Brand Mascots – Just Memorable Characters, or Social Capital?

They are an undeniable part of our culture. From “The Man in the Hathaway Shirt,” to The Most Interesting Man in the World, to the GEICO Gecko, you can’t deny that - when done right - fictional brand characters can live well beyond a campaign and become a memorable part of our lives.

And with the rise of the social web, we’ve seen a number of these characters try their hand at becoming a part of our online lives as well. The question is…can that be effective?

A brand’s authenticity and transparency are two of the most important characteristics of an effective brand presence in social media. So how do you reconcile that to effectively leverage these brand mascots…and use them right?

I took a look at a number of well known brand mascots being used online with the hope of answering two questions: (1) how are brands using these mascots as part of their social media strategy and (2) what makes it work.

I could go on and on about all kinds of brand mascots and how they are being used in social media, but I chose to look at three of my personal favorites to see how they are being used – specifically on Facebook.

The Most Interesting Man in the World (Dos Equis)

Before I started researching, he already knew he would be on the list.

How he’s being used: When you’re the most interesting man in the world, people want to hear what you have to say – and this guy is never at a loss for words. Dos Equis has taken those memorable quotes and created a sort of ongoing quote-roll where the brand and fans alike can showcase their reasons why he’s so interesting.

What makes it work: The beer industry (mostly due to the 800 lb gorillas in St. Louis and Milwaukee) has historically been a battle of ad budgets and Super Bowl spots with few characters having the attributes necessary to extend into social media. By positioning this character with an endless number of one-liners, Dos Equis has created something for fans to congregate around – what might he say next, and can I do him one better?

Flo the Progressive Girl (Progressive Insurance)

Love her or hate her, you can’t deny the value of this friendly insurance clerk.

How she’s being used: Progressive has set up Flo as a supplemental Facebook presence, having both Progressive and Flo fan pages. By doing so, fans are able to enjoy Flo’s character personality, while not sacrificing the credibility and service necessary for an insurance product.  At the same time, they have integrated Flo visually across both fan pages to provide some semblance of brand consistency.

What makes it work: The most unique element of a service product compared to a CPG is the importance of service for existing customers. Not all Flo fans are going to be Progressive customers, so understanding that are being able to separate the content Flo fans are looking for from those that a customer with a policy issue might be looking has allowed Flo’s page to balloon to over 2.4 million fans.

The Roaming Gnome (Travelocity)

Need a deal? He’s your gnome.

How he’s being used: Travelocity has established the Roaming Gnome as the brand’s social voice and distributor of travel deals to its fan base. He delivers the deals, while also interacting with the community and encouraging fans to share their “Gnome’d selves” for a chance to be the Fan of the Week.

What makes it work: With a recent study showing that the highest percentage of consumers (40%) are motivated to like a brand on Facebook by discounts and promotions, Trevelocity has one of the easier tasks for finding a way to integrate a brand mascot into social media. The integration of the character as the brand’s social voice – coupled with fun sharable content like “Gnoming Yourself” – allows Travelocity to take advantage of the character’s unique attributes, while not sacrificing the ultimate value that it provides…deals.

So what have I learned? You mean other than that I want to hang out with The Most Interesting Man in the World? Here are three key takeaways:

• Understand what you fans “want” from your brand in social media. If your brand involves an element of customer service (e.g., insurance), you will need to develop a strategic approach to leveraging your brand mascot, while not sacrificing the value you can provide to your fan community.
• Be selective about the characteristics you choose to leverage. Dos Equis found an opportunity in the now-famous list of reasons why their character is so darn interesting. Rather than simply recreating an ad on Facebook, look for those unique attributes that make people talk, and use it.
• Brand mascots come and go…but the brand will always be there. Campaigns change. Brands move on. It’s the nature of advertising. You need to keep in mind that these brand mascots might not be there for you to hang your hat on, so look for ways to get the most out of them while also maintaining the integrity of the brand’s ultimate personality.

