The Catalog

The latest news in sports, entertainment and health,
straight from the Catalyst staff

Viral Campaigns Explained Through Medical Terms at Social Media Week

This week is Social Media Week where the digital gurus come out to share the latest and greatest in social media insight – even the free snacks came with QR codes!   I had the opportunity yesterday to attend a presentation on Consumer Engagement in the Reuters building in Times Square.

In the early years of the Internet consumers kept an anonymous identity–I was personally known as ColaBear85. We used the Internet for research, keeping up with the news and checking email. Nowadays it’s all about real identity and exposing your world to anyone who is willing to listen.

The presentation focused on this opportunity of social promotion to convert consumers into brand advocates.  By developing the right campaign we can use consumers as broadcasters and have the ability to create and sustain an online community.

While in Indianapolis for Super Bowl, I got the chance to stop by the Social Media Command Center that set up shop in downtown Indy. This was the first Super Bowl where the host committee designated a single area to manage all things social.

Did you know that Americans spend more than 33 hours per week watching video? But according to the latest Nielsen Cross-Platform Report for Q3 2011, the way that the American household is consuming video is seeing a big shift, thanks to availability and tech advancements such as mobile video.

Key findings from the Cross-Platform Report–which highlights the viewing behavior of U.S. consumers and identifies emerging trends in media consumption across traditional TVs, mobile and computers–include:

Nando DiFino is a senior editor for Mediaite.com, a site founded by Dan Abrams whose mission is to be “the site for news, information and smart opinions about print, online and broadcast media, offering original and immediate assessments of the latest news as it breaks.”

DiFino, who has previously written for The Wall Street Journal, ESPN and AOL, joined the Mediaite team in 2011. He joins The Catalog to discuss his new experiences in covering politics and what to expect from the media landscape in the year ahead.

Drew Brees plays Xbox Kinect

With apologies to the furry guy in Pennsylvania, the Phil who casts the bigger shadow this week is Simms.  And we’d much rather talk about the Gronk than the Groundhog.  Still, there’s something simultaneously predictable and outrageously insane about Thursday at the Super Bowl.  It’s the day we expect the unexpected and shrug our shoulders in nonchalance when Madonna offers her assessment of Victor Cruz’s salsa skills and dispenses pain management advice to Gronk.

Anything is possible on Super Bowl Thursday – which is exactly what we told ourselves when we decided to put together one of the busiest and most diverse activation days in Catalyst history.  Cam Newton, Drew Brees and Michael Strahan were all on today’s roster, quarterbacking programs for Under Armour, Xbox and SUBWAY Restaurants, respectively.   While securing appearances on national TV and radio was one of the primary PR objectives, watching these athletes interact with fans and fellow athletes off-camera provided the best moments of the day.

Catalyst managing partner Bret Werner talks about what it takes for brands to successfully activate at the Super Bowl.

Traditional New Orleans king cake...the only food item NOT smothered in cheese sauce on radio row

There are seminal moments in every man’s (and woman’s) life, and if you’re lucky enough to experience a moment that involves the phrase “Super Bowl in New Orleans,” – well, let’s just say you’re very lucky.

The good folks of New Orleans understand this, and, as the host of next year’s Super Bowl, they have been spreading their signature cheer – and signature cuisine, including king cake – to the denizens of radio row in Indianapolis (it’s standard practice for next year’s host to flex its muscles during Super Bowl week).

I’ve been looking forward to the Super Bowl’s return to its unofficial hometown since witnessing my Patriots (yea, I just went first-person possessive) beat the Rams in 2002.  Aside from an unfortunate incident in which I somehow misidentified Lawyer Milloy as Ty Law — and was vitriolically reprimanded for my misdeed — that day remains one of the greatest of my life.  Again, New Orleans + Super Bowl=Awesome.

But before we get all hot and bothered by the Bayou, I gotta say that Indy may have found its Super Bowl mojo.  There’s a good vibe here – and not even Jim Irsay can ruin it, although he certainly is trying.

The Super Bowl is a national sporting holiday, the marquee event of the NFL season, and marketing’s greatest day of the year. But does the Super Bowl really deliver for brands? We strongly believe it does, especially as far as public relations is concerned.

If you consider the broader American sports landscape, the NFL remains the big dog, with millions engaging each week across a variety of channels. In 2011, the NFL accounted for nine of the Top 10 television programs, topped by the broadcast of the Super Bowl, which claimed 111 million viewers. Last year’s labor strife and lockout, which truncated training camps and threatened the start of the season, didn’t affect business–a fact evidenced late in 2011 when the television networks renewed their partnerships with the league for healthy increases.

If Tuesday’s Media Day is the unofficial kickoff to the Super Bowl hype machine, then late Friday afternoon on radio row is the end of game kneel-down, a time to hand the ball to the official, saunter into the locker room, take off the pads and shake your head in disbelief as you realize that, yes, we really did spend the last 110 hours analyzing everything from high ankle sprains to low temperatures.

Don’t get me wrong.  It’s a glorious all-consuming journey, and one that’s full of surprising candor and unmatched absurdity from the plethora of characters who pop in and out of our lives to share their thoughts via various media outlets.  In truth, as much as we might feel like we know the ebb and flow of Super Bowl week PR activations (or as Jerry Rice once called it, “the ebony flow”), there is always something new that reinvigorates us.  It’s a lovable circus…kind of like the Kardashians, but the exact opposite (I have no idea what that means).

That’s the backdrop for this week’s chronicling of Super Bowl XLVI in the Catalog.  Once again, Catalyst is on-the-ground for the big game, working with multiple client partners and athletes in Indianapolis to tell fresh stories and spending way too much time with each other as we try to bring these programs to life. 

Nobody knows how to activate Super Bowl as well as Catalyst. Throughout this week, we’ll be uploading photos to our Instagram account showing the behind-the-scenes Catalyst story. Enjoy!