What do these videos all have in common?
All but one of the above videos have had hundreds of thousands of views. Each video was made to share and educate. And there are tons of other videos with fascinating laundry advice, each with tens of thousands of views. Many of these videos were created by men to teach other men how to “impress women.” *sniff sniff* Nope, not dirty clothes. I smell a niche audience!
Imagine a scenario in which a laundry detergent or packaged goods manufacturer wants to target college-aged (18-24) and single bachelors aged 25-34.
In the era of new media marketing and PR, companies have to ask what they can do for their customers. What interests them? What are they searching for? What do they want to learn? How can your product or service fit into this equation?
Unless they had a parent who taught them how to do laundry, most guys go off to school with a limited knowledge of washology. Since 70% of this demographic would give up TV over the Internet, it’s safe to say these guys are easier reached online–and no better way to build a relationship with them than through social media.
Here are a few ways a detergent company could engage with male college students and single bachelors:
- As our quick search showed, there are plenty of opportunities to give laundry advice. Set up a YouTube Channel with a weekly video series giving how-to tips on everything from folding clothes to getting out tough stains.
- Extend this with a weekly “Ask Mom” segment where consumers can leave video questions on laundering needs. Perhaps even “Show Us Your Stain” segment where users upload videos of tough stains and “Mom” shows us how to get them out
- Partner all of these with a blog to archive the tips and tricks (kind of like this but more conversational and not so one-sided). Combine that with a blogger outreach program to target young men on sites like LiveJournal and WordPress, places where they are already talking about they day-to-day activities.
What packaged good companies have yet to learn is how to use social media to build relationships. Instead of advertising on Facebook, try more listening, more give and less take. Add value by becoming a resource and a trusted confidant to your customer. Become a part of the community. Most importantly, stay human.
What is some advice you would give packaged goods companies to more effectively use social media?
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I always say that if you are creating an online video, it needs to provide value to the intended audience. This “value” comes in the form of either education or entertainment.
Think of the videos that you watch and share: they either taught you something you didn’t know (or helped you explain something to someone else) or you thought they were entertaining (often funny).
While a lot of companies strive to create entertaining videos, it isn’t necessarily the right route.
As a company or organization, you probably know more about a specific topic than other people. A laundry detergent company providing advice and info on how to best do laundry is a great example of how this should be done.
From my own personal experience, I think that the video that I helped create for CNW Group with Mark Mckay got some online pickup because it wasn’t an advertisement for CNW’s Social Media Release, but was educational and taught people about what an SMR was (video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4LQWhwK89E&eurl=http://smr.newswire.ca/ )
Great stuff and good observation – This particular niche would come in handy for a friend of mine… a dry cleaner in Austin. We are trying to think of more things that would be interesting to publish other than just a ‘tour of the facility” video and the history of the coat hanger for a blog post.
Great idea about the detergent company. I think advertising will be evolving more towards story telling. We’ve see it on television in some ad campaigns, but with the web they will be cloaked more in story telling with the “advertising” merely incidental….and much more effective. Budweiser has some great ones circulating YouTube already. Its amazing what will garner a lot of views.
Good point about advertisers paying attention to the conversations on facebook vs just paying for exposure.
I’ve found that “How To” videos seem to work the best for our online marketing / relationship building agendas. It is a simple concept that took a while to figure out, but it does produce the best results.
Viral advertising is growing, the companies that figure it out and get it right will be the big winners.
Recently saw an episode of The Apprentice and they were attempting to make a viral video for a national company selling laundry detergent. Looks like major companies are seeing the benefits of this new medium, expect more to come.
We are putting this post to work right now. Ouch my old comment links to a competitor. Sorry.