Dear Chipotle: Clickbait isn’t always a bad thing
Let’s get controversial. You’ve probably heard the saying, “no news is good news.” You’ve probably also heard the saying, “there’s no such thing as bad publicity.” But when your company is the target of bad press – such as fast-food behemoth Chipotle’s recent scandal, thanks to the “Chubby Chipotle” smear campaign running in the New York Post – which maxim do you stand by? The reality is, there’s some truth to both statements. If you suddenly find your brand at the center of unwanted attention, take a step back and remember that your response can radically influence how the public weathers the news. If we were in Chipotle’s shoes – this is what we’d do. 1. ENJOY THE CLICKBAIT: First and foremost, publicity equals free advertising. We hate to be reductive, but in terms of raw numbers, an article in the New York Post is the public relations equivalent of a $300,000 ad campaign. Even though the article questions Chipotle’s ethics, a feature in the Post means more people will be surfing to the Chipotle site and thinking about their products. And when your burrito brand is at the top of mind, it’s also more likely to be the go-to dinner spot after a late workout at the gym. Clickbait – those scandalous headlines that blur the line between journalism and gossip while begging to be clicked – may not always yield the best online traffic, but they do increase visitors, have the possibility to go viral, and keep people talking about your brand. 2. DON’T FORGET TO ASSESS THE DAMAGE: That said, we aren’t suggesting that you ignore the gravity of the situation. Take a step back from the immediate impact of the article and ask yourself if the situation is really going to turn customers away. If you’re a loyal Chipotle customer and you see the Chubby Chipotle ads, you may be tempted to surf onto the Chipotle website and join the conversation. If you’re anti-Chipotle, you might want to do the exact same thing. The article doesn’t reveal anything most Chipotle fans or fast-food followers don’t already know, so it may be safe to assume that this story will line tomorrow’s waste bins and little or no response is needed. If you were in Chick-Fil-A’s shoes back in 2012 when they were brought to task over their religious intolerance toward same-sex marriage, this may be a different story. Only your target audience, the severity of the article or accusations, and how brand loyal your followers are can answer that question. 3. DECIDE IF YOU NEED TO RESPOND … AND HOW: If a response is needed, recognize the power an influx of online traffic and social media attention has on this situation and your brand. You’ve just increased your reach and given yourself an organic platform to handle the situation with grace, uniqueness, and class. A well-timed article, blog post, or Facebook campaign could turn a scandal into a sensation and validate the values your brand stands for. No one likes to be criticized, but a memorable response can make or break the public’s reaction to even the worst faux pas. For example, on August 6, Vanity Fair ran an article chastising Tinder for supporting an unhealthy “hook-up culture.” Thirty-one rapid-fire Tweets later from one of Tinder’s employees, and the abashed dating site went from zero to hero. The company never admitted whether the response was planned or not, but the results prove our point entirely. We feel for you, Chipotle. But when life gives you lemons … we recommend that you make a big ol’ burrito with all the fixin’s. Is your brand in need of some repositioning to positively impact consumer perception? Contact our team of brand strategists today to learn more about how we can help!
