Integrated Marketing Communication

Earth Day PSA 2.0

~ K. Quesenberry ~ Leave a comment

Forty years ago on Earth Day 1971 Keep America Beautiful partnered with the Ad Council to create a campaign dramatizing how pollution was hurting the environment, and that every person had the responsibility to protect it. A PSA featuring Native American actor Chief Iron Eyes Cody aired with the tagline line, “People Start Pollution. People can stop it.” Iron Eyes Cody became forever known as “The Crying Indian.” The PSA won two Clio awards and the campaign was named one of the top 100 advertising campaigns of the 20th Century by Ad Age Magazine.

During the height of the campaign, Keep America Beautiful received more than 2,000 letters a month from people wanting to join the local team. Keep America Beautiful local teams helped to reduce litter by as much as 88% in 300 communities, 38 states, and several countries.

If we were to launch this same campaign today what kind of PR and digital media integration would we build around it?

My first thought is a social media release with facts, pictures and resources. We could us PitchEngine.  What about a microsite with tips and links to local chapters with a blog to update information? Maybe something like the TOMS Shoes blog.  I would also consider a “What makes you cry?” promotion and invite user generated videos of people submitting their own 30 second versions of the pollution in their neighborhoods. Think something like the Pepsi Crash the Superbowl contest.

What else would you do?

Which Social Media Conversation Are You Joining?

~ K. Quesenberry ~ Leave a comment

Solis’ Conversation Prism has been around for a while, but it is still a useful tool. It gives you a whole view of the social media universe, categorized and organized by how people use each network. One  channel that I think is picking up steam is the music conversation channel. Many users, especially young demographics are moving to streaming music services like Pandora and Last FM. With minimal advertising interuptions compared to radio and no monthly fees like Satalite they are an attractive alternative. I believe they will only increase in popularity as more TV’s and BlueRay players come with Internet connectivity built in.

The great thing about a campaign on Pandora and/or Last FM is you can really segment to your audience by format. Does your target like adult contemporary, hip hop or Barry Manilow? There’s a station for that! You can also geo target your buy by top markets or distribution regions and the nice thing about a Pandora ad is that it has both audio and visual elements.

Recently Toyota has struck a long term deal with Pandora for some of these very reasons. A company executive promised, “The campaign will be the largest in scope and span to ever run across all of the Pandora internet radio advertising platforms.” As part of a new, multi-year “Legends & Icons” advertising series, Pandora will brand stations and artists with Toyota models. The Highlander will be on the Top 40 station because the demographics of the care model match the listener demographic for the station. Different models will brand different stations with lots of customized channels, artist spotlights, exclusive releases, radio ‘mixtapes,’ and video integration. Toyota executives say they have a broad target demo of 18-49, but though different stations and content slivers they can be more segmented.  Pandora now has 80 million registered users.

Has your company joined the digital media conversation? If not find the right channel and jump in!