BO stinks, but so does bullying – Secret’s Mean Stinks Case Study

Bullying has been a hot topic in recent years. Surprisingly, many of these bullies are female. So how does a brand like Secret deodorant curb these hurtful words while building brand credibility? They create a Facebook campaign called “Secret- Mean Stinks.”

As stated on their Facebook page, “What kind of Mean? Girl-to-girl, face-to-face, text-to-text, whatev. This is the place for undoing it. #gangupforgood with tips, tools and challenges.” Secret wanted to create a platform for high school and college aged females to combat bullying. Why? Their social strategy was to increase engagement with their audience.

The result? The campaign took off like a wildfire. According to an article on AdAge, Secret’s Mean Stinks garnered over 50,000 likes during the course of 15 days. Which, at the time was more than it’s male competitors Old Spice and Axe. During the campaign Mean Stinks also was also able to make a donation of over $10,000 to Pacer’s National Bullying Prevention Center. The donation came directly from women requesting online coupon donations found on their website and Facebook and from downloading iAd wallpapers.

The response on social media was huge and remains to create positive buzz. The Facebook page currently has 477,000 likes and their Twitter has nearly 28,000 followers.

So how exactly was a deodorant company able to generate so much feedback and engagement? The company mainly focused on Facebook. On the Mean Stinks Facebook, an anti-bully toolkit awaits.

There are notes on how to tell if you yourself are a bully. Then, there’s an option to take a quiz to earn a badge for an official title in ending girl-to-girl bullying. The quiz ends with selecting one of six anti-bullying roles: the peacemaker, the truth teller, the social butterfly, the cheerleader, the big heart and the communicator.

Frequent posts giving those who liked the Facebook page valuable content is another factor in the success of this campaign. These posts encourage girls to “like” a picture, for example, of a fresh manicure with a blue painted pinky finger. Why? Because Secret has stated that the blue pinky signifies that you are in the fight against bullying. Some of the posts are as simple as “True or False: Self respect is everything.” This post was four days ago and gained 805 likes, 85 comments with numerous replies and 31 shares.

Last, this campaign pulled at my heartstrings when I learned that Secret also encourages making amends with those you may have bullied. They provide this as a private message, as to respect everyone’s privacy. There is also a link on their Facebook where girls can find help 24/7 if they feel bullied.

This campaign was successful for a variety of reasons, but their use of social media was dead on. Their cause led them to a target audience who utilizes social media daily. By providing consistent, quality content, females WANTED to partake in this conversation. I also learned that positioning a brand with a cause is a great way to get people fired up and engaged.

Adidas’ Social Media Guidelines

Adidas recognizes the importance of having a social media policy. This company knows that social media is changing the way people talk and interact with one another. With that said, the company has fourteen guidelines when employees want to post on social platforms. The official policy can be found here.

These policies are an individual document and written in an informal tone. I applaud that. They are easy to find, follow and comprehend. Adidas definitely is trying to avoid all confusion when it comes to these guidelines.

Most of these guidelines are what I would consider common sense. For example, the company states that, “it is perfectly fine to talk about your work and have a dialogue with the community but it is not okay to talk about the design or name for the new World Cup ball months before its official launch.” Simply put, if the employee has signed a confidentiality agreement, they are expected to follow it on social media as well. Similarly, Adidas states if a document features “for internal use only,” don’t post it on social media. Another “duh” principle in Adidas’ social media policy is to respect your audience. So don’t use ethnic slurs, personal insults or obscenity. Got it.

Adidas enforces owning your mistakes. “Have you posted something that just wasn’t true? Be the first to respond to your own mistake.” With this, the company promotes transparency when using social media. If a mistake was made, publically correct it. Also, making sure the audience knows who is posting, what their title and affiliation is with Adidas is a must. The company wants to promote employees explicitly stating that the opinions expressed on social media are personal and do not reflect opinions of Adidas itself.

Some of these social media policies aim to protect the integrity and personal image of employees. “Be aware that others will associate you with your employer when you identify yourself as such. Please ensure that your Facebook, Linked-In, Xing or MySpace profile and related content is consistent with how you wish to present yourself with clients and colleagues.” While this may only be a suggestion and not a definite rule, I think including this guideline is effective and smart.

I really don’t have many qualms with the social media guidelines Adidas presents, but that is because they are guidelines. Because Adidas does not call this a policy, enforcing and having employees carry out these “rules” may be difficult. I think Adidas should reconsider their word choice to make the document seem more legitimate and law-like. I feel that employees would take the guidelines more seriously and the company would avoid social media fiascos in the future. 

Back to Basics: The 4 factors all social media strategies need

In today’s digital world, it seems that nearly every company wants to have a social media presence. Some companies, like Oreo and Dove, seem to be continuously knocking the ball out of the social media park.

