Spring Madness Kicks Off with the Chorizo Lawn Ornament Scavenger Hunt

In preparation for their Spring Madness promotion, the Milwaukee Brewers announced that the Chorizo Racing Sausage has gone missing and only Brewers fans can help find him.

You may remember last year when Bernie Brewer lawn ornaments were scattered across the state and Milwaukee County parks. Greed ruined the “Where’s Bernie” promotion with many fans hoarding multiple lawn ornaments of the team mascot. This year the promotion was kicked off the day of the event, undoubtedly to avoid the logistical issues of 2011.

The only hint that something was afoot was on Sunday when the Chorizo, part of the Klement’s Famous Racing Sausages, was absent from the sausage race.

Bernie Brewers tweeted the winner after the race – “ITALIAN! But wait, someone was missing from the race!? Has anyone see Chorizo!? #WheresChorizo #Brewers”

During the 2011 Where’s Bernie promotion the Milwaukee Brewers began releasing clues on May 16, with the scavenger hunt happening on the morning of May 24.

This year, the Brewers took a completely different approach. At 4:55 AM they issued a press release detailing the promotion. In the release, the Brewers stated that 2,000 Chorizo yard ornaments would be available to fans this morning starting at 5:00 AM in a scavenger hunt surrounding Miller Park.

Just a few hours earlier Brewers employees began placing the Chorizo lawn ornaments around the ballpark. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, “by 5:45 a.m., cars were lined up along Story Parkway waiting to get into the parking lot. And by 6:43 a.m., all of the lawn ornaments had been snapped up.”

Whereas the “Where’s Bernie” promotion last year had some special prizes, every Chorizo lawn ornament was affixed with a pouch that included game tickets for a Spring Madness game, set for May 21 through May 23 at Miller Park.

There also were three “Grand Prize” ornaments that included:

1. An immediate breakfast with Hall-of-Fame pitcher Rollie Fingers in the Helfaer Field Atrium.
2. An opportunity for four to watch batting practice from the field with one person tossing a ceremonial first pitch.
3. A home visit from the Klement’s Famous Racing Sausages for a tailgate party with supplies provided by Pepsi, Klement’s and Miller at a mutually agreed upon date and event.

Brewers Chief Operating Officer Rick Schlesinger said “the response from fans to last year’s ‘Where’s Bernie’ event was off the charts, and while we needed to adjust some of the logistics, we knew that this was something we wanted to do again.”

Photo Credit: John Steinmiller

To avoid the problem of last year’s scavenger hunt featuring team mascot Bernie Brewer, this year the Brewers imposed a strict limit of one Chorizo lawn ornament per customer.

If you did miss out on a Chorizo lawn ornament this morning there will be an online dutch auction at brewers.com, beginning on Thursday, May 17 and ending on Thursday, May 31 at 5 p.m., in which fans can bid on five Chorizo lawn ornaments. The initial bid starts at $40. Through the dutch auction, the five highest bidders will each receive a lawn ornament and they will all pay the amount of the fifth-highest bid.

In my opinion, it was nice that the Brewers caught their fans by surprise this year. But it feels like the scavenger hunt found itself on the opposite side of the spectrum. Last year’s Bernie Brewer lawn ornament giveaway had much more build up, and much more coverage – especially in social media channels. It also had many logistical issues. Unfortunately the Chorizo lawn ornament giveaway had very little coverage or fan participation online, yet the day of announcement did limit the hoarding and logistical problems we saw in 2011.

There are four more Klement’s Racing Sausages that could be featured in upcoming Spring Madness promotions. So perhaps the team will fine tune the event even further next year.

What do you think of this year’s Spring Madness promotion? Was it better executed than the “Where’s Bernie” promotion last year? Did the lack of information leading up to the event limit the coverage that the Brewers received? Share your thoughts below.

Such a simple question should have an equally simple solution. And judging from the attention that American fashion photographer Terry Richardson received last week, it appears to be. The secret formula for every viral video should start with:

• One part supermodel.
• One part bikini (OK, maybe two parts bikini).
• And of course, a phat beat.

If you haven’t heard of the “cat daddy”, it is a dance move made popular by the group the Rej3ctz and Chris Brown. So when Richardson and supermodel Kate Upton had some downtime during a photo shoot, it made sense to film the bombshell dancing.

