Category: Advertising & Marketing

Super Bowl ads 2017: staff opinions

Posted on by Brian Lee

BRIAN:

(Frankly, I wish I had turned off the TV after Lady Gaga’s halftime show, just so I could have been spared watching the Falcons’ epic collapse. At least this New York Times article titled “Why Do Fans Excuse the Patriots’ Cheating Past?” made me feel better.) A “Walking Dead” fan, my favorite commercial was of Lucille (Negan’s bat) smashing a football. In general, advertisers seemed to really push the limits of selling emotion over product features/benefits. For example, Hyundai did what so many other brands have already done, and that’s use U.S. soldiers reuniting with their families in a commercial, without talking about its cars. If you’re going to make the emotional tie, do something that’s not so transparent and unoriginal.

TAYLOR:

Being a Colts fan, it pained me to watch the Patriots win another Super Bowl and to now have to hear about “Tom Terrific” for another season. This year I enjoyed the commercials that were lighthearted and funny. Growing up in the ’90s and being a huge boy band fan, it was safe to say my favorite was the Bai beverage commercial featuring Christopher Walken saying the words to the famous N SYNC song, “Bye Bye Bye.” The commercial was subtle and funny but very effective.

CARLEY:

With the crazy comeback by the Patriots during this year’s Super Bowl, it is hard to remember specifics about the commercials. The most memorable to me and which became my favorite is Ford’s “Go Further.” This commercial was meant to pull on your heart strings a bit as it showed many situations in which people and pets were helplessly stuck. This commercial wanted to stray away from Ford being just about manufacturing cars and instead remind the public their company is all about mobility. No matter what sticky situation you are in, Ford is there to help you “go further” in your own way.

Nine Ways Hotels can use Pinterest

Posted on by Carley Hanko

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pinterestIt’s no surprise that consumers who are interested in planning their vacations or weddings turn to Pinterest for ideas. In fact, the platform continues to grow in popularity, as its usage doubled from 2012 to 2015, according to the Pew Research Center. Thus, it’s likely your guests are using it, too. For Pinterest, here are nine best practices for hotels.

  1. Inspire. You don’t necessarily need a call-to-action. Post high-quality, desirable photos of your hotel to inspire viewers to take a trip or plan a wedding at your hotel.
  2. Showcase the rooms and amenities. Make the customer feel like all they may need and want in a hotel is in yours by pinning pictures of rooms and amenities such as a pool, spa and fitness rooms.
  3. Promote events. Pin images of events that your hotel has hosted or will host to demonstrate that you are a popular destination for event planners.
  4. Promote tourist attractions. When booking a room at a hotel, the guests will take in to account the features outside of your hotel. Promoting nearby attractions like beaches, restaurants, local businesses, museums and more will help sell your hotel to potential customers.
  5. Run competitions. Pinterest for hotels provides an easy way to run contests and promotions. This encourages past and potential guests to engage with your brand. For example, have contestants pin photos of their favorite experiences while on vacation in your city, and have them include a hashtag.
  6. Drive more traffic to your site. Pinterest is next to Facebook and Twitter for the most visited social media platform. Make sure to add to your photos a URL that links back to your hotel’s website.
  7. Help engaged couples imagine their wedding at your hotel. How can your hotel cater to a couple’s big day? Post pictures of previous weddings (with permission) to help them visualize what your hotel can offer, from staging areas to sites for wedding party photos to where the band or DJ can set up.
  8. Create an interactive board. Create a board and invite former guests to post photos of their recent stay at your hotel. This way you are creating a meaningful interaction with your recent guests while receiving fresh, third-party content.
  9. Show off the meeting and conference space. What are the various room configurations? How many people can you hold in each room (think rehearsal dinner, reception, farewell brunch, etc.)? How flexible can you be?

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Revelation PR, Advertising & Social Media offers hotels, B&Bs and resorts services related to media relations, community relations, branding, group sales, SEO/SEM and social media management. Please contact Brian Lee, brian [at] experiencerevelation.com or 608-622-7767.

Seven Tips on Getting Started with Video Marketing

Posted on by Brian Lee

youtube logoInBusiness Magazine interviewed me recently about “Producing Your Own Videos.” Here are the important points about getting started with video marketing.

1. Do you need video? For any tactic, make sure you have a need before you try video as a solution. In other words, don’t jump into radio ads, Twitter, email marketing or video unless you have an actual reason to. Reasons may include humanizing your brand, establishing expertise or educating your audiences.

2. Write a script. This will help you ensure key messages are used and that you keep the video to an allotted time (e.g. 30 seconds). You can always spot unscripted videos because they either take too long to get to the point, have extraneous scenes and/or have some arbitrary length (e.g. 34 seconds). The columns should be Scene #, Audio, Video, Notes and Length of Scene. You also should “script” a live video to establish a flow.

3. Pick the right platform. For example, Snapchat is good for timely, not timeless, videos. If you only have the capacity for one platform, YouTube is the logical choice. It’s the No. 2 search engine after Google, it has live video capabilities and you can easily embed and share your YouTube videos across the web.

4. Audio is important, too. Good audio is almost as important as good video. Use a wireless or lavaliere mic; neither are that expensive. If you are buying a digital video camera, make sure it has an audio input jack, as most cameras do not.

5. Free video editing software can get the job done. Professional software like Avid have more features than a non-video production company would likely ever need. Windows provides Movie Maker, and Apple provides iMovie, and both are serviceable in terms of editing features.

6. Don’t just dip your toe in the water. In most circumstances, one video is not enough. Your audiences are always hungry for more and more content, so have a consistent schedule of videos.

7. Measure your efforts. Metrics such as views, length of views and shares can mean you’re heading toward your objectives, but otherwise they are only vanity stats. What’s going to matter to your business at the end of the day will be the actions (e.g. downloads, purchases, etc.) that your target audiences take.