Doritos Sling Baby Best Super Bowl Commercial?

I don’t think so. I didn’t even count this one in my top 5. But when the results came in, the data compiled by Ad Meter’s survey of likely consumers showed that Doritos’ $3.5million of air time was very well spent.

Placing a close second in Ad Meter was Anheuser-Busch’s beer-fetching dog, Weego. Two carmakers tied for third: Kia, whose ad featured a guy with ultraracy dreams that include supermodel Adriana Lima; and Chrysler, which featured a quasi-political ad with Clint Eastwood.

In my opinion, the Kia ad won hands down…but hey, what do I know.

What I do know is that social media showed it’s strength to companies around the world and is now validated.

For Doritos, it was a social-media touchdown. Three months before the Super Bowl, Doritos drove hundreds of thousands of consumers to its website to vote on the two commercials it would air in the game. The company also reached out to bloggers.

“It’s gone way beyond the water cooler,” says Ann Mukherjee, chief marketing officer at Frito-Lay. Now, she says, it’s an electronic water cooler with laptops, tablets and mobile phones whirring before, during and after the game. “Creating a relationship in social-media space is critical.”

Why social media worked

For most advertisers, the social-media strategy worked because:

•We buzzed. Sunday’s Super Bowl commercials generated upwards of 985,000 social-media comments — more than the entire 2011 Academy Awards, reports Bluefin, a social TV analytics company.

•We shared. Some 36% of Americans planned to share their favorite ads after the game, up from 31% last year, reports Venables Bell & Partners.

•We stayed. During the last three minutes of the game, consumers were sending out 10,000 tweets per second, Twitter reports.

•We clicked. Major brands that posted Super Bowl-related messages on their Facebook pages before the game had 60% greater engagement than posts unrelated to the game, reports Buddy Media, a social enterprise software company.

•We responded. Some 57% of the ads mentioned a website or URL. About 16% included social-media prompts for Facebook or a Twitter hashtag. And 11% included emerging media technology such as QR codes or text messages, Altimeter Group reports.

Social media were particularly key during the game, says Rebecca Lieb, digital media analyst at Altimeter Group. At Super Bowl parties, she says, people were using their devices “to talk to friends not in the room as much as to friends in the room.”

Super Bowl marketers successfully used social media by:

•Teasing. Prior to the game, Kia posted a teaser of ad star and supermodel Lima on YouTube. And the stars of the ad, including Lima, Mötley Crüe and Chuck Liddell, posted links to images and videos of the Kia spot on Facebook and Twitter.

VW unleashed the power of The Force, so to speak, by releasing this year’s ad, a teaser and a “making of” video over the Internet weeks before the full 60-second spot aired in the second quarter of Sunday’s game.

“It’s like leaving bread crumbs along the trail,” says Tim Mahoney, VW’s chief of U.S. marketing. “With a mass audience of over 100 million, you have to find a way to connect.”

•Streaming. Coke capitalized on second-screen viewers with a live stream that showed its famous Coke Polar Bears responding in real time to the game’s actions.

•Do-gooding. For every “like” that Anheuser-Busch got for its beer-fetching dog ad on its Bud Light Facebook page, it promised to donate $1 (up to $250,000) to an animal rescue fund.

•Blitzing. GM started brainstorming its Super Bowl strategy about 11 months ago, ultimately using social media to barrage consumers with contests, early views of some TV spots, even a game-day app to supplement TV spots before and during the game for the Cadillac ATS and Chevy Silverado, Camaro, Volt and Sonic.

•Tweeting. M&M Mars created a Twitter handle for its Super Bowl ad character, Ms. Brown, and created back-and-forth banter between her and Ms. Green. “In this day and age, it’s not about a one-time ad,” says Debra Sandler, chief consumer officer at Mars Chocolate North America.

•Going contrarian. For Chrysler, whose two-minute halftime spot featured Eastwood challenging Americans to get back up on their feet, the social-media strategy was: wait.

Only after the spot aired did the company post it on sites such as YouTube. The YouTube page allows viewers to share the ad and track how it is being spread via a map of the United States. The interactive map shows the total number of people who have shared the ad via Facebook and Twitter, and their locations.

“In addition to viewing the spot on our YouTube page, we wanted to create an experience that allowed people to share the message while seeing a live visualization of where the spot was being seen across the United States,” says Chrysler spokesman Gualberto Ranieri.

Even then, many of the advertisers who latched on to social media for the Super Bowl forgot something critical, says Mark Ghuneim, CEO of the digital analytics firm Trendrr. “Throwing out a hashtag, as many did, is a great first step, but advertisers need to do a better job of a call to action.”

And it’s amazing. Not one commercial featured anybody flipping the bird to get their message out.

Advertising, Branding, Research, Strategy, Promotions and Social Media. That’s the recipe for a fully integrated marketing program.

Anyone can garner fans and followers. But without true engaged interaction, those types of fans are pretty much worthless. We help businesses, brands and entrepreneurs how to create a fully integrated marketing campaign that features your product and helps to increase bottom line revenue.

Do you remember your first concert? I saw Lynyrd Skynyrd way back when I was in high school and the next day I had a guitar in my room driving my family nuts.

