Blog
Dec. 23, 2009
How Trident's Twitter Experiment In USA Today Can Be Repeated Online
Trident recently ran a full-page ad in USA Today featuring tweets from real people talking about their new Layers gum. They got a bunch of press for it - and it was a pretty effective ad. People trust their peers more than they trust marketers. Seeing a bunch of tweets from real people lends credibility to Trident. If they had used marketing copy to say the same things, it would be less genuine.
This is the benefit of peer endorsement that brands can get from social media. Someone on Twitter responded by saying: "Lightbulbs blowing up over CEO heads across America." I sure hope so - because that same benefit can be had online using FeedMagnet.
Leveraging positive mentions online
What makes the ad above so effective is the authenticity of the quotes from real consumers. It is wonderful that Trident's marketing team realized the power of social media and applied it to a print ad, but most marketers aren't even applying it to their own websites.
FeedMagnet let's you do just that. Trident could pull in not just tweets, but photos and videos as well - all in real time, showing updates from just a few minutes ago. The authenticity factor is even stronger online because users can click through to view the original photo or tweet.
Why a Twitter widget isn't enough
The simplistic solution to mimicking the Trident ad online is to just drop in a Twitter search widget, pulling in people talking about the gum - but the problem with that is that not everything everyone is saying is positive. The designers who put the print ad together for Trident probably sifted through hundreds of tweets to find just the right ones to show. If their ad were to be duplicated online, it would need to be filtered and moderated - which is exactly what FeedMagnet was designed to do.
With FeedMagnet, Trident could set up a feed that searches across Twitter, Flickr, Google News, and other sources for mentions of their Layers gum. Automatic filters can weed out posts that are likely to be no good for marketing purposes. Then a human moderator can review each update before it goes live to the feed on their website - or they could opt to let everything that passes the filters go live immediately with the option to take things down if something they don't like gets through.
Try FeedMagnet for yourself
The beta of FeedMagnet is open to the public now. While you can't use filters and moderation in the free version, it will give you a feel for how the service works. Sign up for an account today. If you are interested in trying out filters and moderation or setting up an online campaign to mimic Trident's print ad, send us a note and we'll get in touch to talk specifics and get you set up.