Tag: social media ROI

Careening out of the canyon of confusion that was 2010 we come face-to-face with an alien marketing landscape of “owned media,” “geo-location” and “real-time.” What do these strange terms mean? What do they demand of marketers in retail? Are we facing another year of social media-driven craziness? To calm everybody down, we enlisted a few of the youngest Media Logicians to help us with our predictions for retail marketing in 2011 (see our predictions in plain text below).

1. There’ll be no more social media strategies for you, missy
2. Anybody with a conversion fetish will be asked to leave
3. Big box retailers will make friends with phones
4. Media will stop costing money and start making money
5. Interactive promotions will escape the Facebook tab
6. Goodbye social media cowboy
7. AdweekMedia’s 2011 list of “Agencies of the Year” will not include a single traditional advertising agency
8. The headlines will read, “Facebook is Dead!”
9. We’ll ask paid media to come out and play too
10. I’m running away
11. Don’t worry, marketing will get fun again

B2C brands are discovering the remarkable reach of social promotions. Pepsi has reported that every entry in its Refresh Project generates, on average, 5,000 votes. That means the 5,000 projects Pepsi had approved and posted to its Refresh site by June 2010 generated 25 million direct engagements. And those 25 million represent only the tip of the iceberg relative to the total media reach generated by the 5,000 posters who promoted their causes through their own social networks. Social promotions, defined here as any intentional social engagement – queries, polls, contests and other structured invitations to interact with a brand – seed the social landscape, trigger interaction and inspire sharing. Their success is changing how brands look at social media – reducing fears and opening minds.