"Interactive Food & Beverage Marketing" (PDF)
"Interactive Food & Beverage Marketing" (PDF)
"Interactive Food & Beverage Marketing" (PDF)
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“On average, for a<br />
specific IMV, we see 1.5<br />
million people download<br />
a particular IMV, send<br />
over 100 million messages<br />
within it, and spend<br />
five to 10 minutes per<br />
user per day per IMV.<br />
This time spent is a<br />
particularly impressive<br />
statistic when you<br />
compare it to how much<br />
time in one day that user<br />
would spend watching a<br />
particular TV commercial<br />
for that advertiser.”<br />
38<br />
<strong>Interactive</strong> <strong>Food</strong> & <strong>Beverage</strong> Marketing | The New Digital Marketing Landscape<br />
Infiltrating IM<br />
According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, approximately 16 million<br />
teens in the U.S. use instant messaging, with about half using it every day. 143 IM can be<br />
sent and received from PCs, cell phones, and—soon—even television sets. It has also<br />
become a popular marketing platform, useful not only for its peer-to-peer distribution<br />
capabilities but also as a branded environment that can permeate and surround ongoing<br />
casual conversations, “24/7.” “Instant Messaging is the quick-fix of digital communications,”<br />
remarked Joseph Jaffe, marketing guru and author of Life after the 30-Second<br />
Spot. “It’s the addictive rush that is just impossible to let go once you get a hold of it….<br />
It’s also a cool way to put bums in seats on a Friday night; introduce a new malt liquor<br />
beverage; launch a new album; drive tune-in to an upcoming program; recommend a<br />
lunchtime meal option.” 144 Adds Paul Martecchini, director of marketing services in the<br />
Network Services Group at Yahoo!, “It’s viral, builds community, is a communications hub<br />
and indicates a users’ ‘presence!’“ 145<br />
The three major IM formats—AOL’s AIM, Yahoo!’s Messenger, and MSN<br />
Messenger—all promote themselves aggressively to advertisers that want to reach<br />
teenagers. Calling itself “the leader in Instant Messaging,” AOL’s Instant Messenger<br />
Service (AIM) promises access to nearly 3.3 million 12-to-17-year-olds, and offers companies<br />
a panoply of ways to engage young people as they communicate with their friends,<br />
by surrounding them with branded content and encouraging them to interact with advertising.<br />
146 For example, marketers can embed “large flash ads” into the service’s welcome<br />
screen, ensuring that teens see their brands every time they log on. Or they can employ<br />
“roadblocking” and “takeover ads” to flood the site with interactive commercials. 147<br />
Instant message services are also building entire communication “environments” around<br />
particular brands. Users are encouraged to select these backgrounds as a way of defining<br />
who they are to their friends and acquaintances. Yahoo!’s “IMVironments (IMVs)” are promoted<br />
to customers as “interactive backgrounds that you can select when talking with<br />
your friends. Choose from a variety of different IMVs to express yourself.” 148 For marketers,<br />
they are “special branded backgrounds that provide additional color and personality<br />
to a conversation,” surrounding users with “unique rich media features” that are “fun<br />
and effective advertising.” 149 Users not only experience the ad themselves throughout<br />
their IM communication activities, but also spread it virally as they communicate with<br />
their friends. As one marketer explained, “On average, for a specific IMV, we see 1.5 million<br />
people download a particular IMV, send over 100 million messages within it, and<br />
spend five to 10 minutes per user per day per IMV. This time spent is a particularly<br />
impressive statistic when you compare it to how much time in one day that user would<br />
spend watching a particular TV commercial for that advertiser.” 150<br />
<strong>Food</strong> and beverage brands are taking full advantage of these multiple opportunities<br />
for permeating the instant-message environment and engaging young people in<br />
relationships with their brands. The following recent IM campaigns are illustrative of the<br />
techniques used: