend any amount of company $$ or resources on your next digital marketing campaign, review the successes of others’ attempts at viral grandeur.

Today, an Internet phenomenon or “meme” is a piece of information that reaches a vast group of people strictly by word-of-mouth, person to person sharing. Not limited to video – memes come in all shapes and sizes, from Facebook groups to trending topics, almost any virtual avenue with multiple engaged users can be a springboard for the next meme. Famous memes become Internet inside-jokes shared exponentially like YouTube phenomena “Rick Rolling” and “David After Dentist”. WOM marketing has no measurable or formulaic approach. There are, of course, best practices to follow in order to reach your potential audience of millions – but in some ways, luck has a lot to do with it. One thing that can be agreed upon is the emotion any Internet phenomenon evokes upon first watch. The reaction is always strong. Although some may argue otherwise, humor doesn’t define viral potential but categorically, it doesn’t hurt. Most viral videos are humorous because humor is an easy way to incite strong emotion from users – and users pass it on because of their desire to share experiences with others– in the same way myth and ritual, fads and trends have existed organically throughout human culture.

The anatomy of a meme:

1. Memes are first and foremost, memorable.
2. Usually, displayed on a medium that has a tell-a-friend feature.
3. No formulaic approach to meming, but if there is one – it’s humor.

Memes are the unconquered marketing domain. They are measured in hilarity, absurdity, or shock value. Getting your next advertisement to go viral is invaluable. It places your brand in front of an audience of millions with little to no legwork after its initial production. Turning your digital campaign into a recognizable meme allows your brand an opportunity to have major social impact, placing your company on the tip of everyone’s tongue for a period of time. Not to mention that your viewers (new and old) will be more likely to link back to your brand page.

But there’s no need to reinvent the wheel to produce viral content. Best leave meming up to the amateurs and become a distributor, a discoverer of fresh viral content rather than a creator or producer of it.

Take these campaigns for instance:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_6tdoaIdKM
http://www.youtube.com/user/itsthegecko#p/u/7/HItwu7PNdNo

Both Visio and Geico recently capitalized on the success of Gary William Brolsma AKA “The Numa Numa Guy” by incorporating him into their latest advertisement campaigns. The younger demographic responds well to recognizable icons of Internet culture due to their own potential to become famous in the same way Gary has become famous – by being completely original. Hiring a model or actor to represent your brand is dated and expensive. Instead, consider hiring that kid on YouTube who has had a few million hits and thousands of subscribers. Utilize Google trends/diagnostics to estimate the staying power of the viral content you wish to capitalize on and be sure to quickly mobilize your resources for a trend that has a large audience, but may be fleeting.

A social media department will be key down the road, but don’t go out and hire the most impressive twitter-er on your block just yet. Bring in a 3rd party marketing specialist to assess your needs and viral potential. For now, extrapoloating on what America’s Funniest Home Videos has done for years is a best practice: have your users create the viral content for you with a video contest and award prizes to the best of the bunch. This strategy will bring you a pool of fresh content and who knows, one of them may be the next meme.


Guest post by Jenna Hanlon, Promotion Coordinator in Marden-Kane's NY Office. Jenna can be reached at jhanlon@mardenkane.com.

Cause Related Marketing = Social Media

Easily extending the reach of a consumer promotion has been the goal of marketers for years. Now, the leading Social Media platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook, allow marketers to do just that.

The question posed is how? Create a promotion-centric Facebook Fan Page or Twitter Page or utilize the brands’ (if one is available)?

For a Sweepstakes, Instant Win Game or Special Offer (e.g., coupon or BOGO) which is designed to raise awareness for a moment in time, incorporate the promotion into the current Fan Page and Twitter Page.

However, for a cause-related program which will be in the marketplace for months, and perhaps years, it makes sense to create its own “identity” and related Fan Page and Twitter Page.

Some tips:

1. Define objectives, key performance indicators and ensure consensus amongst all stakeholders!

2. Provide value. Give a reason for people to visit and to become a Fan or Follower!

3. If you are also including a contest as a means to raise awareness, provide guidance on entry submission dates and remember to merchandise your winner and finalists. If entry submission is also available on the Fan Page make sure that you have obtained Facebook permission - www.facebook.com/promotions_guidelines.php. Guidelines change often and without notice!

4. Promote the Fan Page and Twitter Page via URL mentions, virtual gifts, Facebook ad buy, social media integration on the campaign microsite (incorporating Bookmarks, Share and Facebook connect)

5. When utilizing a celebrity spokesperson, ensure that the celebrity utilizes their Fan Page news feed and Twitter feed to spread “the word”. You also want the celebrity to add the campaign’s Fan Page to their Favorite Pages!

6. Create an editorial calendar to ensure new content is published on a regular basis. This includes relevant tweets. Ensure that the Fan Page and Twitter page are tightly integrated.

7. Moderate and respond to Fan and Follower comments and messages in a timely manner. The goal is to ensure that the communication flows in a 360 degree manner. For Pharmaceutical companies, the FDA has yet to provide regulations on social media usage, so you should work with your legal department to determine the appropriate strategy.

8. Continually measure and optimize your efforts.

Is Social Media Free?

There has been a lot of discussion with clients about the value of integrating Social Media into promotion plans. Some clients believe that since all the tools are widely available ("free"), that the efforts around Social Media should be provided for "free". This is where the disconnect often starts. While clients are correct in stating that creating a Facebook Fan Page, or Blog, or Twitter presence is relatively easy, they often forget that those efforts often need to be maintained / monitored on a 24/7/365 basis. Clients need to guide the agency on what they want their Social Media presence to be (or not to be) prior to jumping into this medium. Clients who utilize their Social Media presence for promotional activities or customer service inquiries need real-time resources (and possibly in-country resources) behind those efforts. For instance, while observing Dunkin Donuts most recent Facebook sweepstakes, I was curious if Dunkin responded to the myriad of questions Fans asked on products, store hours, locations, etc. If the Fans did not get a response back (or did not get the proper response), would they no longer be customers? A campaign is no longer "turn-key" when the participant can respond in a real time manner and tell their friends, who in turn tell their friends, and so on, and so on, and so on....

Starbucks Free Pastry Day

Kudos to Starbucks (and not because they are a Marden-Kane client) on their recent Social Media efforts (and wins!). While Brands (and Agencies) are assessing the available platforms and their go-to-market strategies, Starbucks is walking the walk, and in a relatively short time frame.

In today's economic climate where "gourmet" coffee could be considered a luxury, Starbucks is using Social Media to drive relevancy and loyalty for the brand and the in-store experience. From the free ice cream coupon (delivered using an Instant Win Game platform) to today's Free Pastry Day coupon (print and mobile versions), their efforts have been smart.

Don't take my word for it, just look at their 3.5 million Facebook Fans and the references in Social Media blogs such as Mashable - http://mashable.com/2009/07/21/starbucks-free-pastry-day/. A quick Google search for Starbucks Free Pastry returned over 250,000 search results. Furthermore, Starbucks was named the most engaged brand in a report recently issued by Wetpaint/Altimeter Group (available at www.ENGAGEMENTdb.com).

How did they do it?

From what I can glean, they first did their homework by listening and responding to their customers. They turned this feedback into new products and opportunities to drive deeper relationships with customers. They gave customers a reason to engage in two-way conversations. Most importantly though, they had organizational support coupled with top-down champions in leadership.

I will be curious to see how these efforts impact the bottom line and what the respective ROI's are, but am reminded that repeated tactics (or what Paul Slovak the Marden-Kane COO refers to as Catalysts) are required to acquire and retain share of consumers wallets.