Sponsored Tweets

One of my favorite social media sites would undoubtedly be Twitter. Besides being both fun and challenging to write an insightful comment in 140 characters or less, it's a great way to network and find out what people around the world are doing or thinking. I follow many different types of people/groups be it friends, family, co-workers, advertising agencies and businesses. I also follow various celebrities that I find interesting (I know, guilty as charged.)

A couple of months ago, I started to notice that some of the celebrities I follow were posting "tweets" such as the following:

A bit confused, I started doing some digging. I then came to learn that these "#ads" were sponsored tweets and that there is an actual company (Sponsored Tweets) who specializes in getting celebrities to tweet these ads! Pretty brilliant stuff. Celebrities such as Kim Kardashian, Kendra Wilkinson and Carrot Top are among clients willing to be paid just for tweeting. If you watch the quick video below, you can basically see exactly how Sponsored Tweets work.

By gaining this sort of endorsement, people who look up to the celebrity follow the link to the advertiser's site, learn about the product or idea and can potentially increase sales for the advertiser. Pretty simple!

Advertisers are also able to decipher how well their sponsored tweet did based on the metrics the company provides you with. See the below screen-grab; it basically shows you how many times your tweet sparked enough interest to follow the provided link. This way, you can see which Twitter user is the most effective at spreading your message. You also have the ability to 'favorite' a user and can do multiple 'tweet-transactions' through them over the course of time.

Sponsored Tweets also makes sure to point out on their Web site that:

"SponsoredTweets.com facilitates an open relationship between our Tweeters and Advertisers. The Tweeters that engage in a sponsored tweets program are required to disclose their relationship with marketers in their communications with other consumers. Our platform programmatically requires disclosure from all participants, applying standards and compliance system wide."

This disclosure makes me feel that they are being ethical and still business-savvy. A win-win.

Though I am sure that some may be skeptical and critical of this type of advertising, all I can say is .. why didn't I think of that first?!

Bro's Icing Bro's: Smirnoff Success?

(Picture courtesy of me, icing my best friend, 2010)

Unless you've been living under a rock, you've likely heard of "Bros Icing Bros," which was a huge internet sensation this summer. According to CollegeHumor.com, the rules are simple and as follows:

• Buy Smirnoff Ice, present it to one of your bros in any manner, your bro must instantly get on one knee and chug the Smirnoff Ice on the spot regardless of setting.
• You cannot refuse an ice. If you refuse to drink the ice you are instantly excommunicated and shunned, and thus can never ice another bro or be iced.
• If you are iced by a fellow bro you can ice block. When presented with an ice, you pull out an ice of your own and reverse the ice on your bro. The ultimate ice insult.
  

I was seeing and hearing about this happening everywhere. From college campuses, to the workplace, in grocery stores, at weddings and even on airplanes - icing your friends was "the" Summer 2010 thing to do. Thousands of people across the company were flocking to grocery and liquor stores to buy Smirnoff Ice, of all things.

Being a sucker for good advertising, I couldn't help but wonder if this was all a set-up and if Smirnoff was behind the whole thing. According to The Huffington Post, who quoted AdAge,

"[Smirnoff Ice Parent] Diageo has taken measures to stop this misuse of its Smirnoff Ice brand and marks, and to make it clear that 'icing' does not comply with our marketing code, and was not created or promoted by Diageo, Smirnoff Ice, or anyone associated with Diageo" the company said in a statement (Daly, 2010).

Hmm.

According to a New York Times (NYT) article written by J. Goodman, the game could either be a brilliant marketing strategy or could potentially tarnish the company's name. If the ploy was consumer-generated, this would be known as "brand hijacking" and many large brand names are no stranger to these methods.

No matter how the viral game came to be, a few things are for sure. The NYT reports that "such hijacking of a brand is not uncommon, and in this case, it has produced a short-term benefit for Smirnoff, raising awareness of the brand and extending it to young male consumers who formerly shunned the drink as one aimed at women. Sales of Ice products have taken off in in some southern college towns, including Sewanee, Tenn., and Charleston, S.C., where "icing" took early root" (Goodman, 2010).

