Telekinetic Coffee Shop Surprise - Carrie

   
   This Wednesday, I was looking at the list of the top 5 most viral videos of last week. Number 1 was Telekinetic Coffee Shop Surprise, with more than 45 million views in the past 7 days. I was intrigued (it has a compelling name I have to admit.) So, I went on YouTube and found out that it is a prank on the customers in a Coffee Shop that get scared to hell when a woman with presumably telekinetic powers gets really upset when a man accidentally makes her spill her coffee on top of her laptop. She throws him against the wall and moves all the tables “with the power of her mind”. At this point, one starts wondering who made this… and at the very end of the video, just 10 seconds before it ends, they revealed it. It is a promotion for the upcoming thriller Carrie.

     This “movie preview” has nothing to do with the film but, at the same time, it has everything to do with it. It’s amazing how marketing has changed in the last few years. Marketers have noticed that giving a few minutes of the movie is no longer good enough to keep us attached. They’ve created an emotion. They gave something more REAL, HUMAN and, SCARY that RESONATES with the public. 

     As a potential consumer, I love the fact that the producers took the time to think about something that really surprises me. If they are crazy enough to make something so unique in order to catch my attention (even though I am not into the whole horror/scary movies thing) I want to see it!

“The Man Your Man Can Smell Like” - 1st Successful SoMe Campaign

    Old Spice’s “Smell like a man, man” was one of the first and most successful social media campaigns. A TV commercial launched prior to the 2010 Super Bowl and quickly gained incredible popularity. More than 2,000 people sent questions, and in a 48-hour period, nearly 200 personalized video responses were created and posted on Old Spice’s YouTube Chanel, to which the “Man, man”, Mustafa, responded to the tweets of hundreds of people-- including those of Ashton Kutcher, Alyssa Milano, Perez Hilton, and Ellen DeGeneres. 

   These response videos reached more than 46 million views. In fact, in the first 24 hours, they were viewed more times on YouTube than President Obama’s 2008 election-night acceptance speech.

So what can you learn from this?

1. Listen and answer. Social media is about engagement, about letting your consumers know you hear them, but most importantly, that you are willing to answer their questions and chat with them.

2. Resonate with your customers. By this I mean transmit emotions and create empathy. Social media does not have to be perfect, but the messages you want to broadcast have to be sensitive and human. 

3. Pay attention to your customers influencers. Women buy more than 50% of men’s body wash. Old Spice’s strategy focused on them and sales went up more than 107%.

Until next post,

@FiordalizaTM

#LetsEatTogether Coca-Cola Live tweets

    In Romania 6 of every 10 people eats alone in front of the TV. Coca-cola has launched a brilliant marketing campaign to help them re-find the joy of eating together. For the first time, a Tv Ad is integrated with live tweets. Using the hashtag #LetsEatTogether, twitter users can invite their family and friends to share a meal together. This is how it works:

     This is great proof that we, as marketers, cannot hesitate to integrate social media efforts into our marketing plans. According to Psfk.com, as a result of this campaign, Coke’s Twitter base in Romania increased 15% and the ad garnered over 1 million social media impressions!

   Imagine how consumers felt when they saw their tweets on TV? And furthermore, try to imagine how they must have felt when the invitations they sent via this innovative system were accepted by their beloved-ones? It stopped being just a coke ad… They are not selling soda anymore. They are selling HAPPINESS. They are selling an experience and giving a meaning to the lives of their consumers. 

    I just loved this creative initiative! Makes you think outside of the box. This is another reminder of the Ted’s Talk: People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it!

See the video below for further information.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5k1fvMmfJxs

Until next post,

@FiordalizaTM

The Impact of Social Media

    I would like to start by the basics: how social media has revolutionized our Modus Vivendi. What if I told you I have an older half-brother that I hadn’t met until 3 years ago? And what if I also told you that I got in contact with that brother via the most popular social network: Facebook?

Photo from http://www.inarkansas.com

  It happened the first week of December 2010. It was 4:00 am in the morning when my sister woke me up abruptly. She walked into my room, turned on the lights, and screamed my name as loud as she could. I thought an Earth Quake was happening and that I would have to get out of the house running like the leading character in a scary movie just before the end. Thank God her enthusiasm was running high and her ear-to-ear smile made me realize that what she was about to tell me was going to be really good.

     She started telling the story. She always knew the existence of this brother named Aris Taveras. It was a baby my father conceived before marrying my mother, and had lost contact with him. My sister had scared people through Facebook for months, she had sent messages to every facebook-user she found with the same first and last name of my brother, until that night, she finally found the right one. My sister sent him a message and he answered immediately.

    Our relationship grew stronger, and that New Year’s Eve, my sister and I took a flight to New Jersey to meet him, his wife Vanessa, and their 4 year old daughter, Brianna.

   This was truly a life changing experience. This example represents the biggest impact of social media. It has allowed us to be more human; it has fulfilled our need to be in immediate contact with others; it has brought to the palm of our hands the possibility to share our experiences with thousands of people.

     Our job as marketers is to keep our marketing efforts in that track; to touch the most sensitive keys of our customers and develop an engaging relationship with them. Let them know we are not robotic enterprises, but humanized organizations interested in their dreams, goals, fears, and hope. We must motivate them to talk about us amongst themselves- user-generated content is trustworthy and instantaneous. 

I can only say: Thank you social media for existing!!!

Until next post guys,

@FiordalizaTM

Welcome! Bienvenidos!

   

  Hello everyone and welcome to my blog! Please have yourself feel like home and be free to comment your own experiences, impressions, ideas and doubts about social media and marketing in general. This space was specially created to discuss the trending topics in social media and see the way we marketers can take advantage of it.