How to Change Buying Cars Forever (original #3)

2013 Dodge Dart launch at Detroit Auto Show, Jan 2012

Earlier this month, Chrysler's Dodge began another leg of its campaign for their new Dart. The car debuted in January of last year at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit with dismal results.  According to  Businessweek, the Dodge Dart campaign has had a slow start with low sales in the past year.  Dodge is now offering a Dodge Dart Registry, which works similar to a gift registry.  I first learned about the campaign by seeing a television commercial.

According to Realtime Report, Exhaust Notes, and Dodge's registry website, interested parties can use crowdfunding through RocketHub's platform, signing up for the registry on Dodge Dart's registry website.  Registrants then inform their friends and relatives through various social media outlets, such as Facebook, YouTube,  and Twitter, or in person, asking them to sponsor (pay for) specific  parts for their car.  Sponsors can then go to Dodge's website to sponsor (pay for) a car part for their favorite relative or friend.

Registries listed on the Dodge Dart Registry web site

Dodge is energizing the groundswell and  getting potential consumers involved by giving them the opportunity to create their own Dodge Darts and notify prospective sponsors of their car parts by social media.  This also keeps the people talking as registrants post updates on their fundraising.  According to Forbes, there are good and bad points to the campaign. It is certainly an inventive, creative way to market a car.  But the sponsor campaigns last only 90 days and there are fees for using the crowdfunding service.  At the end of the sponsor campaigns, registrants are mailed a check that they can use however they choose, even if it's not on a car.  It will be interesting to see how this campaign unfolds.  It appears a little like Dodge didn't think through the campaign before implementing it, but maybe they were just aiming at creating buzz for Chrysler, and that is working.

Dodge Dart Registry is getting traffic, according to the Google Trends report below, so hopefully the new registry campaign will keep people talking and help increase sales of Dodge Darts.  That depends on whether Dodge listened to the groundswell in the beginning and created a car people want.

Google Trends Report on the Dodge Dart Registry

People have posted YouTube videos asking for sponsors (money) for their cars.  I found the video below on social mention, which shows there is social media traffic about the Dodge Dart registry.

Social mention report of Dodge Dart Registry

Are you in the market for a car?  Maybe you should look into the Dodge Dart.  And if you need help funding it, you can sign up at the Doge Dart Registry and go to Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to ask your friends and family--and people you don't even know--for help funding it.

Slam/Dunk for Oreo (original #2)

During the power outage of 2013 Superbowl XLVII, Nabisco's Oreo  team showed what quick thinking and creativity can do.  They didn't get in the first advertising tweet regarding the power outage, but they were pretty close--and, in my opinion, their tweet, "Power Out, No Problem," was a slam/dunk compared to everyone else's.

"Power Out? No Problem"

According to Social Times and Forbes, The Oreo team was together in New York during the game, monitoring social media, including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, through a dashboard created by Expion, a social media management software company, for reactions to their Super Bowl Whisper Fight commercial when the power went out.

Oreo used a bad situation during the football game to their advantage.  As it turned out, their power outage tweet was more popular than their original commercial.  Oreo's dunking in the dark tweet was re-tweeted almost 15,000 times gained about 20,000 likes and Facebook and and Oreo's Twitter following increased by 8,000.  I probably would have dunked some oreos if I had some, after that tweet.

Whisper Fight Commercial

I don't believe this was totally accidental.  Oreo is using its social networking correctly.  By hiring a social media management company to create a social media monitoring program/dashboard for them, they were able to see in real time what response/s they were getting to their Super Bowl commercial and to the spontaneous power outage tweet.  If they weren't together monitoring their dashboard, they most likely would have lost the opportunity to create a great ad with their tweet.  I'm sure this shows just the surface of what Oreo is doing to monitor social networks regarding their brand and product and I'm sure Expion was happy to get free publicity from Oreo's slam/dunk tweet.