In your expert opinion, which Minnesota brand did the best job with their Super Bowl digital activation/campaign? Tell us why you chose them and what other marketers can learn from them?
The Minnesota business community was extremely well represented at Super Bowl LII, from host committee partners to official sponsors to local businesses putting in the extra effort to make a splash for visitors and international media.
The American Birkebeiner International Bridge, sponsored by North America’s largest cross-country ski race of the same name, was the hands-down best local activation of the event, serving as the focal point for the Super Bowl Live experience.
It transformed Nicollet Mall into a winter playground, with visitors skiing, tubing and skijoring down the 200 foot, snow-covered bridge.
It was a must-photograph, must-tweet experience for visitors, added talk value to the free events downtown, and was the most memorable brand activation of the 2018 Super Bowl festivities.
Did you notice any missed opportunities or “head-scratchers” among MN brand activations?
I won’t mention the brands by name, but there were a few exhibitors that seemed to bring their stock trade show footprint experience to the Super Bowl experience.
A sandbag toss game or bracelet giveaway may work fine at your Convention Center of Cleveland tradeshow, but this is the Super Bowl and you have literally thousands of people skipping your booth because it’s boring and forgettable.
Schwan’s Co. did the exact opposite — erecting a 40-foot-high tower of Schwan’s delivery trucks with interactive tailgate trivia for passersby. It was a spectacle that made you stop and pay attention, and that’s what the Super Bowl is all about.
Seeing one more Super Bowl come and go, do you feel the Super Bowl is still a wise marketing investment for brands? When is it the right strategy?
Like any brand activation, sponsors of big events have to weigh business objectives, audience mix, impact and scale into their plans.
The brands who signed onto the host committee, exhibited at Super Bowl Live, the NFL Experience and during the game itself all helped bring once-in-a-lifetime memories to thousands of residents and visitors to our town.
Despite viewership decreasing slightly, the Super Bowl remains one of the few tentpole moments we have in American culture where we gather together for a shared experience.
Even those consumers who didn’t watch the Super Bowl knew it was happening and felt compelled to justify why they were opting-out.
In a noisy, algorithm-filled world, brands looking to capture attention or shift sentiment among a broad audience base, the Super Bowl can be an extremely efficient choice to break through.
Snap, Inc. debuted their new Spectacles in November 2016 and space150, a full-service digital agency with offices across the country, was one of the first agencies to snag a pair.
While we shared our thoughts with the industry (Adweek, Digiday, Adweek), we saw an opportunity to bring their unique perspective to partners and clients — by sharing the first-ever Spectacles story in professional sports.
About Spectacles
Spectacles give Snapchat users an easy, real-time way to record videos that get sent right back into the app. They benefit the user by allowing you to capture video without having to take your phone out of your pocket, open Snapchat, etc.
Spectacles also let you capture video without removing you from what you’re doing. Their first-person perspective also makes these videos unique, especially compared to other videos on social networks today.
Capturing video on Spectacles is fairly easy: press a button above the top of the left frame and the camera captures a 10 second clip, tap it again and another 10 seconds is recorded – up to 30 seconds per clip. Lights illuminate to show those around you that you’re recording. The Spectacles wirelessly pair to either Android or iPhone through your Snapchat account.
The video can be either standard definition or high definition, though you have to convert the file to HD within the app. Also, an interesting part of the new Spectacles is that they are shot square at 1080×1080, but when displayed they’re circular (see diagram below). This means that users can rotate their phone and see more of the image.
Though they’re filled with electronics, the frames are one-size-fits-all and made from plastic. The case they come in – a yellow, foam-padded triangular prism – doubles as a charging dock. The case will hold an additional four charges.
The glasses can (conservatively) do about 40-50 10-second videos before they need another charge, and with light use they would last all day. Also, keep in mind, as the glasses are drawing on Bluetooth, phone battery will also be an issue – and something to keep an eye on.
Spectacles In The (MN) Wild
space150 approached the Minnesota Wild to be the first organization in professional sports to use the innovative new first-person camera glasses.
Our challenge was to bring this new tech to life within the bounds of an established social media voice and content strategy, while doing something worthy of the first-person perspective. While GoPro and others have made first-person video approachable, the glasses structure and technicalities of capturing the shot made it difficult to plan and deliver the best story.
