If someone could guess your zodiac sign based on your taste in ice cream or decide which country you should live in, it’d be Buzzfeed.
So what does that have to do with Walmart, one of the biggest retail chains? The big-box store has always been working to create a unique experience for its customers and what they want, and what they want is BuzzFeed – well, Buzzfeed’s Tasty.
Tasty Takes on Walmart
If you know Buzzfeed – which I think you do unless you just got access to the internet, like, today – then I assume you know Tasty. In July 2015, BuzzFeed launched a Facebook page called Tasty, now well-known for its viral short 60-second videos, or, as they liked to call them, “snack-sized” videos of comfort food recipes.
And Tasty is what Buzzfeed’s got to do with Walmart: The 2019 collab no one saw coming.
Tasty’s early success led to an independent official Tasty website and efforts to reach a broader audience by sharing different food content in different languages. BuzzFeed rolled out content in regional languages and created separate pages like Tasty Demais (Portuguese), Tasty Japan and Tasty Italy. It then created an app for followers to check food videos and recipes, cluding video stories, full recipes and tips from other users.
It’s no exaggeration to say this app turned out to be the start of a beautiful friendship for superpowers Walmart and Buzzfeed. In 2019, they decided to take a new step in the race of contextual commerce by launching new add-to-bag capabilities and ad sales opportunities. This collab started off through Tasty and Walmart apps as an in-app feature that connects them both. So, on the app, a customer can watch a recipe video, then decide they want to make that recipe. They can then choose the ingredients and click on the app feature that’ll allow them to add recipe ingredients from Tasty directly to Walmart’s online grocery cart for pickup or delivery.
Not only that, but this collaboration enabled both companies to collaborate on consumer products across multiple categories, including e-commerce, media, marketing and more. Some more recent product collabs include a Tasty-branded cookware line featuring more than 90 products, ranging from non-stick cookware to bakeware to accessories and more. Epoca International produces the line for Buzzfeed, which is available exclusively at Walmart.
And with that, the customer experience jumped from scrolling through thousands of food videos to actually being able to get the ingredients needed without having to waste time looking for them, all within the same app.
“Finding that perfect recipe, creating a grocery list and finally getting to the store can keep any chef out of the kitchen,” Walmart’s Chief Customer Officer Janey Whiteside said. “We’re excited to create a fun solution that feeds customers appetites to put time back in their busy schedules all while saving money with Walmart’s everyday low prices.”
Happy Customers, Happy Partners
Customers are being bombarded with advertising day in and day out. But they no longer want to be sold via traditional ads. Now, what’s important is the buying experience itself. This is where the importance of building relationships with customers through collaborations comes into play. This lets companies find a fresh and engaging new way of educating customers about their options and helping them make decisions faster and more effectively. Buzzfeed and Walmart’s collaboration did exactly that. And after gaining loyal customers, they even offered them the chance to buy cute Tasy-branded cooking tools sold only at Walmart.
It also shows how paying attention to how the services or products are being presented greatly affects the customer’s shopping behavior and their decision to purchase or use this product. In Walmart and Buzzfeed collab, they minimized the effort the customer would make to check out and complete a purchase by making it easy to see food videos and recipes and shop in-app for those recipes. This also gave Tasty videos more value by making it eaasier for customers to make the recipes they checked.
Collaborations bring an audience directly from one brand to another. Through these one-of-a-kind experiences, companies can remove barriers between the desire of the customer and hitting the checkout button, which also helps to boost revenue and attract more customers for all parties involved.
This article was syndicated by MediaFeed.us
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Going For Gold: The 12 Best Summer Olympic Ad Campaigns Of The 21st Century
What would you say if the world was watching?
That’s the billion-dollar question that a select group of brands must answer every four years when the Summer Olympic Games grace our television screens. Seriously, before the 2024 Paris Olympics were even completed, ad sales estimates reached a record $1.25 billion in the U.S. alone, underscoring the growing value being placed on advertising during the biggest sporting event on earth. It’s not a stretch to say that some ads may even reach more than a billion people worldwide, given that more than 3 billion have tuned in to watch each iteration of the games since 2008 and streaming platforms are bringing the games to more people than ever before.
This kind of unrivaled global viewership gives brands a clear path to shaping their image in the world’s consciousness for years to come. But much like the athletes who participate in the games, brands only get one shot, one opportunity to meet the moment and leave a lasting impression on old and new audiences alike. It’s a high-stakes game of content marketing that often favors the bold, the elegant and the heartwarming.
Sounds simple, right? After all, the games are usually chock-full of dramatic storylines and compelling figures ripe for engagement. But what typically separates the run-of-the-mill ad campaigns from the truly extraordinary ones (or your “happy to be here’s” from your legitimate medal contenders, if you will) is the latter’s ability to deftly weave together brand identity with the Olympic themes of sacrifice, passion and unity. It’s one thing to pay an elite athlete to promote a particular product; it’s another to highlight their unique journey to tell a more endearing, more inspiring story.
