AT&T launched their “just OK” campaign and partnership with the March Madness block party during the 2018 College Football Playoffs, claiming they are the #1 network to beat. They took an interesting approach to making their message clear amongst viewers. By utilizing the word “ok” they made it known that their service is far above the mediocracy of the word. Their commercials and media use irreversible situations such as surgery and being tattooed to imply that no one would knowingly choose an ok doctor or tattoo artist to perform any actions on their body and the same should apply to cellular service. Not all scenarios are as extreme, some take a more lighthearted and witty approach to convey their message. AT&T used a series of basketball commentators to casually show the importance of more than just ok commentators. The confusion comes with the alignment of the block party. There is no cohesiveness or clear meaning to why AT&T would sponsor March Madness. The objectives of this campaign to say the least are very unclear. It is unknown as to the reasoning behind a cellular service sponsoring a basketball competition. This is directly linked with their media usage or lack thereof. Apart from the televised commercials AT&T has put little to no effort in their media presence. Although they could have put more effort into their advertisements, AT&T’s revenue went up 2.4% in Q2 which is higher than the national inflation rate of 1.75% proving they were able to convert some cellular service users to their brand.
AT&T hosts a block party on Friday night
during the March Madness Final Four;
Objectives:
One of the biggest, if not the biggest issue
with the “Just OK is Not OK” campaign and the block party is the objectives are
unclear, nor are they connected. The objective for the “Just OK is Not OK”
campaign is to convert customers over to AT&T by showing they are bigger
and better than their competitors. This objective aligns with AT&T’s brand,
but it does not align with their objective in other campaigns. AT&T put
their name on the Block Party but failed
to do any real marketing for the event to increase ticket sales
pre-event, nor did they have a clear objective. It was difficult to decide what
AT&T was hoping to accomplish during their campaign because there was
little to no marketing done for the event. We concluded the only objective
AT&T could have with their Block Party is to create brand awareness. This
decision is interesting because AT&T is already a well-known company. Not
only would the decision to simply sponsor an event for brand awareness not make
a ton of sense, it also does not align with their other campaigns they were
running at that time.
Messaging:
According to our research the aim of
AT&T’s messaging through the “Just OK, is not OK” campaign, was to position
themselves ahead of their competition in the minds of consumers. Their goal was
not to sell merchandise rather the message was centered around the awareness of
their 5G capabilities. AT&T’s commercials proved to be relatable because
they were funny and lighthearted. People were able to relate to them regardless
if it was because of a just ok tattoo, or a just ok surgeon. Of course, no one
would purposely choose the “OK” option of anything so why would they choose
anyone other than AT&T? Playing on this idea was a strategic tactic to use
when trying to raise awareness of their brand. AT&T utilized the fact that
they are the biggest network according to root metrics to validate their claim
of being the best network. We decided to do our own research on their bold
claim and discovered that they are actually second to Verizon
(www.rootmetrics.com). Their message therefore can be perceived as untrue and
misleading.
As far as AT&T’s messaging pertaining
solely to the block party, one could say it was just ok. Their reach via social
media was low and their commercials could have been better executed. AT&T
could identify more with the public if they started their campaign earlier to
build awareness and aligned themselves with a familiar face.
Recommendations
Live Experience
When reviewing the previous AT&T Block
Parties, the campaign did a superb job of obtaining popular artists to perform.
In 2018, Jason Aldean who has had an honorable Country Music career opened up
the Friday night block party on the AT&T stage in San Antonio, Texas. In
2019, the grammy award winning group Chain-Smokers, opened up the AT&T
stage in Minneapolis. This years 2020 NCAA Final Four is scheduled to take
place in Atlanta, Georgia. The New York Times (2009) called Atlanta “hip-hop’s
center of gravity” in which the city is home to some of music’s most legendary
performers (Caramanica, 2009, para 1). Although the most listened to genre of
music in the state of Georgia was listed as country (Resinkoff, 2016, Digital
Music News, section 1), it would be
preferred if the campaign focused on booking artist relatable to millenials. A
March Madness study conducted by Wallet-hub projections and data collected by
the NCAA, “says 56% of millennials are willing to miss a work deadline to watch
a March Madness game” (Kiernan, 2019, para 3). Last year brought 94,000 people
to Minneapolis.With Atlanta's rich history for culture and music, we deemed it
necessary to recommend that homegrown artist be chosen to perform for the
AT&T's block party.This can boost attendance by attracting non-basketball
fans to participate in the block party bringing a cultural connection with
legendary artists. AT&T can benefit by appearing knowledgeable, respectful
and appreciative of Atlanta’s culture which increases brand perception of At&T
and the NCAA by connecting the culture of Atlanta and with multiple
generations. With the AT&T block party being the first event to kick off
March Madness, we stressed the importance of AT&T letting consumers
experience more than just ok. AT&T can utilize this event to make a
statement by selecting these artists as a way to set the tone for the NCAA 2020
Final Four weekend.
Lining up the Objectives
We also recommend to make the campaign objectives the same.