To navigate both the organization’s social strategy and the limitations of the glasses, we storyboarded the Wild’s first Spectacles story within three segments: 1) Pre-game, 2) Game, and 3) Post-Game.
Within each segment, we had many shots that we wanted to capture, knowing that many may not come to life or may not fit the team’s social strategy or the limitations of showing game play, owned by the NHL. This structure allowed us to have a cohesive story while being flexible.
We brought a production/videographer, social strategist and design director to film and capture the story, which was a healthy mix of technical and design expertise. A full day of shooting with the camera provided a 2:56 minute story. In the future, this kind of storytelling could be accomplished by one person — assuming they’ve been fully trained and are experienced in POV video production.
Here are the highlights from the first-ever pro sports team Snap Story we helped bring to life:
Results
This effort was a massive success — from the Snap Story completion metrics to the earned and social media buzz to the overall lessons learned.
The full day’s Snap Story saw a 65% completion rate, a 7.1x increase over the previous day’s Snap Story.
The first portion of the snap story was the practice story and saw a 88% completion rate prior to the game starting.
The spectacles-only story saw 7.5x more completed views over the previous day.
“In the midst of the Snapchat Spectacles craze, the Minnesota Wild became the first NHL team to debut Snap Inc.’s $129 mustard-colored sunglasses and give fans a behind-the-scenes view through a unique lens. The Wild partnered with advertising agency space150 to bring first-person social sharing to life…
Expect the Spectacles to be the trendiest technology product being utilized by sports teams during the first few months of the New Year.”
…
Added Greg Swan, VP of brand innovation at space150, in a statement: “We were thrilled to partner with the Minnesota Wild to bring the Spectacles perspective to hockey fans tonight—what appears to be the first time a pro sports team has tested these out.”
CBS Morning News picked up this story, sharing it with 97 local TV markets…
Show Your Hands: but first, ensure it’s a first-person POV story worth telling
Shoot Order is Post Order: plan ahead with your shot list
Have Patience: files take time to download – especially in HD
Charge Charge Charge: they average 70-80 snaps vs the stated 100, so keep the glasses and case charged
Watch Your Mouth: the mic picks up everything you say, and most things around you
Use your hands! The best selling part of Spectacles is the hands-free, first-person POV. And your viewers want to see your hands doing things.
The files take time to download, especially saving to HD, and social teams should be sure to save files as they go within the Snapchat app. As stated above, the stated battery life is 100 10-second videos. However, we found that this number is closer to half that, so be sure to keep the Spectacles on their charging case when they’re not in use.
In terms of actually shooting video, be aware of your head movements and things like hair that could get in the way of your shot. In addition, the microphone is very sensitive, so things like chuckling, breathing and laughing will all be picked up. Be intentional about your head movement, but note that is very obvious when the recorder slows movements down. And the shot angle is wider than you would expect, so be sure to clear anything you don’t want in the shot from your periphery.
One of the most important take-aways is that once the button is clicked, Spectacles are recording and those stories cannot be edited. We recommend taking 2-4 prep shots before starting your story.
Remember: shoot order is the same as post order – you cannot change the order of snaps in your story. Determine the best shots and their order before starting. We used a simple word document to track and optimize the best shots as we went through the shoot.
WHEN ARE SPECTACLES A GOOD IDEA?
As we wrote about last week, first-person point-of-view content is some of the most compelling content for three reasons: subject, location, and experience.
Subject: The old saying, “You can’t really understand another person’s experience until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes,” is now possible. Whether it’s your best friend, a celebrity, athlete or someone with an amazing job, we can now easily see what it’s like to be them. Marketers should rethink their spokesperson strategy immediately and get POV video options into their contracts.
Location: Advertising often uses jaw-dropping locations to inspire, and now anyone can be transported there as if we are actually there. Marketers who are just now getting used to 360º perspective need to be thinking POV now, too.
Experience: POV experience is the golden ticket here. The opportunity to share a POV perspective when skydiving, firefighting, skateboarding, or baking a pizza is now just $130 away. Marketers should rethink storyboards to bring viewers the experience of not just being there, but being that person.
Looking Ahead
Although Spectacles are intended for Snapchat-only, marketers should pay close attention to Snap’s overall impact on video production and consumption trends. There are leading indicators here worth noting. Snapchat popularized the vertical video format, which caught many by surprise. Yet just this September brands began prioritizing vertical content for Facebook.
