As the Ravens claimed their victory Sunday night, viewers couldn’t help but notice that there seemed to be some other winners at Super Bowl XLVII; Beyonce, the Budweiser Clydesdales, and the guy who made out with Bar Refaeli all come to mind. However, it was clear there was a new player in town when it came to Super Bowl advertising: social media. While social media efforts previously played a role in advertisers’ master plans for the big game, Super Bowl XLVII was the first year where digital media was an essential tool in strengthening the impact of their commercials.

“This year, we’re really seeing it go to a totally new level where marketers are making social networking a core part of their Super Bowl efforts. There’s a recognition among big businesses that social media is the new marketplace that they’ve got to be part of the conversation,” said Glen Gilmore, a social media strategist and professor of digital marketing at Rutgers University.

A buzz-worthy commercial is key to inspire people to take their opinions online, sharing them through Facebook, Twitter and more. “The No. 1 benefit to something like this is that your consumers actually become your billboards,” says Ann Mukherjee, Sr. Vice-President, Frito-Lay North America. “They’re the ones who become the ambassadors, who talk about the integrity and authenticity of the brand.” Many companies like Doritos, Volkswagen and Coca-Cola invited their customers to vote on their commercials, download ringtones and enter to win competitions, all to engage their customers on a more personal level and generate as much hype as possible.

The benefits of using social media in advertising don’t stop there; with social media (and Twitter in particular), companies can immediately evaluate the efficacy of their efforts. “You’ll know immediately if your ad has any sort of success by whether or not it’s trending on Twitter. Twitter is a boon for advertisers in the respect that they can see in real time if that ad is working, what people are saying and of course Twitter’s top trending lists right to the right on the homepage of Twitter show you what’s working and what’s not,” says Peter Shankman, CEO of Geek Factory.

At Promoboxx, we couldn’t agree more that social media amplifies a brand’s national marketing campaign. That’s why we worked with one of our clients on their Super Bowl initiatives and engaged their individual retailers by encouraging them to share the campaign on all of their local online channels. By allowing retailers to co-brand the content, the Super Bowl campaign was able to touch down at a local level and generate even more views. Plus, the retailers were thrilled to be a part of such a big event like the Super Bowl… a win-win for everyone.

One of the biggest problems Promoboxx can solve for a large brand is the ability to create a customized online campaign for each of their independent retailers, no matter how big or small.

Many brands we speak with have their own internal resource for retailers. This gives retailers access to national content to download and share on their own channels (through social media, on their website, in an email, etc). However, normally, the larger the brand, the more time consuming (and expensive!) this undertaking becomes if they try to tackle it on their own.

Promoboxx understands the challenges both brands and retailers are facing in the growing digital world, and we have identified ways to overcome these challenges. We outlined three of the key challenges that we help address below.

1. 1. Retailers want to be on the floor selling and don’t have a lot of time to focus on strengthening their technical skills. We know that retailers have one thing in mind, selling the product that they have in-store. We also understand that retailers can be anywhere on the scale of tech-savviness. That’s why the Promoboxx opt-in form just requires to retailer to say “yes,” and confirm their data (location, contact information, social media channels). Then, in seconds we create their own customized campaign for them. We also give them turnkey tools to share it out on any channels they have – and hopefully inspire them to embrace new channels! We make it as easy as we can for them, so that they can focus on what’s happening in-store, while also growing their digital presence.
2. 2. Retailers are starved for content.  There is always a need for quality content to populate online and social channels to keep consumers engaged. The challenge? If a brand gives them access to an internal resource, that’s all they’ve got! Or, they can get creative, and change the brand’s content to fit their local branding. Either way, no one’s happy. If they strictly post a brand’s national content, it leaves the retailer in the dark. If they get creative, the brand may lose control over the branding of campaign. Promoboxx bridges this gap to make everybody happy to make sure content is relevant to the local market and within brand guidelines.
3. 3. The larger the brand, the larger the pool of retailers becomes, and the more difficult it becomes to collect data. Even some of the most sophisticated brands we speak with don’t know which online channels their retailers are using. Knowing what channels (Facebook or Twitter? E-mail or website?) retailers favor can help a brand create a more successful national campaign. Knowing which shares get the most consumer pick up help a brand decide where to place a heavy focus. Seeing which campaigns perform better than others can tell a brand what type of promotions both their retailers and consumers prefer. Our detailed analytics can help a brand optimize their marketing,  and also helps them understand their retailers better.

Having an internal resource for retailers is definitely a good start. The way we see it, Promoboxx exists to compliment internal resources to help brands optimize their campaigns and strengthen the relationship that they have with their retailers.

At FutureM this week, we were inspired by the number of successful brand and startup partnerships.

On the panel “Small Startups Work With Big Brands” hosted by Promoboxx’s own Ben Carcio, executives in the startup community emphasized why brands and start-ups work so well together.

