I think it’s safe to say that Twitter-mania has arrived. In every other interview I do, someone mentions Twitter. Doing a keyword search for “Twitter” in my RSS reader, I found thousands of blog posts about it.
But how does this micro-blogging site help marketers and PR professionals?
Coca Cola cups were displayed prominently in front of judges Randy, Paula and Simon during the last season of American Idol. It’s consumer product placement, of course, and it’s growing.
Some recent stats by Nielsen show the growth. And it’s not tiny. Product placements grew 6% during the first quarter of 2008 alone. And product placement of the Top 10-featured brands on primetime network TV have grown by 52% so far this year when compared to last year.
Marketers often face skepticism within their companies when they embark on a new brand launch or corporate rebranding effort. Non-marketing types, particularly engineers, tend to think of branding as one of those fuzzy, feel-good exercises that don’t really have an impact on their jobs.
So, I was intrigued by a unique approach to this problem adopted by the marketing team at NetApp, which recently unveiled a new brand identity. (You can read more about this project in our Sherpa Case Study,(here).
The first time I’d ever heard about social shopping sites like StyleHive.com, ThisNext.com, and CribCandy.com was when working on a special report for MarketingSherpa.
A source mentioned these sites as an inexpensive way for B-to-C marketers to get their brand name out there as marketing budgets are slashed. It made me question whether these sites are successfully generating leads for marketers in tough times.
