Dear Reader,
Wishing you a Happy Valentine’s Day!
To celebrate, the kissing spot reappeared at Union Square. So I’m blowing a kiss to you to show my appreciation for your readership.
In honor of Valentine’s Day, the Union Square Greenmarket run by Grow NYC set up a booth to encourage patrons to leave thank you notes for their favorite vendors. They supplied photos and
markers and promised to deliver the messages.
As a marketer, I love the way this flips our idea of thanks on its head. Here shoppers thank their favorite local farmers for the work they do.
Additionally, the Grow NYC Union Square Greenmarket (@unsqgreenmarket) has an active Instagram feed with 4,802 posts to-date including a Valentine’s Day note that has attracted 221 likes.
Actionable Marketing Tip:
- Find new ways to spotlight your products and customers visually. The Union Square Greenmarket Instagram feed shows different ways to highlight the food, people and pets. BTW, they even posted a recipe with a video to help customers prepare for the Super Bowl!
Local retailers dressed their shops and windows in romance to lure shoppers in.
As a marketer, I love that this wine shop in Chelsea Market wrote their marketing copy promoting wine over flowers, a more traditional gift. Also they limited their sale to “pink” wines and offered 14% off in honor of Valentine’s Day.
What does this mean for you as a marketer?
- Determine which holidays make sense for your offering and your audience. When your employees observe holidays that your business doesn’t, show them respect and allow them time off to celebrate and follow their traditions.
- Adopt your promotions to be relevant to the occasion like the Union Square Greenmarket
Recommended Reading:
Actionable Marketing Lesson of The Week
► Super Bowl Advertising
This past Sunday was the LVI Super Bowl. Beyond being the NFL (aka: National Football League) championship, it attracts one of the biggest television audiences of any program.
This year, NBC hosted the game between the LA Rams and the Cincinnati Bengals. The media cost per 30 second ad averaged $6.5 million dollars and this doesn’t include the cost of creating the ad or paying for the high priced talent. (Source)
Why do companies invest in expensive Super Bowl ads?
Because major advertisers like beer, soda and car companies need to take advantage of the large television audience. Over 40% of the 2022 Super Bowl commercials were new advertisers promoting products such as health tech, sustainable cars and cryptocurrency.
More importantly, as consumers increasingly “cut the cord” and pay for one or more television subscription services to view ad-free content, marketers who need mass media audiences have limited options.
According to a 2020 survey, about 4 out of 5 viewers considered Super Bowl ads to be entertainment. Translation: They watch the ads!
Given the big marketing investment in Super Bowl ads, many ads aim to attract additional media coverage as well as social media shares. When planning your Super Bowl ads, make sure your website and business can handle the additional traffic, social media posts and/or call center activity.
For example, Coinbase’s 60 second ad crashed their website when their unorthodox Super Bowl ad caused a surge in traffic because they neglected invest in additional bandwidth.
The cryptocurrency exchange’s ad showed a colorful QR code bouncing around the screen. It directed viewers to a link offering $15 in Bitcoin if they signed up for Coinbase by February 15, 2022. This offer increased the cost of their Super Bowl ad to $14 million.
Due to Coinbase’s Super Bowl ad:
- Its app went from 186th place to 2nd place in the App Store and
- Its stock price increased 4% as of noon ET on Monday, February 14th adding about $1 billion to its market cap. (Source)
Actionable Marketing Tip:
- Plan ahead to ensure your organization can handle extra website traffic.
Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management rates Super Bowl advertising effectiveness. It’s AD PLAN Framework consists of these marketing factors: Attention, Distinction, Positioning, Linkage, Amplification and Net Equity
This year’s Super Bowl ads were optimistic revealing consumers’ desire to return to a sense of normalcy. According to Marketing Professor Derek D. Rucker, “Uber Eats [was] the winning ad this year because it had very strong branding and played off its known attributes to leverage its equity in a simple and clear message.”
Uber Eats posted its Super Bowl ad on YouTube on February 8th. To-date, it has attracted 371,000+ views.
Further, Rucker added, “A lot of money is on the line for any brand who advertises in the Super Bowl and they put themselves in position to benefit from the exposure by bringing awareness to their product offerings, and broadening their exposure.”
Actionable Marketing Tip:
- Determine how to maximize your Super Bowl advertising investment to support your advertising. Create a plan to get additional value to improve your ROI. Beyond more media buys, consider how you can use behind-the-scenes outtakes and other forms of content and marketing.
