When it comes to words like branding, marketing and advertising, we always think of the big brands like Nike, Apple and McDonalds. The big guys, who pay big money to get our split-second attention. It’s common for companies to use paid media (where you pay for space to display your messages) to create brand awareness. Whilst this is often an effective technique, it’s an expensive one, and is often a far reach for smaller companies or organisations.
Rather than the old fashioned and expensive form of broadcast advertising, there has been a turn towards digital marketing and social media. Yes, you may say, I am aware of digital marketing and the importance of social media, but I still believe a brand can’t function solely on social media or a basic website. I too, was once a social media sceptic, with questions on the extent social media can be used to create awareness of a brand. Yet in the past week I’ve had an eye-opening experience, to the extent an effective social media presence can have on a brand. Find out why…
Last Friday night, I was preparing to go out. As per my usual routine, I asked my social network what they had planned and where we should go. I was receiving the usual responses with names of the usual social scenes when my friend mentioned a party at a Portuguese social club in Marrickville, ‘Ricardo’s’ . This was what she thought it was called, located somewhere around 100 Marrickville road. With slight hesitation, we decided to check out this so called ‘party’.
So, there we are, two girls dressed up, 11:30pm at night, getting out of our Uber at 100 Marrickville road. The place was dead, with lightly dimmed street lights highlighting a road wedged between old warehouses and a train line. As our positive mood started to dissipate, we checked Google maps, Ricardo’s should be just on the other side of the train line. As we walked towards the pin point of Ricardo’s I prepared myself for an empty bowling club with nothing going on. But as we walked alongside the dark train line closer towards the location, I started to see a few groups of people smoking by the road, they were dressed for a night out. As we got closer and closer to the location more and more people started to appear. We reached the entrance of the club and it was packed with a 150m queue trailing outside the club. It was full of the crème de la crème of creative inner west and eastern suburb millennials. I was stunned, how could a club, which hires out a bowling venue every Friday night in the middle of nowhere, generate this many customers?
When I got home I looked up ‘Ricardo’s’ on Google and the only thing that came up was a single Facebook page with 1,078 likes. The page was buzzing with quirky posts showcasing the upcoming event by collectives such as MOTORIK, PELVIS and VIBE POSITIVE. This social media page may have been the only platform for the brand to market its events, yet it was specifically tailored to its audience (creative, inner or eastern suburb millennials) creating a large social network of consumers who spread the word of the event to their own social groups.
This creative use of brand marketing, is not uncommon in Sydney. Knafeh is a pop-up Jerusalem street food restaurant which is leading the way in effective digital marketing. Knafeh was created by a group called The Bearded Bakers, who re-purposed a shipping container covered with street art. This container houses a Jerusalem style bakery producing the best kept family secrets of baking. The container moves to different locations around Sydney and announces their new location through social media, only a short time before opening to create intrigue.
They have very little marketing or advertising, only their Website, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages are used to generate consumer interest, yet when they open in their new location, crowds of people flock to try their unique food. Their website is a simple one page format, with their logo, an image of the container, their current location, and a link to their Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages. Little to no detail is given about the brand, or their food.
Their social media presence may look simple, yet it’s designed to draw the consumer into wanting to experience the mystery and vibrant atmosphere of The Bearded Bakers. Their Instagram is flooded with creative pictures of the crowds, the containers and the food, whilst their Facebook page is flooded with positive reviews. They have mastered the digital art of social media to create a brand baked in mystery and exclusivity for the consumer (excuse the pun, but I had to). They didn’t need big expensive advertisements to get people talking, they merely needed the interest of the public and the sharing of social networks.
Next time you plan on creating a large paid marketing campaign, think first, have I utilised the power of my website and social media to attract my ideal consumer?
Contact us to find out more information on how you can optimise your website and social media presence, to get your consumer awareness to rise (again, sorry about the baking pun).