On a different panel, “Bringing Digital Content to Brick and Mortar,” brands told their side of the story. Stacey Howe, head of Global Digital Brand Marketing at New Balance, hit home when she discussed the challenge of implementing new digital technologies.

There were three distinct hurdles in the incorporation of new technology:

• - Changes in the consumer experience
• - Balancing consistency with customization
• - Flexibility to satisfy all parties connected with the brand

Preserving the Consumer Experience

In Stacey’s opinion, new technology should underlie existing technology — appearing invisible to the consumer and we could not agree with her more.

Here at Promoboxx, we seamlessly integrate into the existing channels that independent retailers and consumers are already using. We exist within Facebook tabs, we provide website widgets, and utilize twitter and e-mail to reach retailers in a way that doesn’t change their current behavior, but only enhances their user experience and broadens their consumer reach online.

Consistency and Customization

As a brand grows in size and complexity, keeping the content consistent on all of the online channels becomes increasingly more difficult. Howe pointed out that although simplicity is important, it is equally as important to customize the content in order to stay relevant to the local market. Not only is this balance difficult to manage, but creating custom online programs for individual retailers is expensive for the brand.

Promoboxx helps brands solve this problem by bridging the brand’s great national content with the local branding of the retailer. Brands need to be able to maintain control over the content, while giving their independent retailers the power to market on their own. Our goal is to empower retailers to market together with brands in the online world, ultimately growing the reach of the brand and the retailer. Call us cheesy, but our work is done when we’ve improved the relationship between the brand and each retailer.

Flexibility and Scalability

Howe’s final point was that brands like New Balance have many agencies, many retailers, and consequently many communication platforms. For a new technology to be considered at New Balance, it must be turnkey and able to scale. The technology should conform to work for each contingent of the brand — not the other way around.

This final point is something Promoboxx truly relates to. We talk to both the brands and retailers every day and we understand how busy they are. Our job is to make their lives easier. That is why we built our platform to automatically generate a customized co-branded campaign for the brand and each independent retailer. After two clicks of a button the campaign is distributed on that retailer’s local online channels. We are flexible enough to create a unique campaign for each independent retailer and our analytics dashboard allows both the brand and retailer to gain meaningful insight for their relationship with one another and the consumer.

Who’s up for a high-five?

At Promoboxx, we are constantly staying on top of the latest local marketing trends to help the national brands that we work with leverage the power of collaborating with their retailers. Our goal is to help our clients better understand how to maximize their engagement with consumers and launch more effective campaigns.

We know that online is where consumers are looking for information on where to buy and what to buy, but just how important is it to bring your online marketing strategy to a local level?

This week, we took a look at five statistics that stood out to us and that explain why more and more national brands are investing in local marketing:

1. 1. Marissa Mayer, Google’s former Vice President of Consumer Products and current CEO of Yahoo!, recently discussed that 20 percent of Google searches are for local information, resulting in 600 million searches per day based on local information.
2. 2. A Neustar study found that 8 out of 10 people prefer local ads because it “personalizes the relationship between business and consumer, while keeping things anonymous.”
3. 3. According to a new report from Merchant Circle, seventy percent of local businesses use Facebook for marketing, representing a 20% growth over the past year.
4. 4. One report published from Mainstay Salire, stated that local Facebook pages “already outperform corporate pages by a factor of 40.”
5. 5. Gartner Research predicted that by 2015, companies that focus on integrated processes for Local Marketing Enablement will increase revenue by 15-20%.

The statistics mentioned above reinforce that brands must integrate localization efforts into their online marketing strategy in order to tap into the business growth they desire. When marketers engage their consumers with targeted content they will launch more powerful campaigns that both the brands and retailers will benefit from.

Learn how Promoboxx can help you launch co-branded campaigns with your retailers and automatically distribute localized content on your online channels by watching this short explainer video.

Have you ever thought, “Hmm, I wonder how Promoboxx works?” Well, watch this super-handy video as our newest buddy Sam shows you how Promoboxx makes brands and retailers unbelievably happy.

Engaging and enlisting your retailers to take advantage of your marketing programs can be a challenge, but there are some fresh approaches that can work to get your retail base excited about your brand and your messages and programs. In Part 1 we covered how to use email digests to get retailers engaged in marketing programs.

In Part 2, let’s discuss how to use your brand’s Facebook Timeline to feature retailers. Facebook’s Timeline feature is fairly new and many businesses are uncertain how to use these new features. It can be a terrifically visual and active way to both engage retailers and to get them excited about your brand.

Here are three basics you’ll need to master:

1. The Cover Image: This is a large image that runs across the top of the Facebook Timeline page. You’re restricted from using this as a promotional space and your logo will show up separately (lower left). Consider using this space for images of ideal retail displays, top retailers, or your products in action. Use this image space well and updated it frequently!

2. Activity Log: Use this feature to edit things out of your timeline. Some Facebook activities and postings might not further your goals of engaging with retailers. Remove them from your timeline here. See the little gray circle to the right side of each entry? Hover over it and select “Hidden from Timeline” to remove it.

