During a discussion about the possibilities of YouTube Sponsorships provide for popular channels, a friend of mine brought up an interesting trend that I was previously unaware of. We are probably all aware of the Harlem Shake and its sudden mass popularity online. As such, YouTubers would watch video after video of imitation Harlem shakes linked to the original on the right side bar for recommendations. This created the effect where all the videos on the top page of the Harlem Shake search rapidly climbed in excess of five million views.
This led me to think of the blackout in the Super Bowl created an incredible online opportunity for marketing teams without commercials in the actual event to relate their products to the unexpected occurrence. As mentioned in Annie’s Blog, these advertising teams took to Social Media and Internet to places sponsored tweets near search items such as “power outage”, “blackout” and “power failure” which they accurately predicted would receive a massive number of searches. While Annie points out this effective us of mass marketing, Matt Wesson’s marketing blog continues by pointing out the lessons which could be drawn from this. For advertisers who had sunk costs into the conventional ads, this was an unexpected difficulty. Their captive markets had simply disappeared, with viewers quickly attracted to internet discussion about the Blackout itself. However, a few savvy companies, which showed flexibility, quick execution and importantly, an understanding of how to illustrate value to the consumer, were able to massively profit.
Particularly, this Oreo picture generated massive publicity, which was only achieved through a social media team prepared on standby, prepared to react to any situation. From this, we could draw on that not only could viral events be latched on to create brand association, but at a far lesser cost than conventional marketing.
https://blogs.ubc.ca/annieluk/2013/02/04/super-bowl-blackout-perfect-opportunity/
http://www.pardot.com/trends/agile-marketing-shines-super-bowl-blackout