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The Little Gopher That Could: How Being Not So Normal Paid Off Big

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Humans are competitive by nature. Throughout history, as a species, we’ve been competing in one way or another whether that’s with each other or nature. So it came as no surprise to us when one of our clients – Princeton Mini – approached us and said that they “had to” win a regional OEM contest being held in conjunction with a national sales event, and enlisted our assistance.

The “Not So Normal” sales event held by Mini was designed to advertise the exceptionally high gas mileage that Mini Coopers have. The contest itself was between the dealerships and they were given little guidance other than being creative and not so normal.

The dealership already had a huge head-start in the contest deciding on building a custom-made miniature golf course (Mini golf course, get it?). The employees themselves built this very creative and elaborate 9-hole course spending their own free time to do so. The contest was to culminate in a dealership event promoting the “Not So Normal” sale and was to be judged by the regional representatives from Mini via pictures and videos of the event.

After brainstorming with the General Manager, Robert Ogust, we came up with a “Caddyshack” theme to build up on the miniature golf course they had created. We scripted out the video based on scenes from the classic movie and incorporated the infamous gopher and make the event even less “normal”. The plot was that the gopher was going to infiltrate the dealership and they needed to get rid of it.

We attended the event and filmed the scenes needed with the employees playing the various roles and to photograph the event. The dealership really went all out for this event. It was very apparent that they had put a lot of time and effort into it. They had given each golf hole Mini-inspired name such as Mini Mulligan, Fore Wheel Drive and Cooper Chute. The employees were all wearing these, for lack of better words, not so normal golf costumes. They had music playing, catered food (including a chocolate fountain), a bounce house and even threw in some large, stuffed sumo wrestling outfits at the end. They were even successful in getting customers to participate in doing some “not so normal” things on camera!

The event was a great success with everyone attending – from employees to customers – having a great time and the dealership making sales. In the end, Princeton Mini ended up winning the contest. Instead of keeping the $3500, the staff at MINI decided to donate their winnings to the Red Cross to help the many people in NJ impacted by Hurricane Sandy. Princeton MINI’s generosity was matched by their parent company, Asbury Automotive Group, and MINI for a total donation to the Red Cross of $10,500.

It goes to show what a little imagination, commitment, elbow grease and fun can earn you. Sometimes it pays to be “not so normal”… and have a pet gopher.

…and if you’d like to see the fun video, you can check it out by clicking here!

Originally published in the January 2013 edition of the 3 Birds Marketing newsletter

Social Media 201: Beyond Facebook and Twitter

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You’ve ventured into the world of social media. You have a Facebook page, promoted it in your marketing and in your store, started posting great content and the people that started liking your page are engaging with you. You created a Twitter account, have been tweeting and re-tweeting content, built a following and are starting to get re-tweeted and mentioned. Life is great! You did it!

…whoa, hold your horses.

As the title of this article indicates, Facebook and Twitter, while a great beginning, are far from a conquest of social media. If we were playing Risk, you just conquered Australia. There are a lot of territories left and some are pretty big. Let’s take a world tour and hit on some more social media sites as you take your social media efforts to the next level.

There are literally hundreds of social media sites. Luckily, you don’t have to worry about most of them, but there are a few that you should definitely have a presence on for your dealership: Google+, Yelp, and Foursquare.

Google + is the 800-pound gorilla in this mix. It has a total of about 250 million users and, while it does not have the level of engagement or activity that Facebook and Twitter has, it is essential to have a presence here. Google has migrated from a general relevance model of delivering search results to an enhanced relevance model on an individual level by integrating a searcher’s social network. G+ has the best SEO of any sites as Google, naturally, favors its own products. Google hosts 11 billion monthly searches which are mostly people looking for relevant and timely content. It is a different platform so you need to differentiate your G+ strategy from your Twitter or Facebook marketing strategies. Google searchers are looking for timely news, offers, information, articles, etc. about not only your dealership but your brand and models. This is the site where your most visible business presence will be through Google searches so it’s important not to neglect this network.