Oreo’s quick response on Twitter to Kit Kat’s friendly game of tic-tac-toe and their speedy brilliance during the Super Bowl blackout shows how the creative and social media teams at Oreo are killing it.

On the other hand, Dove, took to Twitter on April 2^nd for #AprilTruthDay. Dove encouraged followers to share a truth with them and they would reply and potentially share something as well.

 

The incentive to share these truths or “confessions” was that one lucky tweeter would win a year’s worth of Dove Deep Moisture Body Wash and Beauty Bars. The “Tweetstakes” was paired with an April Truth Day event hosted by Dove in New York.

I bring up these two companies because they’ve identified the basics of any social media strategy. First, they know their audience. These two brands know their consumers are using social media. If their fan base was elsewhere, they would be too. Social media is great because it attracts such a wide variety of users. Therefore, many companies can target specific groups who are either using or talking about their brand or even those people who aren’t.

Dove and Oreo both have great integration, another key aspect of a successful social media strategy. Their social media teams are consistently scanning and becoming aware of what their consumers are interested in. Then, they collaborate with creative teams or event planning teams to give their consumers what they want.

As with any campaign, some method of measurement is imperative. Analytics showing how well the campaign is doing should be incorporated from the beginning. These analytics can give insight to what the campaign excels at, as well as what the campaign should change.

One final element in a social media strategy should be consistency. The social media campaign should match the tone of the brand. A health insurance company, for example, would not use the same voice as a cosmetics company.

Dove wins the consistency award. Whether they are pushing original content or are responding to a consumer’s inquiry, all messages fit with their natural beauty stance. When consistency is reached throughout social media platforms, consumers are more apt to engage with the brand and confusion is avoided.

A social media strategy has to factor many aspects. Brands need to have a consistent voice, a set audience, integration between departments and tools to measure the success of the campaign. Concentrating on these basic factors will help brands be successful and have an efficient social media presence. 

Is User Experience Everything? Insights from #MUISS

When Marquette University and Laughlin Constable team up to host an event like the “Insight Summit Series: Digital Advertising,” only brilliance is expected to entail. That was exactly the case at Wednesday’s event. While there were many industry professionals speaking about SEO, strategy and content, the main take away seemed to continue to focus on consumer experience over everything.

Marty Kaiser said it best, “Instead of content first, think user experience first.”

Simply put, user experience should be integrated in every aspect of a campaign. For example, Elisabeth Osmeloski of Marketing Land talked heavily about SEO and semantic markup. Search engine optimization and semantic mark up are both tools to help users find what they are looking for in the most efficient manner.

More specifically, semantic markup helps search engines give direct, concise answers. Therefore, when a consumer is trying to buy a new purse and search ‘Coach,’ the search engine will know to direct the shopper to the handbag company Coach, rather than the bus company.

Even when it comes to branding and strengthening a brand or generating more awareness, companies are focusing on understanding their users first.

Casey Flanagan depicted the importance of user experience when he said, “a brand is a short cut to understanding.”

Companies need to eliminate the clutter and simplify. Many people may be under the impression that content is king, which may be half true. However, if a company has stellar content, but it is hidden with clutter or a non-user friendly website, the content is essentially useless.

Last, as a result of being aware of user experience, companies are able to foreshadow and predict what consumers will do on their website. With knowledge like this, companies can strategically place information and advertisements to ensure the highest level of engagement.

At the end of the day, yes, companies absolutely have to have relevant, accurate content to push to their consumers. Yet, if these companies don’t fully understand their target audiences, the messages will easily fall on deaf ears or worse, will not reach the right people. User experience simplifies things for consumers and helps make decisions for companies easier.

As a student studying public relations and marketing, the Insight Summit Series assured me that knowing all about target audiences and their wants and needs will be invaluable information in the future.

Do you agree? Should user experience hold as much weight as some professionals believe? Were you at the Insight Summit Series? Do you have a different take? Leave me a comment, I’d love to hear more insight!

How Effective is Social Media Marketing?

These days, brands flock to social media moguls Facebook and Twitter with their hippest, most consumer targeted marketing plan. However, after Google searching the words Facebook/Twitter, marketing and brand and browsing some of the most recent social media campaigns, I was honestly unimpressed.

First, I had to turn to Google for social media campaigns rather than being able to recall one on my own. Now, this isn’t to say that I’m not involved with social media. I’ve been active on Facebook since 2006 and I have been tweeting for 4 years now. But this also doesn’t mean that brands haven’t had great success on social media. However, if I’m not engaged prior to the launch of a campaign, I won’t be influenced either way.

