Social Media and Product Survival

I had spent the majority of New Year’s Day checking out the Outback, Gator, Capital One, Orange and Rose Bowl games, my but goal for the balance of 2009 was to spend time on Global Patriot, Twitter, and StumbleUpon, the social media platforms changing conversation. So it was back to work on January 2nd. Around 2:30 p.m. I notice a very odd email.

Save Essentials (saveessentials) is now following your updates on Twitter.

A cleaning product is now following me on Twitter?  Seriously?

So I clicked on the Web Link, watched the video and read the notes that were posted below.

Please Note: Embed feature for this video has been disabled.

The Arm & Hammer Video

An Interesting Saga Unfolds

The show begins with Keane introducing himself as a coordinator at an ad agency, and his mission, as you will see in the clip, is to save the Arm & Hammer Essentials product line from what appears to be a sure fate of death.

In the span of two minutes he tells the story of a product that he believes in, passionately, describes how good this product is for the planet, and makes a plea to all who are listening to go buy the product immediately.  I don’t know what this campaign cost to produce, but I’m guessing it’s a fraction of what is typically spent on product promotion, and the message is more valid than anything you’ll see on television.

So we have a blog with a YouTube video being promoted by a Twitter account in an effort to save a green cleaning product from its untimely demise.  There’s following and followers and tweets and retweets and blog posts instead of newspapers and televisions and radios.  Imagine that.

Below the video, in a section titled Why Should I?, Keane provides the details behind his efforts.

Posted by Keane on December 15th, 2008

Do this: Spend three bucks. Go out and buy an empty bottle, the one with the
A&H Essentials label. It comes with a small cartridge full of concentrated plant-based cleaner. Add water. Clean. Be happy.

I know, I know. It sounds like a crazy request. Here’s why it isn’t.

If enough people did this, we’d be taking 103 trucks off the road, and we’d
save more than 3,600 gallons of fuel. That’s 40 tons of CO2. This is
compared to shipping 10 million filled 32-oz. trigger spray bottles.

And if those same people get refills, we’d be taking 560 trucks off the road
to save over 19,600 gallons of fuel and 220 tons of CO2. We’d also be
helping reduce the more than 3.2 billion tons of plastic from trigger spray
bottles that Americans throw away every year.

Essentials is made from bio-degradable, plant-based ingredients, and is safe
to use. It also works well. The production of its packaging consumes 88
percent less CO2 emissions per ton (equivalent to 88 percent less petroleum
per ton) than that of regular trigger spray bottles.

Less energy and material to produce; less energy to transport. I think you
get the picture.

I’m trying to get more people to do this. At least for this week. We need to
send a message to Arm and Hammer that people care about green products so
they don’t yank Essentials off the shelf. The best way to do this is to go
out and buy it.

So go do it. Spend the three bucks. You’ll be saving Essentials, but you
might be saving something even more important.

Best three bucks spent. Ever.

And the Winner Is?

Well, I don’t know the answer to that question, not yet at least, but the real point is that corporate America is taking notice of social media and the power it has to reach an audience in ways that are more real and more immediate.  I would love to know how the promotion idea came about, and how the decision was made to go forward with the project.  I’m sure that will all be revealed in time, but for now I find it exciting that corporate communication is becoming a two way street, with an effort to engage the public in an authentic conversation.

And the connection to Global Patriot?  All of the world’s problems require authentic conversations in order to find solutions, and part of the green and sustainable movement will need to be conducted at the grass roots level, using social media to get its message to the masses.

What are your thoughts on the integration of social media into commercial products?

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