A deep dive into digital marketing

Mad Men leaves TV

Posted by Chris under Advertising, I wish I'd thought of that, Social Networking, Twitter

Well not really but they did jump on Twitter. A few days ago, when I was slightly checked out on vacation; yes I was hitting the tables in Vegas and yes did leave with more then I arrived with. Something happened in the twitter space.

Man Men characters, no not the actors, the characters started twittering. I noted it the other day, and thought wow what a great campaign by AMC. Plenty of people tweeted that it not only wasn’t AMC but it was passionate fans that were then shut down by AMC.

But then smartly brought back.

I’m in a brainstorm right now and we’re talking about how to create, tap into and use word of mouth marketing and fan passion. But can we really, as marketer, create this?

David Armano blogged about how this is creating new rules. I’ll build on this it’s not just rule changing and another nod to the power of consumers; it can not just be created, as in let’s create word of mouth marketing.

The people behind, part of, and living wearesterlingcooper.com are not only fans, they are spot on writers, characters and create an interaction the brings to show to life.

Now I’m an ad guy, have been since I sold sweet corn to local grocery stores when I was 11 and there are times that I can be pretty darn cynical about the business. But I love Mad Men. The writing, the sets, the cinematography and even the pacing, it almost feels like a guilty pleasure to watch. And it’s even more a guilty pleasure to take the time out to tweet with the characters. And I have to admit it’s been quite fun to tweet with Betty Draper.   What started as a coffee stained shirt turned into Betty giving me advice on how to clean it with alcohol and later comments on my new cufflinks, which my wife echoed when I got home.

And you know, I love the show even more now. I’m part of the feedback loop and have told at least a dozen people this morning alone about the show and the twittering. A few haven’t seen the show, but they are interested now.

So one person told ten people who told…

If only we could “make” passionate fans but we can’t. But we can create a great experience and one in which we can hope to ignite and then fan the flames our our passionate audience.

Because when you have a fan base who writes a manifesto (below) like the folks at wearesteerlingcooper you truly have created something beautiful

Fan fiction. Brand hijacking. Copyright misuse. Sheer devotion. Call it what you will, but we call it the blurred line between content creators and content consumers, and it’s not going away. We’re your biggest fans, your die-hard proponents, and when your show gets cancelled we’ll be among the first to pass around the petition. Talk to us. Befriend us. Engage us. But please, don’t treat us like criminals.

This site exists to catalogue the conversation around AMC’s Mad Men and its fanbase across the social web. But it’s just the beginning. ‘We are Sterling Cooper’ is a rallying cry to brands and fans alike to come together and create together.