Great Social Media Idea: Breaking Through the Super Bowl Clutter

It was a helluva Super Bowl, and I must admit to reveling in the special, sweet schadenfreude that is watching Seattle lose. Seattle, the city that foisted endless Dave Krieg fumbles and crummy Seahawks-Browns match-ups on my 10-year-old self when there were killer Bills-Dolphins and Vikings-Packers games on that the stupid local TV station wouldn't show because they stupidly assumed that Portlanders would automatically root for Seattle. WRONG. (Sorry... had some childhood trauma to work out there.)

Lots of schools did fun stuff for the Super Bowl, but one that jumped out in me in particular was Pacific Lutheran's promotion in which they invited students studying abroad to send in pictures showing off their Seahawk pride. (Pacific Lutheran is located in Tacoma, just south of Seattle).

What I particularly like about this one is that not only does it make a lot of sense to support the local team - of course lots of student, alumni, and parents will be excited to both see and participate in this promotion - but also because it has the added benefit of showing off all the great study abroad locations and opportunities available to PLU students. Super fun!

I've been critical of real-time marketing in the past, mainly because I feel like it rarely supports the over-arching, long-term, branding that, ultimately, we social media managers are responsible for advancing. I realize there are different schools of thought on this, but for me, it's not enough to simply join the conversation of whatever is the hot topic of the hour. You have to create things that people actually want to spend time with and that make them feel something.

I'm currently reading Twitter is Not a Strategy by Tom Doctoroff - I'm only a few chapters in, but so far I highly recommend it - and for me it has been a powerful reminder that when working in digital marketing we need to always keep our minds on the bigger picture:

... creative executions must be expressions of the brand idea. They can be short term, long term, thematic, or promotional, but all must be manifestations of the brand's soul. Each new thought must reinforce the existing relationship between people and the brands they love, lest confusion reign... Content has to be more than interesting. It has to do more than break through clutter.

Here here!

And, naturally, kudos to Pacific Lutheran for pulling it off and creating something that does a whole lot more than just break through the clutter.