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Defining Social Media Marketing
by Joe Marchese, Tuesday July 27, 2010

What does it mean to do "social media marketing"? In talking with various brands and agencies, there are extremely wide-ranging thoughts on what tactics, goals and, most important, resources should be allocated to social media. Let's settle the debate: All marketing is social media marketing.

Most people agree that all media is meant to be social, and that sooner or later all effective media will incorporate more social elements into its creation and distribution. The same logic applies even more so to marketing. All effective marketing activities, from advertising to PR to CRM, will incorporate social media functionality, and the performance of all marketing will be better tracked through social media monitoring. Perhaps that's why there's so much confusion from one company to the next on the role of social media in their organization. Social media is not its own discipline in marketing, as much as a new skill set required for every other marketing discipline.

So when the debate comes up on whether social media is bought, earned or owned media, the answer is simply "yes." While it seems easy for most brands to understand how social media augments and extends their CRM, PR and communications practices, most struggle with properly incorporating the benefits of social technologies into their paid advertising efforts. Too often money is wasted when marketers buy advertising without incorporating social elements and without monitoring the social activities resulting from a paid campaign. Even more often, marketers miss opportunities to execute compelling campaigns by isolating "social media" with its own initiative rather than focusing on how social the larger paid media effort should be.

The first step is to realize that all digital advertising is already social media advertising. Every digital advertising campaign should be designed and trafficked to maximize consumer interaction and can be measured by resulting social activities (liking, sharing, commenting), because these are metrics that extend campaign ROI and can indicate how impactful the actual campaign was.

A media company could build a digital presence without social media elements, but it would be a terrible digital presence. In the same vein, a digital marketing campaign can be executed without social media elements, but it would be a terrible digital marketing campaign. Even television ads are ending in calls to connect on Facebook -- but I think you can expect your digital dollars to do a little better.

It was to address the challenge of understanding exactly how to standardize social media advertising practices that I agreed to join the board of the Social Media Advertising Consortium (if your company does any marketing, I highly recommend getting involved). The question of how to best incorporate social elements, practices and technologies into paid advertising efforts will define winners and losers in digital marketing for the next two years and the entire marketing industry over the next decade. Seems like a subject worth discussing to me.

For more information visit www.mediapost.com

Ford Makes New Friends the Right Way, Revealing Explorer On Facebook
by Erik Sass, Monday July 26, 2010

With everyone struggling to figure out how to use social media for marketing and advertising, it's obviously helpful to look at examples where a big company gets its right, demonstrating what can be done with an appropriate investment of time and money (and planning). Today, Ford hit the nail on the head with its "2011 Ford Explorer Reveal" on the Ford Explorer Facebook page. Let's take a quick tour of the multifaceted project.

First of all, Ford isn't treating the Facebook push as a mere adjunct to an official unveiling elsewhere -- this is the big "reveal," which usually takes place at the Detroit auto shows. Of course most people don't attend the Detroit auto shows, and press reports about the unveilings always tend to be a bit humdrum, at least in my opinion. They also don't do justice to individual models, lumping all the new vehicles together with scarcely a paragraph each.

While clearly unsatisfactory from the carmakers' perspective, in the days of broadcast media that was about all they could hope for. But Ford is using social media to give users an interactive, multimedia tour with videos, text and images on the Explorer's Facebook page, all anchored by live video of the "reveal" in New York City (taking place on an elaborate set recreating some wilderness getaway in the middle of the urban landscape -- very weird). These include celebratory mini-events with live music, etc. At the top of the page is a timeline, showing all the different real and virtual events taking place over the course of the day as part of the unveiling. Users can click on any of the previous times to see events that already happened.

Below that are a series of videos, some filmed ahead of time, some filmed live at unveiling events. The live events are hosted by Mike Rowe, the host of Discovery's "Dirty Jobs," who pokes around the new 2011 Ford Explorer with Ford CEO Alan Mulally. Mulally also appears in a pre-filmed Q&A. That's a gold star for Ford: recognizing that social media is supposed to feel "real," there are no anonymous actors or B-list celebrities taking a prominent role in the launch, but rather the guy who is responsible for the new model (facilitated by Rowe as the rugged media personality).

Meanwhile the pre-filmed video also includes a tour of the new Explorer with Mark Fields, president of Ford Americas, and Julie Levine, the Ford Explorer product manager, and a Q&A about the Explorer's "green" aspects with Sue Cischke, vice-president for sustainability environment and safety engineering (more gold stars for hitting hot-button issues, again with the actual executive in charge leading the discussion).

For more information visit www.mediapost.com

Tweeters Star In Wheat Thins TV Ads
by Karlene Lukovitz, Monday July 26, 2010

Kraft Foods/Nabisco Wheat Thins will take social media marketing integration to a new level this week, when it debuts the first of at least two 30-second national TV commercials featuring consumers who have tweeted positively about the brand.