Brands are consistently pushing consumers to their social media sites. The Super Bowl was case in point, nearly every commercial ended with a plug to tweet with some hashtag. However, a consumer like myself will need more reason to follow a brand on Twitter over a friend or a news and information source.

While this may be considered stubborn, I feel that following brands would infiltrate my feed with ads for products I either don’t want or already have. With that said, after proactively searching for brands that utilize social media to its utmost potential, Taco Bell seemed to understand the platforms best.

Now, I did not follow Taco Bell on Twitter prior to this post, but I do now. Overall, Taco Bell gets it. From retweeting average people, to responding quickly and cleverly to Old Spice, Taco Bell undeniably has a presence on Twitter.

Not only does Taco Bell engage their audience, they do so with a quirky tone consistent with the brand.  The brand knows how to keep the conversation going.

Although Taco Bell did not show up in my Twitter feed in the past, they will now and I look forward to the fun, engaging tweets in store.  

Social Media Super Bowl Winner: Twitter

How two Super Bowl commercials from the same company can be so vastly different is a question only the advertising department at Budweiser can answer. On one end of the spectrum, the tacky nightlife scene with over glamorized 20-somethings introducing the brand’s new Black Crown seemed cliché and over-done. Then, Budweiser brings out the big guns with their Clydesdale commercial.

 

Budweiser is not selling beer in this commercial; rather they focus on their brand values by showing the time and passion even their Clydesdale farmers put forth for the company. Clydesdales have been an integral aspect of the brand since 1933 to celebrate the end of prohibition for beer.

Concluding the commercial, Budweiser directed people to Twitter to name the baby Clydesdale and use #clydesdales. Twitter has seen enormous activity with the hashtag every day this past week. After over 60,000 tweets, the baby Clydesdale had a name: Hope.

I think Budweiser arguably had the most emotional commercial of the Super Bowl. For a beer company, this decision seems completely strategic. If I were to try and pinpoint the target audience Budweiser wanted, I would have to say women. Not only will women be more perceptive to an emotional commercial, but they are the people who are more apt to go to Twitter and give the interaction the company desires.

This commercial humanized the brand. As a consumer of beer, I did not feel targeted to buy a case of Budweiser or Bud Light, but I felt respect for the company. While I am not a regular beer drinker, I do feel that I may give Bud Light Platinum a try all based off of the emotive connection I had with their Super Bowl commercial.

Not all companies can opt for an emotional approach when it comes to advertising and marketing. However, that is not the case with Budweiser. People know and appreciate the history of the company, so it worked. Smaller companies might not benefit from this type of approach. Yet, larger companies who do have grown with consumers might want to emulate Budweiser and see how it works.

Now, in my opinion, the brand that best used the power outage to its advantage, aside from Oreo, was Audi.

The light jab of mockery and humor worked perfectly for the brand. Audi emphasized one of their key elements in their cars in perfect context of the power outage. With 9,707 retweets and 3,217 favorites and counting, this tweet shows that Audi was on their A-game during the Super Bowl and gained serious recognition.

This is my take on both the Clydesdale commercial and the Audi tweet, but I’d love to hear yours. 

Social media: will age make or break your career?

As an upcoming 20-something about to enter the professional workplace, I’d like to think that my opportunities are endless. Luckily, I’m an optimistic realist. Landing any sort of job upon graduation will be ideal. I know I don’t have years of experience, but I want to learn. I think Cathryn Sloane’s article made some great points about how millennials have the best grasp on social media, but I think she got a little ahead of herself.

In order to be in charge of a brand on social media, I believe you must have a firm understanding of the brand, inside and out. You need to know who interacts with the brand, where the brand excels, the brand’s core values, everything. College grads do not have the hands on experience with brands or companies to be given full control over its social media.

With that said, I believe college graduates should be given the opportunities to collaborate with their more experienced co-workers. We can learn the nitty gritty about a brand or company from the people who’ve seen it grow. On the flip side, these senior employees can learn a lot about the functionality of social media from us. Like Sloane said,

“we spent our adolescence growing up with social media. We were around long enough to see how life worked without it but had it thrown upon us at an age where the ways to make the best/correct use of it came most naturally to us. No one else will ever be able to have as clear an understanding of these services, no matter how much they may think they do.”

Simply put, we have grown up with social media. We’ve seen the birth and essentially death of MySpace. We’ve witnessed firsthand the popularity and expansion of social media superstar Facebook. We are the generation that will casually text a hashtag or even use it in daily conversation, despite it having no functionality. So, while Sloane has a valid argument why 20-somethings should be an integral part of the social media team, we still are young and have a lot to learn. However, social media should not be left to the senior staff members, for they haven’t been exposed to social media as we have.

For optimal success, brands and companies should embrace collaboration between the newly graduated 20-somethings and their existing staff. But those are just some of my thoughts, what are yours?