BOOM! Traditional TV Advertising is being disrupted right in front of our eyes. Gone are the Mad Men days of TV advertising - martini lunches, no real measurement, and scant ROI models.
Enter the SocialTV. SocialTV is leveraging mobile, cloud, and social technologies and is quickly reinventing how companies are advertising on TV or lack thereof. The new trend in advertising is to go direct to the consumers and cutting the middleman out - broadcast networks.
Coca-Cola and Proctor & Gamble are the leading bell weather and market indicators in the advertising business. So when I saw a Coke press release with a SF based startup thismoment.com - a company that I’m following - the news caught my attention big time. Coke announced the Coca-Cola TV Project with entertainment including Paul McCartney engaging directly to users with social media infrastructure and big data. Similarly, Procter & Gamble recently launched their Olympics campaign"Thank You Mom" in time for Mother's Day and it creatively profiles Olympic hopefuls from childhood to the medal podium at the Olympics.
Talk about hitting the heart strings, watch the video and you will see what I mean. In one of the biggest campaigns in their 175 year history, P&G deliberately added a major social component in recognition to all the mom's who are working and socializing, spending increasing hours on line and not watching nearly as much television.
Social marketing campaigns by Coca-Cola and Procter & Gamble demonstrate the next level of direct social engagement for some of the world's most respected brands.
Social TV - Taking It Direct To The Crowd
Advertising on TV through 30 or 60 second commercials might be a thing of the past. Finally! The old adage says “50% of my TV spend is wasted we just don’t’ know which 50%”. Now with social infrastructure like Thismoment.com a new generation ad firm is developing. The new firms are not like old traditional firmst but instead they are technology-based firms specifically social media infrastructure.
The Coke TV Project is important because it is a prototype of a the new ad model – SocialTV. Coke's SocialTV will change the ad landscape by going direct to consumers bypassing the middleman. It's obvious that the prototype in Latin America from Coke is about changing the way it reaches the youth market in what according to Coke is “a year-long social media campaign in Mexico and throughout Latin America.”
In partnership with social software industry leader Thismoment, Coca-Cola is executing a large-scale marketing initiative that combines real world entertainment with the unique ability to distribute and support live broadcasts in a robust and engaging online social and mobile experience.
TV advertising is quickly moving to the web at large scales and we are seeing the direct business model come to life via content. I have been following this trend for sometime and think that social infrastructure has finally matured to satisfy the needs of big time marketing and advertising executives. Why? Because with Big Data advertisers can measure it in real time and use that data to enhance both the user experience and the value to the marketer.
I talked to the CMO of Thismoment.com marketing leader John Bara about this break through success for a tier 1 big time advertiser. "For Coca-Cola, social engagement directly with youth audiences is the real thing . As the younger audiences shift to social and mobile, the impact of traditional television advertising needs to be extended to include the new watering holes for the youth-Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and mobile. Similarly, the attraction to the brand is dramatically magnified by providing top tier content such as the Paul McCartney concert" says CMO John Bara.
Coca-Cola is changing the way it reaches the youth market in Latin America in a year-long social media campaign in Mexico and throughout Latin America. In partnership with social software industry leader Thismoment, Coca-Cola is executing a large-scale marketing initiative that combines real world entertainment with the unique ability to distribute and support live broadcasts in a robust and engaging online social and mobile experience.
According the Coca-Cola press release
The Coca-Cola.TV Project was created to reach the large and increasingly social youth market across Latin America. Through this, Coca-Cola is seeking to create meaningful connections by bringing the best in entertainment to young people, wherever they are, with programs such as Coca-Cola.FM and now Coca-Cola.TV; a key marketing initiative for 2012 and beyond.
Paul McCartney Draws Record Audience with Social Media and Mobile On May 10, Paul McCartney gave a free outdoor concert in Mexico City's central plaza, the Zocalo, to a record crowd of an estimated 200,000 people. Coca-Cola.TV live streamed the three-hour event to millions throughout Mexico, and engaged youth audiences by encouraging them to contribute to the social conversation via Facebook and Twitter. This concept was also leveraged for Vive Latino 2012, a three-day music festival in late March attended by hundreds of thousands in Mexico City, which featured four stages and numerous international acts such as Foster the People and Fat Boy Slim.
Given the challenges associated with reaching such a diverse youth audience spread across multiple social networks and mobile devices, a key element is maintaining focus on content and messaging, without the hindrance of technologies.
Event highlights Paul McCartney:
- Estimated 200,000 attendees at the live event
- Nearly 500,000 unique users streaming
- Average Time Spent of 42 minutes per user
Vive Latino 2012:
- Estimated 100,000+ attendees at the live event;
- More than 750,000 unique users streaming;
- Average time spent per user of 23 minutes
How much does it cost to convert millions of people? $50m? Coca-Cola knows the value of direct brand conversation, and the social media opportunity gives advertisers the ability to measure everything. Advertisers can measure it in real time and use that data to enhance both the user experience and the value to the marketer.
As the youth audience shifts from live TV to social networking and mobile, Coca-Cola has expanded its marketing strategy. Youth marketing requires direct engagement with consumers on their terms, where they are and on whichever devices they choose.
Coca-Cola is investing in social marketing programs with live music and social engagement across Youtube, Twitter and Facebook and on mobile. This is consistent with the mega trend of direct advertising through quality content.
TV Advertising is going direct to consumers thanks to social platforms like blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Google +, and the zillions of smartphones connected to networks of systems, applications, friends and peers. I expect dollars to start flowing from TV spend to online Social TV very quickly.
SocialTV is a money machine in the making. Next generation agencies will make a killing if they can get on board with the new trend.
As the saying in Silicon Valley goes - Adapt or Die.
