Behind A Great Ad Campaign
January 21st, 2009At the recently concluded #smbnyc3 I was invited to share my thoughts about engagement, brand equity and metrics. I chose to ask the question: before the tactical engagement, before building brand equity, before metrics what should brands focus on to create a compelling connection with their consumers? In the social media age, defining a cultural movement is imminent to a campaign’s success.
Today, effective consumer engagement is shaped by ideas elevated into a cultural movement. Scott Goodman, Founder of Strawberry Frog coined the term and defines it as “Cultural Movement is about defining an idea on the rise. While traditional brand positioning starts with the product and goes to the consumer, Cultural Movement positioning starts with the culture and then ties back to the product. It’s an outside-in strategy. Once you have a Cultural Movement, you can do anything.”
President Obama’s campaign is a great case study. It is believed that Mr. Obama campaigned for the presidency on day 1 as Senator of Chicago. Quietly and steadfastly at first. By the time his campaign hit the roads a spontaneous combustion among the American people was noticeable. Mr. Obama’s platform for change is an idea that the American people craved. His compelling story and vision shared through strategically selected channels of communication including Twitter, Facebook, a campaign website, email campaigns, television advertising, speeches, road trips and more stirred the nation with a fresh infusion of passion thus The Obama cultural movement was born. Mr. Obama’s cultural movement for change supported his campaign and his request for America’s vote. A movement that continues during his term as President of the United States. The rest of the story we know now is a very memorable part of America’s history.
At #smbnyc3 as a case study, I showcased Strawberry Frog’s Microsoft Small Business Software campaign which featured Kyle Bone’s the anti-shirt story and Ideawins.com. The campaign generated 500,000 video downloads from You Tube and its website; 30,000 participants in the contest and 1.5M software downloads. Here’s one of the four videos Kyle Bone, Inventor Extraordinaire Corrects The Farmer\’s Tan.
What are the ingredients of a successful campaign?
- Idea that evokes passion
- Compelling story. An engaging script.
- Cultural movement supported by your community
- Mix of communication channels that appeal to your brand’s audience
- Clear call to action
Social media clearly changed the role of the brand. Legacy advertising agencies that are slow to clue-in on cultural movements evoked by their brand’s target audience, fail to integrate social media and a variety of applicable communication channels in campaigns will continue to under perform and eventually bore their audience. How is your campaign performing? Let us know how we can help.
Tags: #smbnyc3, cultural movement, President Barack Obama, Scott Goodman, Social Media, Strawberry Frog
