Mad Men De-Twittered
AMC has lost a significant opportunity this week by not allowing fans of the show to continue posting on Twitter under the characters’ names. What they should have done was follow the lead of companies like Timberland and Pabst Blue Ribbon, who understood that sometimes the best way to grow your brand is to just..let..go.
In “The Culting of Brands,” by Douglas Atkin, the author says, “Occassionally, gifts fall into the lap of unsuspecting brand managers. Sometimes communities will adopt a brand that the brand isn’t trying to engage. If it does, don’t mess with it. Resist your inclination to control events and let the community become the brand manager.”
Case #1: Timberland is most notably recognized for their rugged hiking boots and outdoorsy ethos, however, the hip-hop community has embraced their flagship product. There’s even a famous hip-hop star, Timbaland, who has adopted the company’s moniker as his stage name.
Case #2: Pabst Blue Ribbon (PBR) was really popular back in the 70’s before light beers (Bud Light), imports (Heineken), and microbrews (Sam Adams) dominated the market and PBR sales slumped.
Writes Atkin, “But by mid-2002 something had changed drastically. Pabst Blue Ribbon had miraculously become the fastest growing brand of all domestic beers, achieving double digit growth within a declining industry.
What happened to spark such a turnaround? A thriving community had adopted PBR as a brand that espoused their ideals. They liked how they had never seen advertisements for it, and that it was a throwback to America’s heartland and blue-collar ideals. It was a beer that wasn’t about image.
Irononically, this embrace quickly gave PBR an image. Impressively, PBR’s marketing team has resisted the temptation to jump on the hipster bandwagon and try to market to this cynical demographic. They realize that they are popular because they haven’t been trying to woo anyone. PBR wisely realizes that it completely needs to let go if they want to continue to enjoy their resurrection within the hipster community.”
Everyone was shocked to see AMC using Twitter to promote the show, and instantly catapulted the network’s “cool” factor. AMC should have let the fans grow the fan base on the site organically–they were doing a great job, especially with the 60’s era dialogue. Either way, AMC put the kabosh on this and we won’t know where it may have lead. Really ironic, as Gawker pointed out, that a show about advertising doesn’t know how to advertise itself.
