What can your school’s social media team learn by watching the commercials during the Super Bowl? We believe that if you’re going to create great social media content, you need to understand how big brands are doing it. This type of awareness is what we call this being a conscious consumer.
For example, what are you thinking when you watch an advertisement? Do you know what advertisers are aiming to do when they create an ad? Being a conscious consumer means understanding a little about the tactics that advertisers are taking to reach you.
Building Associations
Advertisers use associations to get you to connect their brand with something that you know. Every time you see a celebrity, spokesperson or symbol, this is what they are doing.
Examples: Sprint, Dos Equis
Why does the brand want me to connect to these characters or symbols? Many ads are doing visionary marketing. That is they are painting a world that will be better as a result of their product.
Example: Google, Toyota
Building a Better World
How are they painting this world as better? Many brands will drive a wedge between their benefit and the product they know you use. Often they do this with a question asking if your product will do this for you.
Example: Mercedes
https://www.usatoday.com/videos/sports/Ad-Meter/2019/01/31/ad-meter-2019-mercedes-benz/2731073002/
What is the wedge they are trying to drive in your mind?
Building Personas
Many advertisers use different personas to help you to see yourself as a potential customer.
Example: Pringles
In what ways do you see yourself in this commercial?
https://www.usatoday.com/videos/sports/Ad-Meter/2019/01/28/ad-meter-2019-pringles/2700242002/
Building Repetition
Many brands use an omni-channel approach. Repetition is critical in advertising, when you see an advertisement during a Super Bowl, every ad is also placed online on sites (or channels) like Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, and others. One of the ways advertisers have made this easier is by placing hashtags in their advertisements.
Example: Pepsi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sYElEbRzKA
How does #PepsiMoreThanOK translate to multiple different sites?
Building Your Strategy
When we watch advertising, it is critical that we understand how advertisers are working and it will help each of us to make more meaningful content. You will notice that many of these advertisers place clear “calls to action” in their ads, asking us to join in their story, see their materials or buy their products. A call to action can be as simple as asking a question or as complicated as inviting someone to show up for our event.
Consider how you might use a call to action in your next social media post.
