I like to think of new media marketing as entertainment marketing. This term
helps paint the picture for entrepreneurs as to what's involved in new media
marketing if they want their campaign to be successful.
If your company wants to get exposure by creating buzz and runaway
word-of-mouth marketing, it's not going to happen with a paid advertising spot
on TV. Rather, it must be something so entertaining and engaging for viewers
that they feel compelled to share your video with a friend and talk about you at
parties. You want to create something buzz-worthy that makes people actually
smile as they talk about your latest YouTube video or podcast.
Before I share an example of someone who is so buzz-worthy you've probably
heard about him or seen one of his videos, let me share a few cautionary words
so you won't get banned.
A Word of Warning
There is a right way and a spammer way to engage in new
media marketing. First, let's look at the wrong way--a way where you'll get
banned, not buzzed.
The wrong way to think about new media marketing is by thinking that just
because you're creating a video, you're engaging in a better form of advertising
and you're using Web 2.0 strategies to get a buzz going.
I'm seeing some of the best internet marketers of their time fall into this
trap. They merely use the same old tactics of the '90s that they used for e-mail
marketing, except they're putting it on video instead of paper and they're
calling it Web 2.0 marketing.
Sure, when they send me an e-mail, they send me a video to go with it.
However, every time I click on the video, I feel like I've been tricked into
watching something entertaining only to find out it's a pitch for a product
they're promoting. This is not new media marketing. It's not even permission
marketing. It's just a sales commercial stuck on video and sent to me to
interrupt my day and bore me.
A sales page put on video is also not new media marketing. There is a place
for that--on your web page or blog, where you are specifically selling something
and telling your visitors what you're doing so that they know what to expect
when they watch your video.
If every video you send to your list has some type of pitch or product that
you're pushing, your subscribers will come to expect it and then avoid it if
they're not in the mood to hear a pitch.
But if you apply basic psychology to your marketing efforts and randomly
pitch at the end of your videos, your viewers will never know when your video
will simply make them laugh, smile or give them the chills--or when there might
be something you're selling in addition to triggering their emotions while they
watch your video.
Use what's called random reinforcement. Give them what they enjoy at least
three times as often as you send out videos with a pitch. That way, they'll be
addicted to your video style and won't mind watching the occasional commercial
at the end or in the middle of your entertaining video.
Entertaining is the key word here when it comes to successfully marketing
with new media.
Now let's look at an example of how one company didn't even have to create
anything of its own to get in front of more than 8 million people with a very
entertaining video.
Get 8 Million Views of Pure Buzz
Where the hell is Matt Harding? And what does
Stride
long-lasting gum have to do with Matt and dancing around the world?
Matt's an average guy who used to call Brisbane, Australia, home. But one
day, he got this crazy idea. It was the kind of idea you'd laugh about with your
friends over one too many drinks. This wasn't a business idea. He wasn't even
trying to make money. He just thought he could make a cool home video if he
danced at every location he visited while traveling the world--all to make his
family and friends laugh. Matt is now quasi-famous as "That guy who dances on
the internet." You may have participated in a conversation much like this:
OMG! Did you see that video on YouTube of that crazy guy dancing? Oh, the guy who
dances to all those songs on stage? No, not that guy. The other one. What's his
name again? Ah, never mind, I'll send you the link. It's funny! You've got to
watch it.
And then you do. But you're in such awe that you don't just watch the
video and close your screen. You send it to a few other friends who you feel
just have to watch this video--it's too cool not to pass on. And so the buzz
begins. Now how does this relate to making money?
Enter Stride Gum
Stride must have some pretty savvy marketing executives. Somebody at Stride must have
received Matt Harding's video via e-mail, just like you and I did. Except this
time, a light-bulb moment occurred in this executive's head. And thus began the
saga of how Stride long-lasting gum gets more buzz than any other chewing gum
I've ever seen. Stride took advantage of the popularity of this viral video and
created a new media marketing campaign using Harding's creative dancing videos
around the world that has brought its brand more than 8.1 million views worth of
buzz to date. That's just for one of Harding's videos in just over one year of
having it on YouTube.
The company has sent him on another trip around the world, this time offering
you the chance to dance with Harding--another brilliant idea--getting people to
participate in the buzz marketing efforts, thereby increasing the number of
views and people talking about "Where the hell is Matt Harding."
And just in case you're not one of the 8 million people who have seen this
video, you need to know that there isn't one instance of Matt chewing Stride
long-lasting gum. That's a last-century marketing strategy.
This century, it's all about what's entertaining to the viewer, getting the
video spread to millions so that in the end, they get to see the Stride gum
brand and that Stride sponsored the video. Their website, built all around the
story of Matt, is far more interesting than any other site about gum.
So the next time you're thinking of how to use new media marketing, don't
think boring. Don't think traditional. Think of Matt Harding and Stride gum.