Emerging Grocery Trends: Small, Organic Brands Get Moms’ Attention POSTED BY Stacy DeBroff AT 1:58 PM

With a shift towards more natural options and less processed foods, we see an increased number of organic companies who reach out to us to help brainstorm brand communication strategies.  

Based on our ongoing work in this space, we know Moms believe that their and their children's diets lack the nutritional value they need. And though the economy continues its uptick, families still feel the pinch of constrained household budgets coupled with increasingly busy daily schedules. As a result, Moms make strategic trade-offs while grocery shopping, allowing them to sacrifice cost for “better” products in specific categories, such as fresh produce. These trade-offs impact Mom's purchase behaviors, making her more likely to seek out natural, local, and nutritious food for her family. They also set up opportunities for smaller, organic brands to step in and help alleviate some of Mom's worries.

We see 4 emerging trends in this Market:

1) Increase spend in category specific organics:

• Concerns about pesticides, fertilizers, and hormones drive Moms to buy organic fruits, vegetables and meats.

2) Preference for Best in Class Choices:

• Moms prioritize nutritional offerings, opting for whole grain or enriched bread instead of white bread, and specifically search out grocery items with enriched and added nutrients.

3) Change in grocery shopping patterns:

• Though on a tight budget, Moms will spend budget on Whole Foods vs. general food store to purchase local sourcing – healthy and sustainable options.

4) Rise in the mistrust of labels:

• Moms take extra steps to ensure they purchase more nutritious food: 99% read nutrition labels, and 74% select items based on their nutritional value.

So how do organic brands work with Moms to feed their families well versus cheaply, and extend the idea of healthier food = healthier family?

• Focus on nutritional options: Familiarize Moms with the nutritional benefits of your brand and engage them online with suggestions for healthy and creative meal change-ups.
• Labels influence behavior: Draw Moms to your brand by highlighting nutritional values in your brand marketing, especially if your food product costs more.
• Combine nutrition and convenience benefits: the two work exponentially together as a selling point.

3 Emerging Trends to Know When Marketing to Women POSTED BY Stacy DeBroff AT 4:08 PM

Last week we attended the two-day M2W Conference in Chicago, IL. Nearly 40 speakers from around the world presented their insights on marketing to women.

Three surprising marketing trends emerged focusing on transactions, inspirations and aspirations:

Trend 1: Women have an increased desire for inspiration in their daily lives.

• According to GFK Research: In 2006, 52% of women reported being very happy, yet that percentage dropped to 40% in 2012, reflecting emerging pragmatism among women through the recession. What have been the biggest changes? Economic pressures drive some of these attitudes; women feel that if they want to get ahead in their jobs, work has to take precedence over family. This pragmatism leads moms with young kids to live life for now, but with an increased desire for inspiration.
• Pain points, economic concerns, and increased feelings of pressure all significantly increased with moms of small children (under 6) since pre-recession. These issues are not driven by shifts in household responsibilities, but rather Moms feel work responsibilities more acutely than the rest of population. 



How does your brand marketing inspire her to live life more fully?

Trend 2: Both a woman's age and her stage in life dictate her expectations of Health and Wellness brands.

• According to Anthem Worldwide: Millennials (1981-2000) feel pressure to conquer the world, experience a “quarter life” crisis, and have a keen sense of economic realities going into the job market.  Current technology enables them to live fast, on-demand connected lives. Seeing exciting updates on Facebook by friends, they feel pressure to be happy and do exciting things as well. For these young women, it means aspiration: developing into their ideal selves.
• Generation Xers (1965-1980) are more focused and on a life path. Most women in this age group are married or in some kind of relationship. When they have kids, health and wellness becomes more important: for them health and wellness means a body that works for you and self-acceptance. It’s about strength and productivity.
• Baby Boomers (1946-1964) seek a third act, with a sense of purpose and accomplishment. They have reached an age where real health issues tend to arise: health and wellness is about extending, staying vibrant into their next act and becoming their aspirational selves.
• So what brands are doing a good job speaking to all these generations? 
  • Kashi, Whole Foods, Neutrogena, Bobbi Brown, Advil, Nike.
• What are keys to these brands doing well?
  • Motivating Health- take action that’s positive for their health and wellness.
  • Build a woman’s confidence - Bobbi Brown does this well.
  • Being honest, real, and honest in communications- Advil does this with real people in their ad campaign.
  • Make it personal: Nike focusing a campaign of working out for yourself.

Regardless of generational cohort: know your consumer's aspirations well to create authentic and honest connections.

Trend 3: Women now engage in "Brand Surveillance," having ditched brand loyalty due to the financial pinch of the recession.

• According to Bonnie Ulman and Sal Kibler authors of Hustle: Marketing to Women in the Post-Recession World: The great recession for women changed everything: how she receives messages, she speaks differently and hears thing differently. Emotionally, women feel that recession is not over: household income is still down 7.9%.
• Many women feel betrayed: they thought if they did everything they were told to do, they would emerge okay. But they did not. Hence lingering hostility to Bank of America and their new slogan, “We’re better when we’re all connected.”
• Women were caught off guard by the severity and length of the latest “great recession." As most did not see it coming and thought it simply a dip, they felt it was a personal failure and that they let down those closest to them: as wives, spouses, mothers.
• Every woman hustles to take care of her family, her children, to provide for her family. She hustles in sports, she hustles on the dance floor, and most importantly, she hustles in the new economy. She thinks, “How do I organize the skills, information, and resources within myself, my community, and my connections to get a better deal?” The hustle is the game she’s playing now.
• She now finds herself living a life of sacrifice: and feels frugality fatigue. She’s trying to regain that sense of power and control she lost, so she’s “editing life.”
  
• So instead of brand loyalty, we see a scenario of "brand surveillance." She makes decisions based on referrals and based on the deals you as a brand have to offer.

Women want an awesome transaction from a brand, not the work of a deep relationship - she’s too stretched to hustle with you.

The recent recession and fall-out continue to affect female consumers; they face an ongoing burden of life-work harmony, and feel guilty for not being able to better weather the financial storm. Within this personal struggle, they aspire for more control in their life and naturally reach towards brands that help reinforce their personal feelings of strength, productivity and motivation. Brands that help them to not just live life but to live life fully, in an honest and authentic way, can establish sustainable transactions that morph into longer term relationships.

Reaching Consumers Through Visual Micro-Sharing POSTED BY Stacy DeBroff AT 11:01 AM

“Luvocracy: Pinterest for people who actually want to buy stuff.”- Mashable

Here at Mom Central, we use Pinterest to window shop. But finding something we really love, wanting to purchase it immediately and can’t, frustrates us.

A related site Wanelo (WAnt, NEed, LOve) works like Pinterest, but lets you click to buy. The drawback of Wanelo? Eventually items get sold out or off-season.

Luvocracy  (pronounced Luv-ocracy…and not like “louvre-cracy” which was our initial French attempt pronunciation) seems to be heading down the same social experience road as Wanelo but with a distinct difference: Luvocracy only allows ‘Pins’ of current stock and available to purchase items. Each board is called a collection and each pin is called a recommendation. Followers can trust you instead of follow you. Also, every recommendation (pin) has a price on it, because on Luvocracy you can buy the pins/recommendations that you like.

