How to create the ultimate brand experience

1. Turbo Charged
Word-of-Mouth Marketing
Social Publishing Secrets
from The Syfy Channel and other
Innovative Brands
Andy Wiedlin @acwiedlin
Monday, October 8, 12

2. Agenda
• Social Changes Everything
• Social Publishing for Brands
• Case Study: Syfy Channel
• Examples & Discussion
Monday, October 8, 12

3. The Hottest, Most Social Content On The Web
25 Million
Unique Visitors
Monday, October 8, 12

4. Why Do People Visit BuzzFeed?
80
64
48
32
16
0
To See What’s Hot To Find Things To Share To Make Viral Stuff
*Internal Survey
Monday, October 8, 12

5. Our POV
• Consumers have moved from portals... to search...
to social
• Consumers are looking to discover, engage, and
share content
• Great brands are acting like publishers to make
their content engaging and sharable to generate
true word of mouth marketing.
Monday, October 8, 12

6. Social Takes Over The World
Facebook has risen over the last six months to challenge Google's
place as the most important source of traffic to online publishers
for content published in the last 7 days
Monday, October 8, 12

7. Content Gifts
• Is the gift fun to give? Fun to receive? Fun to tell
friends about?
Monday, October 8, 12

8. The Facebook Test
Want to see it in your feed?
Would you click it?
Would you share it?
Monday, October 8, 12

9. What Is
Social Content?
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16. People Share Cute Animals
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17. Key
Learnings
Monday, October 8, 12

18. People share things that make
them look clever and cool.
Monday, October 8, 12

19. Sharing is about moments of
relevance and timeliness
Monday, October 8, 12

20. Create content about groups with
strong identities
Monday, October 8, 12

21. Applied Statistics Workshop (Gov 3009)10/10/2012.
Thales Teixeira, Asst Professor of Business Administration at the
Harvard Business School, from presentation "Viral Video
Advertising".
Monday, October 8, 12

22. 1) Extroverted People Share More
Applied Statistics Workshop (Gov 3009)10/10/2012.
Thales Teixeira, Asst Professor of Business Administration at the
Harvard Business School, from presentation "Viral Video
Advertising".
Monday, October 8, 12

23. 1) Extroverted People Share More
2) Shocking Them Can Drive Views, But
Not Shares
Applied Statistics Workshop (Gov 3009)10/10/2012.
Thales Teixeira, Asst Professor of Business Administration at the
Harvard Business School, from presentation "Viral Video
Advertising".
Monday, October 8, 12

24. 1) Extroverted People Share More
2) Shocking Them Can Drive Views, But
Not Shares
3) Humor That Is Positive Drives These
Extroverts To Share The Most
Applied Statistics Workshop (Gov 3009)10/10/2012.
Thales Teixeira, Asst Professor of Business Administration at the
Harvard Business School, from presentation "Viral Video
Advertising".
Monday, October 8, 12

25. Like Good TV Ads, Social Ads...
• Tell a story
• Involve people emotionally
• Are not heavy-handed
Monday, October 8, 12

26. If you want a big snowball effect,
start with a big snowball
Monday, October 8, 12

27. The BuzzFeed Story Unit
• CTRs are 10x-20x
industry average
• Ads are in-stream
and look like content
Monday, October 8, 12

28. Banners vs. Social Advertising
BANNERS SOCIAL ADS
• Ignored • High Engagement
• Disruptive • Native, in-stream
• Can't be shared • Sharable
Monday, October 8, 12

29. We Help Brands...
Promote and distribute existing content
Create new, brand-relevant content
Sponsor viral content
Monday, October 8, 12

30. If Content Can Be
Social, Ads Need To
Work The Same Way
Monday, October 8, 12

31. How Syfy Goes Social
Doreen Rokhsar
doreen.rokhsar@nbcuni.com
Monday, October 8, 12

32. Syfy - Face Off
Case Study
Monday, October 8, 12

33. Shareable “Content Gifts”
Monday, October 8, 12

34. Shareable “Content Gifts”
Monday, October 8, 12

35. Shareable “Content Gifts”
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37. Syfy Social Communities posting
Monday, October 8, 12

38. A Cascade of Great Social Conversations
Monday, October 8, 12

39. Program Success:
323,000
Total Engagements
Custom Content:
229,000 paid Engagements
94,000 earned Engagements
Monday, October 8, 12

40. Program Success:
323,000
Total Engagements
Custom Content:
229,000 paid Engagements
94,000 earned Engagements
108k Earned Engagements
= 431k Total Engagements
Monday, October 8, 12

41. Examples Of Other
Great Brands...
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46. Be a Relevant Voice To Your Audience
Monday, October 8, 12

47. “Our relationship with BuzzFeed really put Virgin
Mobile Live on the map. These guys know all the
tricks to optimizing viral content.”
— Ron Faris, CMO, Virgin Mobile USA
Monday, October 8, 12

48. Social advertising is
word-of-mouth marketing
at Internet scale.
“What comes to mind when you think about General Electric (GE)?”
Exposure
Total Positive Responses
Control
Group
42%
Via Social
77% Media
“We see social branded content as a great way to engage.”
— Paul Marcum, Director of Global Digital Programming & Marketing, GE
Source: “GE Study Proves Consumers Respond More to Shared Content,” Advertising Age 1/25/2012
Monday, October 8, 12

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50. You Can’t Guess Which
Specific Ideas Will Spread.
Monday, October 8, 12

51. You Can’t Guess Which
Specific Ideas Will Spread.
You Need To Experiment.
Monday, October 8, 12

52. You Can’t Guess Which
Specific Ideas Will Spread.
You Need To Experiment.
And Have Some Fun!
Monday, October 8, 12

53. Questions?
Andy Wiedlin
Chief Revenue Officer
andyw@buzzfeed.com
510.418.6600
@acwiedlin
Monday, October 8, 12