lessons from saturday night live's digital word of mouth strategies

Lessons from Saturday Night Live’s Digital Word of Mouth Strategies

Matt AllenNBC.comTwitter: @mattla31

Sarah Hofstetter360iTwitter: @Pezmeister1

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The plan for today

• Social media & digital word of mouth education

• Saturday Night Live case study

• Best practices so you can do it too!

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360i: Social media advisors to leading brands

RETAIL & E-COMMERCE

CONSUMER PACKAGED

GOODS

MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

TRAVEL

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Listen & analyze

conversations

Educate you & your team

Devise strategies

Build platforms

Execute with SM best practices

Report & optimize

Holistic social media practice

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Conversations in social media are…

Vibrant Energetic InsightfulDisorganized Monetizable

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Social marketing strategy must revolve around consumer behavior

Internet As Focus Group Customized Experiences Old Playbooks Obsolete

Strategy & execution require uncommon integration

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Winning over even just one customer can have a huge ripple effect in social media

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The Importance of word of mouth, and blogs as pivotal online influencers

Sources: McKinsey, AdAge, Jupiter Research and Cone, eMarketer

67%

68%

300%

56%

Of consumer purchase decisions are primarily influenced by word of mouth

Of blog readers visit their most trusted blogs daily

Growth in monthly blog readership in the past four years

Of social media users feel a stronger connection with companies when they can interact with them in a social media environment

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Don’t fall into this trap!

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…or this oneBright Shiny Object Syndrome

Set benchmarks for success

Listen

Evaluate Strategize

Participate Measure & Optimize

BSO Approach Strategic Approach

Results: • Something

to show the boss

Results: • Engage target audience• Achieve KPIs

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If we want to succeed in social media, then we need to…

Be Present Listen Up ParticipateMeasure

&Optimize

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Case Study: Saturday Night LiveDigital Word of Mouth (DWOMSM)

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NBC Digital Entertainment │Who We Are

Online & Mobile Destination for NBC ProgrammingHome of super-fan communities including Heroes, Dunder-Mifflin Infinity (the Office), Biggest Loser and more…The promotional arm for the TV Network

INNOVATION

− NBC’s online video player offered the FIRST full-episode streaming with closed-captioned and will be the FIRST to offer user viewing parties as part of the streaming experience

− NBC is the first network to offer high-quality, downloadable video of your favorite TV shows

QUALITY

− Winner of Four Webby Awards & Twenty Commendations

− Two-Time Emmy Award Winner, with Eight Nominations

− Led all networks with Six Wins and Eleven Nominations for the inaugural TV Guide Online Video Awards

ENGAGEMENT

− NBC.com has the highest market-share of visits of all network broadcast sites.

− NBC.com has the highest time spent/user

− MyNBC: A thriving social network for the NBC super-fan with more than 450,000 active members

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Audience Development │ Tactics

• TRADITIONAL PLATFORMS• On-Air:

• Digital promos• In-show integrations• Digital tosses• Snipes

• Print & Radio• Publicity• Out of Home (NBC Everywhere)• NBCU Cross-Promotional Support

• DIGITAL PLATFORMS• Mobile• Online

• Promotion & Partnerships• Media• Search • Digital PR, Syndication, Widgets

NBC On-Air Digital Toss:

Publicity:

Print:

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Widgets │ Types We Use

• SINGLE-CLIP VIDEO WIDGET(Embeddable Video Player)

MULTI-CLIP WIDGET CONTENT WIDGETS

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Widgets │ Deployment Strategy

• NBC.com• Digital Media• NBC Publicity• Distribution via 360i• Viral Propagation • Facebook Applications

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Audience Development │ Measuring Success

Embedded links

Blogs MySpace

Message Boards Other Websites

Viral syndication drives site traffic

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When looking at social marketing, there are so many platforms; but so little time….

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Let’s evaluate social marketing through a strategic lens

Does it meet our objectives?

Does it leverageour social media

arsenal?

Does it follows social media best

practices?

Does it provides value to theconsumer?

SOCIAL MARKETING STRATEGIC LENS

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What are our objectives?

Preferred Player

Site Traffic Advocacy

Objectives

Arsenal

Rules Value

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NBC’s incredible social media arsenal

ssetsranditizens

Objectives

Arsenal

Rules Value

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Rules of the social media road

Listen to audience &

cultivate relationships

Understand & acclimate to each of your

environments

Empower your fans to express their opinions

about your brand

When using the brand voice, be consistent

Make as much of your content

portable & sharable

Recognize you’re in an always-on

environment

Always be authentic & transparent

Objectives

Arsenal

Rules Value

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Ensure effective value exchange

Conversation Access Utility

Entertainment Social currency

Objectives

Arsenal

Rules Value

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SNL Video Case Study

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Strategy Overview

Find Engage Nurture/Fuel

Synchronize

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Personalized outreach & strong relationships result in high visibility coverage

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6/1 6/15 6/29 7/13 7/27 8/10

Rapid, relevant outreach delivers coverage every Sunday morning

Jan. 10 Neil Patrick

Harris

Feb. 7Bradley Cooper

March 8Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson April 4

Seth Rogen

March 15Tracy

Morgan

Feb. 14Alec Balwdin

Jan. 31Steve Martin May 9

Justin Timberlake

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DWOM drove 77% interactions and 63% daily uniques of NBC video player for SNL

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Popularity in social media dominates PageShare on Google as well

Aug ’06 Pre-SEO Oct ’06 After SEO

NBC.com did not rank in the first natural search page

Apr ’08 After SEO + DWOM

Blog Posts Linking back to NBC.com

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Did this program measure up against the strategic lens?

Does it meet our objectives?

Does it leverageour social media

arsenal?

Does it follows social media best

practices?

Does it provides value to theconsumer?

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Can DWOMSM work for you? Some best practices:

• Always be transparent• Customers don’t want transparency; they demand it. And it’s good for your

brand, too

• Never spam• Don’t post comments on blogs, seeds message boards or forums, or blasts

press releases

• Authenticity is key• Authenticity lets you take advantage of your brand strength and

commitment to listening to your customers• Don’t incentivize online influencers through payment or pressures them to

write positive posts

• Give them something to talk about• Figure out what will resonate best with online influencers – and their readers• If no assets exist – create them!

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Guidelines of social marketing best practices

• Establish your goals up front

• Listen to your audience

• Lay out your social marketing footprint

• Populate, converse, engage and share

• Adapt the execution to the platform

• Measure!

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Matt Allen

Senior Exec Director of Marketing

NBC.com

matt.allen@nbcuni.com

www.nbc.com

Twitter: @mattla31

Sarah Hofstetter

VP, Emerging Media & Client Strategy

360i

sarah@360i.com

blog.360i.com

Twitter: @Pezmeister

Thank you!