The Facebook Anthill

The brilliance of Facebook is its ability to beguile its 700 million-odd users into building digital heaps, some of which are called “fan pages” and are for celebrities, TV programs, political causes,  commercial products, etc. (Brands do this as well, but that’s another column.) While people may believe this merely builds a social network containing real world friends and cyber like-minded ones, we’re actually just worker ants in Facebook’s ingenious business model, clicking and getting friends to click “like” buttons on these and other pages.
     A page created by an Angelina Jolie fan, for example, has some 2.1 million “likes.” Facebook offers this digital heap to advertisers as a “specific interest,” with ads appearing on the homepage of every “fan”  who clicks on “like.” The advertiser buys this access either on a per-click or per-impression basis, and can apply a number of demographic filters such as age, location, and education. The price per click or impression is determined by a computerized auction.
     These heaps, however, are not time sensitive or updated. Unlike Google’s AdWords, in which one can match key words—e.g., “cheap Botox”—to people searching for those words, Facebook’s digital heaps can accumulate over many years. So, they may reflect bygone, rather than present, interests.
I discovered problems with Facebook’s anthills when I sought to advertise my own ebooks. I learned that even as a diligent worker ant—one without a fan page—I cannot reach my own 800 cyber friends for free. The reason: Facebook limits the exposure of what’s posted to a handful of friends with whom you have been in recent contact.
     So, I bought ads, which Facebook makes easy for anyone with $50. For my ebook, Killing Castro (which included a CIA report), I chose such “specific interests” as the CIA, Castro, JFK, and Oliver Stone, which should have reached Facebook fans of those subjects. I put my ad on those fan pages and paid the suggested $1.60/click. The ad, which has to be shorter than a tweet, went to 56,000 people, received 36 clicks, and sold six books, which was far less than the 211 copies sold by a brief blog on the Atlantic Wire. 
    Unfortunately, I had to end the campaign because the click cost itself exceeded my royalty, reminding me of the moron joke about a manufacturer who loses money on each item but hopes to make it up on volume.
     Even if Facebook did not work for me, it obviously works for others as it has a reported market value of $60 billion. To explore this further, I talked to executives at film studios that produce movies geared to teens reachable on Facebook.
     In 2011, the major studios are spending between $2 million and $2.5 million for online marketing on major releases. As it was explained to me, how much, if any, of that budget goes to Facebook depends largely on the type of movie. Original films, such as Midnight in Paris, Blood Diamond, and Crazy, Stupid, Love, are considered a waste of money on Facebook since they have no large pre-existing heap of digital fans. But with sequels, such as the Harry Potter, X-Men, and Spiderman series, fan pages are seen as highly effective investments because they gear the Facebook ads to teens who have previously “liked” films in the series.  
     Harry Potter, for example, has 4.3 million “likes” on its fan page. Even if a studio has to pay $3.60 a click, which is nearly its share of a ticket, it’s worth it for building awareness because, by its own reckoning, the average male teenager “shares” with 130 Facebook friends. The fan page is also, as one executive pointed out, “a particularly effective place to tell these fans when tickets are available online.” 
     So, while Facebook may provide yet another reason for studios to greenlight sequels, it in no way replaces the need for many millions of dollars in TV spot ads to drive audiences into multiplexes. The average marketing budget is above $34 million for a Hollywood sequel—and only a small fraction of that goes to Facebook ads.
    Perhaps even more damning: Even with whatever enhancements come from Facebook’s “like” piles, total movie ticket sales are down 5.2 percent this year.

Share and Enjoy

SkiCo’s marketing campaign focuses on what was and is

The Aspen Skiing Co.’s roll-out of its print advertising campaign for the 2011-12 season aims to capture a feeling of what the resort/community embraces and thus sets it apart from the rest.

The new concept, which was developed in the past couple of weeks by Christian Knapp, SkiCo’s new vice president of marketing, harkens back to the Aspen Idea, when visionaries Walter and Elizabeth Paepcke helped create a resort community that centered around mind, body and spirit.

The ads reflect what Aspen/Snowmass was before it was a ski town — full of history, culture, recreational opportunities and community. It’s an original. It’s an amazing playground, Knapp offered.

One ad reads in bold print: “Before Aspen, mountain was never cosmopolitan.” In smaller print below, a statement reads: “Very few places will you find ski bums sharing cocktails with jet setters. The heart of a city. The soul of a mountain town. This is Aspen/Snowmass.” The copy is laid out over large-scale imagery of people walking on the Cooper Avenue mall at Galena Street at night.

“It’s not the typical bluebird image, it’s more artistic,” Knapp said.

An ad for Snowmass shows a colorful photo of a little girl with bold print that reads: “Before Snowmass, happily ever after only happened in fairy tales.”

A third ad touts: “Before Aspen, winter was just cold.” The copy is laid over a skier making turns in gladed trees.

“[The campaign] puts a line in the sand that we are an innovator and different,” said Knapp, who has been on the job for a month and comes from Vail Resorts as Keystone’s top marketing guru. “What differentiates us from the others? What is the Aspen lifestyle?”

While the print ads are awaiting final approval, the SkiCo has bought space in the following publications: Outside magazine, Snow magazine, Mountain Sports + Living magazine, Transworld magazine and Freeskier magazine. The ads will run from October through February, Knapp said.

 Image courtesy of Aspen Skiing Co.
The advertising print campaign is just one aspect in the SkiCo’s vast marketing plan for the upcoming season. While the print buy has been scaled back, there will be a ramp-up in utilizing the digital world, through online advertising and search engine management, Knapp said.

He added that in the digital world, SkiCo can more easily get in front of a targeted, captive audience, and the results are trackable.

SkiCo is heavily invested in social media such as YouTube, Twitter and Foursquare, a location-based social networking website for mobile devices.

SkiCo’s presence on Facebook and the number of its followers need improvement, Knapp said, adding that it’s a focus this year, as is overhauling the aspensnowmass.com website. It’s currently being rebuilt and is expected to be launched in February, Knapp said.

Billboards focused on SkiCo’s Classic Pass, which offers four- and seven-day passes, will pop up on the Front Range, attempting to reel in weekend warriors who normally hit resorts along the I-70 corridor.

“The Classic Pass is an add-on” for Front Range residents, Knapp said.

Public relations efforts internationally are happening now — SkiCo is pitching journalists to come here and write about their experience.

“PR is a huge part of the job,” he said. “This is the time of the year to make the pitches.”

And SkiCo is working with local resort and government officials in their commitment to collectively provide tens of thousands of dollars in marketing efforts to American Airlines, which will enter the Aspen market for the first time this December, offering flights daily to and from Los Angeles and Dallas.

Those destinations open up the potential for more international tourists, Knapp noted. Key international markets for SkiCo are Brazil, Europe and Australia. He declined to reveal where marketing efforts are being made overseas, citing it’s proprietary. In other words, SkiCo does not want to tip off its competitors.

When all the efforts are combined, Knapp said SkiCo will succeed in getting its message and its product out there for the world to see.

“In marketing, there is no silver bullet,” he said “There is a lot to it.”

sack@aspendailynews.com

Share and Enjoy