5 Lessons Learned In Marketing 2014
It certainly has been a compelling year in marketing. One that has seen success ranging to either end of the marketing spectrum. Who would have guessed that buckets of ice water, terrorism training videos, and changing the packaging of the world’s most iconic brand would become viral. This is my list of the most popular marketing campaigns or tactics of 2014, and what takeaways marketers should know. This list is not in any particular order.
ALS Ice Bucket Challenge
Donate to the ALS or dump a bucket of ice water over your head and share that on social media. It seems pretty silly now but it was all the rage this summer. Sources are unclear as to where the challenge officially started but most credit Pete Frates with making these social videos go viral.
According to Facebook, “more than 17 million videos related to the ice bucket challenge were shared to Facebook. These videos were viewed more than 10 billion times by more than 440 million people.”
The ALS Association raised a record $115 million this year. During the same period last year, they raised $2.8 million, according to this Forbes article.
So what can we learn from this? Make it fun and easy. All that was required, a camera and ice water. The stunt also tapped into that childish sense of excitement like running through a sprinkler, furthering its fun factor. Similar to the Harlem Shake videos, which took social media by storm in 2013, is exactly what goes viral these days. It’s the case of people loving to jump on a trend and share it with their network. And tying that to a good cause, furthers it’s likelihood of people wanting to participate. It’s that human natural instinct of follow-the-pack mentality.
Assurance that a campaign is successful is when even billionaires start participating.
Share a Coke Campaign
Personalized coke cans were popular this year in the US, but the Share a Coke with a Friend campaign actually started in Australia in 2012. With the campaign’s objectives to increase consumption of Coca-Cola and get people talking about the product, the brand looked no further than their classic packaging. This campaign quickly made its way to the states where you could find cans with Friend, BFF, Star, Legend, etc written on its side. It got people talking about Coke again, with consumers buying cans for friends or just because their name was on it. According to the Wall St Journal, the company’s US soft drink sales saw a 0.4% increase in sales this year after 11 straight years of declining sales.
When asked why the campaign has been such an international success, Lucie Austin, who at the time was director of marketing for Coca-Cola South Pacific said,
“At the end of the day, our name is the most personal thing we have. It’s our fingerprint… our identity… in one word.”
So what do we learn from this? Consumers like personalization. They love the ability to customize a classic brand. They want to make a product relate to them in a special and unique way. In doing so, you will win their loyalty and their advocacy.
ISIS Social Recruiting Strategy
Muslim extremists took another approach this year to their terrorist recruiting. They took to social media to encourage and influence those who believe in their cause. Through glorified videos of men carrying weapons and preaching their beliefs, they tried to influence those who feel ostracized by today’s popular culture and democratic views. Unfortunately, propaganda marketing still resonates today, as it has throughout history.
According to a Techcrunch article, “Staffan Truvé, the co-founder of social-media monitor Recorded Future, and his team tracked 27,000 Twitter accounts that mentioned the ISIS positively…and when ISIS took over Mosul…[the group was mentioned in] 40,000 tweets in a single day”.
So what do we learn from this? Social media is powerful. It can be used for good, see ALS Ice Bucket Challenge above, or it can be used for bad. Perhaps more powerful than any other medium because anyone anywhere can spread a message. We saw the impact social media had with the Arab Spring in 2011, and I fear will continue to be the main communication method for this group.
The Selfie To Rule All Selfies
We’ve all seen Ellen’s selfie from the Academy Award’s by now. It has been retweeted over 3 million times and over 2 million favorites. Sometimes brands are in the right place at the right time. Or maybe that was the intention all along. The Samsung Galaxy Note 3, which was used to take the selfie got a lot of the recognition, leaving people to question whether it was a paid endorsement. It did turn out, that according to the Wall St Journal “As part of its sponsorship…Samsung and its media buying firm Starcom MediaVest negotiated to have its Galaxy smartphone integrated into the show”.
So what do we learn from this? Product placement still works. On the right stage, with the right celebrity, and handled in a strategic way that doesn’t appear to be overtly promotional, your product can achieve more meaningful impressions than traditional media.
Taylor Swift is a Marketing Goldmine
Everything Taylor Swift touches at the moment is gold. She’s arguably the world’s biggest pop star. She just launched her new album 1989, and it’s marketing campaign has been nothing short of spectacular. The album sold 1.287 million copies in its first week, which surpassed its 900,000 projection. Here’s how she launched her promotional campaign like a master marketer.
First, she announced the upcoming album 2 months prior with a Yahoo! livestream event where she performed the single “Shake It Off”. She then had Twitter trending with hashtags, #TS1989 and #5HoursUntilOutoftheWoods. Her album’s release coincided with her campaigns for Diet Coke and Target, making her brand ever more relevant and popular. She also hosted a private performance session at her home, creating a sense of community and relatability with her fanbase.
So what do we learn from this? Take advantage of your own media coverage, be the first to publicize your positioning. Community and relationship building with your audience can open new avenues for awareness. And finally, identify and reward your “super-users”, your brand advocates.
—
We are just getting rolling with this season’s holiday advertising. What brands will finish out the year strong, combining the right mix of message and creative? Will there be a brand associated with getting families to dance around holiday dinner table that will go viral? The holiday season is the perfect time to push campaigns related to family, community, and good-natured acts of kindness. How your brand connects with consumers, not to consumers, is the key.
If there’s a campaign I’ve left out that you feel should have been included on this list, please let me know if the comments below.
Interested in reading more on my thoughts of integrated marketing today? Head over to The Marketing Lion Blog.
This post is part of Inbound Marketing Clinic, a research project at NYU SPS.
