Martin Starr is a man with many roles in Hollywood namely as the resident grouchy, know-it-all computer programmer in HBO’s hit show Silicon Valley.
The jack-of-all-tech-trades actor, who also has star roles in Freaks and Geeks and Knocked Up, is now delving into the video game world as he, Microsoft and Ayzenberg have launched an integrated campaign to drive awareness to Xbox One s newest features. (Editor’s note: [a]listdaily is the media arm of the Ayzenberg Group.)
Through his brand of dry humor, the self-described profoundly underrated actor takes sole ownership for the innovations behind the platform’s redesign of the Xbox One Experience, Backward Compatibility and playing any Xbox game on a Windows 10 computer connected to WiFi. Earlier this week, Microsoft unveiled the first 104 Xbox One backward compatibility games, featuring such titles as the complete Gears of War catalog, Assassin s Creed II, Fallout 3, Borderlands and Castle Crashers.
In a series of spots, the 32-year-old stoic-faced star unapologetically takes credit for the advancements Microsoft was responsible for. Andy Mitchell, Ayzenberg s associate creative director who worked as the copywriter and editor for the collaboration, sought Starr because he’s from a different breed of prototypical pitchman.
“His characters are usually dry, intelligent and seem like they d much be gamers at heart,” Mitchell said. “He could communicate the latest and greatest innovations to come to Xbox but do so in his unique, humorous way. He has a gift with coming up with comedic gold on the spot.”
The incredibly popular Backward Compatibility feature should be a welcome treat for fans this holiday season.
If this is a dream come true for you, Starr has two words for you: You’re welcome.
There’s no doubting how Star Wars is the biggest franchise this holiday season. The Force Awakens, which hits theaters on December 18th, is already looking to be a tremendous box office hit. On top of that, various promotions are taking advantage of fandom and excitement, and are ramping up during the final month before the film’s release.
Months after announcing various promotional partners for the film (including Covergirl, Max Factor and Subway), the Wall Street Journal has broken down just how deep marketing is getting for tie-ins with The Force Awakens. It’s a double-win for companies, as they can appeal to both new fans of the franchise and older ones that have grown up with previous films, with the last being 2005’s Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.
For promotion tied in with The Force Awakens, Disney moved up the timetable for products, which was normally six to eight weeks ahead of the film. It went a full 15 weeks beforehand, with figures, toys and other items related to it. “We could have gone even earlier,” said Josh Silverman, executive vice president of global licensing for Disney.
Force Friday, as the event was called, was a huge success for the company, but merely the beginning, as more waves of toys and other products are being planned. One will come in time with the movie’s launch, while another will follow sometime in 2016, potentially with its home release.
It’s a plan that Disney is taking through its paces, giving retailers the necessary time to stock inventory on popular toys and other items, according to Steph Wissink, managing director for Piper Jaffray. She believes retail sales of these items could easily top $1.5 billion upon the movie’s release.
“Star Wars will likely be much bigger than (Disney’s hit animated film) Frozen,” she said. “With Star Wars, you have that adult collector who reaches far beyond the traditional toy demographic, which is generally up to age 10.”
Richard Barry, chief merchandising officer for Toys ‘R Us Inc., added “This is going to be a very significant business in the first half of next year as kids watch the movie multiple times when it is distributed digitally.”
This is a turn-around from the way The Phantom Menace was marketed in 1999, when animated character Jar Jar Binks was pushed heavily (much to the dismay of die-hard fans). However, Disney is still pushing forward with a new plan. Silverman stated, “We’re not looking at that, we’re looking forward to the new film and the new stories they’re telling.”