Many businesses think of Yelp strictly as a review site. While it is an important part of your reputation management and review building strategies, there are also strong social media components which exist that could be used to fully leverage your Yelp presence.  Yelp claims to have 71 million unique visitors. Yes, there are some dealers who have strong criticisms of how Yelp holds them hostage when a negative review appears. Did you know, however, that Yelp also has strong location-based components that you can leverage to make offers to people that are near your location? It can also inform them that you are there in the first place, if they didn’t already know. Make sure to explore all the capabilities of Yelp, have a complete and optimized profile and are paying attention to more than just the reviews.

Foursquare is a location-based service which is growing increasingly valuable. Foursquare has 20 million registered users which, according to the company, “check-in” over 3 million times per day and they are about to pass 750 million check-ins total. It is another free service that is also very low maintenance and can be leveraged to not only drive traffic to your store but steal traffic from your competitors. Users can leave “tips” which amount to mini reviews at your location. These are becoming increasingly important as Bing recently integrated these tips into their map search engine. You also have the ability to create “offers” that you can leverage to attract new customers. These offers appear on a user’s mobile device when they check-in at a location. The location doesn’t have to be yours, however. It only needs to be a business in the general vicinity. If your store is in an auto mall, a customer could potentially go onto Foursquare to check-in at your competition (let’s face it, every dealer is your competition when it comes to used cars). They will see a special icon that will indicate that you have an offer. Curiosity may lead them to look at it and, if it’s compelling enough, may persuade them to visit your store.

As you can see, there is more to social media than you probably ever imagined. No one expects you to master all the sites, nor should you. But you should be cognizant of which sites are available, which sites your demographic is using, and which sites are generating traffic NOW, not last month. Remember MySpace? AOL? Social networking sites come and go. The ones that are hot right now may not be in a year. Be where your consumers are engaging and know how they want to be engaged with, no matter where that is. Digital marketing, and social media marketing by extension, is an ever-dynamic field. If you pay attention, you’ll know where you need to be and what you should do when you get there. For now, these are a good start.

Article originally published in the October 2012 issue of the 3 Birds Marketing newsletter.

Stat of the Week and In The News Compilation – November 2012

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In the News – November 6, 2012 – [LINK]

Instagram Rolls Out Web Profiles

Instagram began launching web profiles on Monday, according to Mashable. Facebook has wasted no time in their attempt to knock some of the steam out of Pinterest. In our August 10 “Stat of the Week”, we shared how Pinterest is the 4th largest driver of retail web traffic and drives four times as much as Facebook. It appears as if Facebook is fighting back by leveraging their recent purchase of Instagram to gain some ground in the search arena. The fact that Instagram will have a web presence and is owned by Facebook certainly puts them on the map and in contention immediately. As mentioned in the Mashable article, Facebook and Instagram integration is sure to deepen which doesn’t bode well for Pinterest. It remains to be seen whether Instagram will have the SEO value that Pinterest currently does, but with 100 million registered users versus Pinterest’s 20 million (per Forbes, July 2012) Instagram certainly has a built in audience that position it to do so.

Recording: How to Win Fans & Influence Newsfeeds (10/18/12)

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For anyone that’s interested, here is the recording of the webinar I conducted yesterday titled “How to Win Fans & Influence Newsfeeds: Increase Your Exposure & Reach on Facebook”. I had a lot of great feedback from surveys and comments left by attendees. I appreciate everyone who attended and for anyone who did not, I hope you get an opportunity to view it. If you do, please leave a comment on this blog and let me know what you thought! Thanks!

How to Win Fans & Influence Newsfeeds Increasing Your Exposure & Reach on Facebook from DealerOn on Vimeo.

 

Road Trip Recap – Day 1 and 2

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Well, here I sit at 4:30am Central time. Since it’s dark outside and I’m drinking hotel bathroom coffee, (yuck) I thought I’d write an update on my trip to North Carolina so far.

First, and very important, I did have concerns about my new Chrysler 200’s ability to tow the 4×8 U-Haul trailer across the country. Now that I’ve driven roughly 1100 miles with it, I must say that I’m quite impressed. It’s pulling that fully loaded trailer with ease. The ride is very smooth and comfortable and the engine has plenty of power for those hills. The iPod connection and satellite radio have certainly come in handy as well. Jamming out to Air Supply and the Bee Gees has certainly enhanced the experience and entertained me (just kidding.. well, at least about the Air Supply and Bee Gees part.. it was actually MC Hammer and Paula Abdul).

