Saturday, January 3, 2015

Real-time Social Media Marketing At Its Best!

What does the movie Home Alone have in common with Allstate Insurance?

Well, if you watched any college football last night, you know!  #MayhemSale

Allstate pulled an amazing social media marketing campaign during the college football playoffs, which they called "The Mayhem Sale".  Similar to the plot of the classic "Home Alone" movie, where burglars break into the home while the family is on vacation, Allstate's campaign showed the "Mayhem" character as a burglar, having broken into a fictitious home after its "owners" overshared about their location on social media.  Following this so far?  Then the character proceeds to say he is going to sell all the couple's things and thats where the fiction ends!  Allstate held an actual, real-time auction of regular household goods.  Selling things like a 60-inch television for $60 and a car for $200!!  

Each of the items sold were published on Twitter first (making #MayhemSale a trending topic worldwide for much of the night), with many of the best having their own commercial during the games.  Allstate then suggested viewers go to the MayhemSale.com website, and it worked!  In fact the site received so many visitors that halfway through the Sugar Bowl game, it crashed!  Luckily, the site was only down for a few moments so eager bargain-hunters didn't have to hold their breaths too long!

This Allstate campaign was definitely one of the more successful online-meets-offline campaigns I have seen for awhile.  And while the the selling of these items was a bit silly, the underlying message was more serious.  It was a warning to viewers about using social media posts while on vacation, as that is a way burglars actually use to find victims.  

What did you think of the idea?  

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