By Victoria Treyger
While big brands can accomplish a lot thanks to their big marketing dollars, the key to great marketing is to come up with compelling stories that establish a strong emotional connection with your brand. Luckily, small businesses have some of the greatest stories in the world available to share with their customers. With the rise of inexpensive online advertising and social sharing, small businesses increasingly have an opportunity to make a splash alongside the big industry players, even with a limited budget.
Whether it’s promoting your customers’ stories, sharing your viewpoint on big issues affecting your industry or reimagining the idea of what your industry’s “poster child” should look like, small businesses have great opportunities to tell the stories of their brands in powerful – and inexpensive – new ways in 2015.
It doesn’t take extensive resources to replicate some of the core principles used to create a buzz around bigger brands:
- Communicate the emotional, not just the functional, benefit of your product. For example, does your product make customers feel safe? Does it save them time? More time means the ability to spend time on family and the things that really matter to them.
- Share the mission that inspired your business in the first place. How does your product help customers?
- Be genuine and authentic in your voice and all of your marketing.
- Make your best customers your brand ambassadors and encourage them to create user-generated content that communicates how real people are using and benefiting from your product.
Regardless of your business size, you can get some great ideas from these top campaigns of 2014 and capture some of their magic for your own marketing.
Doritos: Crash the Super Bowl Contest
You may remember seeing several Doritos commercials during the Super Bowl in recent years. Not only were these commercials not the product of big advertising and creative agencies, they were done by fans. Nearly 4,900 people from all over the world sent in video entries to the Crash the Super Bowl contest for 2015. The winner, Scott Zabielski,
spent just $2,000 making the winning commercial, an achievement that earned him a cool $1 million – and a new job.
The takeaway: Compelling, creative content can be discovered in unexpected places, and you can uncover that content by rewarding and recognizing brand advocates who are willing to go public in support of your business. You can leverage user-generated content beyond the initial buzz. For instance, you can use the images from a photo contest as a testimonial gallery on your website for your brand.
Lyft: Brand Ambassadors
The private taxi and ride sharing market is a competitive space. To make sure they have enough representation on the ground, Lyft has developed an army of Brand Ambassadors in cities and on college campuses throughout the US. They hire social, well-connected students to be the voice of Lyft on campus and in their local communities to recruit new passengers. Lyft works with these students to identify partnership opportunities through clubs and other events taking place on campus.
The takeaway: Through a small investment in branded wares that bear their iconic pink moustache and inexpensive labor, Lyft has leveraged classic guerilla marketing to tap into an important market to drive brand awareness and conversion of new customers. Consider enlisting the help of local high school and college students to wear or your use products to help create buzz around your brand.
Nike: Find Your Greatness
Few people could watch Nike’s Find Your Greatness campaign without being inspired to try something they’ve been wanting to do, but aren’t sure they can do. It’s a strong reminder that big accomplishments come from small beginnings and that great people were once ordinary people “just like us.”
The takeaway:Talking about your brand and its products or services might not be enough to set you apart. Creating an emotional connection with your brand that is inspiring and touches us at a deeper level is far more motivating.
British Airways: The Magic of Flying
British Airways built digital billboards featuring a child walking around and pointing at the sky. Whenever a British Airways plane flew by overhead (in real life), the billboard posted a simultaneous text announcement saying the name of the British Airways flight number and destination. The result? They reinforced the message (in a visible, powerful way) that British Airways offers “more flights to more destinations.”
The takeaway: It’s easier and more affordable than ever before to create a customized mobile app for your business or to use mobile app technology to build customer loyalty by offering bonuses for check-ins and referrals. British Airways’ complex ad campaign may not be right for your business, but you can use location-based apps to find out more information about your customers, offer location-specific deals and discounts and build more customer loyalty whenever customers are in your immediate area.
Under Armour: Misty Copeland – I Will What I Want
Under Armour has been growing fast in recent years to compete with the larger brands like Nike. They created one of the top marketing campaigns of 2014 for their “I Will What I Want” campaign, featuring ballerina soloist Misty Copeland. Viewed more than 7 million times, the video features Misty performing graceful, impressively powerful ballet moves, while in voiceover she reads a rejection letter from a ballet academy that she received at age 13. Now 32, Misty Copeland is a featured soloist for the American Ballet Theatre and has become a cover girl for a new image of what it means to be a “ballerina.” The message of the Under Armour campaign: determination is stronger than adversity and can help you overcome the expectations of all who doubt you.
The takeaway: Even if you don’t have budget dollars for a celebrity endorsement, you can adopt the winning strategy of this campaign by telling an “underdog story.” How does your business help people overcome the odds? How do you empower people to do more than they imagined? Or how is your business an underdog in your industry? People love to see inspiring stories, and your business undoubtedly has some to share – whether it’s your own story or the story of your customers.
Oreo: Snack Hacks
Oreo launched a series of Snack Hack videos on Vine. Each video is a six-second how-to on eating Oreos in new ways or creating a new snack with the classic cookie. Oreo has since turned it into a full-on web series with well-known chefs Roy Choi, Michael Voltaggio and Nguyen Tran creating new food entrees with Oreos. The videos are simple and effective ways to reinforce Oreos as “America’s favorite cookie,” while delighting consumers’ imaginations around new ways to enjoy the longtime cookie king.
The takeaway: Through apps like Vine, making a short video to showcase your product or service is simple and won’t break your marketing budget. How-to videos in particular tend to get a lot of online traction. Creating educational content related to your products and services is a powerful way to put your brand forward. What can you share with your customers that helps them while showing off your credibility in your field – how to use your product? Quick tips related to your industry?
Marc Jacobs: Cast Me Marc
Last year, Marc Jacobs announced via Twitter that he was looking for a new face for his contemporary label. He invited the online community to submit a photo of themselves with the hash tag “#CastMeMarc” to be considered. The brand has continued to use the hash tag to find the freshest, undiscovered faces for its campaigns.
The takeaway: Engaging your customers through social media is a must. This type of “crowd sourcing” talent not only helps get your brand attention online, but is a great way to uncover loyal customers as well as inexpensive talent with untapped potential.
Always: Run Like a Girl
First released last summer, the Always “Like a Girl” ad was ranked by Adobe as the top digital campaign of the Super Bowl and has been viewed on YouTube over 56 million times. The ad shows differences in how young women, boys and young girls interpret the phrase “like a girl.” After examining consumer research, Always discovered that girls experience a significant drop in self-confidence when they hit puberty – a deep insight that shifted how they went after their customers. Historically, ads geared towards women have focused on selling them a more idealized version of themselves. Increasingly, brands aim to empower women and provide realistic portrayals of their target shopper.
The takeaway: People need to see themselves in your brand. Whether inspiring them to greatness they didn’t know they could achieve or delivering the message that they are already perfect just as they are, the best marketing helps people envision themselves as the perfect candidate for the product or service being offered.
Was there a marketing campaign that stood out to you recently that measures up to the best marketing campaigns for small business – or any size business? We’d like to know! Leave a comment below with your takeaway on why it was great or reach out to us @KabbageInc on Twitter.
Victoria Treyger is the CMO of Kabbage, which pioneered the first financial services data and technology platform to provide fully automated small business loans. Kabbage has grown to become the #1 online provider of business working capital and is a Forbes Top 100 Most Promising Company.