There are a number of products that are appealing to Star Wars fans this holiday season, including the following:
Sphero BB-8 Droid: Even though it retails for $149.99 and features a character we know little about, the Sphero BB-8 has been a massive hit in terms of sales, with many retailers selling out. “Demand has far exceeded anything we predicted,” said Ian Bernstein, company co-founder and chief technical officer.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=9ofGOOfXqpQ
Disney Infinity 3.0: Star Wars: Initially released back in August, Disney Infinity 3.0 successfully revamped its formula around the Star Wars universe, involving both classic characters from the original films and new favorites from shows like Star Wars: Rebels. Its popularity will pick back up this December, as it’s likely to push advertising for its new The Force Awakens playset and figurines, which will release on December 18th, the same date as the film.
Star Wars: Battlefront: For gamers who prefer a more “mature” side of Star Wars, the return of the Battlefront franchise, where teams face off against one another in multiplayer battles, should be a welcome sight. The beta, which ran last month on consoles and PC, was a huge success and drew in over 9.5 million players, making it the most popular video game beta in history. The game will also include a free Battle of Jakku downloadable content pack, which ties in with The Force Awakens. Additionally, Sony Computer Entertainment of America has made Battlefront a large part of its marketing, even releasing a TV commercial where an exec finds himself inspired by his more imaginative self, asked to hop aboard an X-Wing and defend against the Empire.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=mByznNYCWTY
Hasbro Toys: As it’s done in the past with previously released toys tying in with the Star Wars universe, Hasbro has gone full throttle with its figure and toy line-up, with everything from the classic small figures (like the ones fans grew up with) to larger items, like a Millennium Falcon playset. It’s a double win, as it appeals to both collectors of the older toys and newcomers that want to start a collection all their own. Expect marketing to pick up dramatically closer to the film’s release, including in-store promotions, potential TV/online advertising and more.
Duracell:The popular battery brand has its own Star Wars promotion, mainly through a lucrative TV campaign that features kids battling in an epic Star Wars fashion with lightsabers and other toys, using the power of the battery to bring their toys to life. After all, The Force isn’t quite as impressive in real life without batteries.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=YBh0hgP8wWk
The Star Wars marketing frenzy expands well beyond what’s listed here. Female beauty products from Max Factor and Cover Girl released limited edition make-up products. Smuggler’s Bounty, a subscription box service run by Funko, has a custom package that includes t-shirts, toy masks, voice changers, and other collectibles that fans won’t be able to get enough of. Some retailers even have devoted Star Wars sections in their store, such as Target, which stocks over 600 items ranging from action figures to pizza cutters.
Wal-Mart is also devoting a great deal of attention to Battlefront this coming weekend, giving shoppers the chance to play the game before its release, as well as offering a variety of products, including an exclusive Disney Infinity system bundle for PlayStation 4.
Indeed, the Force is strong with the new Star Wars push. The movie itself has a fantastic trailer, which has drawn millions of views since its debut.
The Force Awakens arrives in theaters December 18th.
With Instagram continuing to find success with its ad campaigns, more companies are finding that advertising on both its site and its partner Facebook could “double flank” consumers in terms of outreach, according to AdWeek.
Instagram has stated that it’s working with 100 companies across the world to expanding its ad program, 41 of which are specifically picked to help bring in additional advertising business to the site. The general goal is to improve planning and buying processes, along with boosting consumer insights and faster content-creation tools.
With that, there seems some interest in advertising across both sites simultaneously, in the hope of picking up viewership by consumers. A number of companies already advertise on Facebook, including Adobe, Salesforce, 4C, Spredfast, Hootsuite and AdParlor, among others, so converting to a dual-site plan could make social campaigns a bit easier.
“We anticipate growth with the extended reach into Instagram leveraging Facebook’s powerful targeting options,” said Monica Lay, senior product marketing manager for Adobe. “Many are still in test and learn phase, particularly around direct response, so it’s hard to quantify and estimate at this early stage.”
Eric Stahl, senior vice president of produce marketing for Salesforce Marketing Cloud, added, “Advertising on either Instagram or Facebook should not be thought of as part of a silo’d social-media budget, but as a core component of the advertising budget, especially as customers spend more and more of their time on mobile devices.”
