Social Media & the Superbowl. Pepsi/Coke says no to traditional ad's, yes to Social Media.

Pepsi have created the US$20M 'Refresh Everything' Social Media campaign to replace their traditional 1-2 Superbowl ad's during the uber huge sporting event.

Coke has taken a philanthropic turn and wants to 'do a little good while refreshing people' by offering all fans of their 'Live Positively' facebook page the chance to give gifts to their friends. Coke will donate US$1 to a charity for each gift given during the Superbowl period.

So is social growing up, are big brands finally seeing the benefits of social media over traditional media or are they just willing to take a gamble and see how it goes?

If well, social becomes a very viable primary channel for big brands. If not so well, social will slip back into the backroom as a 'bolt on' solution that a few marketers now feel comfortable dismissing it as.

Will Pepsi get more qualified exposure and consumer engagement out of a US$20M social media campaign than if they ran their traditional Superbowl ad's? I think they will.

What do you think?

Shit just got real - facebook page updates now measurable in CPM, this is HUGE.

A major hurdle has just been overcome in the 'how do you measure social media' debate.

About 3-4 hours ago facebook page admins will have noticed that one new line of data appears under their branded page updates, impressions and % feedback.

This is significant to the advertising industry for three reasons - marketers now have justification to create a pricing model around facebook updates through CPM, smart marketers will be able to determine the best time of day to send updates for the most exposure/engagement and lastly marketers will know the effectiveness of each individual update in realtime, as engagement is occuring.

Below are just a few thoughts about how this development could really change things.

Creation of a 'per update' pricing model

Marketers now have a concrete and tradititional measurement unit with which to charge out facebook page management and update creation. The days of facebook pages being ambiguous and hard to sell to the boardroom in terms of reach and cost are effectively over.

Updates can now justifiably be sold to 3rd parties

Now that page admins have access to the amount of impressions each of their updates receives, its conceivable that owners (brands) that have a large fanbase will now be able to sell updates to outside advertisers through a traditional CPM pricing model.

Realtime engagement monitoring

Being able to track feedback in realtime is incredibly insighful for fb marketers as it allows them to keep brands informed on consumer sentiment as it happens, effectively allowing them (the brand) to react instantly.

Lastly, I think the biggest question is....how much is a fb update CPM worth compared to a traditional CPM?

Traditional CPM

• Usually targeted at a cluster of 'similar' websites that have a 'similar' audience.
  
• Your message can often be associated with content that doesn't suit your brand.
  
• It can be relatively unclear who is actually seeing and engaging with your message.
• There is no flow on (viral) brand effect when a consumer engages with your message.
  

Facebook CPM

• You know exactly what type of consumer your message will be getting exposed to, as the consumer connected themselves to the page, the relationship is voluntary, they want to receive the message from the page (basically the inverse to traditional CPM banner ad's offerings).
  
• You can monitor and communicate with consumers who engage with your message in realtime.
  
• You can see the exposure/reach the message is getting and how effective it is as it happens.
  
• There is significant flow on effect through facebooks social graph when your message is engaged by each consumer, increasing brand exposure throughout the platform.
  

I think a facebook CPM should inherently be more expensive than traditional CPM's because

1. the market they reach is more qualified
2. consumer sentiment data and reach are both offered in realtime
3. consumers can actually engage and share opinion about the message
   
4. brands can respond to consumers engaging with the message instantly
5. their is significant flow on effect for brand exposure, ensuring your message will reach more consumers.
   

Will facebook update CPM's become an integral part of the advertising landscape?

Will they will be more or less expensive than traditional CPM's?

What do you think?