Facebook is becoming more than a place to track down those people you do not really keep in touch with. Now Facebook wants to take word-of-mouth marketing to a whole new level. Their new approach is to pay for ads that have your profile picture attached to it. It is another way to market your brand preferences. By getting Facebook users to recommend products to friends, they are narrowing down their targeted audiences.
Not only does Facebook allow you to post your interests on your personal profile, but now whenever you make a purchase or a rental, it will ask you if you would like to attach your picture to the brand or type of product that you just ordered. They will basically try to partner with companies and keep up with the activity of Facebook users on those sites. Facebook is not giving the information to marketers and they are just letting it roll.
It is true that nothing means more than when it comes from a friend. This is the easiest, and smartest way to market a brand and to easily target those that will most likely be interested in the same things. By accompanying the ads with friends’ comments, this takes away a largely commercial feel from the Facebook site as well. This concept is social marketing at work.
However, is this really what we want our future to look like? I mean yeah, marketers will be getting a gain out of it and your friends will be able to see what you are interested in. But it could turn your face and comment into an advertisement. Like most social network dealings, you must be careful what information you have made available about yourself and who you offer it to. You could become a “brand ambassador.”
This sounds like an effective marketing idea, but will it really hold out this way without marketers eventually getting involved?
I really don’t have much to say in this blog post. A friend of mine sent me this amazing article that tracks the ads of Pabts Blue Ribbon.
I know what many of you are saying, “Pabts is swill sold to college kids looking to get drunk.” Well that’s half true. I like have always liked Pabts, it’s a solid beer with a good clear taste.
I love this link. It really shows how ads were racy, maybe a little racist, so long ago. I am also fond of the Bob Hope ad.
Knowing what we know about brands and markets what do we think Pabts would do for and ad campaign now? I would like to see them re-launch the brand as a kind of non-pretentious beer that could be enjoyed in simple bars by good honest folks. But that’s just my take on it. What’s yours?
Ok, I get it, I really do, computer IT people do some really nerdy things. The talk computers with other computer people and say things like, “Linux is better than everything.” They start talking about Red Hates, Yellow Dogs, Woot and other things that generally turn people away.
To be honest nerds are a very interesting sub-sect of the demographic sphere. Typically they are early adopters, have large disposable incomes, and love tech. For a marketer they are a great target and easily identifiable. To be honest some of my best friends are nerds, and I happen to be a closet nerd myself. I may or may not have attended a Star Trek convention and I may love Zombies.
That’s why this ad disheartens me so. I understand what White Oaks. They are trying to attract other computer tech personnel to their company and they are trying to show White Oaks understands. But creating an ad solely on a stereotype is wrong.
This is similar to the ‘Mountain Dew’ demographic ads that bother me so. I get that some people are ‘extreme’ and enjoy a highly caffeinated beverage, but placating to these stereotypes seems to be the lowest form of advertising there is.
I could be wrong with this ad. I could be wrong about ‘EXTREME’ ads. Let me know.
One thing I love about advertising is that its not always what you say but how you say it. Take this ad for instance. Sure its a cute girl eating pancakes, smiling at what we assume is her happy mother. In the marketing world this picture is gold. Pretty children + doing happy things = Successful ad.
Take a closer look at this ad, what are they really talking about: organic fertilizer. While I am no farmer, I am pretty sure I know what ‘organic fertilizer’ is. I actually think I step in some fertilizer this morning on my way to work.
To be honest I love this ad. The ad started me thinking about something I almost never think about. I honestly have fertilizer top of mind right now. With the economy shifting the way it is, it is becoming ever more present that brands and services that have unseen value begin promoting themselves.
I am not saying that every business needs to worry about increased promotions, but certain industries might have to worry about federal funding hitting the chopping block. Funding brings an interesting point, this ad was seen on the DC subway. Is the Fertilizer Associations trying to stay top of mind with the budgeting people in DC.
So this is an ad that creates warmth about a subject that people typically aren’t to warm and fuzzy about. The ad also creates a correlation between two things that I normally wouldn’t link, food and fertilizer. I know fertilizer is important for the production of food, but again, these aren’t things I normally think about while riding the subway to work in the morning.
Have you seen any ads that created a connection that you wouldn’t have normally thought of? Do you like this fertilizer ad? Let me know.