Day 1 was one of our shorter days. Started in Moreno Valley, CA and the goal was to reach Flagstaff, AZ. There was no need for directions since it’s only one freeway all the way from CA to NC. The drive was monotonous but relatively short compared to the days to follow. Started at about 9am and arrived in Flagstaff at about 5pm. Along the way, the heat steadily rose until it was 115 degrees outside. I ended up actually experiencing this when I had to stop in Needles, CA for a fill up. If you are ever traveling that way, do NOT stop in Needles. I felt like I was being robbed with gas prices almost $5/gallon. Even in CA, gas has been steadily dropping to under the $4 range. Anyways, que sera sera. As we passed the exit to the Grand Canyon, there was an incredible urge to visit but having been there before, I knew that the little bit of time that could’ve been spent there just isn’t enough to truly appreciate it.

Watching and interacting with the people who have been following #atrt on Twitter was fun and entertaining. Day 1 was on Sunday so there wasn’t a whole bunch of interaction. It was still fun and was a nice way to journal my experience and keep my wife in the loop. It was also the first time I’ve truly tested out FaceTime. Since I won’t be seeing my family for quite some time, I’m encouraged to know that I can still see and interact with them visually. It will probably lessen the home-sickness I’m sure I’ll experience.

Day 2 started as a beautiful day in Flagstaff. There was about 600 miles to drive yesterday – the goal being to arrive in Amarillo, TX at a decent hour. Of course, there were two time changes in store so, while the actual driving time ended up being about 9 hours, Amarillo didn’t appear until roughly 8:30pm Central time. The scenery along the way was awesome, especially some of the vistas in New Mexico. An interesting sight was a car pulled over on the side of the road with two police cars in New Mexico. The car literally had the hood, trunk and every door wide open as well as the entire back seat on the shoulder of the road and the cops were systematically dumping every item in the car on the roadside shoulder… emptying the suitcases piece by piece. I dont know what that person did but that would’ve truly sucked.

I can attest that the Escort 9500ix radar detector I bought for the trip has certainly come in quite handy. It has easily and consistently been ID’ing police miles before I spot them. It’s been very consistent with not a lot of false alarms. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who may like to drive a little faster than they should be.. even those who happen to be pulling a U-Haul trailer (not that I know anyone who would do that).

Near the end of the trip, I was getting pretty cranky but once I arrived at the hotel that went away. My legs have been killing me the whole trip. It absolutely didn’t have anything to do with my attempt to show-off in front of my friends Saturday by doing a squat with my 260-lb friend on my back. Nothing whatsoever.

The videos and pictures I’ve been making and posting on various social networks has been a lot of fun. Engagement picked up on Day 2 since it was a work day (not that anyone uses Twitter or Facebook during work hours). I found several interesting places to take pictures with my 3 birds hitchhikers, including pulling over on the shoulder in front of the “Welcome to Texas” sign where they got to perch on the cowboy hat I seldom got a chance to wear in California. Other than that, there wasn’t a plethora of fun places to take pictures along the way (unless you consider cactus “fun”).

I got to give away a highly-coveted special edition “Viva Los 3 Birds” t-shirt to the person who tweeted the origin of “3 Birds” in the 3 Birds Marketing name. (In case you didn’t know what it is, it plays off the phrase “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”. The philosophy at 3 Birds is that, while a bird in the hand may be valuable, why not have all 3 birds instead of only one. The most common misconception about the name is that the 3 Birds represents the 3 founders – Layton and Kristen Judd and Len Wohadlo.)

There’s another 600 miles in store for the drive today with the goal being to reach Little Rock, AR at a decent hour (and safely). I hope you have been following along, have enjoyed the pictures and videos and will continue to participate on Twitter following and tweeting to hashtag #atrt I have more shirts ad prizes to give away today so pay attention and participate.

Thanks for the read! I’m excited about reaching my new home in North Carolina and beginning my new position as Social Media Strategist & Policy Manager with the awesome staff at the 3 Birds corporate office. As they say, its the people that make the company.

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