Lindsey’s Daily Deal: Shut up—I’m Talking, Can’t Win ‘Em All and The Ultimate Marketing Rivalry

By Lindsey Campbell, Captains of Industry

Hey Captains’ Readers,

I hope you’re all recovering nicely from the long weekend. That includes everything from stinging sunburns to horrible hangovers. We don’t judge here at Captains.

Here’s your Tuesday Deal:

1. Shut up, I’m talking

What are you a fan of on Facebook? And be honest, are you ACTUALLY a fan? In the social media world, a true Facebook fan visits their fan pages maybe once or twice a week, actively searches out new content, and engages other fellow fans by writing on the page’s wall or contributing a link for others to share.

Yeah, I didn’t think so.

But that’s OK—you’re not alone. In fact, there are thousands of Facebookers that become “fans” of businesses, clubs, causes and entities just because the title of the group sounded funny or interesting. For example, “Wouldn’t it be cool if they made fat Barbies?,” “Sorry I can’t hang out… It’s Quidditch season,” and “I redo high fives if they weren’t good enough the first time” are some of the most popular pages on Facebook. In fact, the last one has over 2 million fans. Seriously.

Why are these groups so popular? Simon Dumenco of Ad Age explains that Facebook has actually become a burden to some people, and rather than using it to engage with others and with content, they only devote a fraction of their attention spans to it, which explains why most Facebookers are fans of over 200 different fan pages. It’s a classic case of quantity versus quality. Case in point, Gregory Levey, author of “Shut Up, I’m Talking” recently created a fan page for his new read, but was freaked out when he gained almost 700,000 fans in a matter of days. Why was he afraid of all the free publicity? Because Levey claims that he hasn’t actively marketed to, or even communicated with, his Facebook fans. Ever. Which means they don’t really care about what’s inside his book, they just like the title.

What’s a new author, company, or cause to do? I say, ride the wave. We can’t control what’s popular on Facebook anymore than we can control what goes viral these days. Out of the 700,000 fans Levey accrued, I’m sure there are a few true blue fans that do want to learn more about Levey and his book. So keep contributing new and interesting content to your pages, you’ll not only keep your real fans happy, but you might even get some others actually interested as well.

2. There are some cases even we can’t win

This is the new slogan for Trolman, Glaser & Lichtman, a law firm based in New York City. And you know what? It’s genius. Rather than featuring the partners reciting some carefully worded lawyer speak in a serious tone in their new commercial, T, G &L actually went with a funny concept that makes fun of our overly-litigious society who tend to sue first and ask questions later. It’s the first lawyer commercial I’ve seen that doesn’t make me want to become a lawyer and sue someone for making a bad lawyer commercial.

3. The matchup of a marketer’s lifetime

Everyone loves a good rivalry. Red Sox versus Yankees. Seinfeld versus Newman. Edward versus Jacob. But the ultimate smack down in the marketing world right now is Content versus Advertising. We marketers have been trying to figure out for a while now if consumers respond more to content-based marketing efforts, or good old, tried and true traditional advertising.

To put an end to this war, AdPulp decided to post two different campaigns, one content-based and the other traditional, for two different types of vodka, Absolut and Stoli, to see once and for all what kind of marketing consumers enjoyed watching the most. In one corner, we have Absolut’s campaign. It’s a trailer for a web movie (branded content) to be coming out this summer that stars Ali Larter as Lemon Drop, a sixties badass mamajama who would do anything to save her stolen kittens. In the other corner, Stoli uses a traditional commercial campaign that stars some of the biggest celebrities in Hollywood having drinks with themselves, the first being Hugh Hefner, and the latest, Julia Stiles. So far, it seems Stoli has the lead with over 25,000 views for Hef (since May), and over 2,000 views for Stiles (since last Friday). However, with over 10,000 views on YouTube (since June) for just a movie trailer, I’d say Absolut still has a fighting chance in this match when the movie finally airs online. Stay tuned to see who wins the top spot.

Whose side are you on? Team Content or Team Advertising?

Until tomorrow,

Captain “Team Edward 4 Eva” Lindsey