Stay social, my friends…

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The Digital Muscle Behind Infomercials

The late Jack LaLanne of The Power Juicer (May He Rest in Peace)

First, we got Lean ’n Mean with The George Forman Grill. Then, we were dazzled by the Bedazzler. Oh, the 21^st century infomercial has provided us with so many titillating, and downright hilarious, consumer goods.

So what, you ask, are the top-selling among them?

Weight loss remedies, exercise equipment, kitchen appliances, and skincare products.

Thanks to off-peak advertising space and late night shopaholics trolling the broadcast networks at 3am, we have… the infomercial. And yet, these days, the infomercial isn’t just saved for the 3am crowd. The infomercial has finally made it to the mainstream. In fact, by 2009, most US infomercial spending was during early morning, daytime, and evening hours and, if that’s not shocking enough, over $150 billion worth of consumer products in the U.S. are now being sold through infomercials.

Otherwise known as long-format or program length television commercials (that can often be a source of annoyance when you’d rather spy Tom Selleck’s long legs in Magnum P.I. re-runs), infomercials can last anywhere from 5-28 minutes. As Collette Liantonio says in StartUp Nation, “Short form works best for lower priced items that are easily grasped.  Products that add intellectual properties that depend on testimonials for credibility are better served by long form.” So, although the term ‘Infomercial’ has become synonymous with short-form DRTV (Direct Response Television) advertisements of 60-120 seconds in length, the idea is much the same; a celebrity, or some eager beaver in Minnesota, is just dying to tell you how much better, easier, faster and prettier your life would be if you purchased your very own Facial Flex or Tiddy Bear.

However strange some inventions, or outrageous these late-night claims may be, today we’re witnessing a shift in perception thanks to the power of social media. Sure, some of us share links to YouTube videos on Facebook and Twitter about Forever Lazy, the wearable blanket with a poopie pouch, because it makes us laugh, but far more of us are charging our credit cards to purchase these items because we just can’t resist the comfort, and the humor, of owning a Snuggie or a pair of, you guessed it, Pajama Jeans.

Pajama Jeans

The evolution of the infomercial in the digital space is this: the ability to rapidly discuss and disseminate these advertisements via YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.

Why – and how – has the infomercial spread so rapidly throughout the digital domain?

It’s not exactly rocket science. Almost every successful consumer social media campaign is paired with paid media to complement the strategy. The key is to craft the strategy carefully. Is it the holiday season when families are holed up watching television after gorging on turkey and stuffing? Insert a well placed advertisement for Pajama Jeans on the Food Network.

Certainly the product must appeal to the masses, but the strategic placement of the content is crucial. In addition, the ability for the infomercial to be easily shared on social media networks and channels clearly bodes well for the product and the platform. In addition, offices thrive on ridiculous ‘water cooler’ chatter, so, even if Snuggies or Pajama Jeans seem downright silly, they’re also a surefire way to get people talking.

Once they talk, they think. Once they think, they just might do.

Today, marketing executives and entrepreneurs may consider the viral potential of their infomercial in the online realm unlike ever before and, because infomercials now reach audiences beyond the 3am crowd and the television set, that means new opportunities for products and marketing.

Whether the product is campy or quotable, the ability to encourage a meme is evident. Once upon a time, infomercials lived in a vacuum of insomniacs and those that generated WOM attention were few and far between, but put Jack LaLanne, the He-man of Health, on TV to talk about The Power Juicer and you might build some buzz. After all, the charismatic man was seventy-one, full of energy, and jacked like a weightlifter on the Venice Boardwalk. Or, invent a handy product like the Magic Bullet and produce a corny sitcom infomercial that’s so awful you’ll be compelled to keep watching just to see much worse it can get. In the past, that might be where the spot began and ended. Now, Jack (and his brawny biceps) is immortalized on YouTube.