Recommended Reading:
► Super Bowl Marketing Beyond The Mega-Expensive Ad
Since the terms Super Bowl and Super Sunday are registered trademarks of The NFL, you must pay to use these words or risk legal action. Instead, take advantage of this marketing opportunity by using the words “Big Game” in your promotions.
According to National Retail Foundation 2022 research, this year consumers felt more comfortable attending Game Day gatherings. Specifically:
- 184.5 million US adults planned to watch the big game.
- 90 million people planned to throw or attend a party, up over 40% last year.
- 13.7 million adults planned to watch the game at a bar or restaurant.
This is great news for marketers since Game Day parties and related purchases provide a great marketing hook for promotions and related content.
On average, consumers expected to spend $78.92 related to Game Day celebrations. This included food, drinks, apparel, decorations and other purchases. In total, spending was projected to reach $14.6 billion.
Actionable Marketing Tips:
- Take advantage of promotional hooks that make sense for your business and your audience. For example, one of my favorite yarn stores used to run a Game Day Special targeted at getting knitters to buy yarn so they could start a new project while they watched the game.
- Adapt your offerings based on local supply chain inconsistencies and labor costs.
Actionable New York City Marketing Minute
► NYPL Celebrates Black History Month
The New York Public Library (aka: NYPL) regularly sends information-packed emails spotlighting their upcoming events. Since New York City is large and diverse, the NYPL’s newsletter brings attention to a wide breadth of activities around the city.
Its February 1st email subject line read “Celebrate Black History Month and Lunar New Year with the Library”. And here’s how the NYPL newsletter spotlighted their Black History Month activities.
They continued the same visual experience on their website’s Black History Month page. It’s a long page full of useful information and activities.
At the top of the page, the NYPL spotlights their top events celebrating Black History Month. These activities require advance registration.
In addition the library curated a list of readings to honor Black History Month for adults, teens and kids.
Why does the NYPL’s celebration matter for marketers?
Because the NYPL shows respect for their audience while making their offering, namely books, shine.
Even better, they’ve curated relevant resources their audience might find of interest and present programs of interest to the community.
Actionable Marketing Tips:
- Skip empty gestures because your audience can smell a fake a mile away. Instead, choose holidays and events for your business that have a connection with and relevance for your offering and your audience.
- Use every opportunity to get your audience more involved with your content and offering. At the bottom of the webpage on Black History Month, the NYPL promotes other services their audience would find useful.
Recommended Reading:
Actionable Marketing Reads
► Author Interview: The Catalyst: How To Change Anyone’s Mind
Get your copy of Professor Berger’s The Catalyst. It just came out in paperback.
In his latest book, Professor Berger explains how to change people’s minds by reducing roadblocks and lowering the barriers to action.
To achieve this change, Professor Berger developed the the REDUCE Model.
Recommended Reading:
► Want To Be A Content Entrepreneur? Special Training Offer:
Learn from leading content entrepreneur, Joe Pulizzi, and his team at The Tilt.
Get access to everything you need to go from content creator to content entrepreneur. Work at your own pace with these online classes to grow your content business.
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Recommended Reading:
Actionable Marketing Calendar
► Edison Research Super Listeners Webinar – Wednesday, Feb. 16, at 2pm ET.
Edison‘s third annual Super Listeners Study will debut on Wednesday in a webinar presented by Edison Research and Ad Results Media. Click here to register.
► AI in Action – Feb. 14-17, 12pm ET each day
MAICON’s AI in Action is a free online webinar series designed to help marketers understand and apply AI. Get a behind-the-scenes look at how AI technology works through demonstrations from leading AI solutions partners. Register Here
► VoiceLunch US – Friday, Feb. 18th, 1pm ET.
#VoiceLunch is the community where voice enthusiasts from all over the world meet. Join Heidi and other Voice experts and guests. At VoiceLunch everyone has a voice. Note: You must Sign up for the VoiceLunch newsletter to receive the Zoom links and reminders.
► Project Voice – April 25 – 28. 18th, Chattanooga, TN.
The #1, in-person event for voice tech and conversational AI in America returns. Register Now!
► The 2022 Creator Economy Expo (aka: CEX) – May 2–4, Phoenix, AZ
By Creators for Creators: Join 500+ fellow creators to explore the latest strategies, tactics, and tools — plus make valuable connections — for achieving big success as a new breed of content entrepreneur.
Special AMG reader discount: Get $150 off — Use code: AMGCEX
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Happy Marketing,
Heidi
P.S.: Want Heidi Cohen to contribute a quote or other commentary to your next article, presentation, video, research and/or book? Then hit reply to this email and ask.
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