In this article:
- Saturday Night Live drew millions of views on YouTube for this year’s Target Thanksgiving Ad – SNL
- Target’s social media team joined the ride
Saturday Night Live has a history of parodying commercials. They also have a rich history of struggling to strike the right balance between editorial takes and sponsors’ guidelines.
This past weekend, the sketch show broadcasted its latest rendition of such beat, this time creating a 3-minute mock-commercial for (with?) Target, going over a bunch of what could very well be real promotions the retailer is running right now – while telling you how these price-reduced products can help you survive the harrowing experience of hosting all your family for Thanksgiving.
On previous similar occasions, people suggested that these sketches are mere product placements, sponsored content. SNL people kept denying.
But, judging by our experience with brands and sponsored content – the uninspiring, predictable humor performed on this Target mock-ad is so under SNL’s usual standard that we feel the brand MUST have been heavily involved.
Still, sponsored or not, Target did one thing that other marketers should take notice of – the brand’s social media team jumped on the comments of the video on YouTube, going along with the joke, garnering around 6k likes in mere days.
Now, maybe it was sponsored. In that case, most chances are that writing that comment was planned. And, in that case, even if it cost the brand a nice sum of money – the millions of views and tens of thousands of Likes are probably worth it.
But, especially in the case that it was not sponsored – then, without having spent anything for this piece of marketing, that’s a huge brand win.
And, regardless of if it was planned or not, the fact this comment sits at the top of the comment section shows the benefits of being aware of opportunities and being confident, and cool enough to jump in there.
Last month, we saw how Twitter and brands on that platform took advantage of the Facebook outage. These responsive messages resonate well with audiences because they come across as more authentic than the carefully planned campaigns that are released on a schedule.
Savvy marketers know that even though you plan — just like you make your Thanksgiving dinner — you need to be able to respond to what comes up on the fly. Sometimes someone else may have just made you a great marketing vehicle, and you just have to boldly own it.