Sherpa's Talking Shop Podcast - Ep2: Drake, AirBnB, Tim Hortons, and Concussions

On the second episode of Sherpa’s Talking Shop Podcast the Sherpa team has a round table discussion on a few interesting topics. They discuss Drakes marketing presence, Tim Horton’s recent commercial and end off with a monthly marketing tip that is linked to the popular topic about concussions. You get to hear insight from Sherpa’s Account Manager Stew Moffatt as he hosts the podcast. Then here our three guests’ perspectives, Dan Nicholson as our Digital Marketing Specialist, Myles Barr as our Junior Account Manager and our last guest Whitney Dencklau as she offers her American outlook on the various topics. 

What’s Hot

1.       Drake/Snapchat

Drake is constantly blowing Sherpa away from a marketing perspective. Recently Drake stood out from the crowd with his unique Snapchat filter.  The lens was a great marketing tool to introduce his new album “Views from the 6” that was released the day the filter went live on Snapchat.  One of our Sherpa employees even interacted with the filter without even knowing it was for his new album.  This filter helped spread awareness and kept people talking about the new album release.  It was a very unique filter choice that allowed user to interact with the product and apply it to their daily life. Can’t ask for better engagement from your core market then this technique.

Snapchat is a powerful tool, it is getting more and more popular.  The social media platform has a lot of reach, each time a user shares a story they are sharing with all their peers.  A filter like Drakes would have reached a mass amount of people. Even at Sherpa majority of us are avid Snapchat users and we love the chance to share a visual representation of what we are doing.  Like they say a picture is worth a 1000 words or in Snapchats case a 10 second video.

2. Instagram

Instagram is offering a new advertising method which features a video roll on their sponsored ad. When you swipe right on the video you will be able to view another video.  This new ad can roll out five separate videos in one single ad.  Giving the marketer five minutes of ad space as each video can be up to 60 seconds long.  This will be an exciting new feature that will grab the viewers’ attention on Instagram.

In recent news another popular conversation that has received a lot of attention is the new logo and rebrand that Instagram released.  Here at Sherpa we have been asking the question “why would you make a new modernized logo when your old logo was so recognizable?”  Sherpa has noticed the new logo blends in when looking through your phone.  This dilutes the Instagram brand since the old logo could be spotted out easily from anywhere.  This has Sherpa asking the question “Why change something that had such a strong brand presence?”

Even though there are many negative thoughts about the rebrand this new brand logo has received a lot of attention from marketers across the world.  Everyone noticed the drastic change and continue to talk about it.  This is one way to get people talking about Instagram even if it hasn’t been in the most positive light.

3.       Heat Assault

Check out the new Heat Assault website created by Sherpa Marketing.  Heat Assault manufactures the most powerful bed bug heating equipment on the market. The unit produces jaw dropping temperatures of 140F and is a 100% people and pet friendly eradication method.

Heat Assault’s new site combines modern design with impressive functionality. Sherpa crunched five years of bed bug incidence data to create a demand breakdown map and built a profit calculator to allow pest control companies and prospective entrepreneurs to project monthly incomes. Heat Assault’s site has seen an increase in web traffic and Sherpa has integrated Heat Assault’s CRM system with the website database to ensure that all website conversions are tracked accordingly.  We are very happy with the results of this project, check out the difference between the old and new website below.

New Website 

http://heat-assault.com/

Q & A?

What does Sherpa think about the NBA putting Advertising on their Jerseys?

Starting during the 2017-18 NBA season teams will be allowed to sell a 2.5-inch-by-2.5-inch space for corporate logo to go on their jerseys, the NBA is referring to this as the “patch program”.  This will make the NBA the first of the four major US sports (NBA, MLB, NFL and NHL) to put advertising space on their regular season jersey.  The program is estimated to bring in $100 million a year and the money will be split with the league and the players on the team.  Nike will be on every jersey of the 29 league teams after taking over from Adidas after their 11 year contract ended.  But after hearing this news we still have a lot of questions about how this will look and so do other NBA viewers out there. 

·         How will they decide on advertisements for the team if they are competitors of one of the player’s endorsements? 

