Digital Marketing Strategy: What to Punt & Run With

Using Million Dollar Super Bowl Digital Marketing Strategy as a Guinea Pig for Small Businesses.

Our tagline since the day EAG’s doors opened for business in 2003 has been “Big Brand Strategies for Small Business.” More than a motto, it’s the philosophy that guides in developing marketing strategies for over 300 small businesses over the years throughout Kansas City and beyond.

If there is a greater example of big brands putting their best digital marketing strategies on display than the Super Bowl, then clearly we’ve been living under a rock. Note: “digital marketing strategies” is not a typo. We did not intend to write TV ad campaign because digital marketing is now a crucial element in any type of campaign across any platform or channel. Print ads, television ads, radio ads – they all funnel into your digital marketing strategy. The proof is in this year’s Super Bowl commercial line up.

Let’s just get the “Puppymonkeybaby” elephant in the room.

How many of you started singing the “Puppymonkeybaby” song in your head as soon as you read it? Yeah, we did too. Cute? Disturbing? Causing nightmares for children and adults alike? Along with the tune you can’t get out of your head came #Puppymonkeybaby at the end of the spot.

Punt or run with?

#Puppymonkeybaby was mentioned on social media channels (mostly Twitter) over 65,000 times during the Super Bowl broadcast. Considering its closest competitor hashtag #AvosInSpace was tagged over 16,000, #Puppymonkeybaby is the clear Super Bowl digital campaign winner.

Or is it?

Even R.L. Stine, author of the scary Goosebumps book series tweeted, “Did #Puppymonkeybaby come from a horror movie? It terrified me.” A majority of social media mentions echoed Stine’s sentiment, making #Puppymonkeybaby the most disliked topic of all hashtags used during the Super Bowl’s airing and beyond.

But bad press is still good press, right? Maybe for big brands like Mountain Dew, but not for small businesses. Punt the weird, scary Puppymonkeybaby concept. Small businesses need raving fans, not critics. Punt the idea of going too far outside the norm with a Frankensteined creature thing. That’s not to say that humor is off limits for small business digital marketing strategies. But you want people laughing with you, not at you.

Supercharge your digital marketing strategy by scaling down TurboTax’s tactics to small business size.

Sir Anthony Hopkins “not selling out,” 30 seconds of a dog named TurboTax licking a bone, George Smoot, James Lipton and more drove the pay-zero-to-file-your-taxes point home in commercials. But also TurboTax used SEO and social media to build anticipation for and support of their TV commercial investment.

The digital marketing campaign used display advertising to draw visitors to their website where tracking pixels filled their future remarketing funnel. Ads displayed on YouTube prior to game night served as teasers to their main feature televised commercial spots. During game time, TurboTax banners continued to be displayed on YouTube with searches related to the Super Bowl.

Digital teasers and banners were linked back to a Super Bowl-focused, responsive (optimized for mobile devices) landing page, that ranked well on search engines for Super Bowl-related searches. With product and service reviews so important in the digital landscape today, TurboTax touted its consumer reviews front and center. They sweetened the deal on social media with a few product freebies, reinforcing the free federal tax filing offer in real time with users.

Obviously, run with it.

A small business could use all of these same tactics in a comprehensive digital marketing strategy. By scaling them down to size, your company could achieve similar rewarding results.

Even if your budget doesn’t allow for the video (and for a TV spot), optimized landing pages, social media that reinforces your brand and display ads work wonderfully in tandem to generate leads. All of which can be grow your target audience base for future campaigns.

Small businesses need big brand marketing love too.

When it comes to digital marketing, there are plenty of affordable options perfect for small business budgets and goals. Big advertising budgets and Super Bowl commercial spots are attention getting, but nothing replaces one-on-one interaction and relationship building. Digital marketing tactics allow you to make a connection with potential customers while you have their attention through their mobile device or desktop.

Let our digital marketing team explain your options and how they work together to grow your business.