In its most simplistic form, Luvocracy lets its users:

• Discover some of the most innovative products on the market
• Easily search for – and buy – the best gift ideas from bloggers, influencers, AND their friends – all in one place
• Create a curated collection of tried-and-true favorites, and start reaping the rewards for your valued taste

The site is based on the idea that word of mouth recommendations go much further than marketing lingo. Smart! So the more recommendations a product has the more likely people are to buy it.  Because users cannot “repin” or post a recommendation on Luvocracy that’s not in stock, it alleviates the issues facing retailers of consumers looking for specific out-of-stock or no longer carried items they’ve found on Pinterest. It’s great for a brand or retailer to have items repined hundreds of times, but if the item is no longer available, how do those pins translate into ROI?

The advantage for users and brands:

By offering rewards for purchases, Luvocracy offers an incentive to keep users recommending products. As the site is still fairly new, users can trust that real people currently recommend items they really love. This offers brands a great opportunity to jump in and start recommending items. Maybe it’s because we’re addicted to shopping, but we think when people see something they like, they’d actually like to own it rather than just display a picture of it on a board.

Need more Mom Central Consulting insights?

Follow us on LinkedIn where we share macro-trends via our company updates.

Join us on Facebook for a smart, behind-the-scenes look at the folks who make us successful.

And finally, connect with us on Twitter for lively conversations about influencer marketing, insights and brand strategy.

This Week in Social Media Marketing POSTED BY Stacy DeBroff AT 10:50 AM

This week's trends in Social Media Marketing: Visual micro-sharing, content marketing
and highly-filtered ad targeting.

How do you, as a social media marketer, best develop actionable narratives about your brand and provide shareable nuggets of engaging content that will inspire your consumers to share, post, participate, recommend and take action:

Forget Stories. Your Brand Needs a Narrative – PR Newswire

John Hagel, author of “The Power of Pull,” believes that stories fall short for a brand. Hagel argues that stories do not promote participation. Stories also eventually end. Narratives do not end and urge listeners to come participate. “In a business context, if you can harness the power of narrative, you can derive competitive advantage,” said Hagel.  Narratives work because they don’t simply motivate employees, they can galvanize a broad swath of people, and inspire them to action.”

Scoring Brands By Searching Social In Real-Time – MediaPost

SinoTech group has announced the launch of a new search engine called Buzz Equity. This search engine will specifically search out all the mentions of your brand across multiple social media platforms for free. After searching your brand across social media, Buzz Equity will score your brands online social value. “The score is determined by a combination of mention concentration, frequency, "passion" (i.e. - virality), reach, and sentiment.” 

Visual Micro-Sharing Platforms: The Next Big Thing in Social Media Marketing? – SocialMediaToday

Vine and Snapchat are quickly becoming huge factors in social media. But how can these platforms be utilized properly and what can you share with your clientele? You can showcase new products or offer flash deals. Visual Micro-Sharing is bound to enter into companies marketing plans at some point. It is important to familiarize yourself with it now. “their passionate user base means that companies need to utilize them for community building and exclusive sharing of products and services. Instead of believing users will stick around to watch 6-seconds of a company's logo, businesses should be dedicated to staying relevant and interesting in this instant new way of communication.” 

Now You Can Buy and Sell Items Directly in Your Twitter Feed With Ribbon – Mashable

Ribbon announced a new Twitter feature that will allow merchants to sell products directly through Twitter without having customers leave their twitter stream. This could prove much higher conversion rates for Twitter. “With Ribbon, sellers can create a customized link for free to list their product on Twitter and embed a checkout page within the tweet. Beneath the text and link in the tweet, customers will see a picture and description of the product and can then proceed to click through and enter their personal information and credit card details to make a purchase.”

How to get your CEO Tweeting – SocialMediaToday

Tweeting takes more time than one thinks. It can especially be tough to tweet about your business. You have to be careful with what you post. You can’t offend your readers but you want to be witty and fun. This is why many CEO's don’t tweet. They just don’t have the time in their schedule. Here are a few reasons why it is important to tweet as the CEO. Most importantly, it gives your company a face. “For a CEO, this is the time to get on our Twitter level and give a corporation (the bigger, the better) a face and name behind the brand. And most importantly, a story. A look at what life behind the scenes at the company is like as told through Instagram photos.”

Should “Likes” be the focus of your Facebook Strategy? – SmartBlogs

Although Likes may be a useful tool, they do not tell you how effective your message is at getting your fans to take action supporting the brand. “Still, as long as Facebook interactions remains a step on the path to your brand’s ultimate goal, it won’t make sense to focus your Facebook strategy on any internal Facebook actions. Instead, you need to use Facebook to cultivate a following that you can then redirect to another platform where you goal action is easy to accomplish.”

Facebook Home Puts Facebook First and Everyone Else Second – Mashable

Facebook has recently announced the launch of Facebook “Home” for Android phones. Facebook home is essentially a cover feed. Instead having a plan lock screen on your phone, it will now be replaced by Facebook. This could prove to amplify the importance of Facebook in terms of reach. Other social media platforms, like Twitter, could soon follow. “What Facebook Home accomplishes, with its Cover Feed, Facebook-only notifications and Chat Heads is an always-on, wholly immersive Facebook experience that, except for when you access the app launcher, pretty much eschews everything outside of the Facebook universe.”

Ensuring Facebook Users Find You When They Need You – SocialMediaToday

Organic vs Paid. Those are the two methods are driving people to your company’s website. Paid is probably a fast method but why pay when you don’t have to. What can you do to bring people to your company website? Make sure you have loads of content. You can distribute this content in two ways. Either you push it out yourself or let visitors do the work for you. Leverage your content with advertising. “The point with this post is to discuss how Facebook can be a sustainable, always on, source of visitors. Basing your marketing on content creation have great long-term effects that are not achievable by buying traffic with regular display advertising.” 

Facebook Opens Up Ad Targeting to Minivan-Driving, Baby Food-Buying Homemakers

Adds third-party audience segments from Acxiom, Datalogix, Epsilon from AdWeek

Advertising on Facebook is getting very specific thanks to the data of their new partners like Acxiom, Datalogix and Epsilon. Is targeting this way advantageous? Or will this new hierarchy eliminate people who really do fall into the brands demographic?

Facebook today rolled out the segments as Partner Categories available through its self-serve Power Editor ad creation tool and through its ad API partners. This allows U.S. advertisers to layer in the 500-plus new segments in addition to the standard Facebook ad targeting criteria.

Now advertisers can create ad-targeting parameters such as "home owners who are retired, own a Ford pick-up truck, buy over-the-counter allergy relief medication and take cruises." They can also target "dentists who live alone, own a BMW and buy big-and-tall clothes and diet foods." Or “people who live in a million-dollar home housing four people including a military veteran.” Or “mortgage borrowing homemakers who own a minivan and buy baby food.”

A caveat: creating a highly filtered Venn diagram such as the ones mentioned above would likely work against an advertiser because they'd be too specific and counterintuitive for brands attracted to Facebook because of its billion-user scale.

 And finally...