Today, almost every quirky infomercial gets play. Given this online environment, the age old adage, “Nothing kills a bad product like good advertising” doesn’t exactly apply anymore. So, whereas, The George Forman Grill was a quality product that earned WOM, Pajama Jeans and Snuggies don’t necessarily need to be good products, but they’ve succeeded in part because they’re quirky and notable. Let’s face it, we’re knee deep into an age when corsets have given way to Juicy Couture (with their own pink track suit featured at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London). The design, development, and dissemination of sportswear’s ultra-comfort have reached new heights or, as some might claim, lows.

What’s most fascinating about these crazes, however, is not the extreme level of comfort being sold to, and sought by, the consumer, but the speed by which an infomercial spreads to the online realm creating a veritable Laugh Factory of jokes (Is that an adult onesie?). As Inc. Magazine explains: “An infomercial should get people talking about your product—for better or worse. Shake Weight founder, Johann Verheem, found a surprise hit with his infomercial, which has been viewed millions of times on YouTube and lampooned for its sexual innuendo on Saturday Night Live.

“It’s not just that sex sells, but one of the other things very important in direct selling, in infomercials, is that a product looks different enough for someone to stop and watch it.” In addition, according to a recent New York Times article, 95% of Snuggie sales are derived from brick-and-mortar stores. “Many entrepreneurs consider an infomercial like an audition for shelf space in big-box retail chains, which is extremely competitive to get,” the NYT explains, “That’s why it’s important to position your infomercial to give it the greatest chance to be picked up by a national retailer.

Steven Marcus says that one crafty tactic employed by entrepreneurs is to launch the infomercial campaign in the hometown headquarters of a retail chain. “Let’s say they want to get it in Walgreens or Wal-Mart. They buy airtime in the home town of the corporate headquarters where the buyers can see it,” he says. “The [executives] see it on the air for a while, and they track down the guy with the product.”

So, while infomercials appear to be the catalysts for social media chatter, strategic placement is critical.

Everyone knows that Americans want comfort, convenience, and conversation. When I got my own pair of Pajama Jeans, I was beside myself with joy. Now, I can stroll into the office and model them for my curious co-workers. It was an easy gag. Or was it? Yes, they’re comfortable and, yes, I actually like them. I’m even wearing them now. Would I prefer a more well-placed pocket? Sure. And this is why I blog. I know that once I write this, I will post it around the internet and send it to Pajama Jeans because, just as their infomercial influenced me, my blog posting will influence them.

It’s a digital win/win.

Now hand me my Snuggie. I’m feeling Forever Lazy today.

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OnStar Declares a Social Media Emergency

“This is OnStar, what is your emergency?”

“I just saw Britney Spears buying bananas at Ralphs and I have to tell everyone I’ve ever met.”

No. I’m not kidding. Sam Mancuso, general director of marketing for OnStar told Advertising Age this week that the company is beta-testing a feature that will allow drivers to update their Facebooks by voice while on the road. It’s part of a push to make the brand seem hipper and cooler and it includes a new slogan “Safely connecting you in ways you never thought possible.”

Mancuso stands behind the idea saying that people are going to update their Facebooks by texting while driving and that’s dangerous and illegal. With OnStar, they can do it safely while keeping both hands on the wheel. He also claims that if they find this new feature to be distracting and unsafe, they will discontinue it and they’ll be upfront about the mistake.

Once you build social connectivity into a car, the next step, as with mobile phones, is figuring out how to use it for marketing purposes. Mr Mancuso’s response to that:

“There are many things that are technically possible. Whether it becomes an advertising medium depends on what our customers desire and value.”

I can’t imagine customers ever desiring advertising piped into the car like canned elevator music, we have the radio for that. Maybe OnStar will start including ads with every emergency response. “The ambulance is on the way, Mr. Jones, and remember, for the aches and pains you’ll be suffering tomorrow, Tylenol is the number one pain reliever.”

As for advertising OnStar itself, Mancuso says the outlay on their new campaign will be “significant.” In addition to radio and TV advertising, they’ll be hitting Times Square and going the social media route.

