My daughter Abby is a sponge for commercials. She absorbs every single bit of marketing speak that spews from our television. So it didn’t really surprise me last week when I asked her what she wanted for dinner and she told me “A hand crafted pizza”. My guess is that she was quoting a Domino’s Pizza commercial.
Kids Tweet the Darnedest Things
It made me giggle, but I knew what she meant. We often make homemade pizza at the McMillan house, although homemade might be stretching it. Homemade for us is store bought pizza crust, sauce, cheese and pepperoni, but then assembled, or “handcrafted”, by my kids. What does a digital mom do when her kids do something cute? She tweets, of course!
My daughter just asked me for a “hand crafted pizza”. #marketing
— Brooke McMillan (@McMillanATX) April 23, 2014
Seconds later, I get a reply notification:
@McMillanATX We think you should give your daughter what she wants, Brooke! Here’s 50% off for ordering online: http://t.co/jRE1gD9k9c
— Papa John’s Austin (@PapaJohnsAustin) April 23, 2014
Cool or Creepy? A Crowdsourced and Totally Unscientific Survey
While the “handcrafted” commercial was a Domino’s reference, and I was actually making homemade pizza with the kids, I was totally impressed with the responsiveness of Papa John’s Twitter team. I have used this proactive method before – searching in Tweetdeck for related key words shouted into the universe – I think the tactic is great, but I’ve always been worried that I might freak someone out by the outreach. I took to Facebook to ask my friends and family their opinions. SURPRISE! Everyone had one.
I tried to find a general consensus or see if there was a pattern to those that thought it was creepy or cool. This is what I found in my sample size of 40 Facebook friend responses:
- Super users of social media seem to be okay with the personal response.
- My dad, a baby boomer, was very clear that he thought it was indeed creepy. Doesn’t surprise me as he believes the government is watching his Facebook likes.
- Marketing professionals were totally impressed.
- Moms were more likely to think it was cool and more likely to want to steal my coupon code.
Take Aways and Take Out
Proactive marketing can be cool and effective especially when coupons and discounts are involved. Marketers need to keep their eyes on the digital chatter both on a national and hyper local level. Speed of response is crucial. If it is dinner time, someone is tweeting about pizza and you sell pizza, then engage immediately. Don’t wait. You could just open a window of opportunity and sway their purchase.
And now for you good people that get my Yentl reference…I give you the epic song by Barbra Streisand. You’re welcome.
