By: Justin Gonzalez
You may remember him from The Hangover and Pineapple Express, but now Ken Jeong wants you to buy Pepto Bismol. If you haven’t checked out Pepto’s newly integrated campaign, you should. Covering all social spheres, the age old brand is on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube and making huge strides in the social realm. I had a chance to chat with Elizabeth Ming (P&G)and Kristen Stutz (Assistant Brand Manager, Pepto Bismol) to learn a little more about their project, and it’s obvious the brand is changing the way people think about their stomach problems. Why worry yourself with under indulging when you have Pepto – and Ken Jeong – at your side? The funny and informative, or as Pepto is calling them “Funformative”, videos encourage viewers to have fun this holiday season and grab an extra spoonful of spinach dip knowing that Pepto has your back. Or stomach. The Procter & Gamble brand sees itself as being fun and witty, so choosing Ken for the job was a no brainer.
Immediately after checking out their page I was reminded of another popular P&G brand, Old Spice. I think by now everyone knows the success Old Spice had this year with The Old Spice Guy on YouTube so I won’t hash out the details. If you’ve been living under a rock for the past year, you can check out our blog post on it here. Suffice it to say, I think we will see a resurgence of P&G brands increasing their market penetration via integrated campaigns like Old Spice and now Pepto in the coming year. Mashable actually wrote a great article on this last week after marketing chief Marc Pritchard held a meeting with the Associated Press.
Being over a century old (Yes, 108 years old. Take that Cher!) Pepto Bismol has definitely found a new voice for itself in social media. Recognizing that conversations were happening about the brand on social networks, it was an obvious choice for them to join in on the fun and become a bigger part of people’s lives. What’s great about their strategy is that in spite of being relatively new to the social game (a Facebook page was started around June of 2010) they have a clear voice, a strong following and a fully integrated campaign (using online and traditional media). According to Ming, since the campaign launched in early December they’ve tracked over 75 million impressions, Facebook “Likes” increased by 25% and the initial commercial has hit 25,000 views on YouTube. This week they’ve launched their second video, “Tummy Time 2” and expect to see another surge of views in the coming weeks. My suggestion: check it out, take notes and devour some chili cheese fries in the process. Web videos like these can go viral easily and change the game immediately.
If your campaign doesn’t have online integration you’re missing out on huge market potential.
Tags: Business, Digital Media, facebook, Interview, Marketing, Media, Movies, Old Spice, Online Media, Online Video, Pepto Bismol, Promotional Video, Social Media, twitter, YouTube
Pepto Bismol Gets Social