#nowthatchersdead: Fans Think Cher Died After Thatcher Hashtag Trends – Mashable

Margaret Thatcher, the former British prime minister, passed away last week. An anti Margaret Thatcher website called “Is Thatcher Dead Yet?” wanted its readers to use the hashtag #nowthatchersdead to tell spread over twitter what they were doing now that Margaret Thatcher had passed. The hashtag trended but many people confused the hashtag by reading it as “Now That Chers Dead.” Twitter quickly turned into an arena of mourning for Cher. A lesson to all social media users, Capital letters in a hashtag make or break the message.

Need more Mom Central Consulting insights?

Follow us on LinkedIn where we share macro-trends via our company updates.

Join us on Facebook for a smart, behind-the-scenes look at the folks who make us successful.

And finally, connect with us on Twitter for lively conversations about influencer marketing, insights and brand strategy.

Infographic: The Power of Visual Content - Pinterest Versus Instagram POSTED BY Stacy DeBroff AT 8:37 AM

This Week in Social Media POSTED BY Stacy DeBroff AT 4:06 PM

The Importance of #Hashtags from Social Media Today

Some folks will #hashtag #every #word in order to #get #their #post #noticed. We wouldn't consider this the best or most strategic method of exposure. This article from SMT explores the tact and etiquette involved in a successful #hashtag strategy.

Why I (Often) Work from Home And You (Maybe) Should Too Huffington Post

Everyone has heard the recent news of Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer’s ban on her employees working from home; a tough restriction to accept given their past work culture. The worst part of the story?  She built a nursery in her Yahoo! Office. Employees can’t work from home, but she can bring home to work? C-level FAIL.

Social Consolidation To Change Online Marketing – Online Media Daily

For social networking companies, innovation drives the growth of their consumer base. Facebook needed to buy a hip, popular platform like Instagram to remain relevant to its users. If a company cannot innovate internally nor acquire that missing piece from an external company purchase, they'll be left in the dust as users flock to the next new attraction.

How to Talk to Your Employees on Social Media Sites from Social Media Today

Social media acts as a great way to develop stronger relationships with colleagues. For example, here at Mom Central we have a very close-knit group of colleagues who rely on social networking sites to maintain connections outside of the work environment. We intermingle via our Facebook and Pinterest accounts to learn more about each other and interact in a way that is non-work related. The friendships we create with one another then help to support and enforce our work relationships as colleagues.

Pandora to Cap Free Mobile Listening at 40 Hours Per Month Huffington Post

Fear not! While the title of this article looks devastating (or at least it did to us, we listen to a LOT of Pandora), the average listener only logs about 20 hours. Whew! But if you happen to be a super-user, read this post!

Andy’s Answers: How Life Technologies gets enlightened with social media – Smart Brief

Customers relate to a person not a company. By making social less scary for your employees, they can connect more authentically with your consumers and ultimately change how you do business.  

Of Course ‘Parks and Rec’ Pinterest Wedding Album is Adorable from Mashable

Alert! New way to use Pinterest! The very popular NBC show, Parks and Rec, recently featured an episode where two characters tied the knot. The geniuses at NBC created a Pinterest board in the form of a wedding album – an overwhelming response ensued. We love it. 

Why retailers are pinning hopes on Pinterest – Reuters 

Pinterest acts as a "window-shopping" platform, which encourages retailers to start embracing the platform in their marketing strategy. Aspirational pinning drives the platform and impulsive buying increase retailer revenues.

Pope Benedict XVI Tweets Final Farewell to His Flock from Mashable

Although he retired early (can you say that of an 80-something year old man?), Pope Benedict made huge leaps in the social media world for the Vatican. As the first Pope to open a twitter account, Pope Benedict was able to connect with 1.6 million people on the English language version alone. Although since his twitter account opened slightly over a year ago, he tweeted less than 40 times… guess it wasn’t his main priority. 

When Advertisers Update Classic TV Ads to Boost Sales POSTED BY Stacy DeBroff AT 1:45 PM

I assume the average consumer doesn’t enjoy commercials. Ads interrupt TV viewing and seem repetitive and annoying. And with the creation of DVR, we can almost eliminate them from our television regimen. Maybe this is where I’m a bit different from the average consumer - because I actually enjoy ads. Whether it’s shaking my head at a dismal attempt, or nodding in appreciation of a genius creation, I’m guilty of being an advertisement lover.

When I read an article about the re-creation of the 1981 Grey Poupon “Pardon Me” television ad, I loved the idea. There are two main reasons why I love this:

1. Who doesn’t love nostalgia? While 1981 is before my era, from what I’ve gathered it was a pretty popular commercial. So recreating it with a modern twist is smart and adaptable.
2. I appreciate that Grey Poupon / Kraft can laugh at themselves! Having an English gentleman driven around the countryside and using the tagline ‘enjoy one of life’s finer pleasures’ shows the brand can laugh at it’s own stuffy image, but still pass along product messaging.
   

The 2013 edition of this commercial aired during the Oscars Sunday. Kraft plans to air this commercial just once, and then make it available online.  Though sales of Grey Poupon recently sagged based on increased competition in the space, Kraft hopes this revival may be enough to rejuvenate interest in the product and ramp-up online engagement.

Take a look below and let us know your thoughts: will "the lost footage" be enough to entice your interest?

Jessica Hogan is a Senior Project Manager at Mom Central Consulting.

This Week in Social Media POSTED BY Stacy DeBroff AT 2:27 PM

Facebook Influences Your Mood More Than Any Social Network – Mashable

A recent survey reveals that Facebook causes the most stress but also elicits the most positive effect on mood compared to other social networks: "'Our social media report helps paint an interesting picture of our evolving communications tastes and preferences, and how even routine activities such as checking friends into locations, can have an adverse affect on our relationships,' Rebtel CEO Andreas Bernstrom says in a statement.”
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Social Interaction Affects Brand Perception – MediaPost

In a new study, J.D. Power and Associates measured consumer experience with companies through their social platform for both marketing (such as receiving a coupon or some other offer through a social channal) and service (such as answering questions about a product or service or solving specific problems) needs.
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60 Digital Media Resources You May Have Missed – Mashable

“This sure has been another crazy week. Between Valentine's Day and the terrifying meteor that shook Russia, it is easy to understand how you could fall behind in other news.”
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The Future of Facebook as a Social Content Farm – Mashable

Facebook is bound to become a content farm. “Facebook is supposed to be about real people — about all the stupid, wonderful, shitty, brilliant and boring things we do every day.”
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Facebook: Now Pay to Promote Your Friend’s Posts – Mashable

For $7 you can now pay to promote your friend's posts on Facebook. You could already promote your own posts but now you can pay to promote something and not seem like an egomaniac.
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Why is Facebook’s e-commerce offering so disappointing? – Gigaom

Facebook probably has high expectations for e-commerce, but it seems that either it, or the brands and businesses present on the social networking site, are out of sync. “More and more people are now buying from the living room (and soon probably even from the bar). For many of them Facebook could be the first place to look for an opportunity to make a purchase, or one of the most important starting points... many Facebook visitors happily talk about brands, recommend products, and share shopping experiences on Facebook.”
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Twitter Now Reducing Some Tweets to 117 Characters – Mashable