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Newsletter Readers Do Click Ads

I recently attended an event where a presenter talked about the reasons that they didn’t use email marketing as part of their online business. One of the main reasons that he presented was that he didn’t think that people coming from a newsletter would click the ads on his site.

His reasoning was that people coming to his site week after week from a newsletter would become blind to the AdSense ads he was using (his main source of income). So rather than working on building loyal readers he put all of his efforts into SEO to generate one of readers.

There were lots of nods in the room from attendees – on one level what he was saying did make some sense – but for me it didn’t quite ring true.

You see my biggest days of earnings from AdSense are always the day I send out my newsletter. It drives a lot of traffic but also does seem to convert in terms of income (all kind, including eBook sales, affiliate promotions and AdSense).

Today I decided to dig a little deeper into my Google Analytics stats (which now integrates with AdSense) to see if what he said was actually true. Here’s what I found when it comes to AdSense earnings on my photography site from different sources of traffic over the last 3 months.

I’m not able to share with you actual eCPM (earnings per 1000 impressions) or CTR (click through rate) as I think it’d break the terms of service with AdSense – but I think the chart speaks pretty clearly for itself.

‘Aweber’ is the traffic coming from my newsletter and I’ve included a number of other sources of traffic to compare how it performs. You can see on both eCPM and CTR that Aweber out performs not only Search Engine traffic but traffic coming from different types of social media and referral traffic from other sites.

Newsletter traffic is certainly converting on both CTR and eCPM. This is confirmed when I look at other newsletter traffic (for example traffic coming from AOL and Yahoo’s mail servers) which is similarly higher than other types of traffic both in terms of eCPM and CTR.

What I also found interesting in these results was traffic coming from sites like Facebook and Flickr which both again out performed Google traffic on both CTR and eCPM. I had always assumed that social media traffic didn’t convert as well as other types of traffic but at least on these results it seems that not all social media traffic is alike. On that topic – Twitter didn’t convert anywhere near as well as Facebook.

Of course these sorts of results will vary from niche to niche. Perhaps because my photography site is not specifically a ‘product’ site but is a ‘how to’ site the traffic from Google is a little more general and less in a buying mood which could decrease the conversions – but for me at least it is an indication that I’m on the right track investing time into growing my newsletter list!

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MySpace Looking for a New Ad Buddy

MySpace needs to find another company willing to pay them for the opportunity to advertise to their decreasing number of users. They need to do this at a time when their executive suite has installed a revolving door to more easily handle the traffic in and out of the offices. It also comes at a time when the best company MySpace can find itself in is in the major Internet property rehab wing with Yahoo! and Aol.

So this is not the best situation to be in especially when you had cut a deal in 2006 with Google that should have brought $900 million to MySpace during the period where Google had the advertising exclusive with them. The Wall Street Journal reports

News Corp. is in discussions with Google Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc. about replacing MySpace’s crucial search-advertising partnership with Google, which expires next month, according to people familiar with the matter.

In recent weeks, News Corp. has been discussing new, narrower advertising deals with Google and other companies, said the people familiar with the matter.

People close to News Corp. said any new agreement will be for significantly less money. That would be a further financial challenge for MySpace, which has seen ad revenue slip.

Google and Yahoo declined to comment.

Now the rest of the article in the Wall Street Journal sounds like it comes from a company that owns MySpace and needs to find another advertising sucker partner. The article paints a picture of a valiant company that is doing everything to ‘capitalize’ on the apparent opening Facebook has left because of its security gaffes. It says the usual music, comedy and fashion mix will make the 35 and under crowd desire the new and improved MySpace.

Well, if you want to read the advertorial you certainly can but it is very hard to imagine MySpace once again being at the top of the social media pile. What’s your take? Is this something that will fly? Neil Young once sang that it was better to burn out than to fade away. Don’t ya wish that MySpace would take his advice?

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