An increase in both brand awareness and sales are never bad things - but was the viral effort a bad one for the brand? No matter who created the game, it was a great move for Smirnoff, intentionally or otherwise. I truly believe that the more you can get your consumer to interact with your brand, the better.

As the old saying goes "all press is good press." And for Smirnoff, it was great.

Works Cited:

Goodman, J. (2010, June 8). Popular new drinking game raises question, who's 'icing' whom? The New York Times, p. B3.

Daly, J. (2010, June 9). Bros icing bros: not a Smirnoff campaign, Brosicingbros.com taken down. The Huffington Post.

Television Shows are 30- or 60-Minute Commercials?

I am sure everyone is familiar with The Price is Right. What is now Drew Carey used to be the infamous Bob Barker, and he would select contestants from the audience to "come on down .. you're the next contestant on the price is right!" People then proceed to flip out, jump up and down and make their way to the stage.

The show is based around countless products, where you have to guess the correct 'retail value' to each one. This continues on until the ultimate "Showcase Showdown" where two contestants battle it out to see which can guess their showcases price the closest.

Click 'play' below to see an example of the "Showcase Showdown"

(courtesy of YouTube user TalonGold)

I love the concept of the show and have grown up watching it, but doesn't it seem like an obnoxiously long 60-minute commercial (48-minutes give or take with the REAL commercials playing during breaks)?

In terms of the show, I think it's a smart move -- advertisers donate their products for free, allowing them to be shown in a great light and promote their features on the show. The show then has an incentive to give to contestants. It's a pretty endless cycle.

The Price is Right is not the only show who does shameless product promotions. Take for example another classic game show in Wheel of Fortune. Although their product promotion is a little less blatant, they still use brand-name prizes to create incentives for the contestants. By having the contestants play in order to win these prizes, people get excited about the brands and it creates a buzz around them.

Courtesy of YouTube user DownsA530)

Do you think shows like these are good ideas? Where branded products are the center point of the show? Or do they turn more watchers off than not?

My Experiment

I have been thinking, and I'd like to do a little experiment. Please answer the poll questions to the best of your ability - I'd like to see if these placements are effective, at least to my readers! If you scroll down a bit further, you will eventually get to see if you were right.

Give up?

Here are the answers:

1. Throughout the series, SATC's Carrie Bradshaw is always writing on her Mac computer. In the movies, she is even using an iPhone.

2. Fulfilling every little girl's dream, Reese Witherspoon is proposed to in the New York flagship store of Tiffany's. She gets to pick out any engagement ring she wants. Don't we all?

3. The characters in "500 Days of Summer" visit an IKEA and pretend to be living in each room.

4. Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan frequent a Starbucks for "You've Got Mail." This movie also (obviously) was a huge product placement for AOL.

How did you do? Did you find that you could easily remember where products had been placed in certain television shows and movies? Or do you not really recognize the advertiser in any given entertainment medium?

Thanks for participating!

Football Fall, Y'all

Of all of the seasons in the year, I'd have to say that Fall is my absolute FAVORITE. Why, you might ask? Besides the gorgeous weather, beautiful colors and plethora of holidays, it is also home to the college football season. Yes, I'm a bit of a junkie. Having been spoiled enough to attend the University of Florida when we had not one, not two, not three, but FOUR different national championships during my tenor (two football, two basketball), I am really into competitive collegiate sports. Specifically the glory that is football.

Many also know that the regular season dictates which bowl game your team participates in. During the 2010-2011 season, there will be 35 bowl games including BCS games. Factor in two teams per game, and that means that there are 70 teams playing in a bowl this season! Though this seems like an astonishing number, it really come as a surprise. It isn't all that difficult to become bowl eligible. NCAA rules state that you must win at least 6 games during the regular season to be considered bowl-eligible. With most teams playing upwards of 12 games, it is seems relatively easy to make the eligibility list.

Bowl games are not standard games though. Since they are aptly-titled "bowl" games, each has a different sponsor. These corporate sponsorships range from Tostito's to FedEx, to even credit unions! The list of sponsors and bowl games can be found by clicking the following link: 2010-2011 Bowl Games.

