The ‘punny’ commercial by Kmart centered around the one-liner, “Ship My Pants” has become quite the controversy. Kmart released “ Ship My Pants” in order to advertise their shipping service’s technology and capability.
The commercial starts off with a man being told about the new service by a Kmart employee. His reaction: “Ship my pants? Right here? You’re kidding!” Afterwards, various people talk about how convenient it is to “ship right here, “ship my bed” and so on.
Although the potty-humored video “Ship My Pants” by Kmart may not have gone over so well with the public, there are some key marketing strategies to be noted from the virality of their video. The video gained 13 million views in just a week.
1. Use some creativity to come up with your own hashtag.
Hashtags are beneficial for people trying to find a certain phrase or topic on Twitter. If you create virality around one of your own hashtags, it can mean great reach for your business. With reach comes interaction, which can lead to conversations around your distinct hashtag.
A conversation around your hashtag means you can participate in the conversations and monitor them to see what is being said about your business.
Kmart used #ShipMyPants and the hashtag flew around Twitter. Conversations between businesses, viewers, customers and Kmart ensued.
2. Convert customers with unexpected humor.
Their ad may have disturbed some viewers, but it also converted some into customers. People gained respect of the brand for several different reasons.
Kmart showed a side that no one has seen before, they took a risk and used humor that wouldn’t be accepted by all. The surprise factor definitely played a role in the hilarity of the ad. Tapping into emotions such as surprise, joy, fear, etc. are gold emotions for marketers – they coerce the audience into connecting with the brand.
3. Encourage debates about your business.
There is always going to be someone saying something negative about your business. Why not promote brand awareness with debates and discussions?
Although according to Yahoo Finance, the commercial isn’t bringing in the sales as much as the laughs. It’s arguable whether or not the brand awareness and attention was enough of a gain for Kmart.
What do you think? Was the commercial a success or failure for Kmart?
At Wishpond, we want you to be the best marketer you can be. That’s why we’ve created a whole range of social promotion apps – making your successes a little easier.
Our Social Marketing Suite gives you a range of easy to use social promotion apps, provides exclusive analytics for you to track and measure all of your achievements. All of our marketing apps work on Twitter, Facebook and websites.
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