marketing

Pokemon Go Marketing

Catch ‘Em All (and Grab Some New Customers)

While Canadian Pokemon fans are eagerly awaiting the release of Pokemon Go, the delayed rollout to Canada gives businesses more time to plan marketing strategies for when the Pokeballs come out.

Simply put, this game takes the idea behind the classic card-and-video game and brings it to the real world. Players use their phone’s GPS and camera to walk around and “catch” Pokemon. You can then go to PokeSpots to gain experience points and train Pokemon, or go to a gym where you can challenge other players to combat. Both Pokespots and gyms are real places, often spots of significance.

Marketing to Pokemon Go audience

This is what the game looks like when using the app on your phone.

The new GPS-enabled mobile game has rocketed to the top of the App Store and has been installed over 5 million times on Android devices. In the US, it has been installed on more than 5% of all Android devices in the entire country. In just a meagre few days, it has more installs than dating app Tinder. There are more daily active users on Go than on Twitter.

In short, this game is blowing up and is poised to take Canada by storm upon release (expected soon).

So, how can your business take advantage and tap this massive customer base?

Here’s a couple of tips to get up-and-running right away and stay ahead of the curve when it launches north of the border.

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Humour comedy club

Successfully Using Humour to Generate Political Engagement

The marriage of comedy and politics dates back to MAD magazine covers, thoughts of Kevin Nealon and Norm Macdonald taking shots on Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update, or maybe it was Roger Abbott’s Jean Chretien impressions and the whole Air Farce troupe. More recently, Rick Mercer and Jon Stewart come to mind.

But the digital age has brought about more opportunities to push out biting comedy clips than ever before, and increasingly groups are using that tactic to involve young people. It’s not as simple as just putting up goofy clips to earn a laugh, though. Using comedy for political engagement is a tough balance.

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Using listicles

How You Can Use Listicles, Too

The BuzzFeeds and Vices of the world have cemented listicles as a viable method to share information quick and far. This election, listicles have been bouncing around the web as a new style of political reporting. So why do they work so well?

SHORT AND SUCCINCT

Listicles can be lengthy, but good ones have short points. This makes it easy for the reader to scan a story and quickly comprehend the major arguments.

MULTIMEDIA

Most listicles feature a photo or video after each and every point, making them engaging and easy to follow. The most successful listicles typically deploy comedy in those photos and videos to add a lighter edge to politics – typically a “serious” subject area.

EASY TO SHARE

Listicles are designed to be shared, so they’re packed full of language that’s meant to resonate with the reader. Unlike objective hard news stories, listicles can be built to entice agreement or anger, and then prompt the reader to share within their own networks for confirmation.

Reaching millennials

Finding the Millennials in the Election

Amidst the conversations of the role social media will play this election, a number of emerging platforms have been largely ignored. We’ve already written about theparties’ poor efforts to connect with students on traditional media, but how about on the online spaces millennials actually enjoy? While all of the leaders are active on Facebook and Twitter, millennials are increasingly joining online spaces where their parents don’t quite “get it.”

According to a 2015 study by Forum Research, 32% of Canadians aged 18-32 are on Instagram. Among leaders? Only Justin Trudeau and Stephen Harper have accounts, and neither are particularly good at it – both simply re-hash content from their Facebook profiles.

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Target audience

Spotlight on Influence Campaigns

An influence campaign during an election is only as strong as its messaging. In other words, content is king.

Too often, organizations rush to share content without considering their objectives and audience, therefore sending out a diluted message.

Before launching any sort of communications plan (be that one tweet or a full orchestrated campaign), an organization must establish three things: objectives of the campaign, target audiences and key messaging.

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Drake dad dance SNL

How Brands Got in on the Beef

Over the past week or so, two hip-hop artists have been involved in a argument that’s dominated social conversations throughout that time. Canadian artist Drake and U.S. up-and-comer Meek Mill have spent the week trading jabs in the media, on social, and have been releasing special songs to undermine the credibility of the other.

Yesterday, Meek Mill released the latest song in the ongoing feud – often called a “beef” in hip hop lingo – and was met with widespread criticism in the hip hop world.

Sensing an opportunity, a number of brands decided to jump in on the conversation and craft their own promotional messages around the beef. For some it paid off well, for others, things were a little forced.

Whataburger

The popular Texas hamburger chain came out firing once the Meek Mill single was released and public opinion determined it was a flop. They were able to capitalize on the “beef” to promote their own product and show off just how “with it” they are as brand, racking up massive engagements.

Drake Meek Mill tweet beef

Whataburger takes Drake’s side

They followed that up with a second tweet later in the day, realizing they’d struck a great opportunity to attract some earned media (exhibit #1 right here) and remain relevant in searches.

Whataburger tweet Drake

Whataburger refers to a Drake lyric to remain in the loop on the beef

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