Marketing Tools Our BIGEYE Teams Gives Thanks For
Happy Thanksgiving! In a world growing more complex on a daily basis, the team at BIGEYE gives thanks for a few marketing tools that help make our lives easier–and give us more time to spend the holidays with our families. Google Analytics: Google Analytics is an all-around excellent tool. It offers numerous ways to allow people to monitor their websites, such as allowing them to measure bounce rates, time spent on particular pages, and website behaviors as a person navigates the page.[quote]For ecommerce companies, the tool also allows people to measure conversions and the amount each purchaser spends.[/quote] It even allows the user to set goals and manage the actuals against those goals. Facebook Page Insights: At the most basic levels, Facebook Page Insights for brands allow users to track page views and engagement with posts. It allows page administrators to measure page likes, total reach, post clicks and engagement. It also allows quick links to help promote big posts, and to easily create and manage Facebook ads. Optimizely: Though more of a user experience tool, Optimizely is a great resource for digital marketers working alongside their product teams. It offers easy website optimization to help marketers determine whether their website home pages are easy to navigate. Using A/B tests, it helps determine whether different layouts might be more helpful to your business. MailChimp: MailChimp is a leading tool for email marketing. It helps businesses of any size keep track of their email marketing strategies by allowing companies that use it to track email open rates, click rates and subscriber numbers. Therefore, it allows marketers to implement testing strategies to help optimize their emails, and allows them to consider both the frequency of the emails and the content therein. Alexa: As a free tool, Alexa helps marketers keep tabs on their competition. It helps marketers determine who their competitors are, and what those sites’ traffic and activity looks like. And, all it takes it knowledge of a competitors’ website; it helps determine global rank, rank within the U.S. and where people are finding the site. This can help marketers figure out what working–and what’s not. SocialMention: SocialMention easily allows people to conduct social listening, allowing them to pull from a multitude of sources to figure out what people are saying about a given product or trend. Using just a keyword, it can help users learn what people are saying about the given keyword, pulling from sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and Ask Jeeves. BrandWatch: SocialMention is a great tool for figuring out what people are saying about a given keyword, but BrandWatch is a great tool for learning how social media users are talking about brands. While there may be some overlap between the two services, BrandWatch is much more involved, offering visual interpretations of data and helping brands figure out larger patterns. Without these types of tools, our jobs as marketers would be much more difficult and far less efficient. The team at our Florida ad agency gives thanks for these uber-helpful marketing tools, all of which continually help us produce the best marketing strategies for brands of any size. In search of more info? Contact us today for a consultation – after you’ve enjoyed your turkey and all the trimmings!
What makes a social media campaign so successful?
If there’s one thing we’ve learned here at our Orlando ad agency, it can be very difficult to offer a clear cut return on investment for social media efforts. In fact, most companies inherently sense that there is some value in having an active and engaging social media platform, but because they can’t always tie it to an actual return, it can be difficult to determine the exact value of a Twitter follower or a Facebook “like.” While it may be slightly easier to determine a return based on a campaign that successfully incentivizes people to purchase a product, it’s nearly impossible to determine how a successful campaign leads to brick and mortar sales, brand perception and other valuable consumer information. But, a new method of thinking suggests that marketers look to other data points beyond a dollar for dollar return. These new media experts suggest that, in the same way that advertisers can’t necessarily calculate an exact ROI based on the success of a single television commercial campaign, they should stop trying to attach a ROI to a social media campaign. [quote] In fact, with the field of data science constantly growing in value, it’s highly possible that in the future, big data will be more valuable for a company than dollars spent.[/quote] The following are some metrics that advertisers can use in order to help them determine an actual return on investment for a social media campaign. Data through qualitative responses: One of the best ways to find out what consumers want from your company is to ask them directly. If the goal of your social media campaign is to ascertain data about customer wants, then incorporating questions that encourage them to engage by providing information such as their favorite websites or types of features they’d like to see integrated with your product, then a breadth of data can be invaluable. Sharing: People tend to share content that triggers an emotion, and that they feel the need to share with others. On Facebook, “likes” are valuable, but sharing is what brings your content into the minds of people who wouldn’t have seen it otherwise. You can calculate shares in terms of impressions, and can compare your shares against previous campaigns. Click-through rates, conversions and other analytics: You can also use data tracking tools such as Omniture to find out where people are finding your content, how long they stay on your page and other useful information that can help you build more successful campaigns in the future. Press Impressions: You know you’ve built a strong campaign if the press are covering it in a positive light. AdAge and other companies are always reporting on businesses that use social media and digital marketing in innovative ways, and being able to capitalize on this helps to bring attention and viewership to your campaign so that even more people will pay attention. At our Florida advertising agency, we understand that the importance of developing social media campaigns that drive sales in the short term while also providing a lasting brand-to-consumer relationship. And in our book, a happy customer is always the epitome of success. Contact us for help developing your social media campaign today!