Social media marketing, in its relatively short time in existence, has already claimed certain days of the year as its own: Cyber Monday, Super Sunday, Black Friday and, most recently, Tax Day. This year, a record number of brands offered big-time deals on Tax Day, and we have the rundown on who gave out what, what promotions worked and which brands missed a golden opportunity.
It was a junk food lovers jamboree on Tuesday as tons of brands used Facebook to promote free food giveaways. Arby’s gave out curly fries to Facebook friends while Chili’s doled out free desserts and appetizers. And the social media gut bomb didn’t end there; Cinnabon, Panda Express and Chevy’s also gave out free Tax Day eats. Seattle’s Best gave out free coffee coupons on its Facebook page. But the big winner here was Pizza Hut, which used social media to pick out winners of free large pizzas in six U.S. cities at midnight to feed those last-minute filers.
Food wasn’t the only category busy on Tax Day, though. Hydro-Massage once again gave away free 10 minute massages and Office Depot donated free copies to the rushed tax day crowd.
Things like free copies, free coffee and free pizzas speak very much to the spirit of Tax Day and using Facebook as the coupon hub makes a lot of sense. What doesn’t make sense is the companies that didn’t promote at all on Tax Day. If we ran the Facebook marketing for an airline or a travel website, we wouldn’t have missed offering flight specials and vacation deals to those lucky folks who are dying to spend that refund money on its way. Likewise, the pain relief industry, the Tylenols and Advils of the world, really missed a promotion opportunity to hand out free samples to filers who had splitting Tax Day headaches.
The Tax Day social media marketing blitz has become a tradition and we can’t wait to see what the brands roll out in 2013. But don’t get any funny ideas, IRS. We’re in no hurry to file again.
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