Audi Engages Audience At Superbowl 2012

After seeing the hi-lights of top 10 Superbowl ad's of 2012 some would wonder if the 3+ million dollars for 30 seconds of air time is truly worth the cost. What value does the marketer get if they only have an audience for 30 seconds? Is the audience even engaged, or remotely paying attention would be the next question.

The answer lies on the quality of content presented from the marketer. They might of paid for 30 seconds of advertising however if executed properly they will have left various calls to action that will extend days and maybe weeks after your original commercial was aired.

A great example of this and the best commercial from a marketing standpoint in my opinion was Audi's "Vampire Party" commercial.


In the last few seconds of the ad, Audi displays a black frame with #solongvampires in white standing out to its audience.




This was a unique approach, while others were briefly plugging their Facebook or Twitter accounts, (some weren't doing any) Audi was building a trend. A trend in which was tweeted by 10's of thousands of users with a reach in the millions. Good or bad the brand Audi was being promoted on this trend #solongvampires.

Audi's commercial took traditional marketing and directly engaged it with social marketing something I think others took serious note on and something we will only see more of in the coming years.

This is a good update on the 'state of the blogosphere.' It's too long to play in class when we get to social media, so I hope you'll take the 9 minutes and view it.



Blogging Trends for 2012: What You Need to Know from Michael A. Stelzner on Vimeo.

Anyone hooked on Pinterest yet?

I was reading Mashable's Lance Ulanoff  post today, and it was an almost identical sentiment I was sharing with a colleague yesterday.  48 hours ago I had not idea what Pinterest was, and suddenly my builder wants to use it for interior design planning, my web coder thought it'd be great way to share website designs for one of our projects and my client is inviting me to pin concepts.  

One of my favourites is Inforgraphics Board...what a lovely uncluttered visual array of what they are famous for...take five to visit.

Pinterest has fast exploded in popularity and like any success story, it's one of those overnight sensations that really was years in the making and has struck the right chord.   Well deserved, in my opinion based on the succinct and clear strategy the Pinterest team have conceived...so simple and such a genius method for target marketing opportunities...their mission statement?

"to connect everyone in the world through the 'things' they find interesting. We think that a favorite book, toy, or recipe can reveal a common link between two people. With millions of new pins added every week, Pinterest is connecting people all over the world based on shared tastes and interests." Read more 

In simple terms, Pinterest is host to thousands of virtual pin boards mostly frequented by a 25-34yr female audience, affectionately referred to as "those with hairdryers", fast resulting in being one of the top performing channels for fashion brands. (Sources: ArikHanson.com, Mashable)

Although it's still in beta status, Pinterest is already paying off for those online retailers who have embraced it.  It's already outperforming LinkedIn, You Tube and Google+ and speculated to outperform Facebook! Check out thought labs' post and gasp like I did at the stats!  Thought labs' Zachary Chastain has composed a fabulous article, '5 Steps To Make Your Brand Pinteresting' and is well worth the read.

HubSpot

Two months ago I received an invitation from Hubspot to participate of their Workshop about Inbound Marketing. I decided to go, check the new place they have in Harvard area and understand the new technology they were developing.

They developed a software which tracks all traffic on your website, showing competitor results and advanced statistics that drive you to make the necessary changes to reach a higher number of visitors.
Their results have been really notable and are ranked now as the second fastest growing software company and the 33rd growing company overall.

It's possible to get to know their company getting in contact to them, subscribing for news or just following their media. Besides allowing you to try their services in a free trial you can also enjoy great opportunities watching or listening to some webseminars or reading their news.

Marianne Dus Vichesi

http://www.hubspot.com/

Looking for Internet Marketing Plan team member

Hello fellow students, I am looking to form a team for Internet Marketing Plan assignment. Prof Mary recommended using the blog to find team members. I haven't finalized a plan yet and would like to work with one other team member to brain storm ideas and get the process started.

I am pretty easy going and open to ideas. I am 100% distance student (meaning I will never be in Boston). I live in Memphis, Tennessee (home of Elvis Presley!) and work at FedEx. I am part of Marketing team responsible for growing FedEx's mobile strategy. As example, search for FedEx app on iPhone or Android phone - I was part of this effort. Obviously, this course is very relevant to me.

Please email me at anurag.pathak@gmail.com if you are interested in working with me. 

Thanks

Anurag Pathak

Chapter 4 Links

I've also uploaded a revised version of the chapter PPT that has all except the twitter follower link if you'd prefer to download that. But here's a list as I promised

value of a twitter follower  

HBS prof takes customer service training

Amazon Fulfillment Services  (Web Services)

Test and Target product tour   (requires free registration)

Customize a Nike sneaker

The Two Screen Super Super Bowl Bowl

It is a constant endeavor of any Internet marketer to tie together various platforms and create greater engagement possibilities. The Super Bowl has thrown up some staggering numbers. This DIY blog post has culled some very interesting numbers and sums up well the take out for CMOs Read Here

Dan Israel @ SapientNitro said “What matters today is how many people with smartphones can be gathered in one location at one time,” “The Super Bowl rules in this category.

Big brands like Best Buy, Chevy, Toyota, Pepsi and Subway have tried to get a bigger bang for their ad buck by creating TV ads which encourage viewers to see the ad and then go the FB, Twitter or Mobile App. ‘Shazam to win a Camry’ – How much more convincing can you be??? You can read this Mobile Marketer article as well.

With 12233 people tweeting a second (towards the end of the game), I just wonder who was reading?