Aaron Goldman, chief marketing officer for 4C, also had something to say about the program’s potential. “Having a streamlined solution to adapt content from one platform to another will be essential for advertisers who will want to achieve the most value from their assets and manage campaigns at scale.”
Considering both sites get a lot of views, especially on the mobile front, a program like this would clearly make sense to the right partners. “It’s hard to say that democratizing access to Instagram ads to both developers and businesses will not grow ad spend,” said Zaz Floreani, senior director of business development for Spredfast.
Instagram has already noted that one in five minutes spent on mobile devices is spent on either site, so that certainly goes a long way in terms of getting eyes-on with an ad. “Instagram provides access to a very large, very engaged audience,” a spokesperson told AdWeek. “The fact that you can use the same rich Facebook targeting criteria on Instagram will make it massively effective for advertisers looking to get their products or services in front of exactly the right people at the right time.”
With that, the growth potential for such a plan is clearly staggering. “Brands and agencies are still exploring where Instagram fits into their overall marketing mix, but we can say nearly everyone we’ve spoken to is interested to give it a test drive and see how it works for their business,” said Paul Van Winssen, director of operations and client services for AdParlor.
Now it’s just a matter of seeing what companies are interested. With all eyes on Instagram and Facebook, the two pronged approach is sure to get a ton of views.
PewDiePie is so popular on YouTube that it’s almost scary. Now, he’s ready to take some scares for himself in a new project for YouTube’s premium Red channel.
The project is called Scare PewDiePie, according to Forbes, and it is being produced by Skybound Entertainment, the company that was co-founded by Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman.
The show will involve “real life horror games” that will put the popular YouTube star through his paces as he attempts to “survive.” His reactions will be recorded by an attached camera for all the world to see. These episodes should compliment some of PewDiePie’s scream-filled Let’s Play videos on the free-to-view YouTube very nicely. However, the producers promise that this show will be “taking things to the next level” in terms of getting a rise out of the superstar.
The trailer for the show is below, and gives you an idea of what PewDiePie (real name Felix Kjellberg) will go through.
The show is expected to be a huge draw for YouTube’s Red service, considering how PewDiePie has over 40 million subscribers.
Speaking with The Verge, Kirkman’s producing partner at Skybound, David Alpert, spoke about the project. “To be reductionist, he’s become famous by playing video games and getting scared. So what if we make those games real ” he explains regarding the concept. He considers it a reality prank show like Punk’d, but with the host getting more effect out of it than innocent targets. “How freaked out, how creeped out, how scared can we make him It was our goal to turn a human being into a pile of quivering jelly for our amusement.”
The trick was to produce content that PewDiePie wouldn’t see coming, which isn’t easy, since he’s a producer on the show. With that, a second “shadow” production team was sent in to produce the scares on the project. “It’s like a play within a play, where he thinks, ‘Okay, that was the production meeting.’ Great. Now we have the (real) production meeting,” Alpert continued. “So the guy that Mr. Pie thought was the director wasn’t actually the director, and we only told him that at the very end of the shoot.”
“YouTube is an amazing platform because it s reached out, has hundreds of millions of views; it s insane what it s been able to achieve. But it hasn t been harnessed or directed the way that we think of Netflix or HBO or Hulu, which is almost a top-down, organized system of programming,” said Alpert. “PewDiePie wouldn t exist off of YouTube. His rise, and the rise of YouTubers in general, is part of the fact that the platform just let you do what you wanted to do. So I feel like trying to do something a little more top-down and organized is on one hand, sort of anathema to the YouTube ethos.”
Kirkman added, “Scare PewDiePie is something that I think is fairly unique. There’s certainly been shows before that are prank shows, but to build a narrative around a single person the way we have with Felix Mr. Pie, sorry. The way that we’re able to stick with him exclusively, it’s almost like the pranks kind of roll into each other from episode to episode in some pretty interesting and complicated ways, that I don’t know that we necessarily would have been able to do on television.”
