Would you agree that Tony Hayward — the CEO of BP — is the Most Hated Man In America right now?
I’d say he is, and so based on the populist outrage over the Gulf oil spill which claimed 11 American lives and has the potential to kill an entire way of life, I decided to create an experiment to showcase how social media and online advertising, used together, can unite people towards a common goal.
Advertising and marketing are so much different now than 20 years ago. You can’t just state the features and benefits of a product to become an enduring success. What you need is a bond with the audience you wish to collaborate with (or sell to — but then nowadays sales are much more collaborative than transactional in the US).
You may recall I wrote a post about Dawn dish soap using the oil spill as “Cause Marketing.”
This is a solid example of a company building brand awareness and equity by turning a negative (Humanitarian disater, the oil spill) into a positive (Dawn helps save cute, cuddly animals). By aligning with the public against a common ill, Dawn wins, and they used Facebook along with Google to make it happen (Read the post; yes TV ads are part of the mix too).
Tony Hayward is a Brand
The BP oil spill has moved into strange territory. Because of the gaffes and perceived insensitivity of their CEO, Tony Hayward, he is now seen as a villain. Strangely, this makes him a ‘brand’ now. Before he was the CEO of BP, now he is an evil destroyer of natural habitats (as many people contend).
Let me take you step by step through the experiment I created so you can replicate it for your own causes. First, though, let me state that although I do feel Hayward is failing in his job as both chief executive and head communicator, I do not wish him physical or mental harm — such thinking is not productive.
Facebook First: Build a Page, Spread the Word Organically
My first step was to build the Facebook Page “Fire Tony Hayward.” I added some photos, seeded the page with recent stories and then invited all of my friends to join. Once I blew past 20 fans, I grabbed a custom Facebook URL (This is good for quality score with Google AdWords, but wait, we’re not there yet).
Here is a shot of the Facebook Page (Click to enlarge):
This all took me about 15 minutes.
So far I have done all the work in a way that will build ‘organic’ results from the search engines. But let’s get real — organic is great, but it takes time! We need to use paid search to get this cause moving now.
Google AdWords Combined with Facebook Ads
AdWords is a great way to gain conversions and sales online — it’s just advertising, after all. Usually I land visitors on a deep linked website, but in this case I decided to use Facebook instead. See, I want this campaign to have the chance to go viral and that’s why I used a social network in conjunction with Google.
Step one is to write a text ad for AdWords so people searching for any variation of ‘Tony Hayward’ would find the ad. I intentionally used broad matching so that if you add a little modifier, like ‘Fire Tony Hayward’ or ‘Tony Hayward is the Devil’, you still see the ad.
Over the course of a few hours I have realized 4,158 impressions (times the ad was shown on Google) and costing me only $1.58 (4 clicks so far, but hey it’s early).
Here is an example (Click to enlarge):
Step two involved building a Facebook ad, which is really simple, and I do like that the ‘text ads’ include pictures. Just click ‘create an ad’ when you are on your FB page and then you will be directed to use whatever image you like, although the default image is whatever you used as an avatar, and write some ad copy. My advice is to make it clear to the user what predetermined action you want them to take.
Next, select the geographic region where you want to advertise. I am using the US, because my cause appeals to people across the country. However you can choose specific cities, states or countries (as many or few as you like).
Finally it’s time to choose whether to bid on clicks or impressions. Clicks are good to pay for because you only pay when someone ‘converts’, however for this experiment I want to go for eyeballs — so I bid $0.50 for every 1,000 impressions. That means I am willing to pay $0.50 every time Facebook serves my ad 1,000 times.
So far I have spent $4.36 and received 19,959 impressions — and 10 clicks. This is only a few hours old, but I am seeing progress. 77 fans of the page and 8 email form completions.
Get a glimpse of my Facebook Ad Manager (Click to enlarge):
Email Lists = Permission Marketing
Did I forget to mention where on my Facebook page I send paid search visitors? Shame on me.
One of the cardinal rules of online marketing is to land people on a page where you have decided the predetermined action you want the user to take, and think backwards from there. In other words, I want to sell you something or encourage you to join my cause, so I have to create a form to capture your email (with your permission of course) and land you in a space that makes you want to fill out the form.
Check out where I send Tony Hayward Haters. I state the purpose of the cause clearly and use a giant, colorful form to get people to sign up. The form itself is designed to draw your eye in and take the action I am interested in.
So add it all together: Facebook Page (and ads) + Google AdWords + Twitter and there you have it, a social/paid search hybrid.
Wait…Twitter?
Damn right. I send out messages via Twitter as well, and of course I use trackable links to establish who is coming from where and what is most effective at gaining fans and subscribers. You can use a tool like HootSuite or bit.ly to shorten links. And don’t forget about hash tags. #BP and #OilSpill have come in handy for this cause.
Final Thoughts
- Build a Facebook Page
- Create Facebook Ads
- Build an Email Capture Form (I use Aweber)
- Set up a Google AdWords campaign
- Utilize Twitter and third party URL shortening services for PR
- Plus…well, there’s lots more, but I have a neighborhood block party to get to
Now let’s all say a little prayer for the families and communities directly and indirectly affected by this horrible disaster. I hope we can all learn something about marketing and advertising online, but let’s not forget we’re all people first.