These words, while enticing, are
not typically used to describe paid media advertising. So how do you drive
social chatter from an offline campaign?
One solution: #hastags.
This trend in advertising allows for paid media to drive unpaid media. In
addition to stretching your advertising dollars by including a relevant hashtag,
you reach a broader audience, while at the same time narrowing your audience to
those interested in the specific topic.
To ensure we learn from each other here are some fun
examples as well as best practices to keep in mind when employing a hashtag in
an advertising campaign.
#JustForFun:
- Audi’s #SoLongVampires – This TV spot promotes the automaker’s daylight-simulating LED headlights, which incinerate a vampire party upon the Audi owner’s arrival. The spot ran during the Super Bowl, a time when viewers are already highly engaged in the advertising and their social networks
- Edge Shave Gel’s #SoIrritating – Edge has ventured to make their brand about more than just grooming and broaden the conversation to “irritation”
- Domino’s Pizza’s #LetsDoLunch – In the UK from 9am to 11am on March 5th for every tweet that included the hashtag #LetsDoLunch the price of pizza for that day lowered by one pence (original price £15.99; ending price £7.74)
Here are some general adverting hashtag best practices:
- Define your goal – determine what the objective is of adding the hashtag. Is it engagement? Information gathering? Is there an opportunity to add a promotional component or some other consumer benefit?
- Aggregate the conversation – create a landing page or some other location to capture the chatter
- Know your audience – do your consumers even use Twitter? Or do you intend to reach a new audience with this tactic?
- Promote your hashtag – tweet about it, include it on advertisements and other brand communications
- The #hashtag itself – must be unique and relevant to the conversation, as the Audi and the Edge examples above demonstrate the hashtag does not need to include the company name or even the product name. Add the hashtag to TagDef so that people can look it up to find more info if they are interested. If there is already discussion around the topic there is less chance of the conversation getting hijacked and turning negative
As we all know there is risk in giving the mic to the
audience. Marketers beware: The hashtag can encourage engagement but requires
planning, strategic execution and continuous oversight.
--Alyssa Lundgren,
Assistant Account Manager