Recently, Kjellberg spoke out about the launch of YouTube Red stating that YouTube Red emerged as a reaction to ad-blocking activities of YouTube’s viewers. Surveying his own audience, he found that 40 percent of his own viewers regularly use ad-blocking software and showed that this wasn’t just devastating for YouTube’s creators, but for YouTube itself as well.
“Using Adblock doesn’t mean you’re clever and above the system. YouTube Red exist(s) because using Adblock has actual consequences,” he said.
A Capcom Café featuring a Monster Hunter themed menu will open Nov. 20 at the Aeon Lake Town shopping mall in Japan, the organization announced. The café will provide food, décor and other items based on the Monster Hunter world. Its menu will change regularly in conjunction with new releases and special game events.
The Monster Hunter games, where players fight giant creatures for fun and sport, have become best-sellers for Capcom, procuring millions in sales in both Japan and the United States. With that, Capcom has capitalized on its success with a number of promotions, including a recent one that saw a popular Goliath roller coaster at the Six Flags Magic Mountain theme park turned into a Monster Hunter ride.
Capcom plans to develop an entertainment space that incorporates retail with food-and-drink services,” the organization announced. “Based on their core strategy of Single Content Multiple Usage, they aim to communicate the appeal of their rich library of popular IPs at the café and create a synergistic promotional effect for their games; at the same time, in addition to their existing fan base they hope to attract a breadth of customers, including female and family demographics.
This isn’t the first time that Capcom has launched a game-themed eatery, since it also has a Resident Evil restaurant. However, this shows the immense growth of the Monster Hunter brand, which continues to do strong business, even though the series so far been limited to Nintendo consoles, and has not yet debuted on the PlayStation 4 or Xbox One.
Though it’s unlikely we’ll see such locations in the U.S, there’s always the potential possibility. Video game-based locales have become more popular in the U.S., mainly in the form of “barcades” (a combination bar and arcade) like Button Mash, The 1up and 82. That could inspire a company like Capcom to one day open a themed restaurant stateside.
It’s also likely that the Cafe may change theme, depending on forthcoming game releases. “Moving forward, the game on which the theme is based will be updated every few months, bringing along with it a variety of displays, a new menu, limited edition goods, as well as new information,” the company said in a prepared statement.
With over 100 million users, Pinterest has grown into one of the more popular social channels out there, and it’s becoming a huge draw for marketers, especially since it launched a new ad program and a Discovery app system to draw viewers to the right areas. That program is working, as ad spending has picked up dramatically over the course of the year.
A recent report shed light the increasing interest surrounding Pinterest, a platform whose ad spend has quadrupled since January, growing to nearly eight times the spending rate. That’s good news for the site, which is bound to introduce more buyable pins as the holiday season comes closer.
Aaron Goldman, chief marketing officer for 4C Insights, is quoted as saying “Pinterest is really blowing up for brands. It’s the perfect social discovery engine. You’ve got consumers in buy-mode actively seeking inspiration with built-in sharing and network effects. Best of all, it’s still early days for Pinterest ads so there’s not a ton of competition and inventory is quite a bargain. Although I suspect that’ll change once everyone sees our stats and realizes they need to get in on the action.”
4C also provided the chart below to show just how much growth has improved over the last few months, starting out slow, but then seeing a major jump in June before jumping to its highest point in September, with 7.7 times the advertiser spending rate.
4C also noted that the platform is able to produce solid results from these ads, as clicks on Pinterest are up by nearly six and a half times since the start of the year, while re-pins of ads have increased five times. In addition, ad impressions have also grown by nearly 3.3 times over the course of the year, and click-through rate of ads has reached double value.
Some specific retailers have benefitted more than others. According to the report, online retailer Adore Me was able to boost Pinterest revenue by an estimated 4,000 percent, and reached new consumers. In addition, customers acquired on the site manage to spend more than 20 percent over time, compared to items purchased elsewhere.
