Even on Black Friday, we dish out the best online marketing news stories in our Five Things You Might Have Missed list. Tricky Twitter innovations, a Butterball-bashing viral hit and so much more are piled high on today’s plate. So pull up a chair and dig into our leftover-free buffet!
1.) Serve with Gin & Juice: Topping the list this week is a ridiculous-yet-viral treat of online video creation from Hot Pockets. “Pocket Like It’s Hot” is a music video style commercial featuring Snoop Dogg and a parody of his 2004 hit “Drop it Like It’s Hot.” With lyrics like “When the craving’s got a hold of you… Pocket like it’s hot… Pocket like it’s hot” and a video filled with hilarious hip hop swagger, it’s hard to believe it took Hot Pockets this long to use Snoop as a spokesperson. The timing must’ve been just right, however. The clip has already racked up over 6 million views in just under a week.
2.) Picture this: If you missed the rollout of yet another cool Twitter upgrade this week, you’re not alone. Fact is, Twitter seems to release some sort of nifty app or innovation nearly every week. This week, the company announced that it would now offer an image search which allows users to search for hashtagged images, signaling the brand’s bid to be considered a social image sharing network, too (a la Instagram). For Twitter marketing specialists, this makes finding image-rich tweets even easier and opens the doors for creative photo-centric campaigns.
3.) Black Friday Bungle: Every year, at least one big brand royally screws up an online Black Friday promotion. This year, the title for Biggest Online Marketing Screw-ups goes to Sears. Thanks largely to a time zone setting disaster, Sears had to send thousands of “oops!” emails to its early shoppers, who thought they could get their hands on a 32-inch TV for just $97 bucks and before Black Friday. Only problem is that most Sears didn’t have the TVs yet, leaving online customers in the lurch until their transactions could get cancelled, which could take days. All was made worse by some bad social media PR which tried to clear up the mess but just made people more angry. The whole fiasco is a great reminder for marketers to keep holiday deals super easy and to use social media to actually be helpful and sympathetic.
4.) Side Dish of ‘Mercy:’ WARNING! Do not watch the ButterballAbuse.com video that’s been going around if you are sensitive to violence against animals. Yet this viral campaign strongly illustrates how powerful online videos can be when perfectly timed. The clip, produced by Mercy for Animals, has received major national notice and jump-started a new discussion about animal compassion.
5.) Sandy Stories: We round out this week’s list with the amazing way that Hurricane Sandy survivors are using storytelling app Backspaces. Backspaces is an app that inspires users to click photos and tell the stories of their lives as they unfold. Sandy Stories have popped up by the thousands on Backspaces, with photos of folks helping out communities affected by devastating storm. It’s an inspiring trend to see non-profits and regular old folk alike using smartphone sharing for the collective (feel) good of mankind.