For example, highlighting that, “A just ok block party is not ok”. In the days following the Block Party, Coca-Cola and
Capital One both host similar events. It would be easy for AT&T to promote
“Just Okay is Not Okay” through their March Madness Block Party event. They
simply need to emphasize on putting on a bigger and better show than Capital
One and Coca-Cola, proving they are indeed the biggest and the best. This would
perfectly illustrate the reasons customers should convert to AT&T while
aligning their messages and remaining on brand with each of their campaigns.
They can cultivate many ideas ranging from innovative mini-commercials and
social media engagement to create efficient brand awareness.
Messaging Recommendations
AT&T could identify more with customers and potential
consumers if they started their campaign earlier, aligned itself with a
celebrity or did something like bringing back old March Madness hero’s, and
every commercial was produced was in alignment with the Block Party and March
Madness. To generate more brand awareness and event awareness, there needs to
be a better attempt at synergy between AT&T the company, the “Just OK, is
not OK” campaign, and the Block Party event.
From what we were able to see, AT&T only sponsors the event and does
not promote the fact that they are involved with the Final Four celebrations at
all, which could be a huge marketing tool for them. One
of the ways we felt they could create better brand awareness and identity, is
by associating themselves with one or two celebrities as was done by Capital
One. Because of the strategic placement of
Charles Barkley, Samuel L. Jackson, and Spike Lee in Capital One media,
they became synonymous with the brand, especially during March Madness.
Media
AT&T
media’s usage was irrelevant to their success of the “Just OK” campaign. They
did not use media to reach out to customers before their event, rather they
simply posted a few pictures after the Block Party. They had little to no media
presence across all platforms ranging from Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and
Snapchat. The only real media usage we were able to find was a livestream of
the event. AT&T being a telecommunications company could have used their
resources to their advantage when promoting their event through media.
Going
forward we have concluded that it would be most beneficial to use the goal
setting framework known as S.M.A.R.T. to guide actions and ensure they lead to
real business results. S.M.A.R.T. consists of specific, measurable, attainable,
relevance and time.
Specific – Be clear. Who is AT&T target audience (college
students/family environment)? What type of engagement are we seeking? Does
“increase engagement” mean you want 100 new followers or 10,000? AT&T
making their social media goals specific helps track progress and measure
success.
Measurable - Every goal needs some kind of metric. “Just Ok is not Ok”
is a great concept, but it’s not a goal unless you have a way to measure that
improvement.
Attainable – Building brand awareness leading up to the Block Party by
the numbers of impressions, likes and comments should all be metrics used and
they should be within reach
Relevant - #JustOkayIsNotOkay” hashtag on Facebook, Instagram and
Twitter. Influencers could be poked fun at for their “just ok NBA careers” then
reflect on their “more than just okay” college careers. (i.e. Christian
Laettner, Adam Morrison, Greg Oden, Jay Williams)
Time - Goals should have a set deadline that runs concurrently
with ‘Road to Final Four’ in March 2020.
Return on Investment (ROI)
According to Zoomph (an advanced social media
analytics tool) the “Just ok is not ok” campaign has the highest impression
value despite not having the highest reach. The campaign reached an impression
value of $358k and a total activity of 19k (3rd behind Nike and Under Armour)
posts which makes each post worth $18.84. The campaign reached 12M people which
ranks 5th among campaigns that ran during March Madness (Google was the highest
with 23M)(Blosat,2019 Top sponsors ranked
by impression value). The contribution of this success was that they had
headliners such as Chainsmokers and partnering with social media influencers
like Rachel DeMita. Partnering with an expert in this field proved to be more
beneficial than having a celebrity contributing to a high ROI. Despite not
reaching as many people as other campaigns they were able to effectively convert those posts into
more sales. If the campaign could use the same techniques with pop-culture
icons they could increase their reach while maintaining their impression value
which will increase overall revenue for the company.
References
Blosat,
G. (2019, April 29). March Madness Sponsors on Social – Top 10 Brands.
Retrieved from https://zoomph.com/blog/march-madness-sponsors-on-social-the-top-10-brands-from-the-ncaa-tournament/.
Caramanica,
J. (2009, December 11). No Holds Barred for Gucci Mane. The New York Times.
Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/13/arts/music/13gucci.html
Resinkoff,
P. (2016, March 1). What’s the Most Popular Music Genre in Every State? Digital
Music
News.
Retrieved from https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2016/03/01
Kiernan,
J. (2019, March 13). 2019 March Madness Stats and Facts. WalletHub Blog. Retieved
from https://wallethub.com/blog/march-madness-statistics/11016/
Newberry, C. (2019, May 14). How to Set
and Reach Social Media Goals ( 10 Types of Goals to Track). Retrieved from
https://blog.hootsuite.com/smart-social-media-goals/.
(2019,
October). Usher Chart History Hot 100. Billboard.