·         Would a top performing team influence where you advertise?  Or is location more of a factor?

·         Will it be one ad per team, or multiple?  How will the layout look for this advertising piece?

From a marketing perspective, the first couple years is when you would want to get an advertisement on the NBA jerseys.  The first few years is when people will take notice of them and be talking about the new change.  The NBA has made this a 3-year pilot program to see if this new system will in fact work out.  It would be beneficial to position yourself based on performance.  If you have your logo on a top team it would be seen a lot more based on viewership alone.  This advertising will be great for companies targeting the NBA market, especially with the decline of people watching live television which means they are completely missing the commercials.  These brands can spend less money on television ads and use this new advertising method as an opportunity to connect with their consumers.  We are intrigued to see how this will be executed and which brands will be involved.

How to get better performance out of E-blasts?

People often look at E-blasts as an outdated medium, but they get the greatest results time and time again with their click-through rates.  This medium receives higher success because you are going straight to the individual and with the popularity of smart phones people are constantly in their inbox all day.  Here are a few of the tips we use at Sherpa to get the best performance with our e-blasts:

·         Integrate Video: In Sherpa’s experience on a recent campaign we used the integration of video into our e-blast and we saw a huge response back. It is an easy way to incorporate a short message that your audience will actually view.

·         Creative Headlines: It is important to use a creative headline.  The more you can do to stand out and get attention the better.  Viewers will be more likely to click on the email and read it if you catch their eye with a great headline.  Disruptive titles have been very successful for companies in the past as they draw in those click-through rates.

·         Follow-up with another email: A personal follow-up email will help your response rate, it makes the reader feel the personal connection.

·         Timing of Emails: The Sherpa Team has noticed the timing of emails is a huge factor in open rates.  It is valuable to analyze the analytics as open rates will vary depending on the industry you are emailing.

·         Focus on specific Segments: If you send your e-blast to a targeted group it allows you to share content that is more relevant to the reader.  They will find more value in your email and they will reach out for further business. 

Best and Worst Ads of the Week

BEST: Airbnb

At Sherpa we really enjoyed the Airbnb ad.  This ad focuses on what their brand is about and not primarily on the product or service they are trying to sell.  During the ad they are stressing the experience and the emotional connection you build while traveling which really draws in the consumer.  Airbnb did an amazing job of setting themselves apart from their competitors.  In their ad they showed travellers that you don’t have to stay on the hotel strip to see the country, you can have a more enriched experience by living with the locals and actually experiencing the country from a local perspective.

WORST: Tim Hortons

The Tim Hortons commercial was not a favourite of ours as we found it very unrealistic. We believe the concept of the commercial doesn’t make sense as collecting used coffee cups are not commonly saved as memories.  The emotional connection they were aiming for was lost as we could not relate to this concept.  We are more likely to have a collection of photos or memorabilia for those important memories.  In summary the ad has been played one too many time, and it is safe to say that we are ready for something new.

Sherpa’s Monthly Tip

Topical Content Marketing

Being active with topical content will boost social engagement because you will be hitting on those current events.  Using custom artwork to compliment your social media posts will really set your posts aside from the rest, especially when everyone is talking about the same topic.  A great example of a topic that got everyone talking was the magazine cover featuring Kim Kardashian known for “breaking the internet”.  Many companies took this trending topic and put their own spin on what they thought breaking the internet was.  This is still a commonly used hashtag on Twitter.

Another trending topic that has been on the rise is the topic of concussions and brain injuries.  One of our clients Riverview Health Care has piggyback on this trending topic on their social media as it part of their business.  We noticed movies popping up such as My Beautiful Broken Brain on Netflix and the movie Concussion with Will Smith.  This topic spread on a large scale and caused a lot of conversations on the subject.  It is great to be alert on what people are talking about and it gives you the opportunity to piggy back on that subject if it is relevant to your business.  This also gives you the chance to use third party articles and put your own outlook on them.  When everyone is pushing out the same content on a specific subject you are bound to take notice.

Thanks for reading and listening to Sherpa’s Talking Shop.  Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to hear the latest news and don’t forget to subscribe to our podcast.