Any tweet sent with a URL will be reduced to 118 characters to 117 for http links. “In short, the condensed links now take up a bit more space, leaving you with a little less space to add commentary with them. In total, the update represents a two-character drop per tweet.”
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@BurgerKing Becomes McDonald’s: What You Missed in the #failurewhopper Twitter Hack – Adage

Burger King’s twitter account was hacked by a notorious hacker group this week. They posted some inappropriate tweets and retweeted numerous people. It was very anticlimactic. One retweet summarizes the whole ordeal for Burger King and the rest of twitter: “They may be hacked, but when was the last time ANYBODY talked about @BurgerKing this much?"
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Jeep, BK Hacks Shine Light on Twitter’s Treatment of Marketers – Adage

There were upsides to the hack for both Burger King and Jeep. “... the week's hacks unveiled a potential upside: an infusion of new followers that neither brand had to spend money to attract. Tweeted the brand Monday night when it was back in the driver's seat: "Interesting day here at BURGER KING, but we're back! Welcome to our new followers. Hope you all stick around!"
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Beyond Reblogging: Tumblr in the Future – Mashable

The two secrets to Tumblr’s runaway success is design and community engagement. "I think it is crucial that Tumblr take care of their content creators," Grelle said. "They should work to make this the best possible place for people to post things they make. If Tumblr could shift the perception from a place where people mostly repost things, to a place where things originate, I think they would leave their competitors in the dust."
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Grey Poupon ‘Pardon Me’ Ad to Air During Oscars After 16 Year Hiatus - Huffington Post

Love the nostalgia and humor that Grey Poupon / Kraft is using in this ad. Recreating an ad from 1981, Grey Poupon plans to air their newest edition of this ad this Sunday. "Kraft Foods Group Inc. plans to air the ad only once on TV, after which it will be available online. According to Kantar Media, a 30-second spot during the Oscars this year is estimated to cost $1.7 million. But Kraft... is hoping the high-profile placement will help spark enough interest to engage people in online marketing campaigns."

Related articles

Burger King sold to McDonald's? No, just hacked

Telling a Whopper on social media

Why MTV was wrong to fake-hack their own Twitter account

Welcome to the Age of Social Media Rubbernecking

After Hack, Burger King Needed a Brand Publishing Response

How to Convince a Brand to Change Its Marketing Strategy POSTED BY Stacy DeBroff AT 10:50 AM

As we've discussed before, we’ve seen Moms come alive on social media – leading the way on blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest – and this rapid embrace of technology and social media platforms enables Moms to find their voice, resulting in a dramatic change in the consumer marketing power balance. No longer willing to receive top-down messages from brands, Moms today want a voice in product innovation and a seat at the marketplace table.

Last night I spoke on FOX 25 Boston, drawing attention to the rise of Moms as social media powerhouses and as a result their rapidly morphing relationships with brands. We highlighted the story of a Cranston R.I. Mom, Chelley Martinka, and her 10-month-old daughter:

A 28-year-old Cranston woman, mother of a 10-month-old girl with dwarfism, has convinced a national pickle manufacturer to stop using the word midget on its labels for small pickles.

Chelley Martinka noticed a jar of Cains "Kosher Dill Midgets" in December. In protest, Martinka called and wrote the company, Gedney Foods in Minnesota, which produces the pickles; and she also started a blog and created a YouTube video (original story).

Chelley's gripping YouTube video (see below) acts as a powerful message fueled with first-person passion, and had a dramatic impact on how the Cains brand team thought about marketing its products to consumers. With one video, one woman encouraged a brand to stop, listen and change:

 

For more on the mobilization of Moms and the shifting balance of consumer marketing, see my thoughts via the video below:

Boston News, Weather, Sports | FOX 25 | MyFoxBoston

Related articles

Mom gets pickle co. to drop "midget" from jars

Pickle company agrees to drop 'midget'

Cranston mother fights pickle company, wins

Cran. mom inspires food name change

The Great Instagram Debate POSTED BY Stacy DeBroff AT 10:29 AM

Is it that we simply love visual storytelling or do we really just love Instagram?

This week I listened to a few sessions of the Social Insider conference streaming online through Mediapost. The most intriguing session focused on what they called “the Great Instagram Debate”.  Alan Edgett, co-founder of GetPerception, argued that Instagram is a great social platform for amplifying and extending brands. As the trend towards more visual content continues into 2013, Alan expects that we will begin to see more brands increase their Instagram participation. On the other side, Nathaniel Perez, global head of social experience, SapientNitro, doubts the power of Instagram mainly because of the growing competitive landscape with other platforms such as Snapchat, Vine, etc., entering the scene. He also questions whether Instagram’s activity will simply dissolve into Facebook. Is it that we simply love visual storytelling (even if it comes through Facebook) or do we really just love Instagram?

Reading other articles on this debate, it seems that many agree with Alan Edgett- Instagram is unique in its own way and can be leveraged by brands to create loyalty amongst consumers. To accomplish this, brands need to strategically use the social media site (which is now available through multiple devices- mobile and PC) in a unique way that sets their Instagram content apart from content posted to other social platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. What does this mean? Here are a few examples:

Using Instagram as a “Behind the Scenes” look at your brand

Many consumers follow brands on Instagram to catch the behind the scenes photos that they wouldn’t normally see. People want to see behind the scenes photos (we’re all a bit nosy aren’t we?). If MCC was to utilize Instagram, people would want to see photos of the new office being built, everyone swarming around a fresh bag of birthday bagels in the kitchen, or someone playing around with one of the toys on the giveaway table.  Brands need to be creative and funny to create a dynamic personality on a platform that is 98% pictures.

For example, Intel posts creative pictures of tech products in strange settings such as robots walking around the office or a lego man “raising the bar” on an employee’s desk (see below). Below that, a picture from Taco Bell’s Instagram displays a holiday wreath made completely of ketchup and relish packets. It’s cute, quirky and still brand related. That’s Instagram.

Showcase consumers interacting with your brand

People feel as if they can share more personal photos of their day-to-day lives more so on their Instagram feeds than other social sites (of course this again brings up the fact that so many directly post all of their Instagram images to Facebook). Brands have used this to their advantage by launching campaigns to showcase consumer’s interacting with their brands in their daily lives. Tiffany & Co. did this successfully in 2012 offering personalized “Tiffany Blue filters” and asking people to use them on their “true love” pictures with the hashtag #TrueLovePictures. The campaign was a great way for Tiffany to provide its followers with relevant, brand-related content, while also inviting them to take part in the experience.

Using Instagram for contests

A good way for brands to use the “behind the scenes” and more personal “day-to-day atmosphere” of Instagram to their advantage in campaigns is to run contests on the social platform. Recently, Red Bull held an Instagram contest that gave away two tickets to this year’s Red Bull King of the Rock Finals basketball tournament in San Francisco. To enter, followers had to take a picture of themselves with a basketball in unexpected, surprising locations and tag their photos #TakeMeToTheRock. The contest not only got followers excited, but also allowed Red Bull to further its reach within the sports community in a natural, but fun, way.

Now that Instagram has moved to the PC world with consumers being able to access their feeds online through their computers, brands will begin interacting more with consumers through the platform. It will be interesting to see how Instagram evolves in 2013.

Jen Pollard is a Project Manager with Mom Central Consulting.

