One of my best friends from college helps to lead the Small Business Saturday program pioneered by American Express. After witnessing her in action, I can certainly appreciate how much work and planning goes into the seemingly organic drive to support small businesses the Saturday after Thanksgiving. This past Small Business Saturday exceeded expectations with consumers spending around $5.5 billion compared to the $5.3 billion estimated total. Furthermore, American Express confirmed the consumer turnout among AmEx cardholders at small businesses rose by nearly 21 percent versus last year’s event. (Source: PRWeb)
Several elements of digital marketing (among others) helped to make SBS a huge success:
- Strategic
partnerships: While the initiative was largely about American Expres, even
more so, it was about the businesses themselves. AmEx also partnered with FedEs
and Facebook to promote SBS.
-
Integrated
marketing campaign: Radio, TV, social media, national, local. AmEx worked
hard to ensure that they were strategically timed and positioned across
multiple media channels. Furthermore, information was complete and perfectly
branded on the SBS website, which linked to other social media sites. (I know
from vacationing with the SBS manager, who was working very hard during our
trip to ensure the site was immacuately ready for launch).
-
Empower
customers to communicate in digital media: AmEx let loose of the reins and
encouraged their small business partners to communicate about the event as
well. This not only scales the efforts, but also makes the messages more
credible for local shopppers AND co-ops small businesses into the real energy
behind the day.
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