Originally presented at

BlogWorld New York 2012

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About Luckie• Digitally focused agency,

founded in 1953

• Clients include AT&T, Regions Bank & Little Debbie

• Offices in Birmingham, San Antonio and Atlanta

@LuckieAndCo

About AdFreak• Adweek’s daily blog of advertising, media, marketing and design

• Founded in 2004

• 1 million+ unique viewers monthly

@AdFreak

First off, do TV ads even need saving?

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166.8 million peoplewatched the Super Bowl this year.

Only 66 million peoplehave watched the most popular ad on YouTube (which would be the trailer for Angry Birds).

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The average American watches five hours of video per day.

98% of that videois seen on a television.

Source: Nielsenvia The New York Times, “Nielsen reports a decline in television viewing,” May 2012 @Griner

Source: Nielsen, via The New York Times, “Nielsen reports a decline in television viewing,” May 2012Photo credit: Oblivious Dude on Flickr.

But in the past two years, America has lost

2 million TV households.

A “TV household,” per Nielsen, is one with at least one television and access to cable, satellite or antenna.

Those 2 million “lost homes” probably still have TVs — just not traditional access to networks.

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Advertisingis in a transitional state.

TV has the reach. Digital has the depth.Their merger is inevitable and under way.

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Today, social media isn’t saving TV ads from extinction.

Social media is saving TV ads from themselves.

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On the whole, TV ads remain gutless and self-obsessed.

They take very few risks, including the risk of starting conversation.

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“Awareness”is the metric advertisers usewhen they don’t want to be held accountable for success.

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Today’s real advertising effectiveness is measured in engagement.

TV should be a launchpad, not the whole mission.

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Awareness Engagement Segmentation CRM

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So how do you create asocially successful ad campaign?

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Well, you can buy your way in.

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Supplementing a TV buy with online has consistently proven more successful than doing one without the other.

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In Christmas 2011, Nutella included Facebook in its holiday media mix with TV.

Result: Facebook accounted for 15% of holiday promo sales and reached 30% of all Germans.

Source: ClickZ.com, “Nutella says Facebook ads outperformed TV”, May 2012@Griner

62% of advertisers say online video ads should be a complement to TV ads. That’s up from 56% in 2011.

Only 10% say online video ads should replace TV ads.

Sources: Adap.tv and Digiday, via:eMarketer.com, “Marketers Attempt to Align Online Video and TV Campaigns.” May 2012 @Griner

Another survey found that TV ad campaigns have a 50% reach.

The number bumped up to 57% when online video ads were added to the mix.

Sources: Nielsen and YuMe, via:eMarketer.com, “Marketers Attempt to Align Online Video and TV Campaigns.” May 2012 @Griner

But simply buying into the online space doesn’t create social buzz.

Is it about tactics?

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Let’s talk

hashtags.

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#TrumpRoastUsed more than 27,000 times during Comedy Central’s 2011 Roast of Donald Trump,helping make it make it the network’s most-watched Tuesday in history.

Soon, hashtags were a staple of TV programming.

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The Voice leveraged Twitter to generate

200,000 tweets per episode

(That’s five times the social engagement of American Idol).

Source: Bluefin, via Mass Relevance, “NBC’s The Voice Drives Real-Time Engagement”

TV content creators have learned that hashtags focus conversation.

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A well phrased and clearly communicated hashtag makes it easy for viewers to talk about you.

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But most brands struggle with hashtags. Why?

Because ads and social media remain too disconnected.

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#McDStoriesTo raise awareness of its new supplier-centric ads, McDonald’s paid to promote the hashtag.

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The brand’s Twitter feed only used the hashtag twice.

But consumers (mostly critics) used it 1,600 times in the first two hours, after which the promotion was pulled.

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The hashtag ended up generating negative publicity instead of supporting the brand’s new (and quite good) TV ads.

So what was wrong with #McDStories?

Too vague, too detached from the point of the ads.

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Wendy’s has also been struggling with hashtags.

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#HeresTheBeef #UpgradeYourMeal #DefiningMoment #BetterLater

So who is doing it right?

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Audi was early to the scene in 2011,running the Super Bowl’s first ad hashtag.

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Audi’s ability to harness the buzz and convert it into relationships drew instant praise.

“Audi is a perfect model for what it means to be a prestige brand on Twitter.” –L2 Think Tank

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Why not a URL?

“For us, this was never a discussion. It was always the hashtag. The SuperBowl is conversation.”

— Andy White, Senior Social Media Manager, Audi

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#SoLongVampires

The 2012 hashtag mostly just served as a “social nudge” that would accelerate the spot’s reach and buzz.

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#SoLongVampires became the most-tweeted ad hashtag of the Super Bowl

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“This may be a viewer's first-ever touchpoint with Audi. We treat that first touchpoint as just one step on a very long purchase funnel that may result in a car purchase — or it may result in a new aspirational fan, one that will take our future messaging and run with it to their own social graphs. Both of these goals are our social holy grails.” — Andy White

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In addition, the #WantAnR8 hashtag effort has been called Twitter’s most successful campaign of all time.

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Audi’s efforts have put it neck and neck with Lexus in a race to be the No. 1 luxury automaker on Twitter.

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Lexus

Audi

Mercedes

Porsche

BMW

Lamborghini

Aston Martin

Cadillac

Acura

0 75,000 150,000 225,000 300,000

Followers

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But the most truly social TV ad campaigndoesn’t have a hashtag.

And hasn’t really needed one.

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The Most Interesting Man in the World is the perfect ad campaign for the social media era.

The campaign for Dos Equis beer is pithy, funny and easy to embrace.

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Results:• Doubled U.S. sales of Dos Equis in 5 years• Grew to the No. 6 imported beer in the U.S.• 15.4% growth in 2011, compared to industry average of 2.7%

Source: Ad Age, “On the Set with The Most Interesting Man In the World,” March 2012 @Griner

Source: Facebook, June 2012

Beer Brand Facebook Likes

Bud Light(No. 1 beer in America) 2.6 million

Dos Equis 2 million

Corona (No. 1 imported beer) 1.1 million

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So how can more ads duplicate this success?

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1. Give audiences a conversation starter, not a flat product statement.

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2. Spend time analyzing what motivates your specific audience.

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3. Make hashtags and other calls to action as clear and direct as possible.

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4. Create a plan for harnessing short-term buzz into long-term engagement.

A reply isn’t a relationship.

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Thank you for your time.

David GrinerVP/Digital Content, Luckie & Co.Luckie.com@Griner on Twitter