by Kimberly A. Cook (Twitter@ WarriorTales)
The Super Bowl is one of the biggest marketing platforms on the planet. That’s one reason why I watch the tv commercials so closely. Ad folks at the top of their creative game come to play. The take away for book marketing is always educational.
Four classic marketing rules were demonstrated by the Budweiser Puppy ad this year:
One: Babes, Beauties and Beasts: Working on the newspaper it was widely known pictures of babies – (i.e.*etrade), good-looking men or women – (GoDaddy) and beasts, (Budweiser Puppy, Clydesdales) always resonate with readers. Us humans like to see pint-sized people, pretty people and fun animals. Score one for Madison Avenue using the age-old rule since the time of the real “Mad Men.”
Two: Hold the viewer/reader to the screen with feeling: We adore the puppy who finds a friend, is taken away from his home and buddies, then rescued by his buds and brought back home. Not one shot of a beer bottle. Budweiser knows they are selling a feeling, commitment, brand loyalty and family and friends, not a bottle of beer.
Same with selling books. We writers are selling escape, education, thrills, solving problems, providing comfort and laughter. It’s not really a book or a bottle of beer; our books offer an experience, touch feelings and/or help fix problems.
Can’t get much more heart-string pulling than a puppy, unless it’s the homecoming parade for the soldier from Afghanistan Budweiser used as their second commercial. We still have troops at war and when only his wife greets him when he comes home, then everybody is there it’s a tear-jerker. Besides the fact a crowd like that might freak out a returning combat vet it does send a heartfelt message. (By the way, women veterans come home too and I don’t see much of that, note to advertisers.)
Three: Use the three-act play structure for commercials, movies or books. Commercials are mini-mini movies or short, short stories but the same plotting and structure needs are present. The Budweiser puppy commercial has a set up, turning point and climax complete with a dog adopter villain and a happy ending all in 60 seconds flat. The B-story line sets up a possible human romance too.
Four: Social Media is here to stay and both Super Bowl ad and book launch campaigns require planning. The Budweiser Puppy Love Super Bowl ad was released online Wednesday, by Thursday it had gone viral and the Budweiser Puppy had his own Twitter account and was tweeting. According to the #HashTag Bowl, in 2012 only 25 percent of Super Bowl ads used hashtags, this year hashtags were used by more than 50 percent of the advertisers. So Twitter is here to stay and that Budweiser doggie is one smart social media puppy! #BestBuds
Links:
Budweiser Puppy Twitter Account: http://www.twitter.com/BudweiserPuppy
Budweiser Puppy Wins Super Bowl! http://marketingland.com/1-3-million-shares-budweiser-puppy-love-ad-declared-years-super-bowl-winner-72922
Twitter Rules Hashtag Bowl http://marketingland.com/game-over-twitter-mentioned-in-50-of-super-bowl-commercials-facebook-only-8-google-shut-out-32420
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