What role, if any, does social media play in advertising campaigns and should it be utilized?
Whitney Pedersen
Grand Valley State University
November 27, 2012
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Abstract
Social media has become a major player in all aspects of today’s society. Politics,
advertising, marketing, news broadcasting, and public knowledge have all been affected by the
emergence of social media. The specific effect of social media on advertising will be discussed
looking at three different advertising campaigns that were affected by social media in some way.
First looking at Mountain Dew’s Dub the Dew campaign that was demolished by social media.
Then, describing Taco Bell’s successful use of social media in their advertising campaign for
their new Doritos Locos Taco. Finally, a view of a small campaign produced by Granta Pet Food
that was taken to mass media over night by the use of YouTube. The affects of social media on
each campaign are discussed with a conclusion as to what part social media takes in campaigns
and if it should continue to be used.
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What role, if any, does social media play in advertising campaigns and should it be utilized?
Social media can be argued as one of the fastest growing phenomenons in today’s
society. This paper was written by a student for an upper level advertising case study. An
analysis of social media and its effects on advertising will be conducted. To start, a clear
understanding of what social media is will be accomplished. Flowed by research, examples of
social media in advertising, and conclude with an opinion of whether or not social media should
be used in advertising.
Social Media: A Definition
According to Webster’s Dictionary, social media is defined as,
“forms of electronic communication (as Web sites for social networking and
microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information,
ideas, personal messages, and other content (as videos)” (Merriam-webster).
In terms relevant to marketing and advertising professionals, social media is a medium in which
the people of society can voice their personal opinion and be heard by the masses. Social
networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flikr, Linkedin, and MySpace make up
just a few of the social media outlets people use today (Ellison, 2007, p. 2). Appendix A shows
an in-depth table of multiple types of social networking sites and an example site along with each
type. These wide range, online, word-of-mouth forums allow people to openly share things they
normally wouldn’t say to the face of the subject. This phenomenon has been a large influence of
consumer behavior in areas such as awareness, information access, opinions, attitudes, purchase
behavior, and post-purchase communication and evaluation (Faulds, 2009, p. 3). Any time a
consumer is unhappy with their product or service they can voice their disgust with the click of a
mouse, posing a problem for the company’s public relations and marketing team.
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Method
Secondary research has been conducted to find out how advertising has affected specific
advertising campaigns recently. Google Scholar search engine was used to find articles defining
social media. The WARC database provided by grand Valley State University’s Library was
used to find specific cases where social media was a prominent factor in an advertising
campaign. The key words used during secondary research included, “social media,” “advertising
campaigns,” “effects,” and “traditional media.” All sources are from scholarly articles and
journals.
Discussion and Results
Mountain Dew
Early in 2012 Pepsi Co.’s marketing team was asked to create an advertising campaign
for a new product expected to be released towards the end of the year. The product was a new
green apple flavor of Mountain Dew. The marketing team wanted to utilize social media to
create buzz for the new flavor. The team titled the campaign, Dub the Dew. The campaign
featured numerous television commercials, radio advertisements, and promotional materials
asking consumers to name the new flavor of Mountain Dew (Huffington Post, 2012, P.1).
Consumers were given the task to name the new flavor with a name inspired by the green apple
theme. The call to action of each advertisement was to go to DubtheDew.com and post and vote
for your favorite name (Caulfield, 2012m p. 1).
Just after a few days of the promotion a group of consumers took over this campaign in
an instant. As shown in Appendix B, a select few users thought it was humorous to submit names
that were not something Mountain Dew would ever name their product. The names quickly
became a joke and massive amounts of people fled to the site and voted for these names placing
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them on the front page of DubtheDew.com amongst the top ten names. According to the
Huffington Post, the people who posted the obscene names used the social networking site,
Reditt to get people to vote for their names. Before Mountain Dew had time to react an internet
hacker hacked the site and posted a banner of text referencing the attacks of 9/11, as shown in
Figure 2 of Appendix B. As soon as Mountain Dew took down the site someone took the domain
name and replicated the site to continue the crazy (Caulfield, 2012, p. 1). Mountain Dew
eventually got the site taken down.