Emerging Grocery Trends: Small, Organic Brands Get Moms’ Attention POSTED BY Stacy DeBroff AT 1:58 PM

With a shift towards more natural options and less processed foods, we see an increased number of organic companies who reach out to us to help brainstorm brand communication strategies.  

Based on our ongoing work in this space, we know Moms believe that their and their children's diets lack the nutritional value they need. And though the economy continues its uptick, families still feel the pinch of constrained household budgets coupled with increasingly busy daily schedules. As a result, Moms make strategic trade-offs while grocery shopping, allowing them to sacrifice cost for “better” products in specific categories, such as fresh produce. These trade-offs impact Mom's purchase behaviors, making her more likely to seek out natural, local, and nutritious food for her family. They also set up opportunities for smaller, organic brands to step in and help alleviate some of Mom's worries.

We see 4 emerging trends in this Market:

1) Increase spend in category specific organics:

• Concerns about pesticides, fertilizers, and hormones drive Moms to buy organic fruits, vegetables and meats.

2) Preference for Best in Class Choices:

• Moms prioritize nutritional offerings, opting for whole grain or enriched bread instead of white bread, and specifically search out grocery items with enriched and added nutrients.

3) Change in grocery shopping patterns:

• Though on a tight budget, Moms will spend budget on Whole Foods vs. general food store to purchase local sourcing – healthy and sustainable options.

4) Rise in the mistrust of labels:

• Moms take extra steps to ensure they purchase more nutritious food: 99% read nutrition labels, and 74% select items based on their nutritional value.

So how do organic brands work with Moms to feed their families well versus cheaply, and extend the idea of healthier food = healthier family?

• Focus on nutritional options: Familiarize Moms with the nutritional benefits of your brand and engage them online with suggestions for healthy and creative meal change-ups.
• Labels influence behavior: Draw Moms to your brand by highlighting nutritional values in your brand marketing, especially if your food product costs more.
• Combine nutrition and convenience benefits: the two work exponentially together as a selling point.

3 Emerging Trends to Know When Marketing to Women POSTED BY Stacy DeBroff AT 4:08 PM

Last week we attended the two-day M2W Conference in Chicago, IL. Nearly 40 speakers from around the world presented their insights on marketing to women.

Three surprising marketing trends emerged focusing on transactions, inspirations and aspirations:

Trend 1: Women have an increased desire for inspiration in their daily lives.

• According to GFK Research: In 2006, 52% of women reported being very happy, yet that percentage dropped to 40% in 2012, reflecting emerging pragmatism among women through the recession. What have been the biggest changes? Economic pressures drive some of these attitudes; women feel that if they want to get ahead in their jobs, work has to take precedence over family. This pragmatism leads moms with young kids to live life for now, but with an increased desire for inspiration.
• Pain points, economic concerns, and increased feelings of pressure all significantly increased with moms of small children (under 6) since pre-recession. These issues are not driven by shifts in household responsibilities, but rather Moms feel work responsibilities more acutely than the rest of population. 



How does your brand marketing inspire her to live life more fully?

Trend 2: Both a woman's age and her stage in life dictate her expectations of Health and Wellness brands.

• According to Anthem Worldwide: Millennials (1981-2000) feel pressure to conquer the world, experience a “quarter life” crisis, and have a keen sense of economic realities going into the job market.  Current technology enables them to live fast, on-demand connected lives. Seeing exciting updates on Facebook by friends, they feel pressure to be happy and do exciting things as well. For these young women, it means aspiration: developing into their ideal selves.
• Generation Xers (1965-1980) are more focused and on a life path. Most women in this age group are married or in some kind of relationship. When they have kids, health and wellness becomes more important: for them health and wellness means a body that works for you and self-acceptance. It’s about strength and productivity.
• Baby Boomers (1946-1964) seek a third act, with a sense of purpose and accomplishment. They have reached an age where real health issues tend to arise: health and wellness is about extending, staying vibrant into their next act and becoming their aspirational selves.
• So what brands are doing a good job speaking to all these generations? 
  • Kashi, Whole Foods, Neutrogena, Bobbi Brown, Advil, Nike.
• What are keys to these brands doing well?
  • Motivating Health- take action that’s positive for their health and wellness.
  • Build a woman’s confidence - Bobbi Brown does this well.
  • Being honest, real, and honest in communications- Advil does this with real people in their ad campaign.
  • Make it personal: Nike focusing a campaign of working out for yourself.

Regardless of generational cohort: know your consumer's aspirations well to create authentic and honest connections.

Trend 3: Women now engage in "Brand Surveillance," having ditched brand loyalty due to the financial pinch of the recession.

• According to Bonnie Ulman and Sal Kibler authors of Hustle: Marketing to Women in the Post-Recession World: The great recession for women changed everything: how she receives messages, she speaks differently and hears thing differently. Emotionally, women feel that recession is not over: household income is still down 7.9%.
• Many women feel betrayed: they thought if they did everything they were told to do, they would emerge okay. But they did not. Hence lingering hostility to Bank of America and their new slogan, “We’re better when we’re all connected.”
• Women were caught off guard by the severity and length of the latest “great recession." As most did not see it coming and thought it simply a dip, they felt it was a personal failure and that they let down those closest to them: as wives, spouses, mothers.
• Every woman hustles to take care of her family, her children, to provide for her family. She hustles in sports, she hustles on the dance floor, and most importantly, she hustles in the new economy. She thinks, “How do I organize the skills, information, and resources within myself, my community, and my connections to get a better deal?” The hustle is the game she’s playing now.
• She now finds herself living a life of sacrifice: and feels frugality fatigue. She’s trying to regain that sense of power and control she lost, so she’s “editing life.”
  
• So instead of brand loyalty, we see a scenario of "brand surveillance." She makes decisions based on referrals and based on the deals you as a brand have to offer.

Women want an awesome transaction from a brand, not the work of a deep relationship - she’s too stretched to hustle with you.

The recent recession and fall-out continue to affect female consumers; they face an ongoing burden of life-work harmony, and feel guilty for not being able to better weather the financial storm. Within this personal struggle, they aspire for more control in their life and naturally reach towards brands that help reinforce their personal feelings of strength, productivity and motivation. Brands that help them to not just live life but to live life fully, in an honest and authentic way, can establish sustainable transactions that morph into longer term relationships.

Reaching Consumers Through Visual Micro-Sharing POSTED BY Stacy DeBroff AT 11:01 AM

“Luvocracy: Pinterest for people who actually want to buy stuff.”- Mashable

Here at Mom Central, we use Pinterest to window shop. But finding something we really love, wanting to purchase it immediately and can’t, frustrates us.

A related site Wanelo (WAnt, NEed, LOve) works like Pinterest, but lets you click to buy. The drawback of Wanelo? Eventually items get sold out or off-season.

Luvocracy  (pronounced Luv-ocracy…and not like “louvre-cracy” which was our initial French attempt pronunciation) seems to be heading down the same social experience road as Wanelo but with a distinct difference: Luvocracy only allows ‘Pins’ of current stock and available to purchase items. Each board is called a collection and each pin is called a recommendation. Followers can trust you instead of follow you. Also, every recommendation (pin) has a price on it, because on Luvocracy you can buy the pins/recommendations that you like.