3. Friends: This space will feature a few of your friends. Since this is your brand’s page, this will be a selection of your retailers (hopefully). If you prefer not to have these displayed you can modify it so they can’t be seen (or seen only by other “friends”).

On Featuring Retailers:

The bulk of your timeline is made of activities. You can also edit these separately to decide what to display or hide. This is the core of your timeline. Fill it with features of retailers, brand activities, and news.

How will you find these activities? Visit your retailers’ timelines and look for items that you can share. These items will show up on your timeline. Retailers can be encouraged when they see that you’ve focused on them and their activities.

You can also feature retailers directly. Pick out individual retailers, display photos of their retail locations, logos, and staff. Welcome new retailers in this way or feature retailers who take advantage of programs or that have notable success with your programs.

Ideally, when you scroll down your timeline you’ll see story after story, image after image, of successful, happy retailers—because that’s what you want your retailers to see. And encourage other retailers to send you images and items you can use. You can also encourage them to share the items that you post, too. All of this will help you engage more closely, more personally and individually with your retailers and encourage them to do more with your brand marketing.

How do you feature your retailers on Facebook? Let us know in the comments below or @Promoboxx!

We sat down with Frank Chiera, VP of Marketing for Flooring America and Flooring Canada, for a 15-minute Skype interview on how he works to help FA members market better. Flooring America has 550 stores across North America, these stores are part of a bigger cooperative group called CCA Global Partners. In all, CCA Global has 2,000+ retail stores across Canada and the United States. Its retail members cover more flooring than most of the big boxes combined.

Flooring America’s Online Marketing Efforts

When it comes to online marketing, Flooring America’s retail members rely on FA to provide not just turnkey programs, but strategic overall direction as well. Frank comments, “Over the last 4 or 5 years, we really made a contentious shift to dedicate a lot of our marketing energy around online marketing. Particularly SEM, SEO, PPC, and now what we really need to focus on is social media marketing.” At the end of the day, it all boils down to giving FA retailers a leg up on getting found.

So, in an effort to maximize store visibility with consumers, Flooring America has been working on ways to involve their local stores in any national creative. In FA’s latest campaign, they’re involving local charities in a cause related effort to help members better connect with their communities. As far as retail members’ response to being more involved in FA’s national marketing, Frank says that, “They’re responding unbelievably well. It resonates with who they are.”

On Connecting With Retailers

On continuously connecting with their retail member communities, Frank counts that as most important in keeping a current understanding with their business needs. Flooring America itself holds national conventions twice a year, and communicates regularly to its retail partners via meetups, email newsletters, and webinars. FA members also have 24/7 access to the co-op’s official intranet site that houses everything from product updates to sales and marketing training videos.

Now, Frank’s adding regular member store visits to the mix. “We firmly believe in the importance of being out in the store, rolling up your sleeves and being with the retailer. Understanding what they go through everyday helps us become better marketers.”

For other brands looking to better connect with their retailers, Frank says being authentic is king – both with retailers and consumers.

For Super Bowl XLVI, Chevrolet tried something totally brand new. It pre-released its Super Bowl commercials ahead of the big game through co-branded online campaigns. Each customized to every one of their Chevy dealers.

Dealers were then given tools to help them promote their version of the campaign via email, social media (Facebook, Twitter), and their website.

These co-branded campaigns, all powered by Promoboxx, turned out to be a very successful dealer initiative for Chevrolet!

An online dealer strategy that works.

By developing an ongoing and integrated online dealer strategy, Chevy leads the way. Its dealers are responding favorably to the national co-marketing initiatives. As local retailers becoming more and more adept at marketing online, brand-to-retailer (B2R) marketing could be the next frontier for big brands.

TechCrunch, Automotive News, AdAge, and WBUR (to name a few) discussed Chevy’s B2R strategy in their recent “super” coverage.

If you’re interested in launching a turn-key dealer marketing strategy with Promoboxx, email our team at info@promoboxx.com.

This 60 second video series explores trends, challenges, and innovations of brand marketers in today’s marketing landscape. Ben Carcio, Co-Founder and CEO of Promoboxx, kicks things off. In this video, Brand-to-Retailer Marketing vs. Brand Marketing, Ben discusses why brands should care about helping their retailers market. Watch the video, or read the full interview below.

How are brands helping their retailers market today?

BC: Well, today when brands help retailers, they mostly help them with offline marketing. Things like point-of-purchase, in-store signage, yellow pages, newspaper ads, but they’re not doing anything to help their local retailers market online.

What is keeping brands from localizing their marketing efforts with retailers?

BC: It’s very difficult to work with small businesses, especially if you have hundreds or thousands of them. They are very difficult to work with and they tend to not focus on technology.

Why should brands care about helping their retailers market online?

BC: Well, to a brand, a retailer is the single most important customer they have. They write the checks, they sell the product, and they are always advocating their product to their customers. So, it’s critical that the brand supports their retailers so they can sell more products.