Does it really matter how many social media followers you have or how many people actually saw your commercial? It depends but more research seems to indicate that the answer to that question is “no”.
There are a lot of brands that claim to have a lot of followers on their social media pages yet a lot of these same brands are in serious trouble. Coke, for example, has seen sales declines as consumers turn away from soda yet they have a Facebook page with a lot of followers. Is there a disconnect? Yes, and no.
The fans who follow Coke could be their super customers who regularly purchase Coke and have made the brand part of their life. But I don’t think a Facebook page is going to overcome all the negativity around soda and Coke’a attempt to sway the market by hiding its investment in a study to say that soda and obesity are not related.
Then there are the commercials. Pretty soon we will all be talking about the best Super Bowl commercials yet how many of these commercials actually convert prospects into customers?
The only numbers we should be focused on are the ones that can be directly correlated to key brand objectives. “Soft branding”, the idea that we are spending money on brand metrics that don’t really matter, still get too much money.
Marketers have to be able to prove that everything they do is directly tied back to business/brand objectives. I may be aware of a new Hyundai but that doesn’t mean that I will consider one when I need a new car.
Instead of advertisers jetting off to France to pat themselves on the back it would be nice to read and hear of an ad campaign that actually produced results beyond a memorable commercial.
