Incorporating Digital Media Campaigns into your Marketing Strategy

There has been a huge strategic failure to incorporate social media into advertising and PR campaigns. While the large multi-nationals are beginning to realise its potential it is still viewed as an ‘added extra’ as opposed to something that should be integrated at the very start of a campaign. Not only that, but the number of small companies utilising this form of advertising is ridiculously low.

Consider a few case studies,

• Twitter users heard about Michael Jacksons death hours before any other type of media had even published the news in the UK.
• Rage against the Machine outed the X Factor winner Joe Mcelderry for the Christmas Number One…all down to a facebook campaign. Music mogul Simon Cowell was so impressed he offered the couple a job…which they refused.
• Susan Boyle conquered the USA and succeeded where many other artists failed mainly due to YouTube recognition.

When the UK is the second largest user of Twitter and 1 out of every 350 website visits comes from twitter it becomes a powerful marketing tool. But don’t get drawn into setting up an account and expecting it all to fall into place. Over half of all referrals go to a blog, entertainment site or other social network so it’s important to keep busy on the things people want to know.

The second thing to avoid is jumping on the social media bandwagon and behaving like a kid in a sweetshop, think about what you really want to achieve. Many brands struggle with matching the tool to the problem. It is not about bringing people together, it is about engaging them into the product by encouraging them to help evolve it and provide their own thoughts and opinions. Just because a campaign may create a lot of publicity it is not enough to sustain any form of substantial relationship unless it is done properly.

Lastly avoid falling into the trap of the pointlessness campaign. For example Cadburys eyebrow campaign, following from the TV add it allowed you to upload your own versions to be streamed over the internet. This didn’t allow for much in the way of brand interaction, it just treated Youtube as a TV slot. Another pointless campaign is the Marmarati Campaign from Marmite, an online community for Marmite addicts encouraging them to create a stronger version of the spread. Yes a very good way of speaking to the customer but why create a campaign solely for existing customers? Ignoring the ‘love it, hate it’ that Marmite has become famous for.

For a good example of social media usage, look to the Walkers ‘Do us a Flavour’ campaign. This was well integrated with the rest of the campaign even if the execution could have been improved. Another good example is the multi-platform approach adopted by Relentless…the energy drink that ironically has outpaced Redbull.

If you want to know how all this applies to a smaller local business…you will have to wait for the next post!

Sources: Sysomos.com, Hitwise Report