If you are like me, you’ve been seeing viral video of a new Braves’ promotion, “The Freeze.”
So when I saw Darren Rovell’s piece this morning on the phenomenon and how the Braves came up with a great activation that has probably produced much greater impact than anyone could have hoped for.
But as exciting as the success of this promotion is, buried not too far into the piece is a tidbit that should be a warning sign for all marketers and branders, as the original concept was for 27 races…but don’t worry, the team and the sponsor are in talks for more.
Which is a big mistake.
In our current economic and media environment, mass is largely ineffective.
What’s effective is unique, special, extraordinary.
Which is what this activation started out as.
But quickly, as with most things, the idea that more is better just had to set in…didn’t it?
What the law of diminishing returns says is that at a certain point, revenues and impact hit a peak and start to steadily decline.
As a practical manner when you are working on a sponsorship activation, your goal is to delay or negate the law of diminishing returns.
In the case of the Braves, The Freeze, and RaceTrac, the challenge is how to maximize the impact of the promotion over a hot, sticky Georgia summer.
There’s several ways that you could elongate and enhance the impact of a promotion that has been able to capture the imagination of the public and hit that elusive world of becoming “viral.”
First, you could minimize the number of races:
Like drinking 6 Cokes in a row, everyone after the first one is just a little less satisfying.
Instead of trying to oversaturate the market with race after race, maybe the impact would be greater if the races occurred less frequently.
27 isn’t too many, but what if they were only once a week?
What if to race The Freeze at SunTrust Park you had to win a contest of some sort that revolved around the partner?
What if you made part of the races races against local celebrities and local figures?
Wouldn’t it be interesting to see The Freeze face-off against The Governor or someone well known?
Second, how about taking The Freeze on the road?
Okay, if you must add races…why do you have to do them in the ballpark?
Taking The Freeze out into the community might be a good activity to extend the activation, provide more impact for RaceTrac, and build much needed buzz for the Braves new ballpark.
It be an easy activation to create.
It would provide excitement.
And, its likely that there would be opportunities for the promotion and the races to get buzz on the internet.
Third, maybe amp up the impact of beating The Freeze:
If you have a thriller fan, you know that the trick is to always ratchet up the intensity and the stakes of any plot point.
What if you could do the same with The Freeze?
Instead of beating The Freeze to win a $100 RaceTrac gift card, you made it:
- Gas for a year
- Free coffee for life
- Win a new car
You could go down endless roads with this, but the big thing is to ratchet up the intensity of what you are thinking about doing.
Make it more and more high value.
Not just more and more.
The challenge here is that mass is easy.
Add more advertisements.
Add more races.
Do more stuff.
The real opportunity is in not doing more stuff, but in doing more stuff of impact.
In the case of a viral hit, maybe the thing isn’t to double down on mass, but instead to double down on meaning and impact.
What say you?