The TV spots employ two of three videos already posted on Wheat Thins' "The Crunch is Calling" YouTube channel and in a tab on its Facebook page, which have collectively drawn more than 623,000 views since being posted just over three weeks ago.

The videos show a team of brand representatives, in a van prominently displaying Wheat Thins' "The Crunch Is Calling" theme, tracking down and surprising tweeters who have indicated their attachment to the crackers. Each tweeter is presented with a Wheat Thins gift that ties into the content of his/her tweet.

Each video starts with a close-up of a screenshot showing an actual brand-related tweet (the tweeter's "handle" is visible), with the mobile team discussing the tweet's content as they arrive to have a close encounter with a fan.

The first video to be aired as a TV spot (for two weeks, starting July 26) shows a tweet from Tabitha, a young woman who had lamented: "AAAHHHH ... I'm outta Wheat Thins ... Mi [sic] life is officially over!" As she opens her front door to the Crunch team and verifies that she indeed tweeted that message, an entire pallet of Wheat Thins boxes is being deposited in her driveway -- the brand's gift to ensure that she has plenty on hand for the foreseeable future. As the team zooms away, the stunned but smiling fan gives them the thumbs-up as she stands beside the pallet, with a dumbfounded neighbor looking on.

The second video/TV ad captures the team presenting a set of custom-made "Crunch is Calling" headphones to Timmy (on a restaurant deck among friends/onlookers), who had tweeted: "Does anyone else have to turn up the volume when they eat Wheat Thins? Someone needs to invent crunch-proof headphones." After testing the headphones (a brand rep crunches a Wheat Thin, amplifying it through a megaphone), Timmy is left eating a cracker as he wonders aloud: "Don't I have to sign anything?" This ad will begin airing Aug. 30.

A third video -- which may or may not be used for a TV ad -- shows the team surprising Dan, who had tweeted that he was using a Wheat Thin to pick his air guitar, with a Wheat Thins-branded guitar case containing ... nothing. Dan demos his cracker-pick air-guitar moves, and also receives a custom Wheat Thins box bearing his photo and tweet.

The brand is being mysterious in responding to social media queries from fans wondering how Wheat Thins located the folks shown in the videos ("The videos are the real deal, but, unfortunately, we can't reveal our intervention secrets!"), but a spokesperson confirms that the subjects were tracked down with the help of their Facebook friends and family members.

Interestingly, to enhance the surprise factor, Wheat Thins chose to video consumers who were selected based on "random" tweets picked up about the brand, rather than approaching Wheat Thins Twitter followers/Facebook fans.

The TV spots will be aired on a variety of network prime-time shows and cable outlets with high viewership among the recently repositioned brand's new core target audience, women and men age 25 to 45, reports Jim Low, director of wheat snack crackers for Kraft Foods.

The videos will also be employed in new online advertising, as pre-rolls for Web-posted episodes of targeted TV shows. Adjacent ad blocks will encourage viewers to click into the brand's Facebook page/Twitter presence.

The social media-driven videos and their use as TV spots and pre-rolls represent a natural next step in the evolution of the brand and its marketing, Low tells Marketing Daily.

The brand's repositioning process began over a year ago, when Wheat Thins used consumer research to identify the cracker's crunch, flavor and texture as its key attractions to a younger and more gender-balanced demographic group.

Last summer, the brand introduced product changes to further enhance its appeal to this group (adding more whole-grain content to many varieties and eliminating high-fructose corn syrup); unveiled a more contemporary package design; and launched its "Crunch is Calling" tagline and an integrated campaign that included crunch-focused TV spots featuring young adults.

Low reports that efforts in this year's first half focused on in-person engagement with the target audience through event sponsorships -- including high-visibility sponsorships during March's NCAA tournament and June's Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival (where Conan O'Brien serendipitously mentioned the brand from stage).

The TV campaign and events helped drive engagement with Wheat Thins' new, app-heavy Facebook fan page (which has drawn nearly 111,000 fans since its launch in December '09), as well as its new Twitter. com/crunchiscalling presence (about 900 followers to date) and its revamped wheatthins.com site.

The tweeter videos/TV spots/pre-rolls are designed to build on that engagement. "The social media conversations about Wheat Thins and viral effect are really underway now, and the enthusiasm for the brand is very clear," says Low, noting that celebrities (including "American Idol"'s Kris Allen and R&B singer Chris Brown) have tweeted about the brand.

"These conversations continue to become increasingly important, and we're actively engaged in them on an ongoing basis" -- taking care to engage as a meaningful participant, rather than come off as promotional or intrusive, Low adds.

To date, all signs point to substantial success in engaging the new target audience via social media and the other "Crunch" marketing efforts, according to Low. Importantly, these younger fans view Wheat Thins as a snack product to be enjoyed on an everyday basis, in contrast to the brand's traditional consumer base of women 45 and older, who viewed it "just as a traditional cracker," he points out.

Escape Pod developed the new videos, and AKQA implemented social media/online elements. Edelman handles the brand's public relations.

For more information visit www.mediapost.com