Page 344 - Social Media Marketing for Dummies

users voted on the submissions, a panel of celebrity judges weighed in, and a win-
ner was chosen. The online program was promoted extensively through paid
media across the Internet and through the television advertisements that aired
around the TV version of Project Runway.

Thousands of consumers submitted their designs for this online challenge, with
many more visiting the website to critique the designs and vote for their favorites.
The television advertisements built awareness for the online competition; paid
media online promoted it across the Internet; and consumers engaged with the
brand more deeply on the website by submitting designs, rating others, and
discussing them. It was the perfect success story, with television advertisements
working in conjunction with a social influencer marketing program to meet the
brand’s objectives. And yes, during the period of the campaign, sales to their
target audience jumped.

Awareness, engagement, and

conversion with television

Over the past dozen years or so, as digital advertising has gained in prominence,
a slew of traditional marketers have bemoaned the attention that the digital space
has been getting. Digital marketers have been too proudly explaining how impor-
tant their form of marketing is because it’s more measurable, more quantifiable,
and more results-driven than other forms of marketing. This tension has created
a false divide between television and digital.

Television is fundamentally going digital itself, in a way that none of us could have
imagined a few years ago. The infrastructure that drives television — the content
distribution models, the content formats, and the advertising opportunities —
have all changed. And what’s more, the lines between television and the Internet
are blurring. Market research shows that consumers increasingly multitask. They
don’t just search the web while watching television; they talk to each other online
while watching television. And online television sites in the form of platforms,
such as YouTube and Twitter, have built-in functionality.
The face of television has gone digital, with major cable networks streaming live
broadcasts. This means that as television continues to go digital, marketers have
the opportunity to get the same advertising benefits from television that they’ve
always obtained, but with some of the unique attributes of digital such as measur-
ability, social capability, and interactivity.

328 PART 5 Old Marketing Is New Again with SMM