Today is August 1st. August 1st! Summer’s last month is upon us and digital and social marketers are getting more and more insightful the hotter it gets. From hot dogs to real estate, we’ve had a lot of fun this week dissecting the brands enjoying a busy season. Here’s a look at what you missed:
- The quote: “Save is pretty simple. When someone in your feed posts a link you’d like to revisit later, just click the Save button in the bottom right of the post or the drop down arrow in the upper right of a post (or the “…” on a Facebook page) and then select Save.”- Christina Bonnington (Wired)
- Why it matters: Mind. Blown. So simple, So useful. So necessary. If Facebook is truly becoming a hub for interesting content, it needs to accommodate the fact that the majority of its users are on mobile and may want to return to an article later. This allows users to flag an article while in line for coffee, save it while they order and revisit it when they get back to the office. Pretty useful stuff and even more motivation for brands to put save-worthy content on Facebook. This could rival Feedly and
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- The quote: “Unlike his predecessors, Schwartz isn’t just competing with McDonald’s (MCD) and Wendy’s (WEN). He has to keep customers from straying to trendy newcomers such as Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) and Panera Bread (PNRA). Their sales in the U.S. last year grew 17 percent and 12 percent, respectively, according to Technomic, a food industry consultant. Sales were essentially flat for Burger King and its two primary rivals.” – Devin Leonard (Bloomberg Businessweek)
- Why it matters: Burger King was flat last year, but with a surge of young blood, fresh ideas and generational thinking, the brand might bounce back before we know it. According to this article, the average age of an incoming CEO at a company in the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index was 53 last year, giving the brand a different vantage point in its category through the eyes of its young executive team. Thus far, Burger King has sold all but 52 restaurants and slashed its number of corporate employees. With all the cost-cutting, it sets the brand up for a smart digital program nicely. Whether or not they start making waves will be worth looking out for.
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- The quote: “Plus Points allows the hotel’s members to earn real Marriott Rewards points based on their social activity, including tweets, retweets, Facebook or Instagram posts, and check-ins. So if a member staying at one of the chain’s locations posts a picture of their room with a nice caption, it could translate into actual Marriott Rewards. They could use those Rewards on a future stay, post even more to social media, and continue the cycle.” – Annie Pilon (Small Business Trends)
- Why it matters: In a piece in Loyalty360 earlier this year, we covered some innovative ways brands can use Facebook to help drive their brand loyalty programs. We made the case for rewarding social shares to help drive action and word of mouth. It’s great to see a brand like Marriott, already a leader for its strategic partnerships with the likes of Continental Airlines and Uber, using social rewards as the next step in a well-rounded program. Only 8.2% of consumers join loyalty programs because they truly love the brand. Instead, 62% join because they’re interested in getting a discount. With social shares rewarded, it gives Marriott an opportunity to find its biggest fans through those just for a discount.
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- The quote: “More recently, Netflix got its fans to play an active role in creating original content to promote the show, asking them to contribute artwork based on the show and its characters for potential use in an outdoor advertising campaign.” – Christine Champagne (Fast Company)
- Why it matters: The team at Netflix has succeeded in not only including fans of Orange is the New Black and House of Cards in its marketing plan, but actually making its fans the marketing plan. In a show that doesn’t advertise on network television, word of mouth is what Netflix relies on to gain new fans and customers of its two marquee shows. The
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- The quote: “The analogy I like to use is of a race car. Imagine the car represents your marketing goals: you want to get it around the track as efficiently and quickly as possible to beat the competition. As soon as it stops in the pit, the crew teams swarm to work. Each person has a very specific task — one removes the back tire, another puts a new one on, a third tightens the lug nuts.Each team is optimizing their particular job very well but has no awareness as to what the other teams are doing. This is oftentimes what happens in marketing departments today with siloed data within channels and results that are difficult to understand holistically.” – Matt Westhover (VentureBeat)
- Why it matters: Enough with innovation and other buzzwords marketers have used to sell in plans to the corner office. Synergy should be the focus for agencies and brands and it needs to happen sooner rather than later. Media and social budgets are still largely kept away from one another. In today’s landscape, the data used in both should inform the other. In this great guest piece from Matt Westhover, he compares the marketing department to a pit crew and the analogy works extremely well. 2015 should be the year of synergy, and data is the thread that can tie it all together.
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