Yik Yak Marketing: The ugly, the surprising and the genius

How to advertise on Yik Yak has even the top social media marketing experts stumped. I discussed this (and what Yik Yak is) in a previous blog post. I've been keeping my eyes peeled for a successful marketing message, and I've found two. First, what not to do. Yik Yak users hate ads and post disappears after a net five downvotes. Not very many people are going to see these ads:

cool for thesummer

davage

These musician ads are jacked up in more ways than one. They are asking the reader to type the hashtag into another network like Twitter to find out more. Why would the five people who saw this ad, who all downvoted you and hate you, do that?

You know what wins on social? When the user shares your ad. Here's one I bet you didn't expect:

mesothelioma

For Gen Z, this ad is a part of their culture. It's similar to the "just say no" of my Gen X. This is why you should be reading YikYak even if you aren't advertising there: You need to find out what the cultural references are. As a Gen X'er with my nose in Yik Yak, I think I get it.

But something always comes up to point out that I don't get it yet. The other day someone asked if we had to show ID when we bought CDs with parental advisory labels. Think of all of the differences between the Gen X childhood experience and the Gen Z childhood experience that leads to that question!

Okay, time to introduce Bored Restaurant Delivery Guy. He creates urgency to buy now. He prompts discussion that informs about pricing, location and quality. He leaves off-color jokes alone. If you don't have this Gen Z employee in your business or don't know how to emulate one, it's time to start asking yourself why not. If this business planned this marketing campaign, I bow to them. But my guess is they don't even know about it:

deliveryguyrain

deliveryguyrain2

deliveryguyslowday

deliveryguyslowday2

Obviously there is so much more to say about this in terms of employee advocacy and all those other social media marketing buzzwords. But really... genius.

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This post by CRP Social Media President Mary D'Rozario first posted at http://www.crplink.com/blog.