Last week an email went out to the company congratulating me on 21 years with Wells Publishing, Inc. Now this made me feel very old so I immediately emailed back that I was only 12 when I started with the company. For credibility, I even reminisced about how I used to visit clients on my bicycle. No one bought it. In full disclosure, I did leave the company for a bit during the years to work for a national consumer magazine and even had my own rep firm for awhile. I welcomed the opportunity to come back to Wells though. Because having left made me realize how cutting edge this company truly is. Wells embraced the Internet, audio and video, and social media when most of the publishing world was wondering how it related to them.
Change, like aging, is inevitable. And the media landscape is changing faster than ever. Creating communities and content, which used to be only a publisher’s domain, is now something every brand wants to do. But the mission of incorporating social and traditional media is daunting. And that’s why I’ve asked members of our sales and marketing team to help create this blog you’re reading now. We’ll use this forum to answer some of the common advertising and marketing questions we get from our customers. Here we can discuss and exchange ideas like incorporating video, making print campaigns work harder and using podcasts. And we’ll discuss some fun social media ideas for your brand and look at some examples of brands that do it very well.
To get started, let’s talk about that super cute little Darth Vader Volkswagen commercial The Force, that aired during the Superbowl. If you didn’t catch it, you can see it here. Before the first kickoff, it had been viewed over 13 million times. That’s right, BEFORE kickoff. It went viral on the net before it was on television. I’ve thought about this viral phenomenon ever since I heard it. It’s amazing because it’s the exception rather than the rule. But there are some lessons to be learned from this campaign success story. It started with terrific content. It was emotional. And it utilized both social and traditional media for success.
As an Insurance Journal advertiser, what can you do to use new media to make the most of your traditional campaigns? It’s always been a good idea to extend the print message to direct mail campaigns, and we know YouTube is a great idea for sharing your company videos. But how about involving your existing agents/customers in a contest to pick the next ad? Or simply post the next ad to your agent list and your fan and twitter pages to let them be on the lookout for it. If you’re a full page advertiser, IJ’s free ad showcase makes sharing your new ad image as easy as a couple of clicks. You can check out the ad showcase here.
Have you been successfully integrating traditional and new media advertising campaigns? Or have you seen some good examples? Share them in the comments!
Until next time, happy marketing!
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