In its most simplistic form, Luvocracy lets its users:

• Discover some of the most innovative products on the market
• Easily search for – and buy – the best gift ideas from bloggers, influencers, AND their friends – all in one place
• Create a curated collection of tried-and-true favorites, and start reaping the rewards for your valued taste

The site is based on the idea that word of mouth recommendations go much further than marketing lingo. Smart! So the more recommendations a product has the more likely people are to buy it.  Because users cannot “repin” or post a recommendation on Luvocracy that’s not in stock, it alleviates the issues facing retailers of consumers looking for specific out-of-stock or no longer carried items they’ve found on Pinterest. It’s great for a brand or retailer to have items repined hundreds of times, but if the item is no longer available, how do those pins translate into ROI?

The advantage for users and brands:

By offering rewards for purchases, Luvocracy offers an incentive to keep users recommending products. As the site is still fairly new, users can trust that real people currently recommend items they really love. This offers brands a great opportunity to jump in and start recommending items. Maybe it’s because we’re addicted to shopping, but we think when people see something they like, they’d actually like to own it rather than just display a picture of it on a board.

Need more Mom Central Consulting insights?

Follow us on LinkedIn where we share macro-trends via our company updates.

Join us on Facebook for a smart, behind-the-scenes look at the folks who make us successful.

And finally, connect with us on Twitter for lively conversations about influencer marketing, insights and brand strategy.

This Week in Social Media Marketing POSTED BY Stacy DeBroff AT 10:50 AM

This week's trends in Social Media Marketing: Visual micro-sharing, content marketing
and highly-filtered ad targeting.

How do you, as a social media marketer, best develop actionable narratives about your brand and provide shareable nuggets of engaging content that will inspire your consumers to share, post, participate, recommend and take action:

Forget Stories. Your Brand Needs a Narrative – PR Newswire

John Hagel, author of “The Power of Pull,” believes that stories fall short for a brand. Hagel argues that stories do not promote participation. Stories also eventually end. Narratives do not end and urge listeners to come participate. “In a business context, if you can harness the power of narrative, you can derive competitive advantage,” said Hagel.  Narratives work because they don’t simply motivate employees, they can galvanize a broad swath of people, and inspire them to action.”

Scoring Brands By Searching Social In Real-Time – MediaPost

SinoTech group has announced the launch of a new search engine called Buzz Equity. This search engine will specifically search out all the mentions of your brand across multiple social media platforms for free. After searching your brand across social media, Buzz Equity will score your brands online social value. “The score is determined by a combination of mention concentration, frequency, "passion" (i.e. - virality), reach, and sentiment.” 

Visual Micro-Sharing Platforms: The Next Big Thing in Social Media Marketing? – SocialMediaToday

Vine and Snapchat are quickly becoming huge factors in social media. But how can these platforms be utilized properly and what can you share with your clientele? You can showcase new products or offer flash deals. Visual Micro-Sharing is bound to enter into companies marketing plans at some point. It is important to familiarize yourself with it now. “their passionate user base means that companies need to utilize them for community building and exclusive sharing of products and services. Instead of believing users will stick around to watch 6-seconds of a company's logo, businesses should be dedicated to staying relevant and interesting in this instant new way of communication.” 

Now You Can Buy and Sell Items Directly in Your Twitter Feed With Ribbon – Mashable

Ribbon announced a new Twitter feature that will allow merchants to sell products directly through Twitter without having customers leave their twitter stream. This could prove much higher conversion rates for Twitter. “With Ribbon, sellers can create a customized link for free to list their product on Twitter and embed a checkout page within the tweet. Beneath the text and link in the tweet, customers will see a picture and description of the product and can then proceed to click through and enter their personal information and credit card details to make a purchase.”

How to get your CEO Tweeting – SocialMediaToday

Tweeting takes more time than one thinks. It can especially be tough to tweet about your business. You have to be careful with what you post. You can’t offend your readers but you want to be witty and fun. This is why many CEO's don’t tweet. They just don’t have the time in their schedule. Here are a few reasons why it is important to tweet as the CEO. Most importantly, it gives your company a face. “For a CEO, this is the time to get on our Twitter level and give a corporation (the bigger, the better) a face and name behind the brand. And most importantly, a story. A look at what life behind the scenes at the company is like as told through Instagram photos.”

Should “Likes” be the focus of your Facebook Strategy? – SmartBlogs

Although Likes may be a useful tool, they do not tell you how effective your message is at getting your fans to take action supporting the brand. “Still, as long as Facebook interactions remains a step on the path to your brand’s ultimate goal, it won’t make sense to focus your Facebook strategy on any internal Facebook actions. Instead, you need to use Facebook to cultivate a following that you can then redirect to another platform where you goal action is easy to accomplish.”

Facebook Home Puts Facebook First and Everyone Else Second – Mashable

Facebook has recently announced the launch of Facebook “Home” for Android phones. Facebook home is essentially a cover feed. Instead having a plan lock screen on your phone, it will now be replaced by Facebook. This could prove to amplify the importance of Facebook in terms of reach. Other social media platforms, like Twitter, could soon follow. “What Facebook Home accomplishes, with its Cover Feed, Facebook-only notifications and Chat Heads is an always-on, wholly immersive Facebook experience that, except for when you access the app launcher, pretty much eschews everything outside of the Facebook universe.”

Ensuring Facebook Users Find You When They Need You – SocialMediaToday

Organic vs Paid. Those are the two methods are driving people to your company’s website. Paid is probably a fast method but why pay when you don’t have to. What can you do to bring people to your company website? Make sure you have loads of content. You can distribute this content in two ways. Either you push it out yourself or let visitors do the work for you. Leverage your content with advertising. “The point with this post is to discuss how Facebook can be a sustainable, always on, source of visitors. Basing your marketing on content creation have great long-term effects that are not achievable by buying traffic with regular display advertising.” 

Facebook Opens Up Ad Targeting to Minivan-Driving, Baby Food-Buying Homemakers

Adds third-party audience segments from Acxiom, Datalogix, Epsilon from AdWeek

Advertising on Facebook is getting very specific thanks to the data of their new partners like Acxiom, Datalogix and Epsilon. Is targeting this way advantageous? Or will this new hierarchy eliminate people who really do fall into the brands demographic?

Facebook today rolled out the segments as Partner Categories available through its self-serve Power Editor ad creation tool and through its ad API partners. This allows U.S. advertisers to layer in the 500-plus new segments in addition to the standard Facebook ad targeting criteria.

Now advertisers can create ad-targeting parameters such as "home owners who are retired, own a Ford pick-up truck, buy over-the-counter allergy relief medication and take cruises." They can also target "dentists who live alone, own a BMW and buy big-and-tall clothes and diet foods." Or “people who live in a million-dollar home housing four people including a military veteran.” Or “mortgage borrowing homemakers who own a minivan and buy baby food.”

A caveat: creating a highly filtered Venn diagram such as the ones mentioned above would likely work against an advertiser because they'd be too specific and counterintuitive for brands attracted to Facebook because of its billion-user scale.

 And finally...

