Crowd Sourcing Humor - Secrets of the New Social Humor - Tom Troja
People love to laugh. It is a basic human emotion. Marketers know this. A good laugh tied to a brand can keep the brand relevant and top of mind, increasing purchase intent. It is an old formula.
Social marketing is changing how the marketers can get laughs. In the past, a creative person conceived the idea and the agency built a plan to produce and distribute a campaign based on a humorous twist.
Today, we are seeing new phenomena where the brand can assume the identity of what is funny… with people becoming the character, being comedy writers for the brand in the stream of the brands facebook page.
The Most Interesting Man In The World
Dos Equis just passed 1M followers on facebook based on "The Most Interesting Man In The World… TMIMITW." Dos Equis invested in TV commercials and TV media for the last five years setting the stage for a most interesting character people identify with and are now making their own.
People from all walks of life, from all over the world are topping each other with line after funny line connecting around what they think is humorous on the Dos Equis facebook page with posts like:
He can solve the Rubik's cube by making only one turn!
While stranded in a burning desert, he was offered a cold Pabst. He declined
He and my wife had dos kids and I happily pay his child support....
This character was created years ago for the TV one-way world. In the TV spots he walks through the jungle, as the narrator would say "if he punched you in the face you would have an urge to thanks him".
Narrator Allows Character to be many Things to Many People
The use of a narrator allows the character to create multiple identities and personas as he was always referred to in the 3rd person. He rarely speaks for himself except to say "Stay thirsty my friends."
The Dos Equis use of a narrator creates a mystery man, an interesting man who can assume many archetypes. In our imagination he can play the hero, the explorer, the outlaw, the mentor, the jester all to connect with a broad swath of people. He rarely ever speaks or pins himself down, allowing us to get involved and imagine him based on which archetype we aspire to.
As he migrated to social and people get involved, they channel themselves in to the most Interesting Man. People assign their own archetype to him. They include their friends in their posts. They share with friends and invite them to play along, marketing for Dos Equis.
People are now the comedy writers for Dos Equis. They provide the emotion using what is relevant today. They comment on the wall and use it relates to them and share with their friends.
He was at a club in Cairo and they ran out of Dos Equis, so he started protesting...then it all went downhill from there
Facebook gave HIM up for lent... Did you hear me Jim? ;)
He posts his friend's Happy Birthday greetings on his OWN wall!
People see him as a mirror of themselves
When you are on their facebook page you feel compelled to join in. Ones competitive nature is aroused. Doing this, you are coming from your self; from what you think is funny, from what you believe TMIMINTW to be.
This is a self-fulfilling circle. They believe that Dos Equis "gets them". They become more of the brand as they feel the brand becomes more of them.
Dos Equis facebook page is getting 100 to 1,000 posts Per Day this way. Sales of imported beer are down 4 %… Dos Equis sales, however, are up 22 %.
Most recently as the founder of the Social SymphonyTom has, weaved social tactics in concert with CRM 2.0 social strategies with Colgate, Cadillac, Kraft, Gallo, Reebok and others and has spoken about these subjects at iMedia Brand Summit, IAB Social, MITX and OMMA Social. Tom can be reached at TomTroja@TheSocialSymphony.com.
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thomas troja
Tom is the founder of the Social Symphony where he developed Social Archetyping™ to create meaningful social content that ignites conversations between brands and people. Today Social Archetyping™ is being utilized by great brands like Jack Danie…