Richardson initially uploaded the video to YouTube, where it was promptly banned, and shared it on his blog.

After the video hit the Web, interest in Kate Upton hit a spike, rivaling the interest surrounding the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition.

A week later, the official videos from Terry Richardson have seen 2.3 million views on Vimeo and 4.9 million views on YouTube, respectively.

Miss Kate Upton may just be a dancing machine. In April of 2011, she uploaded a video of herself doing the Dougie at a Clippers game. To date, the video has seen nearly  7 million views.

While Kate Upton in a bikini may help your video “go viral,” the real secret is in Richardson’s approach. He has taken his audience behind the scenes of a photo shoot to see Upton being herself. And it just so happens that being herself involves dancing in a bikini.

Before you ask to make a viral video, consider this – would you want to watch it over and over? Would your friends and family watch it repeatedly? Would strangers want to watch it multiple times, and share it?  If creating a “viral video” was easy, everyone would do it.

So the lesson learned is that success starts with great content. Does your video fulfill a need? Is it funny? Is it unexpected?Is it surprising? Is it short? Note: no one wants to watch a 15 minute product driven video. Consider commentary on recent events.

The point here is, you need to start with a strong concept. And that takes much more work than just uploading a cute video of a baby or someone getting kicked in the balls.

And when all else fails, consider this. Is your video sexy? If not, contact a supermodel and ask if she wants to dance for the camera – and perhaps YouTube.

It’s a great idea that has received it’s fair share of free media coverage because of the nifty execution. It’s a great way to demonstrate bad breath visually with a flash mob, and of course have the video be shared multiple times online. Marketing is less and less about one big idea, and more about smaller executions like this that ladder up to a core objective and brand platform.

Check out the reaction from the flash mob, and share your thoughts on the campaign below.

That said, this video featuring Kate Upton may have just changed all that. Blatant sex appeal? Check. Kate Upton in a very see-through shirt? Check. Kate Upton using scissors on said shirt? Check.

Need more Kate Upton? Check out her profile on Esquire or find her on Twitter.

The first ad is called “3-Step Drop.” In the ad, seen below, Rodgers displays an unusual pitching delivery as General Manager Doug Melvin and Manager Ron Roenicke watch from the seats.

This will be the first of five ads that feature Rodgers, every three weeks a new spot featuring the Green Bay Packers quarterback will be released.

Rick Schlesinger, the team’s chief operating officer, said in a statement that the Milwaukee Brewers “have established a partnership with Aaron Rodgers, and these television spots showcase Aaron’s wit and sense of humor.”

The ads were shot in late February at the Brewers spring training facility in Maryvale, Arizona. What do you think of the first spot? I’m excited to see where they take the story line and if close friend Ryan Braun will make an appearance.

Screened for the first time on February 29, 2012 – the advertisement re-imagines how the media might cover the story of the “Three Little Pigs” in print, web, mobile and tablet formats. How would the Guardian incorporate social media? How would the story play out across all of the channels?

It’s a nice little spot to demonstrate the direction the Guardian is headed in, their concept of open journalism, and where other news outlets need to place their focus. We all know the world has changed for the newspaper industry, this is an example on how they can remain a relevant and trusted source.

What do you think of the concept and the spot?

In the Sheen commercial, which has run for two weeks on YouTube with 1.5 million views, the actor drives the Fiat through a mansion where a bevy of party girls have gathered. As he steps out of the car, the camera zooms in on an ankle security bracelet as he’s greeted by Romanian supermodel Catrinel Menghia.

“I love being under house arrest,” he says. “What do I get for good behavior?”

Earlier this year Chrysler opted to run the “Seduction” ad featuring Catrinel Menghia for the Super Bowl.

Personally I love the ad – it’s fun and enticing. What do you think?

On the 50th anniversary of Wilt Chamberlain scoring 100 points, I wonder if the modern world will ever have a moment like that again. When the Philadelphia Warriors played the New York Knicks that night, March 2, 1962, in Hershey, Pa., there were no New York sportswriters at the game.

The game was not televised, and no video footage of the game exists; there are only audio recordings of the game’s fourth quarter.