#nowthatchersdead: Fans Think Cher Died After Thatcher Hashtag Trends – Mashable

Margaret Thatcher, the former British prime minister, passed away last week. An anti Margaret Thatcher website called “Is Thatcher Dead Yet?” wanted its readers to use the hashtag #nowthatchersdead to tell spread over twitter what they were doing now that Margaret Thatcher had passed. The hashtag trended but many people confused the hashtag by reading it as “Now That Chers Dead.” Twitter quickly turned into an arena of mourning for Cher. A lesson to all social media users, Capital letters in a hashtag make or break the message.

Need more Mom Central Consulting insights?

Follow us on LinkedIn where we share macro-trends via our company updates.

Join us on Facebook for a smart, behind-the-scenes look at the folks who make us successful.

And finally, connect with us on Twitter for lively conversations about influencer marketing, insights and brand strategy.

Infographic: The Power of Visual Content - Pinterest Versus Instagram POSTED BY Stacy DeBroff AT 8:37 AM

This Week in Social Media POSTED BY Stacy DeBroff AT 4:06 PM

The Importance of #Hashtags from Social Media Today

Some folks will #hashtag #every #word in order to #get #their #post #noticed. We wouldn't consider this the best or most strategic method of exposure. This article from SMT explores the tact and etiquette involved in a successful #hashtag strategy.

Why I (Often) Work from Home And You (Maybe) Should Too Huffington Post

Everyone has heard the recent news of Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer’s ban on her employees working from home; a tough restriction to accept given their past work culture. The worst part of the story?  She built a nursery in her Yahoo! Office. Employees can’t work from home, but she can bring home to work? C-level FAIL.

Social Consolidation To Change Online Marketing – Online Media Daily

For social networking companies, innovation drives the growth of their consumer base. Facebook needed to buy a hip, popular platform like Instagram to remain relevant to its users. If a company cannot innovate internally nor acquire that missing piece from an external company purchase, they'll be left in the dust as users flock to the next new attraction.

How to Talk to Your Employees on Social Media Sites from Social Media Today

Social media acts as a great way to develop stronger relationships with colleagues. For example, here at Mom Central we have a very close-knit group of colleagues who rely on social networking sites to maintain connections outside of the work environment. We intermingle via our Facebook and Pinterest accounts to learn more about each other and interact in a way that is non-work related. The friendships we create with one another then help to support and enforce our work relationships as colleagues.

Pandora to Cap Free Mobile Listening at 40 Hours Per Month Huffington Post

Fear not! While the title of this article looks devastating (or at least it did to us, we listen to a LOT of Pandora), the average listener only logs about 20 hours. Whew! But if you happen to be a super-user, read this post!

Andy’s Answers: How Life Technologies gets enlightened with social media – Smart Brief

Customers relate to a person not a company. By making social less scary for your employees, they can connect more authentically with your consumers and ultimately change how you do business.  

Of Course ‘Parks and Rec’ Pinterest Wedding Album is Adorable from Mashable

Alert! New way to use Pinterest! The very popular NBC show, Parks and Rec, recently featured an episode where two characters tied the knot. The geniuses at NBC created a Pinterest board in the form of a wedding album – an overwhelming response ensued. We love it. 

Why retailers are pinning hopes on Pinterest – Reuters 

Pinterest acts as a "window-shopping" platform, which encourages retailers to start embracing the platform in their marketing strategy. Aspirational pinning drives the platform and impulsive buying increase retailer revenues.

Pope Benedict XVI Tweets Final Farewell to His Flock from Mashable

Although he retired early (can you say that of an 80-something year old man?), Pope Benedict made huge leaps in the social media world for the Vatican. As the first Pope to open a twitter account, Pope Benedict was able to connect with 1.6 million people on the English language version alone. Although since his twitter account opened slightly over a year ago, he tweeted less than 40 times… guess it wasn’t his main priority. 

When Advertisers Update Classic TV Ads to Boost Sales POSTED BY Stacy DeBroff AT 1:45 PM

I assume the average consumer doesn’t enjoy commercials. Ads interrupt TV viewing and seem repetitive and annoying. And with the creation of DVR, we can almost eliminate them from our television regimen. Maybe this is where I’m a bit different from the average consumer - because I actually enjoy ads. Whether it’s shaking my head at a dismal attempt, or nodding in appreciation of a genius creation, I’m guilty of being an advertisement lover.

When I read an article about the re-creation of the 1981 Grey Poupon “Pardon Me” television ad, I loved the idea. There are two main reasons why I love this:

1. Who doesn’t love nostalgia? While 1981 is before my era, from what I’ve gathered it was a pretty popular commercial. So recreating it with a modern twist is smart and adaptable.
2. I appreciate that Grey Poupon / Kraft can laugh at themselves! Having an English gentleman driven around the countryside and using the tagline ‘enjoy one of life’s finer pleasures’ shows the brand can laugh at it’s own stuffy image, but still pass along product messaging.
   

The 2013 edition of this commercial aired during the Oscars Sunday. Kraft plans to air this commercial just once, and then make it available online.  Though sales of Grey Poupon recently sagged based on increased competition in the space, Kraft hopes this revival may be enough to rejuvenate interest in the product and ramp-up online engagement.

Take a look below and let us know your thoughts: will "the lost footage" be enough to entice your interest?

Jessica Hogan is a Senior Project Manager at Mom Central Consulting.

This Week in Social Media POSTED BY Stacy DeBroff AT 2:27 PM

Facebook Influences Your Mood More Than Any Social Network – Mashable

A recent survey reveals that Facebook causes the most stress but also elicits the most positive effect on mood compared to other social networks: "'Our social media report helps paint an interesting picture of our evolving communications tastes and preferences, and how even routine activities such as checking friends into locations, can have an adverse affect on our relationships,' Rebtel CEO Andreas Bernstrom says in a statement.”
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Social Interaction Affects Brand Perception – MediaPost

In a new study, J.D. Power and Associates measured consumer experience with companies through their social platform for both marketing (such as receiving a coupon or some other offer through a social channal) and service (such as answering questions about a product or service or solving specific problems) needs.
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60 Digital Media Resources You May Have Missed – Mashable

“This sure has been another crazy week. Between Valentine's Day and the terrifying meteor that shook Russia, it is easy to understand how you could fall behind in other news.”
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The Future of Facebook as a Social Content Farm – Mashable

Facebook is bound to become a content farm. “Facebook is supposed to be about real people — about all the stupid, wonderful, shitty, brilliant and boring things we do every day.”
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Facebook: Now Pay to Promote Your Friend’s Posts – Mashable

For $7 you can now pay to promote your friend's posts on Facebook. You could already promote your own posts but now you can pay to promote something and not seem like an egomaniac.
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Why is Facebook’s e-commerce offering so disappointing? – Gigaom

Facebook probably has high expectations for e-commerce, but it seems that either it, or the brands and businesses present on the social networking site, are out of sync. “More and more people are now buying from the living room (and soon probably even from the bar). For many of them Facebook could be the first place to look for an opportunity to make a purchase, or one of the most important starting points... many Facebook visitors happily talk about brands, recommend products, and share shopping experiences on Facebook.”
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Twitter Now Reducing Some Tweets to 117 Characters – Mashable

