Friday
In Search of the Great Online Buzz
By Ty Braswell
Ty Braswell is the former vice president of new media for Virgin Records, where he managed the online campaigns for a range of artists including Lenny Kravitz and Janet Jackson. During his tenure at Virgin, he created new online models for partnerships between brands and record labels. He is now senior strategist for iMedia Strategy, the new division of iMedia Communications providing industry-wide thinking that serves to advance the business of interactive marketing & advertising.
What is buzz?
For the online marketer, the word buzz represents an elusive search to find the perfect mix of marketing elements that will deliver a philosopher’s stone of golden results.
To help those hunting for the elusive online buzz, iMedia will publish a story each month spotlighting a great online campaign. I’ll be responsible for taking my best shot at analyzing what created the magic so you can have a better chance at duplicating its success. Drawing upon my previous experience at Virgin Records, my focus will be online campaigns in music, film, and TV that built their strategy on branded entertainment. I’ll interview a featured marketer and explore how their campaigns and efforts relate to the rest of the online marketing/advertising world.
To create a framework for the ongoing discussion, here is my theory of what creates a buzz:
Buzz Target
Developing an online buzz requires capturing the attention of folks I call “Key Multipliers.” They hunt for the next cool thing, the newest gadget, new music/films, political commentary, scandalous gossip, etc. Key Multipliers’ social status is connected to finding something really cool and passing the buzz on to their friends. They are the nitro that drives word-of-mouth. They find new stuff; bring it to their not-so-online friends, and this role as “buzzmeister” keeps them popular in their peer group. Key Multipliers are defined by what they hunt. It’s not just teens watching MTV. A soccer mom who scours the Web for budget vacations maintains her social status (as a Key Multiplier) at her monthly book club by being her group’s travel expert.
As the Internet evolves as the most efficient medium for identifying and communicating to key multipliers, so do the opportunities for marketers.
Key Elements
Online buzz built upon branded entertainment is best created via the synergy of four elements:
Paid Online Advertising: A clever, targeted and integrated online media plan.
Content Bartered Advertising: Exclusive, fresh and exciting content that stimulates Key Multipliers to send it to all their friends.
Viral Marketing: The hot content is wrapped in a format that makes it easy to send to others, and easy to track for the marketer.
Press coverage: The buzz on the campaign becomes so successful, journalists write about the phenomenon as it is occurring.
Timing is Critical
The Key Multiplier is motivated in the hunt by the reward of being the first person to discover the content. The online campaign has to be the first to premiere the content, not a slave to the tired and traditional approach of reducing the online strategy as a subset and afterthought. Launching the online campaign as the first medium in the marketing plan insures the best shot at creating the online buzz. The effect on the TV or radio campaign is minimal if the branded content is premiered on the Internet, but it greatly reduces the online campaign’s effectiveness if the content has been recycled after the initial exposure on television or radio.
Quantification Converts the Naysayer
The architecture of the online campaign needs a clear approach to quantifying the reach and scope of the online buzz. Quantification generates the credibility that counterbalances the inherent hype during the manufacturing of the buzz. It is the weapon against the closed and doubting mind of the naysayer—usually the C-level executive who has the ultimate authority to green light the campaign for buzz.
A New Paradigm
A well-built online campaign to generate buzz can provide a new paradigm for partnerships between brands and entertainment companies. Now that broadband is available to 50 million workers daily and 20 million homes 24/7, the Internet is maturing into a reliable advertising medium. Bold ideas that might appear too risky to be initially launched via TV can be tested with key multipliers online; then expanded to an integrated campaign to TV, radio and print. Creating partnerships between mega-corporations is often easier when driven by the online counterparts since this is where the risk-takers are found in today’s corporations.
