Why I Wasn’t Impressed with Oreo’s Super Bowl Blackout Tweet

Posted by Jon Thomas, 06 Feb 2013

I’m going to say it: I wasn’t impressed by Oreo’s blackout tweet. 

As I brace for the backlash, I’ll try to explain myself. I do realize that Oreo is making all the brands that invested $4 million for 30 seconds of interruption look foolish. Oreo is the talk of the town, and it’s not because of its own quite funny Super Bowl commercial (that’s right: I’m not going to call it the Big Game or El Plato Supreme) or it's impressive efforts on Instagram re-creating photos sent by fans out of either Oreo cookie or Oreo cream, which I insist marketers would be talking about today if there hadn't been a blackout. No, it’s because of a single tweet (I realize that it was also a Facebook post, but let’s call it a tweet for simplicity’s sake). It was a photo of an Oreo cookie in a pool of light surrounded by darkness and the words “You can still dunk in the dark”—and it was re-tweeted more than 15,000 times.

It was timely, on-brand and a much faster real-time response than any other brand (though brands like Tide and Audi had some great responses as well). If you were scouring the online marketing rags on Monday morning, you couldn’t click twice without running into an article about Oreo’s success.

But I wasn’t impressed by the tweet.

Share

4 TED Talks All Brand Storytellers Must Watch

Posted by Jon Thomas, 30 Jan 2013

TED talks are a gold mine of knowledge. Because the TED website’s topics include not only technology, education and design (TED) but also business, science, activism, health, storytelling and everything in between, one can get lost on the site for days.

A number of these short talks (most are around 20 minutes) revolve around storytelling. While they don’t necessarily address brand storytelling, they do offer insights that a brand could apply to its efforts to engage audiences through its brand story. I’ve gathered four talks I found particularly useful, and I’ve included a brand takeaway for each. Enjoy!

Share

5 Ways to Anger Your Brand’s Fans and Lose Credibility on Facebook

Posted by Jon Thomas, 07 Nov 2012

It gave me the creeps. It annoyed me. It even made me a bit angry.

I saw that a Facebook friend of mine had commented on an FM radio station’s page (that I was not a Facebook fan of). The post included a slightly distorted image and promised that my mind would be blown if I just typed the word Club in the comment box. 

Share
Open our doors to social media

Loving Brands Like Brothers

Posted by Jon Thomas, 08 Dec 2010
When was the last time you shared something intimate with a brand? Had a romantic picnic on the ledge of a billboard? Or spent a Friday night with a group of friends at the advertisement theater? We don't share ourselves with brands in this sense exactly. But our engagement with brands is changing and expanding all the time. We now live in a world where a brand that earns its way into the lives of its fans can engage with them on a daily basis, creating a deeper relationship than has ever been possible.
Share
Scot Chisholm - Classy Awards

Proof from the Classy Awards that Great Stories Spread

Posted by Jon Thomas, 17 Nov 2010
On November 7th, 2010, attendees from around the United States descended upon San Diego to recognize the top philanthropic achievements by charities, businesses, and individuals at the Classy Awards. I've always believed that the people and brands who tell the best stories win, but it's a special experience to actually see this idea in action, changing the world. The speakers in attendance were masters of narrative persuasion, inspiring me to grow a mustache and fight poverty in Africa, at the same time.
Share

GM Fights Brand Bullies with Social Media

Posted by Luke Dringoli, 26 Oct 2009

When General Motors suffered from financial troubles this year, bloggers and social media types were fast to feed the frenzy. Some of them, including WebInkNow.com blogger David Meerman Scott, leveraged their prominence on the web to gain even more traction than the more objective journalists.

Share

CALL ME, G.O.P.: Can the Social Web Save the Republican Party?

Posted by Kirk Cheyfitz, 01 Jul 2009
Blessings and thanks to The Daily Beast for reporting that Story Worldwide, the agency that brings you this blog, has launched an experiment to use the social web to find a true, authentic and sustainable brand for the Republican Party, presently a total and humiliating disaster. To join the struggle to find the new soul of the G.O.P., go to the site we've created: Call Me, G.O.P. (as in "Call me anytime for help or advice").
Share