Friday, July 16, 2010

How to Manage a Social Crisis When Marketing Premium Food

A good premium food marketer will have a crisis communications plan at hand for any potential emergency. But, how many have a social media crisis communications plan ready?

 

A social media strategy is not complete without a crisis communications plan. Before a social media strategy is implemented, it is important to review and modify an organization’s existing crisis communications plan; or if needed, draft a comprehensive crisis communications plan. 

 

Social media not only presents new risks or threats that an organization needs to consider, it also introduces new ways to listen to conversations and respond to potential crisis situations.

 

Mashable recently reported on a new scam hitting Facebook that targeted Coca-Cola.

 

truthaboutcoke

 

The scam promises to show you a video revealing the “truth” about Coca-Cola, but all it’s really after is your personal info.

 

The message reads: “I am part of the 98.0% of people that are NEVER gonna drink Coca Cola again after this HORRIFIC video,” followed by a link.

 

If you click on the link, you’ll be asked to share the video seven times. However, the counter doesn’t work, so eventually you’ll be tempted to click on a link that says “Cant Be Bothered To Wait? –> Click Here To Skip This.”

 

The second link takes you to a poll, which — you guessed it — is the central part of the scam. It asks you for personal information you should definitely not reveal to just anyone or any application.

 

As the interactive and social world continues to evolve, it is imperative that your organization has a plan of action ready for any potential emergencies. Have you implemented a social media crisis communications plan?  

 

 

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Thursday, July 1, 2010

S&B Marketing Consultation: It’s Your Call

Want to add some punch to your lunch? Stephan & Brady is offering a free 30-minute consultation to help you deal with the tricky marketing issues or questions you just can’t seem to solve.

 

Through December 2010, we’ll bring one session every other month to our blog readers. Topics will vary from social and interactive media to public relations and design. While we’ll provide a topic for each session, we are open to discussing an issue that’s a hot button for you. We’re leaving the lines of communication open because It’s Your Call.  

 

itsyourcall

 

The best part? It really is free – no sales pitches, no gimmicks – just honest-to-goodness advice. The only thing we ask is that you leave a comment in this post letting us know why your company is the best candidate for the phone consultation. We’ll pick one winner at random from the responses. No need to enter more than once. You can provide a name and email and we’ll let you know you’ve won, or we’ll announce the winner based on their comment “handle,” in which case you’ll need to check back and email us with your info.

 

We’ll probably summarize the consultation into a blog post so everyone can benefit, but you can remain anonymous if you like.

 

Our first session will take place on Wednesday, August 4 over the lunch hour (or whatever timeframe best suits your needs). We’ll be taking submissions for this session today through July 23 and will select the first participant on July 28. Our first topic is “Does online advertising work for B2B?” But remember, if there is something else you’d really like to discuss, we’re open to that as well.

 

We’re excited to share our collective wisdom and look forward to stimulating conversation and interaction. Comment away, and good luck!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Thursday, June 17, 2010

Premium Food Marketers Win Social Media Race

Premium food brands are leading the way in social media marketing. In the first media measurement of its kind, Famecount.com recently announced that Starbucks is the most popular consumer brand in the social media world.

 

Food brands took six of the top ten spots in the consumer brand category:

 

1. Starbucks

2. Coca-Cola

3. Skittles

4. Whole Foods Market

5. Oreo  

6. RedBull

7. Zappos.com

8. JetBlue Airways

9. Dell

10. Woot!

 

To determine the leading consumer brands using social media, Famecount analyzed information from the top social media sites – Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. The only brand not using all three channels is Woot, which doesn’t have a YouTube presence.

 

In a press release, Daniel Dearlove, founder of Famecount.com, explained the importance of the study,

 

“This data is unique in that it gives us for the first time an accurate global ranking of the popularity of brands online. It is interesting to see established offline brands perform so strongly. This highlights the growing importance of social media in wider marketing campaigns, as well as the applicability of these channels to established brands, which may not have had a significant online presence previously. Social networks are helping them to tap into wider audiences and strengthen communications with existing consumers.”

 

While this information shows strong evidence that consumers are willing to claim loyalty to their favorite premium food brands, there is definitely a need for more statistical data about social media’s influence on brands. The Famecount study is a big step in the right direction and it will be interesting to see what evolves from this point on.

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Friday, March 12, 2010

Celebrate National XYZ Day to Market Premium Food

Who doesn’t love a good celebration or holiday? Traditional holidays – Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, etc. – always draw a big marketing crowd.  Which makes it tough to stand out. But, if you think outside traditional holidays, opportunities abound for premium food marketers.

 

There is literally a food “holiday” for every day of the year.  Find the ones that best suit your brand and leverage them in your marketing efforts.