What makes advertisers want to sponsor these bowl games? Of course just having their name televised and attached to a rather lengthy program increases brand awareness. But do you think that the costs outweigh than the benefits? My personal opinion says that they would, however if you look at the history of these events, you see that many sponsorships last over a decade (this year FedEx ended their 21-year sponsorship of the Orange Bowl. This was the longest sponsorship of a BCS game.) Why do you think sponsors stay in it that long?

I often wonder if the sponsorships are entirely necessary. These sponsorships don't seem to bring much to the table besides money for the game and the two schools participating. Then again, I am not sure that the individual bowls would survive without a corporate name attached to it.

What are your thoughts? Do you think these games NEED corporate sponsors to be successful? Or could they thrive on their own?

Building Brand Awareness

There are many factors which play into consumer purchasing behavior. For example, when a consumer enters a grocery store, there are many factors that could potentially influence their purchasing decisions. These factors include (but are not limited to):

• He/she may or may not have made a shopping list before heading to the store
• He/she may have eaten beforehand, or they may be ravenous
• He/she may have a lot of time to peruse the aisles, or they may be on a tight schedule
• He/she may have watched television before heading to the store, and have now bought a product that was advertised on that commercial
• He/she may be on a budget, so they are only purchasing store-brand items

There is an endless list of outside factors which potentially play a role in the purchasing process.

This begs the question of what can a company do in order to influence a consumer's purchase? One such thing would be to increase their brand awareness.

So what is brand awareness?

Kevin Lane Keller notates in his working paper, "Building Customer-Based Brand Equity: A Blueprint for Creating Strong Brands":

"Formally, brand awareness refers to customers' ability to recall and recognize a brand. Brand awareness is more than just the fact that customers know a brand name and the fact that they have previously seen it, perhaps even many times. Brand awareness also involves linking the brand -- brand name, logo, symbol and s forth -- to certain associations in memory...It is important that the brand not only be "top-of-mind" and have sufficient "mind share," but it must also do so at the right times and right places." (Keller, 2001).

Based on the above definition, a company must keep their brand front and center in the consumers' minds (the right place), so that when a purchasing decision is about to be made (the right time), the brand will be remembered and will be purchased.

Buh how does one go about creating and increasing their brand awareness?

Keller believes that depth and breadth are the key components to brand awareness. The author describes depth as "how easily customers can recall or recognize the brand." For example:

• If I were to ask you which soup has a red label, which brand comes to mind?

• If you answered "Campbell's" to the above question, it's because they have created a strong brand identity and brand awareness for their numerous product lines.

Keller describes the other key component, breadth, as "the range of purchase and consumption situations in which the brand comes to mind."

• If I were to ask you what you would want to eat on a cold, winter night, many of you may also answer Campbell's soup. This thought process is again due to a strong brand awareness and relevance to the question -- on a cold night, you would want to consume a product which warms you up, like Campbell's soup.

Television advertisements (as shown below) also help to reinforce a brand's positioning and to help increase awareness.

Do you think Keller has it right -- is it depth and breadth which truly matter when building and maintaining a brand's awareness? Or are there other more important components?

Works Cited:

Keller, K.L. (2001). Building Customer-Based Brand Equity: A Blueprint for Creating Strong Brands. Working Paper Series, 01-107. Retrieved from http://mktg.uni-svishtov.bg/ivm/resources/CustomerBasedbrandEquityModel.pdf

Avion Tequila - Sound Familiar?

If you had asked me a year ago what some of the most well-known tequila brands were, I may have answered "Jose Cuervo", "Patron" and "Sauza."

Ask me today and I'd definitely throw "Avion" into that mix.

Does the brand "Avion" ring any bells? Perhaps if you watched HBO's hit series Entourage it would.

It has been reported that the creator of Entourage, Doug Ellin, was writing the storyline for Season 7 and needed a new business venture for Turtle (his car service had gone belly up in Season 6.) Ellin had heard about Avion from a long-time friend, who happened to be one of the partners for the brand; with this friendship a new sub-plot for the series was born. The interesting thing is that the placement cost the company $0 -- just a handshake. For a product to be woven so well into a series for free is pretty amazing.

Check out the quick clip below from CNBC's Fast Money where the hosts talk with Ken Austin, the founder and chairman of Avion.

Having only been on the market for three months now, it obviously begs the question if the Tequila brand will take off because of the placement. Only time will tell.