The best fans in baseball have latched onto a furry friend, the rally squirrel, to push the St. Louis Cardinals further into postseason play.  The rally squirrel made his debut during several of the Division Series games in St. Louis and reportedly took a road trip to Philly for Game 5.  Redbird fans have taken him “under their wing” as a good luck charm.

Buschie, as some have dubbed him, has become the most popular personality in St. Louis in just over a week.  There are currently over 50 pages on Facebook dedicated to the little guy, and he has his own Twitter feed.  Untold numbers of t-shirt designs, hats, stuffed animals, and more have been created for fans who want to show their team support by showcasing Buschie and his bushy tail.

Hundreds of news stories have been written, making Buschie even more famous.   Busch Stadium will be giving out rally towels at Game 3 of the NLCS to over 40,000 fans.  I’m sure you’ll hear the catchy Rally Squirrel song playing at the pep rally in Ballpark Village this week as well.  Whether Buschie is the Cardinals’ good luck charm, a fantastic marketing opportunity for local t-shirt manufacturers, or a social media phenomenon – he’s cute and cuddly, and St. Louis has fallen in love with him!  Go Cardinals!

In June 2011 Javelin and BACARDÍ, the world’s best-selling and most awarded premium rum, broke new social networking ground with experiential program “Like It Live, Like it Together.” Part of the larger “BACARDÍ Together” campaign (embracing social media to encourage real-life get-togethers) “Like It Live” turned BACARDÍ fans’ Facebook “Likes” into real life experiences curated by the fans themselves.

Prior to the event consumers entered to win tickets to the NYC and Las Vegas events, and voted for their top “Likes” including: Slam Dunk vs. Dunk Tank, BACARDÍ Mojito vs. BACARDÍ Cuba Libre, Hip-Hop vs. New Wave, Pizza Truck vs. Taco Truck, and Mechanical Bulls vs. Pillow-Fighting Playboy Bunnies. Top “Likes” were brought to life in true BACARDÍ fashion: NBA legends playing hoops with consumers on the rooftop; world’s largest skateboard/stage; life-sized Sico the Robot and more.

Every BACARDI event needs sizzling musical entertainment, and these events delivered! The New York City event featured Kid Cudi, Tamara Sky, DJ Irie, Aloe Blacc, Eklips and DJ Mouss, Childish Gambino & Evolution of Dance, as well as a few other familiar faces. The Las Vegas event featured Cee Lo Green, Travis Barker and Mix Master Mike, Kid Cudi, Eklips, DJ Tamara Sky, DJ Irie, Aloe Blacc, Childish Gambino aka Donald Glover, Playboy Playmates, NBA legends Ron Harper, Allan Houston and Gary Payton, and more.

After an action-packed evening, consumers enjoyed their final “Like” – a pizza truck – and voiced their delight on Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks.

This time even a few Javelinites were caught in action. It sure looks like they’re enjoying their work!

Scroll over the images below to check out the slideshows:

The extreme growth of Facebook and Twitter over the past several months has garnered a lot of attention and buzz, but the most interesting article I read was by Chris Matyszczyk, a creative director who advises major corporations on content creation and marketing. He is described as bringing an irreverent, sarcastic, and sometimes ironic voice to the tech world.

He explores the impact that the aging of members of social media sites will have on advertisers on those sites.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-10215837-71.html

Although the social networking sites will continue to explore new, innovative ways to generate advertising dollars, essentially he predicts the greatest success will be found if they provide advertisers with something recognizable as traditional, monetizable advertising.

The trends Matyszczyk points out in this write up expand beyond the inherent advertising opportunities within the social networks, but into many other marketing disciplines including continued growth for experiential marketers.  As an agency we continue to stress that once a brand has made the investment in an experiential marketing campaign to engage their target consumers; it is critical to continue the conversation with these new people.

As I continue to see more and more reports of these increased adoption rates of social networking communities by consumers in a wide variety of demographics; it is clear to me that this will provide another channel to continue these conversations.   On par with many experiential marketing campaigns, these consumers are now able to choose their level of interaction and engagement within a familiar environment.  Just some of the early examples I have come across include “Fan Pages” and “Groups” where like-minded individuals are able to gain access to the latest updates, information, news, etc. about products, services, retailers, entertainment, and just about anything else imaginable.

http://mashable.com/2009/04/13/facebook-brand-marketers/

Experiential marketing does the best job of speeding up the consumer trial process, however maintaining contact with these potential new long term consumers and preventing “drop off” after the engagement must be the next step.