There were only two photographers that showed up – and one left after the first quarter. The iconic black-and-white photo taken in the postgame locker room, with Wilt holding a piece of paper with the number “100″ written on it by Warriors publicist Harvey Pollock, is one of the only pieces of media from that evening.

In the age of hyper-connectivity and social media there are few, if any, opportunities for a crowd of just 4,124 to see such a feat. Such an event would be a trending topic on Twitter, the game would be rebroadcast on ESPN, clips of Wilt scoring 100 would be on YouTube, photos from the game would be on Instagram, and we would be able to stream or download the game on iTunes or from NBA.com.

100 points is such a round number. It’s almost too perfect. And the lack of coverage just adds to the mystique of Chamberlain’s historic night. Has our connectivity stolen just a bit of that mystique and created a world where such special moments can no longer exist?

I certainly appreciate technology and the voice Twitter has given to the Middle East or a movement like Occupy Wallstreet.

But there is something incredibly warming, and rewarding, for being a member of a small group of folks that got to see a bit of magic one night in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

When consumers visit a Facebook Page, they will see what their friends, and people the subscribe to, are saying about the brand. Friend activity is only visible to people included in the post’s audience, and the audience icon in the upper-right corner distinguishes these posts from those by a brand.

This could be beneficial for consumers because they get to see how their friends are interacting with a brand. However, looking at the brands that have enabled Timeline I mostly saw interactions from 4-6 months ago and they had little relevance beyond the loose friend connection I had.

All other posts are aggregated up to the “Recent Posts by Others” box on a Page. This means that unless a consumer clicks on “more posts” to explore other conversations – the only way for consumers to interact with each other will be within the news feed.

While this may be a benefit for brands with a lot of negative conversation, it seems like a loss for fans who enjoy creating new connections and engaging in other conversations. The benefit of marketing on Facebook was the ability to actively connect with your consumers and key influencers.Facebook also gave brands the opportunity to create a community around their brand and mission. With the new Facebook Page design, it appears the Timeline view restricts the opportunity to build that community.

Instead of encouraging engagement, Facebook may actually be discouraging it. I hope Facebook has considered this and that brands won’t need to rely on their “premier” products (advertising) to retain the level of engagement we are accustomed to.

Brands have the option to remove the Recent Posts by Others box from your Page’s timeline. In order to remove the box, follow these directions:

1. Open your Page’s admin panel
2. From the Manage menu, select Edit Page
3. Uncheck the box next to Show the box for “Recent Posts by Others” on the top of Page in the Post Visibility section of the Manage Permissions tab
4. Click Save Changes

Facebook has a complete guide on how to show posts only from your page, and covers questions on the most popular features about the new Page design for brands.

If anything, the introduction of Timeline to Facebook Brand pages means that News Feed Optimization is even more important to ensure your content is seen.Social media marketers will need to embrace Facebook EdgeRank and value quality over quantity.

Do you think Timeline could discourage engagement between brands and their consumers, and consumer-to-consumer? Share your thoughts below.

What is Facebook EdgeRank, and why is it important for marketers and community managers? EdgeRank is an algorithm that determines the rank of objects in the Facebook News Feed. Pages, and content, with high EdgeRank Scores will be more likely to show up in the news feed, than Pages with low EdgeRank Scores.

Similar to search engine optimization, understanding Facebook’s ranking algorithm will allow social media marketers to better optimize their content and communities to ensure consumers see their messaging. (i.e News Feed Optimization)

Facebook’s EdgeRank is made up of 3 variables:

1. Affinity - Affinity is dependent on a user’s relationship with the friend, or brand page, and the created item.
2. Weight - Weight is determined by the type of content that is created. (Photos, events, post, etc)
3. Time Decay.  Time Decay is determined by how recently a content item was created.

EdgeRank is the reason consumers may not see every post from a branded page. The more consumers interact with a page and its content, the more likely they will see content from that page in the future.

The ranking algorithm is also why I preach the importance of Quality over Quantity. When using paid media to grow your fan base, or offering discounts and coupons, you limit the interactions consumers have with your brand. And, if your continued content development is not engaging you are left with a community that rarely sees your posts.

For a more in-depth understanding of Facebook EdgeRank, you may be interested in the following video from Shoutlet U that explains the factors and provides some tips for better EdgeRank.

If you have questions about EdgeRank, how to optimize your content, or suggestions please share them in the comments below.