Seth McFarlene’s movie, Ted, which opens June 29 has been on a marketing blitz, relying heavily on social media. With 1 Million+ fans on Facebook and 200,000 followers on Twitter, this teddy bear is killing it online. Each update on Facebook is regularly getting tens of thousands of likes and hundreds of comments; these are numbers any business owner would die to achieve. Let’s take a look at what’s worked really well for the Ted marketers and apply these lessons to your marketing.
Lesson #1 – Use Humor
We all love a good laugh. Incorporating humor adds a human element to your marketing and makes you more likable . Being a product of Seth MacFarlane, the creator of Family Guy, it is no big surprise that Ted’s humor is directed predominately at young males.
At this point, you may being saying to yourself, it’s easy to add humor when you’re marketing a comedy, but this doesn’t apply to my business. You’re wrong. There’s plenty of room for humor in any business. Internet memes are perfect this purpose. Here are two examples you could apply directly to your business.
1. Your status update: “I love my children very much, but no matter what I try they wake me up early.”
2. Your status update “Our sales team is on our fire like this $374,000 Lamborghini Aventador.”
Don’t go crazy and fill your entire update stream with these types of updates, because you’ll lose credibility and distract from your business goals. As with all your communication, use your own best judgement for your business.
Lesson #2 – Go Back in Time with Facebook Milestones
I know it’s hard to remember, but there was time known in our lives known as P.F. (pre Facebook). And during this time, you and probably your business experienced many wonderful, significant moments. Facebook lets you add these moments to your Facebook Page timeline. Plus, these updates will show up in your fans’ newsfeed. Here are few ideas for Milestones:
- The founding of your business
- Employee accomplishments
- Your customers success
- Buying/Leasing your first office.
- Business accomplishments
Always remember to add a photo to these updates – photos are gold online. Also, it may be tempting to go straight to your Facebook page and add 15 Milestones right now. Fight that urge! Instead spread your Milestones out over time, maybe one per week, to get more bang for this content.
Ted shows how in 1992, he had to turn down a role in “Home Alone 2″ because he refuses to work with Joe Pesci. Lesson #1 at work again.
Lesson #3 – Make Your Marketing Interactive
People love the opportunity to get hands-on with marketing. If you can find a way for your audience to actively participate, you’ll take your marketing efforts to new heights. Comments on your blog are a great example. But, the Ted Facebook page took it to the next level by creating an interactive photo app.
The app on the Ted’s Facebook Page, titled “My Wild Night with Ted” allows you to grab any photo from Facebook you’re tagged in and instantaneously ”add” Ted to the photo. The app gives you many options to superimpose Ted in a variety of humorous poses. The genius of this app occurs when you’re finished; the photo is added to your Facebook profile with the following text:
What’s great is that the movie marketers are getting you to interact directly with the brand and then publish out to your followers a testimonial with a link for the movie. That’s marketing genius right there. You can recreate this same idea on smaller, less expensive scale. For example, run a contest where users upload a photo of themselves with your product and tag your Facebook page. Just make sure you follow Facebook’s rules.
Lesson #4 – Promote Your Product
Really, it’s ok. We understand that you’re marketing efforts are driven by a desire to sell a product and make money. However, the execution requires a delicate balance. If you never promote your product, it will be entirely lost on your audience. Blast out product-only material and you’ll lose your audience quicker than Ted can chug a beer.
A few tips to keep in mind when promoting your product. Make your sure your offer is compelling, but also make it simple. From your social media channels, I should be able to understand what it is you do, why you’re great, and where I can find more information about your product (a.k.a buy it).
Lesson #5 – Marketing is Fun
Marketing is supposed to be fun and Ted proves that it can be really effective. If you can’t have fun with your product, how can your customers? Take these same principles outlined in the lessons learned from Ted and apply it your efforts. Which of these lessons would you be most likely to use? Tell us why and leave your questions in the comments.
Andrew K Kirk
Entrepreneurial-minded marketer and Founder of Face The Buzz, which helps small-medium businesses and startups harness the power of online marketing. His clients have raised over $3.5 million in funding while working with Face The Buzz.
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