SAS Brand Ambassador

The Student Advertising Summit is another organization that I am a part of this year.  It is a non-profit that partners with AdFed to host an annual event that has been active for over a decade now. The summit is an all-day event that attracts 100—300 attendees from across the Midwest, including: college students, recent graduates, those in job transitions, freelancers, and professionals.

I am their Brand Ambassador for the University of St. Thomas and so far I have really enjoyed my experience working with these awesome people who are just bubbling over with crazy, creative ideas.  These creative misfits motivated by the pure excitement of their jobs have really inspired me to pursue my inner passion for advertising and marketing further.  Here is a blog post I wrote for our SAS blog about Oreo's imaginative brand, check it out:

OREO:

Oreos are not only milk’s favorite cookie but they are MY favorite cookie too! Yes, Oreos are oh so delicious, but they also make up a playful, imaginative brand that is constantly trying to help everyone in the world celebrate the kid inside.  This is something that I can definitely attest to.  Their ability to connect with many different audiences by focusing on the effect of nostalgia is very effective for Oreo as a brand.

CAMPAIGN:

Their most recent campaign called "Daily Twist" was a 100-day long campaign designed by DraftFCB's creative team.  Each day throughout this campaign, Oreo offered a whimsical, humorous or eye-catching ad to the more than 27.9 million people who like Oreo on Facebook.  Every ad was also displayed on their website, Pinterest and Twitter.  The timely and relevant subjects of these Daily Twist ads included gay pride, Elvis Presley Week, Bastille Day, the Mars rover, Talk Like a Pirate Day, the introduction of the Apple iPhone 5 and the Emmy Awards.

For the execution of the final Daily Twist ad, the brand set up a virtual/pop-up office in Times Square on October 2^nd.  Oreo fans were given the power to decide what the final twist should be via Facebook and Twitter.  The ad was then created live for fans to watch the creativity in the making and follow its progress via social media outlets.

EFFECTIVENESS:

The results say it all.  Oreo has seen a 110% growth in fan interaction per social-media post and has doubled their average reach per post since the “Daily Twist” launch.  At the ripe old age of 100, the Oreo brand seems younger than ever and I think that the initiatives of this campaign reflect their overall brand image effectively.

Because of Oreo’s strong commitment to provide their fans with the value of relevance, in this “Daily Twist” campaign, they have engaged their fan base in memorable conversations via entertainment, utility, inspiration and humor.  As consumers, our need for instant stimulation and gratification has grown to the power of communicating with brands in real time.  Oreo has mastered this aspect of consumer behavior and has not only given their fans power and control, but they have surpassed their expectations of what it means to be the world’s favorite cookie.