Some ten days after launching Promoted Trends as an advertising option (this is after some 4 years of a no-ad policy!) — the first of which was purchased by Disney/Pixar (for the promotion of Toy Story 3) — we read an interesting report on Coca-Cola’s success with this method of advertising on Twitter.
What are Promoted Trends?
They are trends which are sponsored by advertisers, inserted at the bottom of the current trends list, and don’t just “sit at the bottom of the topic list” but “will actually rise up the list of topics just as other, real trends do, or possibly fall off and disappear from the list, based on the company’s view of how much they ‘resonate’ with users.” [source]
So, Promoted Trends are “the latest iteration of Twitter’s new focus on ad revenue.” Being “a twist on Promoted Tweets, a Promoted Trends purchase can win a company a slot on Twitter’s coveted Trending Topics list.” At this time they don’t come cheap, and have been “reported to cost ‘tens of thousands’ of dollars.” [source]
What Has Coca-Cola Done & Reported?
If you’re like me, you may have seen a #WC2010 hashtag wondering why in the world would someone start it when twitter already has it’s official #worldcup one. Well, this was the Coke’s Promoted Trend!
“The company chose to run with its Promoted Trend campaign during Wednesday’s World Cup matches, a peak time for Twitter activity.” [source]
Being the second advertiser after Disney/Pixar to give the Promoted Trends a try, Coca-Cola said to have seen “phenomenal” results from their investment into the Promoted Trends, registering 85 million views within just the first 24 hours of running the ad. Coke also “saw an engagement rate of 6% compared to just 0.02% of regular online advertising.” They “did not reveal how much this advertising campaign cost but indicated that it had not been expensive compared to other forms of online marketing.” [source]
While I do not know how exactly Coca-Cola calculated the “engagement rate”, I am not surprised with the fact that the analyzed metrics were significantly higher than in “regular online advertising”. Coke (1) catered to an extremely passionate group of people (whichever team they were rooting for), (2) they used the right media (Social Media), and (3) they encouraged interaction, inviting fans to share the celebration of their team’s success.
I also can’t help but recall a two-week-old ReveNews post how on the “World Cup boosts Social Media usage worldwide” and why online marketers should pay attention to it as to “a shining moment” and a catalyst for marketing via Social Media. Isn’t it the same way with any other seasonal trend? Is World Cup reinforcing something for us here?
Nice move form Coke clever guys. However Apple was better.
Giving a brand new iPhone 4 to president Medviedev Steve Jobs ‘bought’ Russia just for a phone.
I can bet that iPhone 4 is the most wanted gadget from Kaliningrad to Vladivostock!
Isn’t it brilliant !?
It is. Especially that iPhone 4 isn’t scheduled to come to Russia until September of this year.
Having said this, I think Russia is more ready for new generations of iPhone than any other country. Spending $1000-1500 on a new cell phone isn’t anything outstanding for this country.
Reporting live from Russia now. 😉
If you are in there you must be very well informed though.
I flew in just yesterday (we go back for a couple of months every summer), but it’s been like this in Russia for the past few years already. Expensive cars, expensive cell phones… People are happy to pay 4-6x more (than in the U.S., for example) for brand name goods; yet many live on salaries 10x lower than people in the West.
And that is a main reason they are more intelligent, creative and tough comparing to average in the West.
I would argue with this one — just as with any other similar generalization in principle, Piotr
That is why I mean the average ones.