The Acronym
In the spirit of online culture, you can’t have a new idea without an acronym. So my moniker for this nitro buzz cocktail is QEIB (pronounced: kweeb):
Quantifiable
Early
Internet
Buzz
By Ty Braswell
Ty Braswell is the former vice president of new media for Virgin Records, where he managed the online campaigns for a range of artists including Lenny Kravitz and Janet Jackson. During his tenure at Virgin, he created new online models for partnerships between brands and record labels. He is now senior strategist for iMedia Strategy, the new division of iMedia Communications providing industry-wide thinking that serves to advance the business of interactive marketing & advertising.
What is buzz?
For the online marketer, the word buzz represents an elusive search to find the perfect mix of marketing elements that will deliver a philosopher’s stone of golden results.
To help those hunting for the elusive online buzz, iMedia will publish a story each month spotlighting a great online campaign. I’ll be responsible for taking my best shot at analyzing what created the magic so you can have a better chance at duplicating its success. Drawing upon my previous experience at Virgin Records, my focus will be online campaigns in music, film, and TV that built their strategy on branded entertainment. I’ll interview a featured marketer and explore how their campaigns and efforts relate to the rest of the online marketing/advertising world.
To create a framework for the ongoing discussion, here is my theory of what creates a buzz:
Buzz Target
Developing an online buzz requires capturing the attention of folks I call “Key Multipliers.” They hunt for the next cool thing, the newest gadget, new music/films, political commentary, scandalous gossip, etc. Key Multipliers’ social status is connected to finding something really cool and passing the buzz on to their friends. They are the nitro that drives word-of-mouth. They find new stuff; bring it to their not-so-online friends, and this role as “buzzmeister” keeps them popular in their peer group. Key Multipliers are defined by what they hunt. It’s not just teens watching MTV. A soccer mom who scours the Web for budget vacations maintains her social status (as a Key Multiplier) at her monthly book club by being her group’s travel expert.
As the Internet evolves as the most efficient medium for identifying and communicating to key multipliers, so do the opportunities for marketers.
Key Elements
Online buzz built upon branded entertainment is best created via the synergy of four elements:
Paid Online Advertising: A clever, targeted and integrated online media plan.
Content Bartered Advertising: Exclusive, fresh and exciting content that stimulates Key Multipliers to send it to all their friends.
Viral Marketing: The hot content is wrapped in a format that makes it easy to send to others, and easy to track for the marketer.
Press coverage: The buzz on the campaign becomes so successful, journalists write about the phenomenon as it is occurring.
Timing is Critical
The Key Multiplier is motivated in the hunt by the reward of being the first person to discover the content. The online campaign has to be the first to premiere the content, not a slave to the tired and traditional approach of reducing the online strategy as a subset and afterthought. Launching the online campaign as the first medium in the marketing plan insures the best shot at creating the online buzz. The effect on the TV or radio campaign is minimal if the branded content is premiered on the Internet, but it greatly reduces the online campaign’s effectiveness if the content has been recycled after the initial exposure on television or radio.
Quantification Converts the Naysayer
The architecture of the online campaign needs a clear approach to quantifying the reach and scope of the online buzz. Quantification generates the credibility that counterbalances the inherent hype during the manufacturing of the buzz. It is the weapon against the closed and doubting mind of the naysayer—usually the C-level executive who has the ultimate authority to green light the campaign for buzz.
A New Paradigm
A well-built online campaign to generate buzz can provide a new paradigm for partnerships between brands and entertainment companies. Now that broadband is available to 50 million workers daily and 20 million homes 24/7, the Internet is maturing into a reliable advertising medium. Bold ideas that might appear too risky to be initially launched via TV can be tested with key multipliers online; then expanded to an integrated campaign to TV, radio and print. Creating partnerships between mega-corporations is often easier when driven by the online counterparts since this is where the risk-takers are found in today’s corporations.
The Acronym
In the spirit of online culture, you can’t have a new idea without an acronym. So my moniker for this nitro buzz cocktail is QEIB (pronounced: kweeb):
Quantifiable
Early
Internet
Buzz
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