Despite these positive results, the cost per click rate h as not risen by much, with an increase of 1.2 times this year, showing that Pinterest has not yet become a crowded ad platform. However, there’s still room for advertisers to grow with the site.
Part of this success is due to the new Discovery Engine, which enables certain content to be found via visual search. With it comes click-through rates and engagement, where advertisers truly see the benefits at hand. 4C believes that it’s more than enough reason for companies to jump on board.
“If you are still on the fence about Pinterest, jump in now before the true market saturation begins as click costs rise,” says the report. “You can take advantage of the opportunity to get clicks at a bargain before your competitors arrive en masse.”
This is good news for Pinterest, who has been ramping up their ‘discovery engine’ to become the destination for visual searches online. The U.S. search advertising market is worth $26.53 billion this year and is predicted to reach $29.24 billion in 2016. If they are able to crack this, Pinterest will be in an even better position to provide brands with search intent and interests.
When a well-known influencer questions the whole medium of social media, it often gives an industry pause. Longtime Instagram Influencer Essena O’Neill recently complained about social media and Influencer Marketing to her significant Instagram audience, even quitting all her social media accounts. She called social media fake and noted the many one-off endorsements she s been making as part of the content featured on her 600,000-follower Instagram account.
Does her admission and accusation mean anything for the world of Influencer Marketing and the 75 percent of brands now making use of this important promotional strategy In the end, brands can learn some valuable lessons about the relationship among brands, influencers, and the audiences they serve from this meltdown.
Audiences Want Authentic Content Audiences want to experience authentic and interesting content. While O Neill s audience engaged with her content regardless of whether or not they knew she was paid $500 to wear a certain dress, where the mask slips is when content being created shows too much attention on audience development. O Neill complained that being numbers-focused isn t real and she s right that this priority can kill the genuine feel of influencer content. In fact, her stunt has resonated far beyond O Neill s audience because the concerns she raised speak to the enormous pressure on influencers to build the right audiences and expand them to meet the needs of their promotional relationships. Brands need to be cautious about the level of pressure they put on influencers to grow audience because if they lose sight of what drew their fans and followers to their channel in the first place, the influencer and brand both lose when audiences look elsewhere for more authentic and substantial content.
Social Media is Aspirational Followers and fans want to buy into the vision of O Neill s lifestyle and when products that suit her content are featured, it does not disrupt the experience. If she is producing pictures of herself at the beach, she needs to wear a bathing suit. Identifying the products she is using can actually help her followers connect with the lifestyle she is portraying because they can then purchase the items she is featuring and get some of the experience and connection they seek. Yet, if the choices are not genuine, audiences will reject the content being presented. O Neill breaking the 4th wall has led to alienating her fans who bought into her lifestyle and the world she created. That lack of trust can now likely spread to the brands she recommended to that audience, too.
Brands Benefit from Regular Relationships O’Neill’s tirade was after many one-off promotional opportunities rather than a deep relationship with a brand that had built a strong connection with her personally and the persona she has developed. When a true relationship has been forged because the brand has identified that the influencer is truly a Brand Soulmate {link no longer active} whose interests and values connect with their purpose, there is far less of a chance that anyone involved will want to abandon ship (including the audience) because everyone understands the goals and how they are collaborating to achieve them. Furthermore, brands who invest in an influencer gain benefits from future campaigns where the influencer better understands how to organically include the brand s products (and goals) into their content without striking at the trust they’ve built with their audience.
While O’Neill’s comments were intended to strike at the promotional opportunities in Influencer Marketing, she s actually illuminated some reasons why the strategy is effective and reminded brands that they need to identify and effectively connect with influencers that best suit their brand needs. Brands need to understand that they run more risk if they just seek influencers with the largest social reach or greatest willingness to do as they request for short-term campaigns. Building a deeper relationship with ideal influencers that can integrate products into their content without compromising their authenticity will deliver brands much greater success.
