When developing and executing youth-targeted promotions, marketers often learn as much through the obstacles they face as they do from their successes. YMA spoke with several brands about their recent promotional efforts, including how they dealt with any challenges.
Will They Show Up?
Live promotional events are among the most challenging outreach efforts, since there are numerous factors beyond the event planner’s control: weather, venue size, and crowd control are just a few of the unpredictable, but critical, components of a successful event.
Home improvement retailer Lowe’s learned firsthand how Mother Nature can ruin well-plotted events during last summer’s Hurricane Irene. Several of its Northeast locations had to cancel their kids’ weekend workshops due to the storm, and the handful of stores that decided to host the workshops as planned reported few participants.
Another key challenge for live promotional events is predicting the number of attendees. Camp Broadway’s Melissa Caolo says the difficulty of predicting whether people will follow through on RSVPs affects all aspects of a promotional event, from the number of chairs to set out to gauging whether the event is a success. “How many do you invite to counter the no-shows?” she says. “We had 130 RSVP, but only 70 showed up. Is that typical?”
Although each event must be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, promotion executives recommend basing plans on the assumption that 30% of those who RSVP will not show up. (One caveat: teens are significantly more difficult than adults to predict.) “They will either come in large groups or not at all. So you will get a lot or no one. It always goes to the extremes,” says one brand manager.
Another key challenge for youth-oriented promotions is timing: specifically how much time do organizers need to give families to notify them of an event? Too much advance notice means they will likely forget and too little means they will already have scheduled activities.
This timing issue isn’t solely a factor for attendees. It also plays a role for additional organizers as well. Paramount, for instance, ran into unexpected resistance when it tried to schedule free advance previews of its movie Footloose.
The studio executives reached out to tween-oriented organizations in eight cities and found only one willing to participate in its free preview. According to one executive, the local organizers felt three weeks wasn’t enough time to attract the desired 150 filmgoers. She also suspected some of the local organizations’ lack of interest might have stemmed from an unwillingness to take on extra work to host the events. “It wasn’t even as if they had to do much. We provided all of the materials, and we were even going to give away posters and CDs.”
Who Handles Twitter?
By now, every brand knows that in order to connect with today’s youth, they must be active in social media. Yet many still don’t understand the specifics of employing Twitter as an outreach tool.
Brands hear that “authenticity” and “consistency” are important, but does that mean that one employee should be tasked with tweeting in order to maintain a single, recognizable personality? And should the designated Twitter spokesperson be expected to post messages on weekends or late at night? Most social media managers agree that the most engaging Twitter accounts are those that reveal unique personalities, meaning that one person should handle all of the tweets if possible.
Another key concern is what to discuss via Twitter. While there’s no clear consensus, obviously teens aren’t interested in Macy’s discussing its sales for the 3rd quarter. At the same time, while teens might want to hear about that awesome party the executive went to in Vegas, the Macy’s corporation might not want its Twitter representative tweeting about it. Social media managers recommend initially tweeting about promotions, discounts, and exclusive offerings. “Make teens feel like insiders,” says one.
Choosing Social Media Tools
In an ideal situation, brands would have unlimited budgets to develop tools across all social media channels. The reality is that most have to choose one or two options: should they develop a mobile app? QR scan code? Interactive website? Develop and sustain a heavy Facebook and Twitter presence?
Brand executives admit there’s no simple way to determine the most effective social media kit. Most advise basing the decision on the habits and preferences of the target consumer. For instance, moms are the largest users of QR barcode scans. So if a company wants to reach moms, it might want to explore that medium. Similarly, few teens use these scans, so teen-oriented brands should focus on other social media tools.
Compromise Is A Must
Compromise is mandatory when two companies work together on a promotion. Land O Lakes, for instance, is planning a promotion in early 2012 that uses five songs from Broadway musicals. The partnership has encountered some logistical hurdles. Camp Broadway’s Melissa Caolo says Land O Lakes executives wanted to include a song from Disney’s The Lion King, but they didn’t start the process early enough to get the rights cleared in time to use the song for the promotion. Another timing issue came up in trying to get rights clearance for “Greased Lightning” from the musical Grease, which involved obtaining permission from a number of songwriters.
Such issues illustrate the importance of both partners understanding the details involved in executing both sides of the agreement, and of maintaining an open dialogue throughout the process.
Contacts and Connections: Camp Broadway, Susan Lee, 1450 Broadway, 6th Fl., New York, NY 10018; 212-840-5577, x124; slee@nederlander.com; www.campbroadway.com. Also, Melissa Caolo, Marketing Coordinator, melissa@campbroadway.com.
Land O’ Lakes, Barry Wolfish, SVP Corporate Marketing, P.O. Box 64101, St. Paul, MN 55164; 800-328-1341; www.landolakesinc.com.
Paramount Pictures, LeeAnne Stables, EVP Worldwide Marketing Partnerships, 5555 Melrose Ave., Marathon #3103, Los Angeles, CA 90038; 323-956-5377; leeanne_stables@paramount.com; www.paramount.com.
© Copyright 2011, EPM Communications, Inc. May not be reproduced without written consent of publisher.