Procter & Gamble’s global brand building officer Marc Pritchard, had some words of wisdom for the hordes of digital marketers gathered at Digital Marketing Exposition & Conference (Dmexco) in Cologne, Germany. He bluntly stated that the term ‘digital marketing’ is as good as dead. Well, there it is, from one of the largest FM CG multinational company that has every digital media outlet under their grip.
Well, come to think of it, he isn’t entirely wrong and he goes to explain in good measure why he thinks it is so. For the best part of the speech, he is bang on target about why he thinks it is time to move on from digital marketing by impressing upon the crowd that it is more about brand building. We agree with him, fully on this one. There comes a time in every company’s life where it has to rethink this whole digital marketing strategy and try to understand what the crowd really needs. This is exactly where influencer marketing steps in.
Companies have long used celebrities to endorse their brands and services in ways that have only gotten ridiculous over time. But at some point, it stops to function and the connection seems to disappear, especially when celebrities start to fall from their high pedestals. Influencer marketing is an interesting concept that has been around but is only just starting to get widespread usage. Let us take the example of P&G itself as it leads the way towards this new and exciting frontier of marketing.
The Olympics thank you mom commercial
Everyone who has watched this splendid and surreal ad has had an immediate and emotional connect with it, and why not, it features the best influencer of all time. mom! P&G gracefully showcased the emotions that go behind the making of true Olympic winners and turned the spot lights on the true champions, their mothers.
Using subjects we connect with is what every brand needs to work on today rather than piggy backing on the accomplishments of certain individuals. There is no denying the power of celebrity endorsements but with the deluge of this stuff all over social media, it is important to focus on the small things.
Chicken nuggets and mom’s, again. By Tyson Foods
Tyson foods channeled the collective strengths of mommy bloggers to dramatically incorporate Christmas into their chicken nuggets. What happened next was a flash flood of digital viewership and nuggets flying out of stores by the tones! These stay at home DIY mom bloggers took the chicken nuggets and turned them into Christmas trees and reindeers. This campaign ran to epic numbers and cemented the fact that everyday people can turn the tables on celebrity brand endorsements.
Nikon makes you the center of attraction at SXSW 2013
Social media portals have shown us one thing, and that is ordinary people can really change the game for any brand. Nikon proved it well at SXSW when they gave a group of select fans some hi-tech wi-fi enabled cameras to take pictures and videos for them and directly post it on social sharing sites. The connection was instant and the fans came out in full strength. The live streams that Nikon featured were viewed for over 10 minutes which is astronomical compared to the standard time of under a paltry 2 minutes. It gained 166 million social impressions and this shows us one thing, make your next door neighbor the centre of attention and your brand is set to go places.
Acura gets in on the action
We see a variety of brands using social media to gain fans and followers but we rarely see a car brand rocking it. Acura got in on the action and took away a big piece of the pie with the initiative #weekwithILX. They gave away Acura ILX to a bunch of millennial influencers who would use it for a week and comment about their experiences through various social media updates.
The ROI was an astounding 750%. Who knew a car brand could pull one off!
Using common subjects to gain the emotional touch is the corner stone of influencer marketing. Digital marketing is not totally out, but using it in combination with influencer marketing is by far the best way to get ahead of the game today.
Sources: Blog Raynforest