We all love to be entertained. Whether it’s a festival, concert, or now…even simply watching a movie or television show, the impact of social media is undeniable.

Creating a compelling social media campaign integrated with entertainment properties isn’t that tough. It’s the execution thereof that causes brand managers and business owners sleepless nights.

When you work with us, we take care of all of the hassles. We’ll help you design a compelling campaign, market it and then flawlessly execute it.

We make marketing fun! We love what we do and it doesn’t matter if you’re a Fortune 500 company or an entrepreneur that wants to increase business on a limited budget, we can help you create and execute something dynamic and memorable.

One of the aspects of our agency work that we absolutely love, is that of working with sports properties. Creating memorable experiences for fans of all ages is a lot of fun for the fans and extremely rewarding for brands and businesses who understand the affinity that sports fanatics have with their favorite sports teams and celebrity athletes.

Our approach to integrating social media with sporting events allows sports properties, venues and athletes the opportunity to interact with their fan base in a way that no other marketing medium before it could even hope to match.

If you’d like some information as to how we utilize social media to drive tremendous fan involvement please click on the image below or fill out the email form below and one of our Directors will get back to you within 24 hours.

Here is an introduction to the Social Media Agency. We operate an exclusive social media agency that serves a very select clientele.

We’re not at all interested in being “gurus” or experts. We don’t sell ebooks, we don’t peddle products and we’re not interested in any get rich schemes.

We want to work with entrepreneurs, businesses and brands who understand that social media can propel their businesses to greater heights by increasing exposure and stimulating an increase in revenue.

Everything we do is based upon years of proven experience. We know that operating your business is what you need to concentrate on. We’ll handle the rest.

We hope you find a great deal of value in this information and we look forward to working with you in the near future.

Facebook Advertising Tip: Target Friends Of Fans!

A recent whitepaper from comScore is a treasure trove of information for brands and businesses looking to reap the benefits of a Facebook presence. One of the golden nuggets that came from the report is the value of targeting friends of fans.

By doing so you exponentially expand your reach. Obviously it’s quite easy to target those who have “liked” your page and it’s also just as easy to monitor your social media brand impressions, did you know the value of being able to reach the friends of those fans.

The friends of fans base should be an absolutely integral target of your advertising. If you want to build a large sample of prospective consumers then don’t overlook this important incremental audience.

How big could the friends of fans demo be? Well research has shown that this subset can be as much as 34 times larger than your actual fan base. From the comScore report:

Friends of Fans are also an intriguing audience for marketers for a couple of reasons. First, since these consumers have yet to identify themselves as Fans of a given brand, there may be more upside in messaging to them – either for brand-building or increasing consumption. Brands can also take advantage of these users’ social proximity to Fans to deliver stories about those Fans’ interest and engagement with their brand.

Sound worthwhile to target?

I saw this video by Gary Vaynerchuk and it made me think. Did we just witness the most relevant symbol of a true referendum? We always hear politicians talking about mandates. But let’s look at what a mandate really is.

The best definition I could find was of course over on Wikipedia and it states as follows:

A mandate is the obvious authorization or instruction from an electorate to its representative or government

Ok…then case closed. Millions of people gave a direct instruction to the government that they did not want to see SOPA enacted. But as GaryVee says, we know it will be back.How can we be certain of that? Because lately it seems our government does what it wants. It doesn’t listen to us. It doesn’t tell us what’s going on.

This isn’t a political article, it’s a people article. I agree with GV, this is truly a watershed moment and surely a signal of more to come.

Which is specifically why the government wants this bill passed and specifically why we can’t let that happen.

Politicians see this type of broad based communication as dangerous. It shifts control back into the hands and keyboards of the very people they are supposed to serve.

Can you imagine how that makes politicians on both sides of the aisle feel?

Ben The Bodyguard Provides Some Serious Protection And A Great Commercial.

I’m hoping I never need a French assassin to watch my back, but this might be the next best thing. This is an amazing commercial for a software company and I have never seen anything like it.

I may have to go and buy this product just because of this film

I think simply calling it a commercial is doing it a disservice. It’s pure genius.

Matt Couloute Suing Scorned Ex-Girlfriend Amanda Ryncarz | Social Media Gone Wrong

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned and especially one armed with an Internet connection and a keyboard. It seems that Mr. Couloute and Ms. Ryncarz were involved in a relationship that didn’t end all that well.

Couloute and Ryncarz broke up and she didn’t take it all that well. She also didn’t take it lying down. Feeling a bit put off, Ryncarz took to social media to air her dirty laundry…or rather HIS dirty laundry. She went to a site called Liarscheatersrus.com and simply posted a scathing review of Matt Couloute’s dating habits.

Due to the publicity of the case and probably a few calls from guys in suits, you probably won’t be able to see what she posted anymore.

But if you Google Matt Couloute, the first thing that comes up is: Liarscheatersrus.com, a site that warns women web-surfers about men who lie and cheat in their personal relationships.

Matthew Couloute Jr. says the women’s “malicious statements” at liarscheatersrus.com are killing his career by portraying him as a love-’em-and-leave-’em Lothario.

