What is it we hear from clients constantly? “We want this to go viral.” While there is no silver bullet for making something go viral, you can, however, get the next best thing for your brand marketing. With the digital pulse of society beating so strongly these days, online topics constantly fill the headlines and are being shared and posted all over social media. What better way to give your brand marketing a boost than to join in on those conversations? Don’t just be another spectator – join in on the conversation. For example, right now, everyone is fired up about the new Star Wars film. The possibilities with such a hot topic are endless. Even though this is what we do, and we’ve got a very specialized process to do it, we can’t exactly take the credit for the idea of riding on the cosmic coattails of the Star Wars franchise. Technology companies of all kinds are incorporating the iconic droids into their advertising, from the anthropomorphic R2-D2-like printer from Hewlett-Packard to the Duracell commercial suggesting their products could power a lightsaber, to a dozen other big-name brands that see The Force Awakens as a massive opportunity to expand brand awareness.
Not willing to miss a beat, our team has struck this hot iron with a spate of Star Wars-themed social media stunts. Using creative crossovers from the Star Wars franchise and ours, we’ve set out to exemplify how we can attach a brand name to trending topics for maximum impact. Here are our five simple steps to leveraging another brand’s hype:
1. Be prepared
Know what’s coming, whether the topic you are leveraging is related to your brand, or if it’s just a cultural phenomenon, plan ahead so your tactics are carefully thought out and you aren’t just jumping on the bandwagon last minute. Last-minute efforts look last-minute and never have a fully thought-out idea behind them. Maximize the boost you’re trying to give your brand by planning and carefully thinking out all your actions. Our team started preparing months in advance, knowing the movie’s release date and what we would do around it. In turn, we came up with a social campaign centered on letting our nerd flag fly. We had everything planned out with enough time to produce it before the movie’s release.
2. Look the look
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. If you’re going to ride those coattails, you gotta look the part! Match the “brand scent” that you’re latching onto to catch some eyes…but don’t go as far as copyright infringement! We changed our profile pictures and cover photos to be, we think, tastefully bedazzled with an offset image of the famous Death Star space station. We included a simple reminder of the film’s release date in the center, and our logo was changed to a Lucasfilm type style to really commit.
3. Talk the talk
Join in on the conversation. Go a step further than just posting pictures of the topic; take the time to be a part of the conversation. Give your two cents. Create content that is noteworthy that people will want to read, centered around the topic you’re coattailing. Our team called upon our resident Star Wars fanatic to craft a special blog post discussing different brands’ marketing efforts around the movie’s release and which ones are doing it right.
4. Be creative
You likely will not be the only brand out there trying to capitalize on the buzz. To stand out from the crowd of bandwagoners, be original. Show your audience that this was carefully thought out, with special attention paid to detail. Be creative. As people scroll through their feeds, full of posts about the hot topic, be the post that is so creative it makes them pause and look. We created custom posts that combined our brand with Star Wars. We didn’t just repost pictures; we created our own to really weave our brand with theirs.
5. Be seen
Get your stuff out there. Don’t put all the thought and time into creating these things and not get the proper return. Put the proper paid advertising behind your campaign to get it seen; don’t let it slip over to the dark side. A little advertising spend can go a long way in getting you traffic and attention. Our efforts to leverage the advertising powerhouse that is the Walt Disney Corporation’s newest and most public acquisition have taken us on a Kessel run of our own. We did this, not because of our fandom, but as a demonstration of our ability to create appealing crossovers between popular trending topics with our clients’ brands and products. There are not many franchises that market like Star Wars. Just ask Disney. That’s why we decided to send the message that, if you want laser-focused brand marketing leverage, Agency Creative is your only hope. We are a Dallas advertising agency with expertise in strategic marketing. See our work in action
