Lexington, KY - Many people say they don't see the relevance of social media to their business or they don't know the best way to use it. Lexington Center's marketing department, the group that promotes Rupp Arena and Opera House events, is a good case study. It involves a ticket promotion for the recent Black Eyed Peas concert.
The show's promoter, Nicole Neal of AEG Live, talked with Sheila Kenny, marketing director for Lexington Center, about ways to infuse energy into ticket sales and create buzz. Kenny turned to staff members Matt Johnson and Paul Hooper for ideas. The three of them brainstormed a number of good options, many of which included traditional marketing like radio ads and banners at the student entrance for UK basketball games. But what rose to the top was an idea for a scavenger hunt open to Rupp Arena's then 10,000 Facebook friends and nearly 3,000 Twitter followers. (They've now more than doubled their fans through another Facebook promotion.)
Here's how the scavenger hunt worked. Pairs of tickets were hidden on campus at UK, Eastern Kentucky University, Transylvania University and somewhere in the city of Winchester. The first two pairs were hidden at EKU. A message was sent out to friends and followers that Johnson and Hooper were on their way to EKU to hide the tickets. The next message said one pair was hidden under a bench near a fountain in the center of campus. A photo of the area also was posted.
Johnson and Hooper watched as they tried to blend in with students. As soon as the post went out, students began descending on the area, searching under benches. In less than 10 minutes, the first pair was found. A message went out that the tickets were found and that another pair soon would be hidden in another area of campus.
This time, the tickets were hidden in a tree. The message and photo went out, showing the tickets in a tree in the ravine, a well-known area of EKU's campus. Students showed up with cell phones in hand trying to determine from what part of the area the photo had been snapped. Again, the tickets were found quickly and a message went out to let people know the scavenger hunt had ended.
At Transylvania University, the tickets were hidden under the bench that surrounds the Kissing Tree. A young woman was searching, and another fellow approached, asking what she was doing. Soon he was looking, too, and found them. The happy ending to this story is that he gave the tickets to her.
At UK, tickets were hidden in a classroom and under a bridge that connects buildings. The same plan was used to alert students, and it worked equally well. Students began descending on the classroom before Johnson and Hooper could get out of the room. Just to prove that Facebook is not only for the young, the winner of that pair of tickets said his mom saw the post and told him about it.
In Winchester, the tickets were hidden inside the Leeds Center for the Arts, and this post proved a picture is worth a thousand words. When people saw the photo, they said they immediately knew where in the Leeds Center the tickets were hidden.
Each of the hunts produced numerous posts on the social media sites and generated such buzz that campuses throughout the state have asked to get in on the next one.
Kenny said using social media is the best way to reach the growing numbers of people who aren't interested in traditional media.
"We're building a megaphone to reach this audience," she said. "We are coming to where they live."
And it's working. According to Carl Hall, Rupp Arena's director of arena management, attendance at the Black Eyed Peas concert was phenomenal for a mid-week concert.
"Three to five years ago, I was hearing about social media at national conferences," Hall said. "Now we've starting using it because we have to keep active, current information out there to keep people interested."
Neal, the concert promoter, said she and others in her field are relying more and more on social networking sites to add legs to traditional marketing campaigns.
"Viral marketing is the 21st century version of grassroots marketing, something which we have always placed great value in, and Rupp Arena is doing it right," she said.
"Posting information on social sites is important and necessary, but keeping it interesting and interactive is the challenge. The scavenger hunt Rupp promoted on Facebook was a lot of fun, and more notably, truly engaged their followers."
Although this particular type of social media application might not work for your business, it should help you see social media marketing in a different light. One last observation: By no means should businesses stop using traditional marketing. Rupp Arena hasn't, and neither should you. A good mix of new and traditional methods will serve your business well.
Mary Hemlepp, APR, is co-owner of the Lexington-based public relations firm Wiser, Hemlepp & Associates. Contact her at mary@wiserhemlepp.com.