Dennis Yu CEO of BlitzLocal is a smart dude. He did a presentation about BlitzLocal, Facebook, data, and marketing futures last night at Hofstra University and it was eye opening. (What is Hofstra’s brand idea, by the way? Something with a right pointing arrow?) Anyway, a number of cottage industries have popped up over the years to help people market on Facebook and BlitzLocal is a good one. As is Involver.
Sitting through the preso I was wondering what kind of company BlitzLocal was — never having heard of them. My take? It’s an analytics company. The BlitzLocal Is-Does? A Facebook analytics company (Is) that implements and optimizes Facebook marketing programs (Does).
Mr. Yu started the evening with some really heady talk about brand building and how promotional giveaways are a blight, then he segued into data capture, tools, and the raw power of the Facebook platform. As an admin on a brand account, he playfully posted an offer to see how many people wanted a free pair of jeans and in minutes had 4,000 hits.
So how does this type of real time analytics stuff rub a brand planner like me – someone in search of the big positioning ideas and planks that and drive long term value? Well, I’m a believer and will add these tools to my arsenal. I rail about tactics-palooza, but the insights derived from a BlitzLocal engagement are too important to cast off. This kind of data, especially at the high order level, needs to go into the boil down. One more important loci for the plan. Right brain, left brain. Yin and Tang stuff. Can’t wait to play. Peace.