Retrieved from
https://www.billboard.com/music/usher/chart-history/hot-100/2
(2019,
October). Migos Chart History Hot 100. Billboard. Retrieved from
https://www.billboard.com/music/migos/chart-history/hot-100/2
(2019,
October). Outkast Chart History Hot 100. Billboard. Retrieved from
https://www.billboard.com/music/outkast/chart-history/r-b-hip-hop-songs/2
(2019
October). 2 Chainz Chart History Hot 100. Billboard. Retrieved from
https://www.billboard.com/music/2-chainz/chart-history/radio-songs/2
Revised Paper
AT&T launched their “just OK” campaign and partnership with
the March Madness block party during the 2018 College Football Playoffs,
claiming they are the #1 network to beat. They took an interesting approach to
making their message clear amongst viewers. By utilizing the word “ok” they
made it known that their service is far above the mediocracy of the word. Their
commercials and media use irreversible situations such as surgery and being
tattooed to imply that no one would knowingly choose an ok doctor or tattoo
artist to perform any actions on their body and the same should apply to
cellular service. Not all scenarios are as extreme, some take a more
lighthearted and witty approach to convey their message. AT&T used a series
of basketball commentators to casually show the importance of more than just ok
commentators. The confusion comes with the alignment of the block party. There
is no cohesiveness or clear meaning to why AT&T would sponsor March
Madness. The objectives of this campaign to say the least are very unclear. It
is unknown as to the reasoning behind a cellular service sponsoring a
basketball competition. This is directly linked with their media usage or lack
thereof. Apart from the televised commercials AT&T has put little to no
effort in their media presence. Although they could have put more effort into
their advertisements, AT&T’s inflation rate increased by 1.75% proving they
were able to convert some cellular service users to their brand.
One of the biggest, if not the biggest issue with the “Just OK
is Not OK” campaign and the block party is the objectives are unclear, nor are
they connected. The objective for the “Just OK is Not OK” campaign is to
convert customers over to AT&T by showing they are bigger and better than
their competitors. This objective aligns with AT&T’s brand, but it does not
align with their objective in other campaigns. AT&T put their name on the
Block Party but failed to do any real
marketing for the event to increase ticket sales pre-event, nor did they have a
clear objective. It was difficult to decide what AT&T was hoping to
accomplish during their campaign because there was little to no marketing done
for the event. We concluded the only objective AT&T could have with their
Block Party is to create brand awareness. This decision is interesting because
AT&T is already a well-known company. Not only would the decision to simply
sponsor an event for brand awareness not make a ton of sense but it also does
not align with the other campaigns they were running at that time.
AT&T would greatly benefit from aligning their campaign
objectives. In the days following the AT&T Block Party, Coca-Cola and
Capital One both host similar events. AT&T could easily promote the “Just
OK is Not OK” campaign through their March Madness Block Party event by simply
putting on a bigger and better show than Capital One and Coca-Cola. This would
prove they are indeed the biggest and the best in all aspects and it would be
easier for consumers to make that connection. AT&T having the best Block
Party perfectly connects their message of being the best with the March Madness
Final Four. This would illustrate the reasons customers should convert to
AT&T while also aligning their messages and remaining on brand with each of
their campaigns.
According to our research the aim of AT&T’s messaging
through the “Just OK, is not OK” campaign, was to position themselves ahead of
their competition in the minds of consumers. Their goal was not to sell
merchandise rather the message was centered around the awareness of their 5G
capabilities. AT&T’s commercials proved to be relatable because they were
funny and lighthearted. People were able to relate to them regardless if it was
because of a just ok tattoo, or a just ok surgeon. Of course, no one would purposely
choose the “OK” option of anything so why would they choose anyone other than
AT&T? Playing on this idea was a strategic tactic to use when trying to
raise awareness of their brand. AT&T utilized the fact that they are the
biggest network according to root metrics to validate their claim of being the
best network. We decided to do our own research on their bold claim and
discovered that they are actually second to Verizon. Their message therefore
can be perceived as untrue and misleading.
As far as AT&T’s messaging pertaining solely to the block
party, one could say it was just ok. Their reach via social media was low and
their commercials could have been better executed. One of the ways we felt they
could create better brand awareness and identity, is by associating themselves
with one or two celebrities as was done by Capital One. Because of the
strategic placement of Charles Barkley,
Samuel L. Jackson, and Spike Lee in Capital One media they became synonymous
with the brand, especially during March Madness. AT&T could identify more
with the public if they started their campaign earlier to build awareness and
aligned themselves with a familiar face.
AT&T
media’s usage was irrelevant to their success of the “Just OK” campaign. They
did not use media to reach out to customers before their event, rather they
simply posted a few pictures after the Block Party. They had little to no media
presence across all platforms ranging from Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and
Snapchat. The only real media usage we were able to find was a livestream of
the event. AT&T being a telecommunications company could have used their
resources to their advantage when promoting their event through media.
Going
forward we have concluded that it would be most beneficial to use the goal
setting framework known as S.M.A.R.T. to guide actions and ensure they lead to
real business results. S.M.A.R.T. consists of
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