The effects of this campaign were not at all what Pepsi Co. hoped them to be. They did
complete their goal of generating buzz, but not the type of buzz anyone wants to be associated
with their brand. Although the names submitted and the hacking of the site was obviously the
actions of an unknown source not affiliated with Mountain Dew, it still caused negative
repercussions. Mountain Dew released a statement on Twitter following the hectic day stating
the contest had lost to the internet (Caulfield, 2012, p. 1). All of the time, money, and effort spent
to conduct this campaign was sabotaged by social media.
Taco Bell
During February of 2012 Taco Bell ran an advertising campaign using mainly social
media to promote the launch of its Doritos Locos Taco. The campaign ran from February 16
until February 20, 2012. The campaign was titled, ‘The Hometown Tweet Off.’ Taco Bell and its
advertising agency, DraftFCB, used Twitter to create hype for the new Doritos Locos Taco. The
campaign consisted of a Twitter based contest allowing fans to receive a visit from the Taco Bell
Truck loaded with free Doritos Locos Tacos on the day of the product’s release. The call to
action was to Tweet why you (the consumer) should receive a visit from the Taco Bell Truck
using #DoritosLocosTacos and #Contest. According to Taco Bell, the Tweet that received the
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most retweets, wins (Avera, n.d., p. 1)! The campaign also consisted of billboards and traditional
advertising to get people to Tweet, seen in Appendix C.
This campaign was an overall success for Taco Bell. The reason is because Taco Bell and
DraftFCB used a social media platform that provided real time, moderated tweets with fraud
detection (Avera, n.d., p. 1). Avera goes on to say, “platform provided the most appropriate
tweets in an ordered list with retweet counts to Taco Bell's microsites.” This is a case where
planning ahead of time can save a brand from becoming at the mercy of social media.
GranataPet
According to Rox Marketing and Branding, social media campaigns can be the solution
to a low budget advertising campaign. They have named an advertising campaign produced by
Granata pet food as one of the top five advertising campaigns to use social media . The campaign
was titled, ‘Check In, Snack Out!’ and featured one interactive billboard in Germany. The
billboard instructed the public to check in using the social media site and mobile device app,
Foresquare. When someone ‘checked in’ on Foresquare the billboard dispensed pet food
(Wasserman, 2012, p. 1). Appendix D features an image taken from the YouTube video of the
billboard. The company paid for one single billboard, and in less than one day the video that a
person took of the advertisement received 5,000 views world-wide (Wasserman, 2012, p. 1). Rox
marketing and Branding goes on to point out that one single advertisement can create mass
mediated videos, tweets, posts, and press, but only if it is clever enough (Rox. 2012. p. 1).
Conclusion
It seems that social media is more of a risk than any form of traditional media in
advertising campaigns. As noted in the Mountain Dew case, a brand’s image can easly be put at
the mercy of the general public. Social media has allowed people to voice their opinion without
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thinking twice. However, if the company or advertising agency takes precautionary measures to
ensure there will be no fowl play in a social media campaign, as shown in the Taco Bell case,
there is strong , positive outcomes of social media in advertising. Both Mountain Dew and Taco
Bell ran their campaigns in 2012 showing that it is a factor of time to learn how to fun a safe and
successful social media campaign, it is in fact a test of good planning to be successful with social
media.
Social media in advertising can not only be successful for creating more buzz, it can also
be an important aspect for companies with limited budget advertising campaigns. As shown in
the Granata case, social media spread awareness of their campaign faster than a large amount of
outdoor advertising space could have. The company bought one simple outdoor advertisement
and relied on social media to mass mediate the message. The billboard was located in Germany
and the YouTube video of the interactive billboard was viewed by thousands of people all over
the world. The key concept in this case is that social media can spark buzz on its own, if you
have a unique and creative idea in advertising.
