Bud Light at it Again

Anheuser-Bush rocked last year's Super Bowl with Bud Light's "Perfect Beer for Whatever Happens" campaign launch. The campaign included the creation of "Whatever USA" in Crested Butte, Colorado. Now, Bud Light is creating a "House of Whatever" to hold parties, concerts and activities. It will also be a social media hub where preplanned and live social media posts will be sent. The campaign strategy focuses on giving the beer brand a local presence during Super Bowl weekend. To amplify that reach, social media centers will also be in St. Louis, New York and Palo Alto, California, during the game.

Before the explosion of social media, a campaign such as this would never have been launched. Social media extends the life of a campaign though social interactions within the target market. Campaigns such as these also show that "free" isn't so free when it comes to social media. Yes it is free to post content, but that content can be very expensive to produce and promote. ROI however has the ability to justify the investment. 

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Perfection

These shorts for the Andy Awards are probably the best promos I have seen in a long time. They use humor to describe how people in advertising have the most difficult jobs according to the people who actually have the most difficult jobs. My favorite is the "Hurt Locker" video. The way advertising is describes makes me think of how I explain my upper level marketing classes to my friends with other majors such as mechanical engineering and biology.

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Arby's: WE HAVE THE.. pepsi?

Arby's has deal with Pepsi to include them in two of their commercials this year. Apparently Arby's forgot and decided to do something special in order to make up for their mistake. It is a play on their slogan "WE HAVE THE MEATS." The thirty second spot can be found below.

Arby's more than made up for not including Pepsi the first time. I have always been a fan of Arby's ads and am especially a fan of this one. It pokes fun at the whole situation in a way that will 1. make consumers thirsty and 2. make consumers want to go to Arby's. It is good publicity for Arby's and Pepsi because of the attention they are getting from it. If it were not for the mistake, I would not be writing about them.

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Social Media Not So Social For Businesses

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Social media giant Facebook is once again changing its algorithms. The change is making it more difficult for brands to reach affinity groups through organic postings. The goal is to raise revenue through promoted postings. Facebook claims that users are complaining they are tired of seeing posts that push them to buy a product or app. Research firm Forrester believes the change will have such a significant impact that they are advising companies to decrease their reliance on Facebook. As a relancement, they suggest companies turn to email marketing campaigns. Email campaigns were the norm to reach customers online prior to the emergence of social media. 

Facebook is enjoying a huge increase in ad revenue in the past quarter. It is up 64 percent to $2.96 billion. They also enjoy 25 times more advertisers than Twitter. Today, Adweek learned Facebook will offer deep-pocketed brands exclusive information about users.

Should Facebook be doing this?

Social media is so good for companies because it is a low cost way to reach consumers. Facebook should not be limiting who can effectively reach their customers. Once it loses it's uniqueness, Facebook will not be the place to be for advertisers. This move may set them up for failure long term.

Special Typeface for Dyslexic People

Many people have dyslexia. In fact, dyslexia is estimated to affect 10% of the world's population according to UK charity Dyslexia Action. Dutch designer Christian Boer has created a special typeface for people with dyslexia. Below is a chart showing how dyslexic people see letters, and how the new typeface makes them easier to read. With 10% of the world's population affected by dyslexia, 10% of the the population may be misreading advertisements.  Link

Introducing Snapcash

I was on Snapchat today and saw something interesting. I had a snap from Snapchat about a new service they are offering called Snapcash. I decided to look into it further. The popular app struck a deal with Square Cash allowing people to add a debit card and type a dollar amount to instantly send money to a friend.

The future plan for the service may include ecommerce payments to merchants. Someone can see a video from a company and if they like the product, they can buy it instantly. From a marketing standpoint, Snapchat could cross-reference debit card info through Snapchash accounts for ad targeting. This would increase the amount Snapchat charges companies to run advertisements.

There is a video in the link below showing an advertisement for Snapcash.

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It's a Hoax!

The now famous "Alex from Target" was a marketing ploy from the start. Business Insider reports the was staged to help small-content creators spread their work. What was not expected were the results. #AlexfromTarget received worldwide exposure making Alex an overnight celebrity. 

The campaign is yet another indication of the power of social media and its ability to spread a message. I can only expect similar campaigns in the future stealth marketing campaigns to generate word of mouth in social media. 

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