7 Social Media Campaigns for Brands With No Personality
Social media has given marketers a vast new low-cost medium in which to engage consumers, but -- as Entenmann's found on Twitter recently when it inadvertently jumped on the Casey Anthony #notguilty trending topic -- getting customers' attention for products that don't have an innate social personality (like cakes) can be tough. Entenmann's tweet stream currently consists entirely of apologies and thanks to those customers who are sticking by the brand, of which my favorite is this reply tweet to 3rdCoastStoner.
It's easy to engage your fans on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or in Zynga games if the product you are selling is Lady Gaga or a video game character. Consumers already want more interaction with human and human-like brands. But what if you're selling detergent or paper towels, products that consumers may be loyal to but don't necessarily have built-in personalities to communicate with? Sure, Mr. Clean has a personality, but just try finding him on Twitter.
Old Spice Guy leads the way
Ever since Procter & Gamble (PG)'s epic Old Spice Guy campaign showed that consumers are willing to engage with products as prosaic as deodorant, companies have been trying to socialize their brands.
Here's a look at seven campaigns for brands that are "difficult," or out of their comfort zones in shareable media. (If you're a fan of either James Brown and/or Ramen Noodles, there's a treat on the last page of this gallery.)
Start gallery of social media campaigns for brands with no personality>>
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1. Jean-Claude Van Damme for Dash laundry Detergent
You don't need to Belgian to figure out what's going on here: The Muscles From Brussels attracts the ladies because his shirt smells so fresh. It's a device that can be used in varying, increasingly complicated reiterations (if the brand manager behind it has any sense). It's a classic solution to an old problem: A detergent itself is not a personality, so get a personality to advertise the detergent.
Next: Bounty, the video game>>
2. Can you free the Bounty janitor in Restaurant City?
Who wants to interact with paper towels in a video game? About 2.5 million people, according to Ad Age, when a Bounty element was added to the Restaurant City social game. Friend the Procter & Gamble brand on Facebook and you get Bounty tokens that speed your progress. Here is the priceless explanation of how Bounty helps players in the game:
Players complete quests to unlock rolls of Bounty towels that clean more quickly than the game's standard paper towels, and then in a more difficult five-day quest, unlock a Bounty janitor who is 30% more effective at cleaning than the standard janitor. More than 2.5 million players have unlocked the paper towels and more than one million have scored the janitor.Next: Woolite, the horror movie>>
3. Rob Zombie uses Woolite
If there is a brand with no personality, it's Reckitt-Benckiser's Woolite. You might swear by its wool-cleaning powers, but I bet you've never liked it on Facebook. That may change if the company keeps coming up with compelling, shareable ideas such as B-movie director Rob Zombie's torture-porn commercial.
Next: The Yelp of packaged goods>>
4. The Yelp of packaged goods
It's easy to understand why restaurants and spas need something like Yelp, where consumers can rate and review businesses so others can make better guesses about who to visit. But do Twix, Nutella and Clorox Wipes need the same thing? Consmr, a social media site for packaged goods, says yes. Hmm. It's a neat idea, I guess, if you really can't decide what soda to buy and would prefer to rely on the advice of others. I suspect newly-launched Consmr is open to abuse when it comes to more unusual items. The day this item was published, a bottle of Lebron James Playoff Whine was on the front page with five stars.
Next: The roaming gnome comes into his own>>
5. Travelocity's roaming gnome comes into his own
Travelocity's roaming gnome existed long before Twitter, but the two complement each other perfectly. The gnome has 14,280 followers at the time of writing. The gnome also has a Facebook page and has made appearances on Chatroulette. By definition, web travel sites are faceless, so giving the brand a character icon solves the personality problem. By making the character a statue (or other non-human, non-celebrity) Travelocity gets the gnome to do whatever it wants, free of charge.
Next: Mr. Clean's "Hot Moms Club">>
6. Mr. Clean's "Hot Moms Club"
You couldn't ask for a character with more potential than household cleaner Mr. Clean. Yet Procter & Gamble is failing on all fronts to leverage him into something entertaining online. Its most prominent current effort is the sponsorship of the Hot Moms' Club, a mommy blog by Jessica Denay who occasionally throws out media mentions to her sugar daddy. I am not making this up, and you can insert your own MILF joke here. It's nonfunctional on many levels, not least of which is that everyone knows Mr. Clean is probably gay. (He lives in your closet; what more evidence do you want?)
A look at Mr. Clean's history shows there are so many more directions he could go. For some reason, P&G has him in limbo. Knowing the company's mastery of marketing, I suspect it is merely a matter of time before Mr. Clean gets a new master plan.
Next: Get on up, like a miso soup machine>>
7. James Brown takes it to the bridge for Nissin Foods
File under: He must have needed the money. The late, great James Brown gave a hell of a performance for Nissin's Cup Noodle soups. It's yet another one of those "only in Japan" items. Judging by the amount of viral interest in these old ads, the Nissin Foods might want to give them an airing here in the U.S. They can't be worse than the company's current branding, which revolves around a stereotypical oriental in a silk robe with a long mustache and beard.