Murphy-Goode winery launched a campaign called a “A Really Goode Job”
using social media and advertising on their website. The contest
recruited applicants from all over the country to submit 60 second You
Tube videos about why they would be the perfect fit for a job that
requires them to be the winery’s social media voice and subsequently
pays $10,000 a month and provides the lucky winner with a beautiful two
bedroom house in Sonoma county.
The campaign turned out to be the most publicized program in the
history of the wine industry as well as generating over 800,000,000
impressions and an estimated 19 million dollars worth of publicity
for the winery. Obviously, Murphy-Goode winery saw some advantage to
using social media as a large part of their marketing and advertising
strategy, but my question is ‘will this translate into a rise in sales for
the company?’
My opinion on social media is this: I am 23 years old and facebook
launched when I was a freshman in college. I, along with everyone on
my dormitory floor, used it to keep in contact with my friends from
high school. I still use facebook in the same manor: to chat with
friends, view pictures of their latest nightlife excursions, keep
updated on who’s dating who, and of course as a handy birthday
reminder. I am content in keeping it that way.
Twitter is a whole other story. I first heard of it at a conference about integrated
marketing at NYU about a year ago. One of the speakers asked who was
“tweeting” right now and approximately 20% of the audience raised their hands.
Out of those who raised their hand, none appeared to be under the age
of 40. She spoke the rest of the time about how businesses should be
using twitter and other social media tools to reach out and attract
attention to young people.
After conducting a quick survey of my friends, I came to the
conclusion that none of them looked at advertisements on facebook, few
of them used twitter, and the ones that did, used it because they
thought they should, but rarely actually logged on or posted tweets.
So if “young people” are mainly using social media tools to keep in
contact with old friends and despise seeing advertisements or anything
that gets in the way of their intended use, is social media the right
way to go in advertising?
It will be interesting to see if Murphy-Goode winery sees a boost in
profits as a result of their social media adventure, it certainly will
get their name out over the webosphere, but is that enough to
translate into sales?
I think a healthy skepticism is warranted until we see the long term
benefits of using social media as a method of advertising.
-Robin Bunevich, Marketing Assistant