 

A great example is a campaign our agency developed for the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board: April’s National Grilled Cheese Month.  No, we did not invent the holiday, but we did recognize its potential and have secured national television coverage, gained thousands of readers for an e-newsletter and secured millions in consumer impressions for this campaign alone.

000280 GrillChseEnewsRoute.indd

 

Here are just a few examples of some non-traditional food holidays to help you market your premium food:

 

January 4 – National Spaghetti Day

February 20 – National Cherry Pie Day

March 26 – National Spinach Day

April 17 – National Cheese Ball Day

May 2 – National Truffles Day

June 17 – National Eat All Your Vegetables Day

July 6 – National Fried Chicken Day

August 20 – National Lemonade Day

September 26 – National Pancake Day

October 28 – National Chocolate Day

November 14 – National Pickle Day

December 15 – National Cupcake Day

 

Once you have established which holiday (or holidays) works for you, the marketing possibilities are endless. Incorporating cohesive social media, public relations and advertising components will help spread awareness and allow you to build on the holiday each year.

 

What’s your favorite non-traditional holiday that celebrates food? Have you ever taken part in a national (insert food item here) day? Let us know.

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Monday, February 8, 2010

Socialize Your PR Events to Market Premium Food

Strategically designed PR events can bolster your integrated premium food marketing campaign. But how can you socialize them for maximum return on investment?

1.      Announce it on Facebook, MySpace, etc.

2.      Invite Twitter followers and media on Twitter to participate or attend.

3.      Live Tweet from the event – include TwitPics and TwitVideo.

4.      Post it on YouTube. This is your chance for the event to go viral.

5.      If the event involves a charity, add it to TwitCause.

What makes a great event newsworthy?  Here are some tips:

·         Break a record  - think Guinness World Record style

·         Time it with a specific day/week/month in Chase’s Calendar of Events

·         Include a charitable tie-in

·         Involve kids

·         Offer a local angle

·         Give away free stuff

·         Do something that’s never been done before

·         Involve a celebrity with a direct tie-in to your product

Jamba Juice conducted an event to promote its role in a heart-healthy lifestyle that had many of these elements including a social component.

·       It broke a Guinness World Record for simultaneous jump roping

·       The stunt was timed with American Heart Month

·       Kids, politicians and schools were involved

·       Free samples were handed out

·       Related partnerships were included

A company news release summarized the star-studded event:

The official Jamba Jump Day Event countdown site, which was coordinated via live webcast and broadcast online, was hosted in California‘s Capital and led by Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson.  Participation in the event extended from the Capital to over 500 schools across the state of California.

The 88,000 jumpers who participated in the Jamba Jump Day event broke the previous Guinness World Record held by Australia, who had a documented 59,000 rope skippers.

 VIP jumpers included boxer Laila Ali, Olympic gold medal gymnast Peter Vidimar, actress Gina Ravera, musician Brian O’Neill, World IBF Champion Yohnny Perez, Olympic Hall of Fame swimmer Debbie Meyer, extreme wheelchair athlete Aaron Fotheringham and more.

While there was a lot of goodwill involved, only the marketing folks at Jamba Juice will know if the event had an impact on sales or another measurable element. 

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Tuesday, May 12, 2009

“So, a PR professional walks into the room…”

“So, a PR professional walks into the room…”

Great start to a joke, huh? Well, it was no joke when I, along with @techpr, @mkaPR and @julieannwarner walked into the Drake Hotel in Chicago for the Ragan Unconference last Friday, a free conference focused on professionals learning about social media from one another. More than 400 people attended, and the afternoon proved to be worth our drive south.

Topics included using social media during crisis management, social media ROI, blogging and social media next steps. Lively moderators @ambercadabra and @jackserpa fielded questions across the vast ballroom and fingers frantically pounded out Twitter commentary via laptops, BlackBerrys and iPhones. By mid-afternoon #raganunconf registered as one of the top five trends on Twitter.

Many shared case studies about how a connection made with a TV producer or book publisher via Twitter landed us coverage for our clients, but more importantly, we all agreed that we were making real connections with people we might not otherwise have access to. Monica O’Brien (@monicaobrien), blogger of Twenty Set, says that 20 percent of her traffic comes from Twitter, and an Orbitz representative, @orbitzgal, commented on having better relationships with customers via Twitter.

What did I take away? That once again, social media is not Twitter or Facebook, but a conversation starter and community connector. Sure, Twitter receives a lot of attention these days, but it is simply one tool in a collection of professional skills we use to promote our clients.

But I continue to wonder if social media will continue to speak to all demographics – we know that older generations are signing on, but are socioeconomically disadvantaged and/or minority groups being asked to join at the same rate? While the Web remains an open source for all ideas, it still tends to invite a particular group.

What next? Keep the conversations open. Comment thoughtfully on blogs and Twitter profiles, offer value-added Tweets, and be open to new technologies. After all, I want to know the punch line, but not be it.

- Marlena

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