“Our relationship didn’t last long, as I figured him out pretty quickly, but for others, BE FOREWARNED, HE’S SCUM. RUN FAR AWAY,” one of the anonymous posts reads.

Couloute has some problems as his “playa” image seems to be taking a dent. So he’s fighting back in the courts. If things weren’t bad enough..he actually has another angry woman in his past. Stacey Blitsch.

Blitsch is a real looker and served as women’s captain of the California Quakes, a roller derby team, and leader of its “Bod Squad.”

Ryncarz made some headlines herself back in 2004 after she and two other women were arrested for public nudity during a “girls gone wild” type of spring-break bikini contest .

Sounds to me like Couloute deserves what he gets. He seems to pick the most upstanding of women. Maybe he should start his own website. beatchdonegonecrazy.com.

I’m not too sure why people were upset over Steven Tyler’s rendition of the Star Spangled Banner. What was he supposed to do…sing it like Frank Sinatra? He’s a hard rocker and he sang it like a hard rocker.

Anyone ever heard of “Dream On”?? Hello!!

Shaun Majumder and Mark Critch have a pretty funny exchange about coffee and tea cup sizes. Can’t we just order small, medium and large? What’s with the stupid names.

Social Media From A Business Perspective

I get a lot of emails from prospective clients as why they should get involved with social media. Sometimes I tell them they probably shouldn’t. For those where it makes sense, here’s what I tell them.

Today’s Question comes from Devon from Charlotte, North Carolina, and Devon wants to know What are the main reasons for participating in social media from a business perspective?

My ideology as it relates to social media is that there are only 5 reasons to utilize the medium.

Number 1, to increase overall brand awareness. That being to get the word out by driving significant views to a website, increasing the number of fans to a Facebook page, increasing the number of followers on Twitter, and increasing video views on YouTube and other video networks.

But that’s just the beginning, Secondly, another good reason would be to use social media to generate leads. By using downloadable content, hosting webinars, speaking at events and recording them for on demand viewing, utilizing email capture forms and newsletter subscriptions…you’ll consistently generate real, focused leads for future conversion.

Number 3 on the list is using social media for customer retention. Too many businesses look only to bring in new customers not realizing that their biggest revenue generator is often their existing customer base. Social media affords a company the great and consistent opportunity for ongoing customer retention.

Number 4, using social media to increase sales conversions. As many business execs are focused on the bottom line, a successful social media campaign has to be able to show the guys upstairs how their social media program relates to actual dollars.

We use show brands and business owners how they can actually use social media as a selling tool. F-commerce and social commerce are growing options for most brands and businesses and without using social media as another point of sale, you are leaving a lot of money on the table…or worse, you’re creating a great opportunity for a savvy competitor.

And number 5, We utilize social media to measure the effectiveness of the entire process from brand awareness to the close of the sale to the post sale servicing.

Social media is so much more than a tweet here or a Facebook update there. It requires a well thought out plan coupled with seamless execution and reviewable analysis to ensure success.

As always, if you have any questions feel free to email me at the address below and don’t forget to visit us on Facebook.

That’s it for today’s episode and we’ll talk to you next time.

Angelina Jolie Finds Republican Primary Elections Interesting

Although she finds things quite “bizarre”, She’s not alone in that thinking. Whether you are a Republican or Democrat, the primaries are quite compelling.

From Newt Gingrich’s problems with his ex-wife to Mitt Romney’s inability deal with questions about his wealth, there has indeed been some fodder for everyone to take issue with.

One Hour Per Second | That’s A Ton Of Videos Being Uploaded

I saw this video today and the immensity (is that a word) simply blew me away. Take it in for a second (no pun intended).

Every second, one hour of video is uploaded to YouTube. That’s 24 hours every 24 seconds… or a decade every single day.

Now to make sure you grasp that, remember, we’re just talking YouTube here. We’re not adding all of the news networks producing video. We’re not including, Vimeo and Viddler and Facebook. We’re only talking YouTube.

That’s unbelievable. Ok…so most of it is pure junk. Well maybe a lot of it is. But there’s no denying that the public absolutely loves videos. Makes you wonder if computers will come with keyboards in the future.

I guess they probably have to so that we can use our editing software. But the next question is this. Why still blog?

What’s A QR Code? | Social Media News Video

Today we’re taking a new turn with our site and we’re going to be only posting videos. We hope that these short videos will help you in your social media endeavors. Today we discuss QR codes.

Ever wonder what a QR code is and what it can do for you? Well today’s video will answer your questions.

Today’s Question comes from Mary L from Boston, Mass and she wants to know What the heck is a QR code and what do they do.

That’s a great question Mary and I could spend a few minutes rambling on about it , or I can let the fine people over at PRO V-D_N explain it for you.

I’m going to let them do it.

Well now you know what a QR code is and how to use it. By the way, That’s our QR code right there.

As always, if you have any questions feel free to email me and don’t forget to visit us on Facebook. All the pertinent links are in the description below or you can simply visit our site for more information.

That’s it for today’s episode and we’ll talk to you next time.

“We Code Hard In These Cubicles”

Even better than the concert scene in the movie Revenge Of The Nerds!