Thursday, June 10, 2010

Puppy love get big licks & ticks


We all know that social media is a great zero budget tool. Twitter & Facebook are the centre of the universe for (possibly way too) many people. And they're free to use for marketers and punters alike.

But that said, it's HARD to get the use of these tools right. It's all very well to post some bland info about your brand, what's hard is coming up with something clever, engaging and basically worth all your time and effort. There's little worse than not being friended or followed!

I came across one of the smartest little social media campaigns I'd seen today - and I've watched it go crazy in literally HALF a day.

I am a PJs addict and a love Peter Alexander pajamas. I am hard pressed to open one of their catalogues and OT buy. So I do scan their online newsletter. And they had a great little story. They are wanting some "posh dogs" for their next mag shoot. All you had to do to get your dog in the running was post a pic of it on Peter's facebook page. Now, as I love dogs more than PJs, I immediately checked it out. Over 300 people had ALREADY posted a picture within an hour of the email going out. I've just checked again this evening and it's now over 600. That's not people visiting the page - I'd suspect this would be 10 times this. That 600 women who've chosen to interact with the brand today alone.

How smart is this campaign? Even if they didn't have the photo shoot angle, they took something people love - their pet - and made it about showing off their loved one. And the cost of this fabulous little brand interaction.

Ah, did I mention, ZERO.

Big ticks (and licks!) for the PA marketing team. They've done us all proud today!

And take a leaf from their book.

How can you tap into what people are ALREADY passionate about and tie it to your brand using social media? The key is in what's important to your market, not what's important to you.