Visa
Even for the legions of brands that don’t quite have the resources to hire an Olympian or pay for a pricey TV spot, the Olympic advertising environment can still teach us a few things about brand publishing and branded content more broadly.
For starters, it’s usually a good idea to make certain popular events are somehow integrated into your content strategy. Developing specialized content that ties into what everyone is watching at a specific moment in time can pay major dividends when it comes to SEO, SERP rankings and overall brand recognition.
So, too, can investing in human-interest storytelling. You don’t always need a world champion gymnast with a million Instagram followers to get audiences interested in your brand. Everyone has a story to tell. You just have to find the one that makes the most sense for your brand (and your budget).
Finally, a touch of creativity and outside-the-box thinking can go a long way. Don’t recycle the same slogans or the same worn-out ad formulas. Make your content pop by giving people something they don’t see (or scroll past) every day.
Alright, let’s get to the list. Here’s a collection of the best Olympic ad campaigns of the 21st century.
BrianAJackson / istockphoto
This Samsung ad made for the 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro is an uplifting place to start our advertising journey. It stitches together lyrics from several different national anthems sung by people living all over the world to form one unifying song. By demonstrating the connective power of smartphones, the ad offers an enticing glimpse into a “world without barriers” – an adequate encapsulation of the Olympic spirit.
Samsung
Nike’s newest ad, freshly made for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, features a dizzying lineup of some of its most famous athletes and a playful narration from the great Willem Dafoe. Does being a fierce competitor make these elite athletes “bad” people? Or is it just a prerequisite for greatness? This fast-paced ad lets viewers ruminate on these questions, keeping Nike on their minds long after the ad is done playing.
Nike
Fitting for an Olympic games taking place amid a global pandemic, Samsung’s 2020 ad reminds us that even though we might be physically located in different places, technology keeps us connected. The ad strikes a proper balance between wonder and emotion, featuring a heartwarming appearance from Olympic skateboarder Sky Brown and her father.
Samsung
The Killers’ All These Things That I’ve Done makes a catchy soundtrack for Nike’s 2008 ad campaign. “Courage” is another fast-paced, Olympic-themed montage from the sports apparel company that aims to give audiences a visceral feeling of what it means to live Nike’s slogan, “Just Do It.”
Nike
Some slick editing put future (at the time) Olympic gold medalist Nastia Liukin and legendary Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci together in Adidas’ elegant ad for the 2004 games in Athens. Comaneci was the first gymnast to score a perfect 10 at the Olympic games, inspiring generations of athletes to believe that “perfection is possible.”
Adidas
No words are necessary for this 2016 Visa ad spot. Guided by a steady heartbeat, viewers are given a snapshot of the life of an Olympic long jumper – from training to the games in Rio de Janeiro. The quick cuts between the athlete and the heart underscore the intensity of the moment and are an apt analogy for Visa’s takeaway message: “Always performing.”
Visa
Procter & Gamble wants you to “Lead With Love” (and listen to your mom) in this 2020 ad for the Tokyo Games. It’s a continuation of the home care company’s series of mom-focused Olympic ads, which use a handful of small vignettes to tug at your heartstrings and make you want to call home.
P&G
Alright, who’s cutting onions? Here’s the first of P&G’s series of Olympic ads honoring all the moms out there who make their children’s dreams possible. Through all the early wake-ups, the rides to and from practices, and the steady encouragement, this heartwarming ad reminds us that “the hardest job in the world” is also “the best job in the world.”
P&G
Four athletes, four different sports, and one awesome Sia soundtrack. The folks at P&G can’t stop making hits. This 2016 Olympics ad from its subsidiary, the razor and skincare brand Gillette, gives viewers a dramatized version of the struggles athletes endure to be at their best.
Gillette
Is that the voice of god? Close! It’s Morgan Freeman. Visa’s “Go World” ads left an indelible mark on viewers during the 2008 Olympic games. The gold-tinted images and the crescendoing chorus on the main ad spot set the stage for an inspiring series highlighting stories from past Olympians like Derek Redmond and Kerri Strug.
Visa
Greatness can come from anywhere. That’s the message Nike gave to the world during the 2012 games in London. The ad captures the Olympic spirit through a beautiful sequence of shots set to an uplifting violin soundtrack. It’s enough to make anyone get up off the couch and try doing some cool stuff.
Nike
The second installment of P&G’s “Thank you, Mom” ad campaign is its most potent. There aren’t many more effective ways to capture an audience’s attention than opening with storm sirens and a tornado. Through this 120-second spot, P&G tells the story of four Olympians to remind us of all the ways moms give us the strength to achieve the extraordinary.
This article was produced and syndicated by MediaFeed.us.
P&G
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Featured Image Credit: Walmart.com.
