Mr. Tayto be more sociable please

I grabbed my camera on Easter Monday and decided to go out on a hunt, looking for signs of social media in Dublin City Centre street advertising.  Some of the things that I have stumbled upon are found below.

What is missing?

Have a close look at Tayto’s billboard.  What is missing?

First of all, a few words about Tayto. They are a major Irish crisps and popcorn manufacturer. I bet you didn’t know that they have actually invented the first cheese and onion crisps, they also came up with the process of seasoned potato chip/crisps.

Tayto have used their marketing tactics very well, they are rather guerrilla, if you think of some of the stuff they have done – I will only mention The Man Inside the Jacket, a fictional autobiography of Mr Tayto.

Tayto also own an adventure park. Located in South County Meath, Tayto Park  is a pretty interesting hangout: Teahouse in the Tree House,  The Potatohontus (lol, you got to love silliness and learning, combined) Native American Village, Tayto Plains, Mr. Tayto Critter Country, Pet-Tayto Corne and Buffalo Ridge.

After seeing no signs of social media on their outdoor (conveniently located close to the Zoo – they get points for targeting), I had a look at their website, curious about... if and how they are using social media marketing.  They make use of Facebooks Share tool, they have a YouTube channel and they post their pics onto Flickr.

What would I do?

See... when it comes to existing on the web, owning a www is simply not enough. I want to blog about this topic a bit more so I wont get into too much detail... but simply put:  only using your website as contact info on whatever you put your brand on is like claiming to be a fashionista but not bothering to wear accessories. Something is missing, you end up confusing, creating doubt and you are just... not good enough. Not whole enough.  (note to self: what is the world coming to when you are less of what you are if you are not on Facebook *laughs*).

So what would I do?

When it comes to their outdoor, I wouldn’t dream of excluding the social media that they use as part of their marketing suite. Slap a paint of Facebook onto that blue and green background. I know you can do it.

When it comes to their website, I’d make better use of Facebooks webmaster tools.  But thats another story, I don’t want to get into that now.

Excluding social media tools when advertising for a place where one goes to be social is just not smart.

Moving on... I find this at a Luas stop: Knorr playing with social media call to actions... offline.

One question comes to mind now that I have mentioned the lack of wholeness (is that a word?) when it comes to using only www as part of your online contact info. Can you use Facebook as your only contact info?

I think you can.

The online evolves, different environments emerge and enter our culture and some have their coolness and freshness, enabling them to stand on their own feet, independently. So you can not present a fashion show and wear no accessories and have bad hair, but you can claim to be a fashionista by wearing that one thing that is popular, makes you look cool and brands you as belonging to a certain hip something.

So Facebook can work alone. And it might just work... standing around, waiting for the Luas.. .What else would one do if not going online on their smart phone and checking out soup on Facebook. Maybe.

Unilever should pay more attention to social media. Knorr Quick Soups allow their blogs to be shared, they have some tiny widgets at the bottom of their blog content pages but thats pretty much it. Why not allow users to Like your soups? Why not allow them to Like recipes, Send recipes (Facebook launched a new button, a Send button just a couple of days ago actually)... Anyway... I'll come back to this in a while and I'll let you in a little secret about toilet paper. Mhm.