Clicksharp Marketing

Tuesday night’s debate between Barack Obama and John McCain presented America with a new contender. Are you ready for fast food to tip the election?

Our 2004 presidential election marked a major coming out party for YouTube, which turned grassroots campaigning on its head (think that had anything to do with their eventual 2005 acquisition by Google?).

In 2008, Twitter is well-placed to leave the same mark. The #Debate08 topic was active and engaging, with real time feedback pouring in from all angles and spin cycles. Amidst all the action, a third figure emerged. We’re not talking about Joad Cressbeckler.

We’re talking about Popeye’s Chicken.

With the candidates jockeying left and right, Twitterers across the globe chattering back and forth, Popeye’s came through with a dose of wisdom:

Then, after each candidate lauded himself for being the only one to truly forge bipartisan consensus, it was Popeye’s who was reaching across the aisle:

Obama and McCain continued, landing some blows and dodging others. Not to be outdone, Popeye’s delivers the knockout punch:

Currently Popeye’s only has 367 followers on Twitter. Will tonight’s performance boost sales? Not likely, in any noticeable way. This is branding reincarnated: the trivial cost of generating a bit of content today will pay off a hundred fold down the line:

• A few lucky people will always remember Popeye’s playing a unique role in the discussion
• A few others will tell their friends and colleagues the next day
• A few marketing executives at Popeye’s now have a better handle on what is still an emerging technology

Social media lesson learned: in this day and age, it’s still acceptable for the uninvited to show up in conversations where they would previously not belong — provided they add value and make themselves memorable.

Chicken and electoral politics? Change is truly upon us.

Related Posts:

Internet Marketing Meetup: Wednesday Recap This is a recap of Wednesday's presentation: "Fusing Social Media with SEO Strategy." Included in this list are social media case studies, SEO plugins for Wordpress, and more....

Event: “How Social Media Can Grow Your Business” (New York) Join us for the latest in the Taste of Technology small business series, "Beyond Websites and Email: How Social Media Can Grow Your Business"....

Post-viral euphoria and the human response Social media works in funny ways. Often times, you’ll know when some shred of your content strikes a viral nerve, because you’ll wake up, check your website analytics data…and see...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 7th, 2008 @ 8:12 pm on the category Social media, Viral marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.


Subscribe via RSS