by Mattr | Jun 23, 2014 | news
(Originally posted in Memeburn) What do Birchbox and Adidas have in common? One is a rugged sports icon, and the other is a wildly successful “stuff in a box” beauty subscription service, but both companies have impressive histories. Birchbox raised US$72-million in funding in just four years and grew its subscriber base to more than 400 000, while Adidas has pulled in an excess of €10-billion for the past four years straight. But that isn’t all. These brands boast impressive social media followings, and it’s not because they’re incredibly active (though they are); it’s that they understand the power of becoming ingrained in their audience’s lives rather than being just another company. Whether you’re an established brand or an up-and-comer, you can learn from these social icons. Here are three powerful lessons from Birchbox and Adidas that can help you build a genuine relationship with your customers: 1. Target the right people with audience segmentation The first step in developing a solid brand identity is to identify unique traits and characteristics of your target personas. Adidas nails this tactic by focusing on its rugged young male market and spending US$25-50 million per year sponsoring FIFA and the FIFA World Cup. Audience segmentation is critical for connecting with your followers, and fortunately, social media analytics streamline this process. You can discover what makes your customers different from one another and what interests them, and then use those insights to identify topics that will capture their attention. 2. Aim for conversations, not conversions Once you’ve identified and segmented your target audience, you can focus on the meat of your social media presence: becoming a part of that...
by Mattr | Jun 20, 2014 | news
Women are taking over the social universe (and perhaps the stadium stands!) during the World Cup, according to our social analysis for the opening week of June 9. What’s been a constant ‘Rugged Male’-dominated audience for @FIFAWorldCup the last couple of months, has now switched genders, with the women coming out ahead based on social engagement. Were World Cup Marketers in tune with the fact that females would enjoy futball as much as their male counterparts? World Cup Official Sponsor Coke seems to be in the know. After several misses over the last few months in regards to which Personas they were attracting on social media, they’ve now hit a bulls-eye, with 25% of their social engagement coming from ‘Rugged Females’ (matching @FIFAWorldCup ‘Most Engaged Persona’ this week). Week Highlights: Women Rule the World (Cup)! Coke’s engagement shot up during the opening games of World Cup as expected for all Official Sponsors. Great news for them! But even better news is that it appears they caught the eyes of the same ‘Rugged Females’ whose eyes were glued to the matches. It was obvious that Coke not only pushed their digital campaign last week, but did it in a way that resonated with these passionate women. Was it luck? Perhaps. What’s clear is that, as Coke has stated, they’re “taking a Marketing leap and trying something innovative” through their digital campaigns. In fact, Coke created 2 in-house teams prior to the World Cup, designed to bring their real-time digital campaigns to life. World Cup 2014 stands as Coke’s largest collaborative approach to real-time digital to date- and that’s no small...
by Mattr | Jun 12, 2014 | news
(Originally posted in Business2Community) If you don’t know much about hockey, it’s time to acquaint yourself with the Wayne Gretzky expression “Skate where the puck’s going.” Much like hockey, marketing is a fast-moving game of strategy. The winning team must have a well-researched plan of action but also be ready to strike at a moment’s notice. What will you do when the puck skims toward your feet as you face the net? Ideally, you’ll act decisively and expertly thread the puck where the goalie has the smallest chance of blocking it. But in both marketing and hockey, this is only achievable when you know your target inside and out. Brands looking to reach the young male demographic might think they can approach the Stanley Cup market the way they would approach the Super Bowl or the World Cup and be successful. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. The differences between the NHL, NFL, NBA, and FIFA soccer audiences are subtle, but by paying close attention to them, you can create a much more successful marketing campaign. The most effective brands will reach the Stanley Cup audience through its unique interests and preferred media outlets — not by using a blanket approach based on generalizations. Unique Finds for Stanley Cup Finals Fans Although the Stanley Cup ranks last in ad spending among the big five sporting events of the year, it still accounts for more than $100 million. And while this represents only one-tenth of the spend for the NBA Playoffs and the Super Bowl, it’s a great opportunity to capture a group of uncommonly avid fans by speaking to this target market’s...
by Mattr | Jun 11, 2014 | news
In our last ‘Who’s the Audience?’ post, we highlighted two brands, Adidas and Nike, that were hitting the @FIFAWorldCup ‘Rugged Male’ audience head on with their campaigns. For the week of May 25, we looked at two beer brands- official beer sponsor Budweiser, and competitor Miller Lite, a brand that’s so far kept quiet during the World Cup buzz. Interestingly, both brands pulled much more engagement from ‘Reliable Females’ than from the ‘Rugged Male’ Persona that has dominated @FIFAWorldCup’s Twitter feed. Week Highlights: ‘Rise As One’ Times Two For Budweiser, which launched their “Rise As One” World Cup campaign in late February (and probably thought about the details years in advance), there’s a very good reason for the big shift in engagement. After monitoring engagement with their campaign hashtag ‘Rise As One’ on Twitter, one of those ‘surprises’ that Marketers should keep an eye on during any social campaign began to surface. You can see from the highly shared tweet below where we’re headed: It seems that the WNBA San Antonio Stars team has a similar ‘Rise As One’ tagline for their 2014 Season campaign. Since they played a game Wednesday May 28, engagement with that specific hashtag shot up on Twitter. Apparently, a lot of ‘Reliable Females’ enjoy the WNBA. Why is this relevant? It’s something to pay attention to when pulling analytics about your audience during a campaign. Obviously, pulling information from the wrong audience can skew segmentation results. Had Budweiser optimized their running campaign to speak to ‘Reliable Females’, they probably wouldn’t have seen any improvement in engagement. The point is: paying attention to ANY new...
by Mattr | Jun 3, 2014 | news
(Originally posted in OMI) How much money would it take for you to post a comment about healthcare or the most recent presidential election on your company’s social media profiles? The mere thought might make the hair on your neck stand up, but what if $3 billion was on the line? It just might be. Because fear of a media circus makes most brands back down, here’s some news you might have hoped to avoid hearing: your company needs to take a stand on controversial social issues to stay relevant to your target market. If you do it right like Starbucks’ stand on same-sex marriage, you might be in the running to rack up a profit similar to its two-year revenue gains of 27 percent – a cool $3 billion. Why Your Brand Should Be a Social Beacon The Internet is a well-known hotbed for enraged commentary, and you’re probably thinking just how much is at stake by associating your brand with a polarizing social issue. Simple gaffs often are skewed out of proportion, leading most brands to post innocuous tweets for fear of an epic public fail. But if you look closely, most of these monumental fails were completely inappropriate and piggybacked on tragedies like the Colorado movie theater shooting or Hurricane Sandy. The truth is that your brand’s stance on controversial issues is important. Consumers make all kinds of inferences when discerning the personality of their favorite brands. When they can’t pin down that personality, especially on core emotional issues, they assume the worst: that your leadership is government-grade bureaucratic nonsense hamstrung by timid PR people and uncaring executives....