Any tweet sent with a URL will be reduced to 118 characters to 117 for http links. “In short, the condensed links now take up a bit more space, leaving you with a little less space to add commentary with them. In total, the update represents a two-character drop per tweet.”
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@BurgerKing Becomes McDonald’s: What You Missed in the #failurewhopper Twitter Hack – Adage

Burger King’s twitter account was hacked by a notorious hacker group this week. They posted some inappropriate tweets and retweeted numerous people. It was very anticlimactic. One retweet summarizes the whole ordeal for Burger King and the rest of twitter: “They may be hacked, but when was the last time ANYBODY talked about @BurgerKing this much?"
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Jeep, BK Hacks Shine Light on Twitter’s Treatment of Marketers – Adage

There were upsides to the hack for both Burger King and Jeep. “... the week's hacks unveiled a potential upside: an infusion of new followers that neither brand had to spend money to attract. Tweeted the brand Monday night when it was back in the driver's seat: "Interesting day here at BURGER KING, but we're back! Welcome to our new followers. Hope you all stick around!"
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Beyond Reblogging: Tumblr in the Future – Mashable

The two secrets to Tumblr’s runaway success is design and community engagement. "I think it is crucial that Tumblr take care of their content creators," Grelle said. "They should work to make this the best possible place for people to post things they make. If Tumblr could shift the perception from a place where people mostly repost things, to a place where things originate, I think they would leave their competitors in the dust."
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Grey Poupon ‘Pardon Me’ Ad to Air During Oscars After 16 Year Hiatus - Huffington Post

Love the nostalgia and humor that Grey Poupon / Kraft is using in this ad. Recreating an ad from 1981, Grey Poupon plans to air their newest edition of this ad this Sunday. "Kraft Foods Group Inc. plans to air the ad only once on TV, after which it will be available online. According to Kantar Media, a 30-second spot during the Oscars this year is estimated to cost $1.7 million. But Kraft... is hoping the high-profile placement will help spark enough interest to engage people in online marketing campaigns."

Related articles

Burger King sold to McDonald's? No, just hacked

Telling a Whopper on social media

Why MTV was wrong to fake-hack their own Twitter account

Welcome to the Age of Social Media Rubbernecking

After Hack, Burger King Needed a Brand Publishing Response

How to Convince a Brand to Change Its Marketing Strategy POSTED BY Stacy DeBroff AT 10:50 AM

As we've discussed before, we’ve seen Moms come alive on social media – leading the way on blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest – and this rapid embrace of technology and social media platforms enables Moms to find their voice, resulting in a dramatic change in the consumer marketing power balance. No longer willing to receive top-down messages from brands, Moms today want a voice in product innovation and a seat at the marketplace table.

Last night I spoke on FOX 25 Boston, drawing attention to the rise of Moms as social media powerhouses and as a result their rapidly morphing relationships with brands. We highlighted the story of a Cranston R.I. Mom, Chelley Martinka, and her 10-month-old daughter:

A 28-year-old Cranston woman, mother of a 10-month-old girl with dwarfism, has convinced a national pickle manufacturer to stop using the word midget on its labels for small pickles.

Chelley Martinka noticed a jar of Cains "Kosher Dill Midgets" in December. In protest, Martinka called and wrote the company, Gedney Foods in Minnesota, which produces the pickles; and she also started a blog and created a YouTube video (original story).

Chelley's gripping YouTube video (see below) acts as a powerful message fueled with first-person passion, and had a dramatic impact on how the Cains brand team thought about marketing its products to consumers. With one video, one woman encouraged a brand to stop, listen and change:

 

For more on the mobilization of Moms and the shifting balance of consumer marketing, see my thoughts via the video below:

Boston News, Weather, Sports | FOX 25 | MyFoxBoston

Related articles

Mom gets pickle co. to drop "midget" from jars

Pickle company agrees to drop 'midget'

Cranston mother fights pickle company, wins

Cran. mom inspires food name change

The Great Instagram Debate POSTED BY Stacy DeBroff AT 10:29 AM

Is it that we simply love visual storytelling or do we really just love Instagram?

This week I listened to a few sessions of the Social Insider conference streaming online through Mediapost. The most intriguing session focused on what they called “the Great Instagram Debate”.  Alan Edgett, co-founder of GetPerception, argued that Instagram is a great social platform for amplifying and extending brands. As the trend towards more visual content continues into 2013, Alan expects that we will begin to see more brands increase their Instagram participation. On the other side, Nathaniel Perez, global head of social experience, SapientNitro, doubts the power of Instagram mainly because of the growing competitive landscape with other platforms such as Snapchat, Vine, etc., entering the scene. He also questions whether Instagram’s activity will simply dissolve into Facebook. Is it that we simply love visual storytelling (even if it comes through Facebook) or do we really just love Instagram?

Reading other articles on this debate, it seems that many agree with Alan Edgett- Instagram is unique in its own way and can be leveraged by brands to create loyalty amongst consumers. To accomplish this, brands need to strategically use the social media site (which is now available through multiple devices- mobile and PC) in a unique way that sets their Instagram content apart from content posted to other social platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. What does this mean? Here are a few examples:

Using Instagram as a “Behind the Scenes” look at your brand

Many consumers follow brands on Instagram to catch the behind the scenes photos that they wouldn’t normally see. People want to see behind the scenes photos (we’re all a bit nosy aren’t we?). If MCC was to utilize Instagram, people would want to see photos of the new office being built, everyone swarming around a fresh bag of birthday bagels in the kitchen, or someone playing around with one of the toys on the giveaway table.  Brands need to be creative and funny to create a dynamic personality on a platform that is 98% pictures.

For example, Intel posts creative pictures of tech products in strange settings such as robots walking around the office or a lego man “raising the bar” on an employee’s desk (see below). Below that, a picture from Taco Bell’s Instagram displays a holiday wreath made completely of ketchup and relish packets. It’s cute, quirky and still brand related. That’s Instagram.

Showcase consumers interacting with your brand

People feel as if they can share more personal photos of their day-to-day lives more so on their Instagram feeds than other social sites (of course this again brings up the fact that so many directly post all of their Instagram images to Facebook). Brands have used this to their advantage by launching campaigns to showcase consumer’s interacting with their brands in their daily lives. Tiffany & Co. did this successfully in 2012 offering personalized “Tiffany Blue filters” and asking people to use them on their “true love” pictures with the hashtag #TrueLovePictures. The campaign was a great way for Tiffany to provide its followers with relevant, brand-related content, while also inviting them to take part in the experience.

Using Instagram for contests

A good way for brands to use the “behind the scenes” and more personal “day-to-day atmosphere” of Instagram to their advantage in campaigns is to run contests on the social platform. Recently, Red Bull held an Instagram contest that gave away two tickets to this year’s Red Bull King of the Rock Finals basketball tournament in San Francisco. To enter, followers had to take a picture of themselves with a basketball in unexpected, surprising locations and tag their photos #TakeMeToTheRock. The contest not only got followers excited, but also allowed Red Bull to further its reach within the sports community in a natural, but fun, way.

Now that Instagram has moved to the PC world with consumers being able to access their feeds online through their computers, brands will begin interacting more with consumers through the platform. It will be interesting to see how Instagram evolves in 2013.

Jen Pollard is a Project Manager with Mom Central Consulting.