Vertical video has always been preferable on mobile phones, but never before did a social network — including YouTube — prioritize vertical video. But Snapchat made is the gold standard. Now Snap is introducing first-person point-of-view through vertical social video — with no head-mounts or Go-Pros required.
If this popularizes as fast as vertical video, we could expect to see spectacle-eye-view video permeating not just Snapchat, but starting to come into other social channels and marketing channels in the coming year.
Will we all be wearing Snap-branded glasses in the future? Probably not. However, we’re excited about the continued innovation in wearable technology and how it impacts social engagement.
But considering that Snapchat is responsible for popularizing the vertical video format experts said that Spectacles were likely to catch on. Vertical video has always been preferable on mobile phones, but never before did a social network prioritize it, said Greg Swan, vp of brand innovation at space150. It was Snapchat that made it the gold standard.
“If this popularizes as fast as vertical video, we could expect to see my-eye-view video permeating not just Snapchat, but starting to come into other social channels and even TV production in the coming year,” he said.
Plus, it also has a cool and hip vibe, and is at a much lower price point than Google Glass in the past.
“While Glass was call-and-response, like ‘open maps’ or ‘take a photo,’ Spectacles are social — they are additive to the user’s social presence and not dependent on it,” said Swan.
We all have friends who have announced, unceremoniously and often emotionally, that they are taking a break from or quitting social media.
Especially in this post-election spin cycle, more people than ever before are considering taking a break from the always-on newsfeed.
Why is it hard to let go?
For starters, it’s important to remember that modern social media is more than 10 years old. It’s no longer a nice-to-have distraction, and instead it’s often our 1) primary connection to others, primary source of news and entertainment, and 3) our opportunity to have our voice heard. And thanks to the anytime mobile web and our smart phones, we have 24/7 access.
But the truth is that we share less personal information on surface (public) social than ever before. Personal social sharing on Facebook is down 15% this year over last year, which means a lot of the content you’re seeing in social media isn’t about your friends. It’s more often comfort content click-bait or political-fueled news.Much like how we used to get our news primarily from late night shows or The Daily Show, now it’s more from social media headlines that inform our notion of what’s happening in the world. And of course, fake news sites have contributed to the burnout, especially if the people in your network aren’t thinking critically about what they’re sharing.
So what should we do about social media fatigue?
For starters, please don’t declare you’re taking time away from social media like you’re going to be missed. Just do it.
Here are three ideas:
Turn off notifications on your phone — lesson the constant reminders and distractions
Delete social networking apps on your phone — check via desktop only
Take a digital detox. I personally take an unplugged week every single year. You should, too.
I was interviewed by our local CBS affiliate this week on the topic. Here’s the story…
Over the past few months, you may have heard friends declare, “I’m done with social media.”
Then they post again the following day.
So, why is it so hard to quit?
Our feelings about social media can span a range of emotions. Some may feel it is too political, too negative or too polarizing — while at the same time see how well it allows for connection and access to information.
“First, we have to think about the benefits of social media,” says Greg Swan, a vice president of public relations and brand Innovation at Minneapolis advertising agency space150. “Why do we want to be on social media?”
He points out three major benefits: connections with other people, a way to share your voice and a popular vehicle for getting the news.
We are sharing fewer cute kid photos every year. Personal social sharing is down 15 percent year over year, making way for more news and commentary online.
Sixty-two percent of people now say they get their news from social media.
“You think about why you can’t quit social media? That’s where you get your news in 2016,” Swan said.
Cornell researchers looked at some of the reasons people who quit Facebook were drawn back in. They studied surveys of people who chose to take in the “99 Days of Freedom” Facebook challenge by stepping away from the social media site. Not everyone could stay off Facebook the entire 99 days.
They found four major reasons for returning back to the site. First, people who think it is addictive are more likely to fall back into the habit.
Second, people who use Facebook to influence how other people think of them had a better chance of not completing the challenge.
Third, good moods kept people off the site for longer compared to bad moods.
And fourth, people were more likely to stay away if they still took part in other social media platforms.
Swan says the ubiquity of our smartphones also plays a role.
“There’s more technology in this phone than what sent the first person to space. It’s no wonder we can’t put it down,” Swan said. “That said, it doesn’t take a lot to set them down and walk away.”
He suggests taking a social media break if you think you need it by unfollowing people or groups you believe to be toxic, deleting the apps from your phone or stopping for a short period of time.
He locks his phone in a safe for one week every year.
