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!

As I sift through volumes of recent data and insight regarding social media (SM) and ROI, I am transported back in time. Long before Twitter and other SM platforms existed, we in the experiential marketing space faced the same brand team doubts and ROI questions:

• “How in the world can this expense be justified?”
• “How do we know if we got our money’s worth?”
• “Can you compare it to TV? We understand TV!”

A decade later, experiential marketing is an accepted entity while the “new kid on the block,” social media, is taking the brunt of industry skepticism. We experiential marketers must push for (and facilitate) the understanding of ROI in social media because we are inextricably linked by our disciplines’ abilities to significantly affect consumer mindset and – subsequently – consumer behavior. Our best practices bring out the best ROI in each other.

Experiential marketing is the epicenter, the nexus, the place where groupthink – or whatever you want to name it – happens. It’s where shared experience drives the sharing of the experience. It’s where the brand connects with the consumer, and the consumer becomes the conduit to their social network.

Because of social media, the energy of the brand experience is more easily broadcast to like-minded consumers. Engaged consumers at an event like Bacardi B-LIVE will share the experience with simpaticos in person and via Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, etc. The digital ripple that emanates from the event is mighty, and it is measurable.

One tangible outcome of a powerful engagement such as B-LIVE is enhanced search engine optimization (SEO). A brand can climb the list in organic search by virtue of consumers blogging and driving traffic through comments on Twitter, Facebook, etc.. Give consumers a rich, sustained experiential and social media campaign experience to talk about, and they will do so. The more they mention the brand, the better the search results ultimately become.

It’s a finely knit garment, this blend of experiential marketing, social media, and SEO…but it’s real, it’s tangible, and it can be measured. It creates profound brand affinity and likelihood-to-purchase shifts in the consumer mindset.

For additional information about the ROI of social media, you may find the articles below helpful:

• HOW TO: Measure Social Media ROI
• 8 Predictions for SEO in 2010
• The Only Social Media Metric that Matters

Organic social media presence kick-started the WeLikeBike42 experiential brand activation. 42BELOW Vodka’s native New Zealand is known for its sense of adventure and environmental conscience.  In that spirit, the brand selected 42 cyclists to ride from NYC to LA in a massive celebration of biking culture.  After training, a kickoff party, and an appearance on The Today Show, the riders parted ways to conquer a northern route and a southern route.

This video features photos taken by a variety of the riders as well as a couple by Javelin crew members. It’s a stunning display of appreciation for beauty in nature, adventure, and the sheer joy of living.

In major markets along the way, consumers cheered the riders on at parties hosted by 42BELOW Vodka, complete with the brand’s signature Caipiroska 42. Fans could join the journey by reading the individual riders’ blogs and Twitter accounts, and by following the tour at @WeLikeBike42.

Over 58 days riders witnessed some of the most beautiful scenery the country has to offer, pedaled a combined 8,549 miles, and exceeded their goal of getting 20,000 followers on Twitter.  In turn, 42BELOW made a $42K donation to the Alliance for Biking & Walking at the finish line event.

With more than 125K WeLikeBike42.com page views, 4.9 million blog views, radio reach of 2 million, 1.45 million over-the-road impressions, and more, 42 Below’s We Like Bike had an experiential program reach of more than 72 million. This extensive reach would not have been possible without the robust social media presence the riders brought to the experience through their blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr accounts.  Cycling enthusiasts, adventure devotees, and lovers of the vast beauty found across the United States all found something compelling to participate in, over and over.

At Javelin we constantly receive resumes, head shots, and audition tapes from people looking for brand ambassador gigs – whether we’re hiring at the moment or not. The competition is stiff, and it’s challenging to stand out in a sea of highly qualified candidates.

If you want to make yourself exponentially more valuable than other equally qualified brand ambassadors, have a robust blog and active Twitter account. As experiential marketers, you inspire consumers to talk about the brand/experience/benefits, so why not provide extra value to the agency and the client by adding into the mix your personal voice, complete with behind-the-scenes, on-the-road snapshots of the “Brand X experience”?

Still not sure? Currently Javelin has a team of 42 cyclists riding across America to promote 42 Below vodka, a pure, eco-conscious brand from New Zealand. Most of the riders have active Twitter accounts from which they are tweeting updates about the scenery, promotional stops, funny people they meet along the way, and the joys and rigors of riding 80-100 miles per day. More than half of them have personal blogs where they’re writing about their experiences in more depth. These people lead interesting lives they share with the world regularly, not just when they’re on tour, and as a result they have a readership base. Have a look at http://eatsleep42ride.wordpress.com/, and at some of the other rider blogs that are linked to it.

42 Below Riders

Sure, it’s not essential to have a blog or to Twitter, but in this economy don’t you want every advantage you can create for yourself? We look forward to reading about your adventures in life!

P.S. This should go without saying but if you’re going to offer these things up as a competitive difference to agencies, use common sense in regards to what you write and use spellcheck.

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.