You may be thinking to yourself, well that title can’t be correct, I can think of a dozen campaigns off the top of my head that had great content, how can it not lead to a sale? The truth is that just because you laughed at an ad or you remember it when you look at the product in the store, it doesn’t necessarily mean your going to buy that product when faced with a purchase decision. I’m going to focus the conversation on one industry in general that has been struggling to stay alive and that’s the beer industry. In today’s society it goes beyond having great content to get a sale, this is not the Mad Men era of the 60’s where all it took was a great commercial.
Riddled with intense competition, the beer industry which is filled with notably buzz worthy ads has been failing to deliver. In the 52 weeks ending in August 2011, in store case sales were down 1.5% while spirit sales were up 3.2% as a whole in the same period. Take Coors Light and Bud Light for example, you all know the campaign where Coors dubs in over coaches speeches consumers asking questions about the beer but has this made you buy it when you were in the store? I know for me when I see Coors and point out one of their marketing tactics like, hey look we can go window shopping but then walk past the beer and select another one. They’ve obtained mind share but not a sale from me and I’m sure many of you could say the same.
Now lets look at Bud Light, which some people wait with bated breath for their infamous Super Bowl commercials. Flash back to the 2009 Super Bowl and you may remember the ad where there is a bunch of people sitting in an office trying to figure out how to cut costs. One guy suggests eliminating bringing Bud Light to all of the meetings and he gets thrown out of the window because of it. The ad was received with praise but at the end of the day Bud Light didn’t take any market share away from Coors or Miller Light.
Sticking with the beer industry, there is one brand that seems to have it all figured out, Dos Equis. Their most interesting man in the world campaign has been received with not only buzz but an increase in sales as well. In a time when the imported beer sales were down 4% in the United States Dos Equis sales increased by 22%! Now that is great content that lead to sales, but how? Dos Equis has been running this campaign from 2006 that’s a long time in the ad world to be sticking with one campaign.
Here’s the secret behind the campaigns success and how you can turn great content into sales. They took what was amazing content that had people talking about it all over the place and kept the buzz going through new age outlets. He went viral, he went social, he took on a persona every man yearns to be. Best of all Dos Equis doesn’t just solely promote drinking beer because at the end of every segment he says, “I don’t always drink beer, but when I do I prefer Dos Equis.” Brilliant! The campaign is stacked with witty one-liners you hear people reciting to one another. The Dos Equis website is tailored around this man with interactive features and clips of all the viral videos and ads they have associated with the campaign. This campaign hit a successful 360 degree approach to marketing and branding encompassing, TV, print, viral, social, and lastly buzz and word of mouth marketing.
The Elements of Turning Great Content Into Sales:
- Great Content – without great content or something buzz worthy you’re not getting anyone to talk about your brand.
- Distribute the content across several mediums TV, print, viral and social media – in this day and age you cant rely on just one medium to make an impact you have to spread your efforts out across varying platforms.
- Word of Mouth and Buzz Marketing – lastly you need to get people talking, they can be your best friend or your worst nightmare but lets shoot for them to be your friends it will make you a lot of money at the end of the day.
It’s through these three seemingly different but highly linked elements that you too can create quite a frenzy over your product or service. If you take one thing away from this post its make sure you disperse your efforts and don’t solely rely on one medium, it doesn’t make the cut in this day and age.
Austin is currently the CEO & Co-Founder of The AFG Group a new age marketing and branding firm with a financial twist, owner of L&I Detailing and obtaining his MBA in finance from Hofstra University.
