DISQUS

Brett Tilford · 1 year ago

Cool post and a great example with Clorox. I like the BlueSkyProject idea.

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Shailesh Ghimire · 1 year ago

Hi Lisa,

Great stuff here. My only concern, which I presume most marketers would have as well, is regarding the metrics used to determine the success of these types of programs.

Widgets can be a great way to connect with your custoemrs, but I can't imagine a great value for them unless they're attached to some kind of offline reward. For example the Southwest Ding widget is valuable becuase you can actually save money on flights by using it. So, my question is, are clorox customers gaining anything by doing this (in real life) - how about Clorox itself? Are you privy to any numbers? Analytics perhaps.

For Blogs, I can see the value of being a Q&A section - taking the burden off of your customer support staff. Your suggestions are very insightful by the way.

It seems like Clorox is trying to do something, and it appears to be catching on.

As I said,any follow up on this with lots of numbers to support value would be great!

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Ari Herzog · 1 year ago

I'm curious how companies that once had Facebook widgets are keeping them or resorting to "pages" that carry more weight, not to mention higher viral marketing in the news feed.

It's great Clorox is engaging with customers in multiple areas, but how receptive is the company to communicate? Or are they merely pushing content?

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Lisa Braziel · 1 year ago

Shailesh - Thanks for your comments. Unfortunately, I think there is a difference between social media marketing and traditional marketing, and that difference also includes metrics.

If you measured the success of this by traditional metrics, it is easy to come to the conclusion that there may not be a measurable correlation with offline sales. While I agree there is an opportunity for Clorox to connect the dots (connecting this online widget with an offline reward like coupons), customers are still interacting with it on a very large scale on Cafemom. This to me, shows that Clorox used this to give back to the community, and in turn build its brand value. It's a soft sell, but this can be measured in the number and type and frequency of interactions with the widget, downloads, and the involvement members have with the associated group.

I wish I had numbers to give, but if I did I'm afraid this would devalue the types of conversations and interactions customers are now having with this brand. I agree that numbers should be used to show value (after all, we have clients!) , but I do feel as if success in social media is even more apparent through the qualitative data we see in user participation.

Lisa Braziel · 1 year ago

@ Ari - I think there are some efforts within social media that you may consider "pushed content", but I don't consider the Laundry Scavenger Hunt in the same way - since it provides users with a fun experience, with no sales push involved. Sure it has a clorox logo, but it is a fun game for Cafemom users.

On the other hand, I do see a need for Clorox to engage with their customers on a closer level. The blog attempts this, but it has barriers to entry (you have to submit a question via email, and then it is hand selected). A closer look at the group on cafemom, which is managed by CafeMom and it seems evident that they just haven't invested the time and resources into this type of approach. One possible reason for this is that the budget is currently owned by the marketing department, who may not be able to cross efforts with customer service. To me, it appears that Clorox needs a little help from Ignite :-)

Michelle / chelpixie · 1 year ago

It would be much more benefitial if the points did mean something, I like fun games but I would have to have more motivation than community to play it.

I love Clorox though, as long as they've been around they still know how to change with the times and get with their consumers. I can forgive them for not being perfect!

I am in love with the commercials. We all know we avoid ads like crazy now or don't pay attention to them, but it's been days and the little girl and the mermaid commercial are still stuck in my head! That's genius, appealing to something in moms and kids with dreams. And it would make a pretty picture on my wall. ;)

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