Video and photography enthusiasts have argued over the use of vertical video, which looks natural when holding a mobile screen upright, but offers a very narrow field of view and doesn’t make full use of computer monitors and televisions. Not long ago, Snapchat founder Evan Spiegel pitched the idea of mobile advertising specifically geared for the vertical format, and other companies have been dabbling with it too. Now, it appears that it has finally taken off, and millennials could be following suit as a result.
Forbes, using numbers provided by Mary Meeker’s 2015 Internet Trends report, writes that vertical viewing has increased dramatically over the past five years among millennials, going from a lowly five percent in 2010 to 29 percent in 2015. A number of social media-based formats are starting to use it more regularly, including Snapchat and Twitter’s live-streaming Periscope.
The chart above breaks down the time spent between horizontal viewing and vertical viewing across a number of devices, including mobile, desktop/laptop and television. As you can see, while horizontal screens still have a significant lead, vertical viewing has been catching up.
With popularity picking up across both formats, Snapchat has specifically tried to work on an advertising program that appeals more to the vertical demographic, as noted in Spiegel’s pitch. Since it has an audience of approximately 60 percent millennials, it’s easy to see how the format would appeal to them, with “vertical ads for vertical screens,” as the company has pitched to marketers
Snapchat also notes that vertical video ads have a completion rate that’s 9X better compared to horizontal mobile video, due to better interaction of ads and the way they format onto the display. They seem less cramped, even if they are narrower.
“More than ever before, marketers must focus on ways to engage millennials and ultimately differentiate themselves among the crowded digital space — in this case, how to present and optimize their digital content for vertical screens,” reads the article. “A slight adjustment in screen orientation for digital content can go a long way to increase engagement with millennials. Brands can no longer ignore vertical content and must begin integrating this new approach into their existing content strategy as a way to delight and engage millennials.”
The female gaming audience has been on a steady rise, with better demographics in both mobile and console gaming. Marketers have also taken notice of the increasing demographic, and a recent survey by the Pew Research Center (via The Mary Sue) indicates that women now own more video game consoles than men. According to the data, 42 percent of women own consoles, compared to 37 percent of men.
With that, we’re also seeing another shift in the female demographic, namely the number of video games featuring strong women in leading roles. For instance, tomorrow’s release of Rise of the Tomb Raider for Xbox One consoles will bring back the iconic Lara Croft, a treasure hunting explorer who isn’t afraid to fight against powerful adversaries. Square Enix’s Tomb Raider games have been best sellers over the years, and the newest addition is expected to do just as well, despite being exclusive to one console.
This is just the latest example of seeing a strong female presence in games, which not only relates well to female players, but also males. Other titles that feature the option of a playable female lead character include:
Fallout 4: releasing for PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4, this long-awaited sequel lets players choose either a male or female character as they set out to explore a retro sci-fi themed post-apocalyptic world filled with dangerous human and mutant enemies.
Call of Duty: Black Ops II: now available for multiple consoles and PC. For the first time in the series, players can choose between male and female characters in the single player campaign. There are also a number of Specialists found in the multiplayer section that are female, who can hold their own among their male teammates.
Assassin’s Creed Syndicate: available for Xbox One and PlayStation 4, and releasing on PC later this month. We haven’t seen a female protagonist in this series since Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation released in 2012. Syndicate reaches forward by offering a choice between two main characters, the twins Jacob and Evie Frye, who must battle a vicious tyrant. Unlike many other games, choosing between the two characters impacts the style of play.
Star Wars: Battlefront: releasing on November 17th for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC, players can choose various female characters within this multiplayer romp, including iconic heroine, Princess Leia.
Having a strong female lead character has a better chance of appealing to female gamers, much like we’ve seen in past games like Nintendo’s Metroid series, which features a bounty hunter named Samus Aran.
