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Tweet a Hashtag and Make a Purchase with American Express

american express card sync twitterThis week, American Express announced an enhancement to its Card Sync technology that attempts to close a gap in social ecommerce for Twitter users.

First, some history: When Card Sync launched in March 2012, American Express cardholders could sync their credit card accounts to receive couponless savings by tweeting specific hashtags from participating merchants. When a hashtag was tweeted by a Twitter member who had synced his American Express card to his Twitter account, the savings would automatically be added to the card account. When the cardholder made the actual purchase tied to the hashtag through a retailer, the savings would be refunded on his next American Express statement.

With the launch of the new Card Sync feature, people can make a purchase by tweeting specific hashtags. For example, an American Express cardholder who has synced his account with Twitter can tweet a special offer hashtag and automatically receive a verification from American Express (via @AmexSync). That verification which will contain a verification hashtag that the user must tweet within 15 minutes to confirm the purchase. Once the purchase is confirmed, the item will be shipped to his home. Shipping typically occurs within two days, and it’s free.

You can see how it works in the video from American Express below:

This is the first time that consumers can make a purchase simply be tweeting a hashtag, and if consumers catch on and start buying with hashtags, you can bet this type of brand promotion and direct marketing will explode in popularity. However, making sales is just one benefit of Card Sync and making purchases via hashtags. American Express also gets free brand promotion every time someone tweets one of the special hashtags or confirms a Card Sync purchase.

Adding the ability to make a purchase to Card Sync is a natural progression for American Express. Will other credit card brands follow? They’d be crazy not to, don’t you think? It’s 2013, and brands that aren’t finding ways to sell via social media are going to fall behind the more tech-savvy brands very quickly.

Image: American Express

How to Make Your Brand Like Chocolate

chocolateThe numbers are in and chocolate sales are up, sometimes to record levels, with the economic downturn.  Each of the major chocolate manufacturers in the U.S. (and major Swiss chocolate companies) are reporting growth in 2009.  What does that tell us?  Two things:

  1. When consumers can’t afford luxury items like plasma TVs and new cars, they replace those luxuries with chocolate. (Okay, that one might be a stretch, but #2 is more important anyway).
  2. When times get tough, consumers don’t give up comfort items.  In fact, they buy more of them!

So that leads us to this question — how can you leverage consumer buying habits during a recession?

The answer is simple — make your brand like chocolate. [Read more…] about How to Make Your Brand Like Chocolate

More Brands Plan to Pay Bloggers, Tweeters and Online Publishers for Conversations

money_paid_blog_postsSponsored reviews, paid blog posts, sponsored tweets, and more are not new to the social Web, and whether you like them or not, they can be a cost effective way to generate an online buzz and word-of-mouth marketing about brands across the social Web.  This is particularly true when top bloggers and online influencers talk about a brand (whether or not they are paid to do so).

Despite the fact that in the United States, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has ramped up regulations related to publishing paid reviews or endorsements (see the Code of Federal Regulations, Title 16, Section 255: 16 CRF 255), making it a requirement to disclose material relationships (no matter how immaterial they may be) and despite the fact that Google and other search engines have been known to penalize sites that publish sponsored reviews and paid posts, the tactic is expected to grow in the near future.

According to a study by PQ Media reported by BrandWeek, sponsored reviews grew by 14% to $46 million in 2009, and those numbers are expected to grow by 26% in 2010 to $56.8 million.

Consumer packaged goods companies are the biggest users of paid posts and sponsored reviews (25%) with food and beverage, health and beauty, media and entertainment, and technology and telecommunications following in that order.

It’s important to note that most brands pay bloggers and online publishers in the form of sample products (78%) rather than cash, although cash payment did grow by 37% in 2009.  That’s because to get top bloggers and online influencers to talk about your brand, you often have to offer monetary compensation rather than just offering a free product, particularly if the product you’re offering is inexpensive.

Think of it this way, unless you’re offering a product sample to a top blogger or online influencer that they are really, really interested in trying and talking about with their online audiences, it’s unlikely that they’ll take time away from more lucrative online activities to test and write about your product.  Therefore, offering a sizable cash payment, equivalent to what that top blogger or online influencer is capable of making in those other activities for the same time investment, is the best way to get them to agree to try and write about your product.

Izea is one of the most popular companies for paid posts and sponsored review publishers and advertisers with SocialSpark and SponsoredTweets. Both require disclosure from publishers and attract many top bloggers and online influencers into participating.  Of course, companies can also approach bloggers and online publishers directly with paid post and sponsored review opportunities.  Just remember, top bloggers are very busy and are unlikely to respond to your offer unless it’s worth their while and directly ties to the topics of interest to their audiences.

Image: Flickr

Potato Chips and Flickr — A Happy New Social Media Marketing Tactic

Lays_Happiness_exhibitFlickr is the most popular online photo sharing site, but it has yet to be fully leveraged for social media marketing.  The reason lies in part due to the restrictions of use that the site has in place to ensure that everyone who spends time there is uploading valid images that add to the community rather than detract from it.  PepsiCo’s snack food division, Frito-Lay, is trying to find the secret to marketing via Flickr with its new “The Happiness Exhibit” campaign.  Check out the Web site here and the Flickr group here.

Consumers are being asked to upload photos of themselves, friends and family to Flickr (or to Flickr from Facebook) while enjoying happy moments in life.  Some of the images will appear in People magazine and on Lay’s product packages later this year.  The campaign integrates well with Lay’s “Happiness is Simple” initiative that has played out in advertising and marketing over the past year.  The new digital component of the initiative on Flickr will be promoted with ads on Hulu, iVillage, Yahoo! and YouTube as well as on some Lay’s product packages.

This particular campaign has a big budget push behind it, and partnerships have been made between Frito-Lay, Flickr, and Yahoo! to make it happen.  The campaign was announced by press release on March 15, 2010, and by March 16, 2010, nearly 6,000 images had already been uploaded demonstrating that people like the idea of sharing photos without a lot of encouragement.  It certainly helps that a lot of people already have Flickr accounts, but the point is that people love to share content they’re proud of, and photos are included.

How can you leverage photo or content sharing to market your brand?  It’s something people clearly like to do?  Can you create a campaign around sharing — an activity that your customers are already doing?  It’s quite an opportunity.

Recession Bodes Well for Ambient Media

subway-adWhy is ambient advertising growing as the economy plunges?  Because everyone is looking for a way to make some extra money when the economy is weak.  It’s a great time for brands to find super deals on ambient media placement and for new locations to get in on the action to make some extra cash.

According to an article in Brandweek, the current recession is bringing a wider variety of ambient media placement opportunities to brands and advertisers than ever.  Check out some of the more unique ambient media opportunities mentioned in the article: [Read more…] about Recession Bodes Well for Ambient Media

Home Depot Gets a Slogan Makeover

home_depot_taglineFor more than half a decade, Home Depot has been the leader of the do-it-yourself, cheap home improvement retail industry (and the second largest retailer overall behind Walmart).  To hammer that message home to consumers, the company used a simple slogan, “You can do it.  We can help.”  It was inspirational.  During a time when everyone and their brother was watching HGTV and more home remodeling and redecorating programs on television than any sane person had time for, the slogan worked very well.  Consumers heard it and said to themselves, “you know what?  I can do it!  I’m going to Home Depot.”

Usher in 2009, a time when the economy is no where near turning around, unemployment is up, and remodeling your kitchen is at the bottom of the priority list.  Time for a new slogan for Home Depot! [Read more…] about Home Depot Gets a Slogan Makeover