Originally written for credit union marketers and posted on the Kansas Credit Union Association’s website, but any small business, nonprofit or other small organization could use these tips.
Super Bowl Sunday has come and gone. With half of the nation watching for the game, and the other half only for the commercials, it can be a high stress event for those behind the scenes, a venue for brands to show off their best advertising, and a night where anything can happen.
Last time I wrote about the three things I liked about this year’s Superbowl. Here’s two things marketers can learn from the 2013 Super Bowl:
Communicate often.
A blackout in the stadium during one of the most watched live sporting event? Uh-oh. Although only half the lights were out in the stadium, some of the coaches’ headsets were affected by the outage. During the 30 minute delay, no one was really sure what had happened.
Having the lights go out inside your credit union probably would be a manageable problem, but what if you detected a possible security breach on your members’ accounts? Communicate immediately, and regularly to both those affected (your members) as well as those reporting (the media). Even if there is no new information, an update is appreciated and shows you are working on the situation… because no one likes to be kept in the dark.
Respond quickly.
During this Super Bowl Blackout, Oreo totally newsjacked the situation. The definition of newsjacking is the process by which you inject your ideas or angles into breaking news, in real-time, in order to generate media coverage for yourself.
Minutes after the lights went out in the Superdome stadium, Oreo posted this ad to Twitter:
“Power Outage? No problem. You can still dunk in the dark.”
As you can see, it has generated more than 15,000 retweets so far. And got people talking about Oreo cookies.
Of course, Oreo had a 15-person marketing team already assembled to respond to anything that happened during the game.
Your organization may not be able to do that. But you could newsjack a national news story that reported one in three Americans don’t have enough savings to last three months. Offer tips, or inform the media that your credit union has financial literacy seminars. Coordinate an interview with one of your members who your credit union helped get out of debt.
You don’t have to jump on it in mere minutes like Oreo did. But the quicker you respond, the more likely you are to get coverage. Who’s the smart cookie now?
One Kansas Girl 