There’s going to be lot of fast food consumed. T-shirts will be flying off the shelves. Pop stars will be singing their anthems. And somewhere in the middle of it all, there might also be a little football game taking place.
No one can be certain of the outcome when the Denver Broncos face off against the Carolina Panthers, but the action off the field is bound to include a lot of commercial activity. In fact, Time magazine recently published an article that looked at the key products that tend to see a significant lift when the big game happens.
There’s obviously a sort of psychological connection between a major event like the Super Bowl and how consumers behave. If you think more deeply about some of the cause-and-effect relationships between those activities, though, there might also be a way to apply them to selling, even in a B2B environment.
Get your game face on and let’s learn more.
Develop Your Own Half-Time Show Strategy
They may be household names already, but Coldplay and Beyonce don’t agree to play the Super Bowl Half-Time Show for the applause alone. Appearances at the game lead to major downloads and other purchases of their music. That said, these artists never come on the stage directly asking fans to support them financially.
The same holds true for taking part in B2B conferences and events. Whether you’re sponsoring or appearing as a guest speaker of some kind, focusing on what the audience wants – rather than what business you hope they’ll do with you – is your best bet in terms of making an impact. What advice and insight can you offer – even if you’re only attending an event and manage to network with customers and prospects during the coffee break – that will establish you and your company as a potential trusted advisor as well as a supplier?
Strive To Become A Must-See On Any Screen
For some consumers, there’s no better time to buy a new TV set than when the Super Bowl approaches. They know that by upgrading to a higher-resolution display they’ll enjoy the game even more.
Your customers, on the other hand, are probably not about to buy a new desktop or laptop because they think they’re going to get a great e-mail message from you. They might, however, have recently bought a new smartphone if Apple, Samsung or one of the other leading brands launched one. That may make it a good time to start using apps to sell goods or services, keep customers notified of upcoming discounts or other information that helps them. As more devices and apps get enhanced for video, meanwhile, it might be time to invest in video as a sales tool. Maintain a close watch on how communications devices and software are changing and being adopted – think of them as the goal posts you need to reach.
Be As Shareable As Pizza
When you host a Super Bowl party, there can occasionally be more guests than expected, but that’s why many people order an extra large pizza (or multiple). They’re easy to pass around because they’re pre-sliced and designed for being consumed by large groups of people.
In B2B, social media functions in much the same way. If you have an in-depth white paper or other research report, how can you break it up into ways that can be passed around as easily as a slice of pizza? You might turn it into a series of blog posts. You could visualize the data in an infographic. Or you could summarize the highlights into a series of nuggets that can get posted (and re-shared) on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. The easier content is designed for amplification, the more likely your message will travel farther than a football field.
Make Yourself Merch-Worthy
There is no formal dress code for Super Bowl Sunday, but of one thing you can be sure: there are going to be a lot of people in the stands and at home wearing their favourite jersey, raising a pennant or at least a ball cap representing their team of choice.
This is where so many companies fall short. Imagine what kind of marketing and long-term relationship building it would take for your customers to become so loyal they want to personally identify with your brand? This isn’t a question of ordering ballpoint pens with your company logo. It’s about showing you’re interested in them (perhaps by communicating through non-traditional channels like social media), acting like a partner rather than a supplier (by using CRM to stay one step ahead of their needs) and offering a level of customer service that sets the bar for everyone else.
Businesses may not enjoy the huge spike in sales that some companies see during the Super Bowl, but they can tap into the same mindset of the game’s biggest fans. In other words, no matter what kinds of products and services you offer, you should always be playing to win.
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