The trend toward appealing to more female gamers is sure to continue into next year, with even more games featuring female leads. EA’s Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst will launch this May for consoles and PC, bringing back the free-running Faith. Battleborn, an upcoming multiplayer shooter, will have female heroes alongside male ones. Capcom’s Street Fighter V has a cast filled with strong women fighters.
Forbes recently posted an article detailing this rise in female game characters, stating that, “Female characters are severely underrepresented in gaming, but women make up 48 percent of the game buying audience. 48 percent. Just five years ago, that number was 40 percent. At this rate, female gamers will overtake male gamers within the next year. That being the case, there’s bound to be an outcry of identifiable characters for the new audience. There was major backlash when Ubisoft claimed it couldn’t animate female characters for the (Assassin’s Creed) Unity multiplayer aspect, due to the extra workload. Perhaps there’s some sort of message in the fact that instead of one lead, we’ve gotten two with Syndicate. Double the characters,” said author William Wilson.
It also made note of Amy Hennig, a figure who had worked for many years on the Uncharted series, as well as the Tomb Raider franchise. She’s currently working with the team at Visceral Games (Battlefield: Hardline) on a new unannounced Star Wars project.
The author concluded his piece saying, “In gaming, just like in life, women have to be serious to be taken serious. No one would have taken the game serious if Evie was the one with a funny comment and lackadaisical attitude. But everyone seems fine with the fact that Jacob Frye is that way. This mirrors the real world, where women are forced to take on more responsibility and have a more focused attitude towards work if anyone is going to take them seriously in their roles. It’s a sad reality we face, but it does exist. Though, for the time being, Evie and (Uncharted star) Elena are two strong examples of a new breed of strong protagonists. Women.”
Games featuring strong lead female characters have also proven to be quite marketable across all demographics. The new television ad for Rise of the Tomb Raider, seen below, is effective in appealing to both males and females alike, and Syndicate has featured an equal share of exposure for both Jacob and Evie Frye. This is sure to continue as 2016’s big gaming hits loom in the distance.
3Emoji images have taken off with brands, whether through general expressions on Facebook or with brands linking specifically to images with hashtags, like #starwars on Twitter. Now Taco Bell has a new campaign that’s ready to change how people look at emoji forever — through tacos.
The company has announced a new social marketing blitz that introduces over 600 pieces of unique content for users to interact with. From there, content will go back to its revamped website, aptly named ta.co, according to AdWeek.
With the program, people can tweet a picture of a taco emoji with another attached picture on the brand’s account. By combining the two, they will receive back a customized image that matches something in the company’s program. For instance, if a user sends a tweet to @tacobell with a taco and a smiley face, they’ll get back a taco wearing sunglasses.
Additionally, the program will also tie in with special images via Instagram, which should appeal to both teen and millennial audiences. It also intends to introduce four new limited edition “taco holster” packages that revolve around its popular Doritos Locos tacos in Taco Bell locations across the United States.
Regarding the custom emojis, Marisa Thalberg, chief brand engagement officer for Taco Bell, stated, “They’re all means to be fun, almost collectible pieces. I think they’re going to be highlight Instagramable.”
The company hopes that its emojis will become part of the digital sticker section of the digital keyboard found on many smartphones, as it attempted last year with a Change.org petition that saw over 33,000 signatures. Unicode Consortium followed that with an official taco emoji released earlier this year.
“This is about the taco having its rightful place in the official emoji keyboard — this wasn’t about us doing a branded thing, this was about the taco itself,” said Thalberg. “We had our hopes raised and dashed a few times along the way, but ultimately Unicode came through, and it’s here.”
The Taco Bell program features a wild assortment of taco-based imagery for people to share with one another, and should see some form of engagement as 2015 comes to a close.
Taco Bell is already flying high on promotions for the year, having previously teamed up with Sony Computer Entertainment of America to offer limited edition PlayStation 4 consoles, featuring a gold trim and packed with a copy of the company’s biggest hit for the holiday season: Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection. That program was a huge success, backed by a solid TV campaign.
For the company, everything is certainly tacos and smileys.
