Just like we have found in class that social media is everywhere, so is advertising. Literally- everywhere. From where I am sitting in Café Kubal I see at least 20 examples of advertising- the Nikes that the girl sitting next to me is wearing, the People’s Choice container that my neighbor to the left is eating soup out of, the vintage DuMond DeWilderberry ad hanging across the wall, the Syracuse keychain on my table, the La Maazocco coffee maker, I could go on and on.
The thing is, I don’t really care about any of these. I have no interest in buying DeWilderberry beer and when I buy my first coffee maker I doubt it will be of the La Maazocco variety. I don’t care because there these advertisements are all over, and they do not engage me in any way. I am not going to pay attention to them unless they stand out to me.
Being an advertising major, the words “brand recognition” have been drilled into our heads year after year. The ol’ “What good is a Superbowl commercial if you don’t remember what brand it’s for” example is typically brought up 2-3 times in each and every advertising class. Of course, brand recognition is important. But what’s just as important as the brand itself and the things they are saying is the way in which they make us listen to them.
So how do marketers do this? And who is it that is doing it well?
Well, my first thought would be to show some of my favorite examples of out-of-home or guerilla advertising. These creative ad forms are usually large and impressive, and, if done well, of course they are going to catch your attention.
But following the nature of this class, I wanted to focus on how marketers grab your attention in the social media world.
I chose my first example because a) it demonstrates an exceptional way in which marketers catch people’s attention, and b) it combines three of my favorite things: music, Snapchat, and beer.
Last year, Heineken launched an advertising campaign called the “SnapWho” campaign. At the world renowned Coachella music festival, this beer brand sent out snaps to it’s followers throughout the day. These cropped snaps were clues to the surprise shows during the festival. Snapchatters who responded with the right brand or got an early confirmation of an act scheduled for the Heineken House, the beer sponsor’s stage.
This turned out to be a HUGE hit at Coachella, and not only did it allow people to make the connection to Heineken, but it made users engage with the brand by Snapchatting them directly. 
But why did this catch their attention? Of course, the majority of teens that this was targeting find both Coachella and beer “cool.” But that alone isn’t enough to engage as many people as Heineken was able to.
In my opinion, this campaign worked well for one reason: the exclusivity factor. Heineken was revealing information on this social media platform that you couldn’t find anywhere else. Having insider info makes users feel special, and the restrictive, disappearing nature of Snapchat makes this the perfect medium for this campaign.
Obviously, not all brands have a presence on Snapchat. But my guess is that you’d be pretty hard pressed to find a brand that doesn’t have a Twitter.
With so many brands on Twitter, it’s tough to stand out. It’s hard to make sure people won’t scroll right past your tweets, or worse yet- not follow you at all. That’s why, in my opinion, what counts on Twitter is being different. Being clever. Acting not just as a brand, but as a fun friend that you want to follow.
Yeah, I know, easier said than done.
But that’s why the brands that are doing this right now are killin’ it in the Twitter world. I follow lots of brands on Twitter, and there are some whose tweets are so funny and sassy that I get excited every time I see their logo as I’m scrolling though my twitter feed. It’s almost like they are my friends (…okay, I know that sounds lame on my end, but hey, it must mean it’s working for them!)
So, here are two of my favorites.
- ARBY’S. I started following them after this famous tweet:
and haven’t been disappointed since (except for the fact that they always make me CRAVE their curly fries).
- DENNY’S. Again, I didn’t follow them until I saw this funny tweet:
And, to be fair, I don’t know if any of their tweets would convince me to consume anything that they sell. So, I don’t know how effective this is, but it is attention grabbing. 
Of course, the humor approach doesn’t work for all brands. If the brand is more serious in nature, their ads probably won’t mirror the playful approach that Denny’s or Arby’s takes, but they should be just as engaging in their own way.
If brands want to catch our attention they need to make us care. There are a lot of brands out there, and a lot of advertising, so it can be challenging. But the plus side is this: these brands also have the potential for a HUGE audience platform that is more than willing to listen if they see the information as valuable and engaging.
There’s a lot of info out there, and because we’re only humans, our attention spans are limited. That’s why it’s pretty cool that we live in this world where brands are doing everything in their power to tailor their content just to keep us interested. At the end of the day, we control what content gets noticed. So between us and all the clever, innovative brands out there, there possibilities for great conversations are endless.