Social media allows the public to give their opinion on an advertising campaign. It may
prove to help advertising research in the future by looking at the response social media users
have had on campaigns in the past. It is now, more than ever, easy for people to voice their
opinion on everything including advertising. This will help advertising professionals conclude if
a campaign was successful from the outcome it has in social media.
Recommendation
I believe that social media needs to remain an important factor in advertising. According
to the secondary research conducted, social media can make or break an advertising campaign. I
do not believe that traditional advertising should be completely ignored in an advertising
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campaign. Often, traditional advertising can help a social media campaign get off he ground.
Without traditional advertising, a social media campaign will go unseen to the mass public.
Currently, in some cases, social media may not be the best option for a company. For example a
high-end car manufacturer or high-end furniture. However, with the continuous growth of social
media and its many different forms, I believe that one day almost ever company will see benefit
in using social media in advertising. Social media is an important factor in advertising and
should continue to be used in campaigns with the right planning and monitoring.
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References
Avera. (n.d). Taco Bell’s Digital Out-of-Home Ad Campaign Uses Social Media Platform
For Product Launch. OutdoorAds, 1-2. Retrieved from http://gooutdoorads.com/socialmedia/taco-bells-digital-out-of-home-ad-campaign-uses-social-media-platform-forproduct-launch/
Caulfield, P. (14 August 2012). Web Trolls Kill Mountain Dew’s Online Contest. NY Daily
News, 1-3. Retreived from http://articles.nydailynews.com/2012-0814/news/33204119_1_web-trolls-contest-internet
Ellison, N. (17 December 2007). Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship.
Wiley Online Library, 1-21. Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/
10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00393.x/pdf
Faulds, D. (2009). Social media: The New Hybrid Element of the Promotion Mix. Business
Horizons, 1-364. Retrieved from http://ac.els-cdn.com/S0007681309000329/1-s2.0
S0007681309000329-main.pdf?_tid=5494de56-38ed-11e2-a4e200000aab0f26&acdnat=1354060455_f5b97cf713ee96a7a9e9ab0e8dc764b1
Huffington Post. (13 August 2012). Mountain Dew Naming Campaign Hijacked By Infamous
Message Board 4Chan. Huffington Post, 1. Retrieved from http://www.huffington
post.com /2012/08/13/4chan-mountain-dew_n_1773076.html
Merriam-webster. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/social%20media
Rox. (26 Feburary 2012). No Budget? No Problem. Creative Social Media Campaigns That
Didn’t Cost a Fortune. Rox Marketing and Branding, 1-2. Retrieved from
http://www.roxburgh.com/blog/?p=2393
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Wasserman, T. (26 February, 2012). 5 Clever Social Media Campaigns to Learn From. Mashable
Social Media, 1. Retrieved from http://mashable.com/2012/02/26/clever-social-mediacampaigns/
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Appendix A
Type
Example
Social networking sites
Facebook
Professional Networking Sites
Linkedin
Video Sharing Sites
YouTube
Photo Sharing Sites
Flikr
Content Sharing Sites
Piczo
Music Sharing Sites
Limewire
User-Sponsored Blog
Wordpress
Virtural Worlds
Second Life
Company Sponsored Blogs
Apple.com
Company Sponsored For-A-Cause Sites
Dove Campaign for Real Beauty
Collabortaive Websites
Wikipedia
Commerce Communities
EBay
Podcasts
“For Immediate Release”
News Delivery Sites
Current TV
Invitation-Only Social Media Sites
AsmallWorld.net
Educational Materials Sharing
MERLOT
Open Source Software Communities
Linux.org
Social Bookmarking Sites
Pinterest
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Figure 1
Figure 2
Appendix B
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Appendix C
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Appendix D