Create A Successful Buzz Marketing Campaign: A Guide

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Updated: October 8th, 2022

What Is Buzz Marketing?

Buzz marketing is a technique used to maximize the word of mouth potential, of a product or brand awareness campaign. In today’s hyper-connected world, consumers trust recommendations from friends or family when making a buying decision.

Therefore, brands create buzz marketing campaigns aiming at creating online or offline conversations. Such conversations achieve social exposure and affect the intention to make a purchase. If done right, buzz marketing campaigns can generate a high return on investment.

In this post, we take a deeper look at what buzz campaigns entail, and give examples of successful buzz marketing campaigns for your inspiration.

Buzz Campaign Key Takeaways

Buzz campaigns aim at attracting attention in a short time
The buzz campaigns thrive in a social contagion
If done right, buzz campaigns generate free publicity for brands
Buzz campaigns drive sales through organic referrals or paid advertising campaigns
Buzz marketing is a great way to build a fan base and achieve a positive brand reputation

How Buzz Marketing Works

Buzz marketing is about generating hype and conversation around something you are doing.

Therefore, brands create something interesting and useful in order to get people talking about it. As the conversations go viral, people are curious to know what the product offers. It is out of this curiosity that the marketers gain sales and brand awareness.

Ultimately, new customers make recommendations to family and friends, growing the fan base.

Ideally, buzz marketing is exceptionally effective and one of the best ways to attract new customers. Before looking at examples of buzz marketing, let us focus on the benefits of buzz marketing.

Benefits of Buzz Marketing

Creates word-of-mouth impressions and drives at least 5X more sales compared to a paid advertising campaign.
Customers acquired through buzz marketing make many referrals themselves.
Referred leads convert 30% better and have a 16% higher lifetime value
A cheaper form of advertising as it focuses on growing organic traffic
Focused on gaining a regular fan base and building a positive brand reputation among existing customers

Real-World Examples Of Successful Buzz Marketing Campaigns

Here are examples of buzz marketing campaigns for your inspiration.

1. How Coca Cola Created Buzz Around Their Brand Through Obesity Ad

In this example, Coca-Cola said that their products cause obesity in an honest manner.

The commercial caused an explosion on the internet, as people spoke about the advert in every blog, newspaper article, and even viral video.

The respect for advertising and honesty created conditions for perfect buzz marketing. Coming up with an emotional and catchy topic got everyone speaking about Coca-Cola.

2. How Starbucks’ Unicorn Frappuccino Drove Significant Traffic To Company Restaurants

In 2017, Starbucks is a good example of brands that are known to create a buzz on the internet, with an intention of gaining brand or product awareness.

In 2017, the brand introduced the Unicorn Frappuccino and announced that it would be available for just three weeks. The sugary and vibrantly colored drink exploded on social media, which was no accident.

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Starbucks deliberately created the limited edition with social conversations in mind and assured that their social media fans and loyal customers would post about it.

To date, the hashtag #UnicornFrappuccino is linked to more than 150K posts.

How To Create Effective Buzz Marketing Campaigns

Define the target audience
Create a campaigner teaser to help make sure prospective customers are excited about the idea
Create a branded hashtag to make the campaign easier to follow-up
Give the customers a reason to engage
To achieve a bigger impact, create an easy to share video campaign
Engage brand influencers that can help you increase engagement
Track campaign performance and learn

We have looked at important tips for creating an effective buzz campaign. before launching the campaign, make sure you understand what is likely to get the target audience talking about the brand. That way, you can create interest and attract sharing.

meet the author

Pat Walls

I'm Pat Walls and I created Starter Story - a website dedicated to helping people start businesses. We interview entrepreneurs from around the world about how they started and grew their businesses.

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