Today Is Our Biggest Marketing Event

Today is the biggest event in this country in a long time. First and foremost we are bringing in a new President which is always a big deal for the entire world.  The world has looked with open eyes at this day since George Washington was inaugurated.  But today is even more important because of where we are as a country. This is our marketing event.

Yesterday, there was a debate going around on Twitter about the size and expense of this inauguration.  The question was: with the state of our economy should we have a really big celebration?  Should it have been toned down?  I say “NO WAY”!  This is exactly what this country needs right now.  Today we can take a break from all the pain this country is going through and look to the future.  “Sometimes you just need a party”.  As I have mentioned several times, all of us in the event and entertainment business are “the escape”.  This event is the one day escape for the United States.

Look at the money being spent on this day. It has been good for the economy.  People are spending money on today like a holiday.  Look at the merchandise.  T-shirts are being sold like a rock concert or a sports team championship.  People are spending money on home parties and dinners. Every train, plane, and bus is full heading to D.C. 

My 11 year old daughter told me this fact:  Today’s inauguration is the largest port-a-john event in history (can you tell she is my daughter?).  She did not make this fact up.  She read about a port-a-john business that had a “really bad year” due to the economy.  This one event today pulled them out and already made their year. 

No matter who you voted for back in November, you need to be supportive of today’s event. Today is a chance for this country to put on a promotional event to market the United States not only to its citizens but to the world.

 

Facebook Marketing

Now that I have been using Facebook on a daily basis, I have been looking at all the marketing opportunities that go with this type of online service.

Of course you can buy advertising directly with Facebook.  These are the ads that are placed on the right side of the page.  I would like to know the click rate for these ads?  Do members really check them out? 

But the most effective way to market is to directly ask the member.  The Obama & McCain campaigns have all kinds of direct marketing on Facebook.  I did a quick Obama search under events and it produced more then 500 Obama event causes.  McCain produced the same results.  Here is an interesting stat: The cause group that claims they are the “official” McCain group has almost 217,000 members and the big Obama group has more the 800,000 members.  There are two reasons for this.  I believe the Obama campaign has done a better job of marketing to the social websites and he appeals to younger voters which use the site.  When I was searching both campaigns on Facebook I could have looked forever.  The groups for both candidates go on and on.  Some have just a few members and some have tens of thousands.  No matter what, this is a lot of eyeballs promoting the candidates.

A great marketing tool with Facebook is the join an event option.  The first one I received was asking if I was voting. I had the option to RSVP with confirm or decline.  It shows you how many others have already confirmed.  This is a wonderful marketing tool because you have the person do something (interactive) which will help them remember and you have direct stats to tell you how many saw it.  It also creates hype.

Starbucks is using the election & Facebook to market.  They are offering free coffee to all who tell them they voted.  They added the RSVP feature to this.  Not because you need it to get the coffee but it tells them how many people really read it.  The last count I saw was over 61,000 people saying they would attend.

We all should be taking a closer look at social networking.  I think this is the next big marketing battleground.

 

Obama Campaign Is Setting The Marketing Course

If you plan to vote for Barack Obama or not, you have to agree that he and his team have been great event marketers.  I have been in awe of what they have done and accomplished.  They have taken a Junior Senator from Illinois and made him into a “Superstar” brand.  As it has been used over and over he is a “rock star”. 

I love the complete marketing mix they use to get the message out.  Sure they use traditional marketing as part of the campaign such as TV and radio. But it’s the use of the non-traditional marketing that I am pumped about.  The website is getting millions of hits and has been a fabulous tool to raise millions of dollars.  Not with big donors but with millions of little donors giving as little as $15 each.  This is grass roots marketing for the 21^st century.

They have effectively used mobile marketing.  When the campaign was getting ready to announce the VP pick, they did a promotion with mobile phones.  They asked supporters to text them and they would send the mobile supporters the name of the VP pick first.  Of course you understand that all the media sent in their text too so it really was a media/general public release.  However, look at the data that the campaign collected.  Look at the new marketing tool they now have to get out “the word”.

But the coolest thing they are doing and what prompted me to write today’s blog is video game advertising.  The Obama campaign is buying ad space inside a few “online” popular video games with gamers using Xbox 360.  These users of Madden NFL 09 and Burnout Paradise might see ads showing up in the game.  On the Madden game, signage in the stadium could have Obama ads that remind voters that their state may have early voting.  What is even cooler is these ads are only showing up in 10 key battleground states.  So for example here in MA where he WILL win, those gamers will never see it.  But in PA, or NC they could see the ads.

No matter what happens in this election the Obama people have really brought non-traditional marketing to the main stream and this is a good thing for us event marketers.