by Elizabeth Mufich - Campaign Manager
July 27, 2010
Sunday night's Season 4 premiere of Mad Men brought in 2.9 million viewers and was the most watched episode of Mad Men ever, which means 2.9 million of you saw the PR stunt that Peggy Olson and Pete Campbell pulled off.
After fretting over possibly losing the Sugarberry Ham account, Peggy suggests that they hire two actresses to fight over a ham at a grocery store in order to generate press over the product. The stunt is a success and Pete and Peggy are awarded additional dollars to their advertising budget.
What this scene reminded me of is this – we are all looking for ways to get our brand or our clients’ brand out there without having to break the bank.
With the advent of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, companies are jumping at the chance to generate buzz around their product. But is it really working?
According to a recent report that was released today by digital agency 360i, 90% of tweets come from consumers and only 12% of consumer tweets mention a brand. The top brands mentioned on Twitter are Twitter itself.
Furthermore, only 1% of consumer tweets that mention a brand are part of an active conversation with that brand, meaning that companies are failing to engage their consumers in a conversation.
So what does this mean for businesses both large and small?
Unfortunately in this case, showing up is not half the battle. Businesses need to build relationships with their consumers and take on a personality. As 360i states, “there remains a largely untapped opportunity for brands to create deeper connections with consumers via earned media and to learn more about what motivates them with online listening through Twitter.” The real value for companies who join social networking site is to create a conversation that allows brands to become a more meaningful part of people’s lives.