Happy Halloween!
In keeping with the theme, I believe it’s fitting, no necessary, to talk about the marketing lessons we can learn from zombies.
I didn’t think it was a natural combination either, but our friends over at the Centre for Disease Control in the United States of America saw the opportunity. The result? Well, they nearly broke the internet.
Back in 2011, the CDC headed over to Twitter to start preparing for an Emergency Preparedness campaign.
They noticed an increase in engagement when users spoke about zombie-related concerns.
Rather dismissing these questions as the paranoid ramblings of lunatics (although we all know, it could happen!), the CDC decided to give the people what they wanted.
The post is titled “Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse”, and hooks you for from the start:
“There are all kinds of emergencies out there that we can prepare for. Take a zombie apocalypse for example. That’s right, I said z-o-m-b-i-e a-p-o-c-a-l-y-p-s-e. You may laugh now, but when it happens you’ll be happy you read this, and hey, maybe you’ll even learn a thing or two about how to prepare for a real emergency.”
While it is light-hearted and even gives a brief history of zombie lore, the post includes a detailed rundown of the supplies you need in your emergency kit, and tips for how you can develop your own emergency plan with your family.
The response was overwhelming. A typical CDC blog post usually receives between 1000 to 3000 hits each week. Five days after it went live, this post had close to 1 million views.
It crashed the website. Much like the zombie virus itself, the CDC’s message had gone viral.
In 2017, the CDC still uses the zombie theme to convey its emergency preparedness messaging. And, as a result of the 2011 blog post, school teachers requested zombie themed learning materials for their young students.
The CDC was able to reach a new demographic and dramatically expanded their audience.
So what communications strategy lessons can we learn from the CDC’s 101 on the undead?
Listening
The CDC listened to their audience. On Twitter, they picked up several zombie questions, and realised this is what their audience was talking about. By listening, we are able to identify the needs and concerns of our audience, and develop content to help them solve their problems.
Jumping on a popular topic
The timing of the blog post was just gold. Zombies had been making a violent re-entry into mainstream culture.
In another twist, the CDC’s blog post came just a few days before May 21, when Harold Camping predicted the world would end. Remember Camping? Well, even those of us who didn’t any stock in his doomsday prophecy knew about it. The world was ready and receptive for emergency preparedness, just in case.
These days, it’s easy to identify trending news items on Facebook, Twitter and most social networks. Through Google Trends, you’re also able to view the internet’s most popular search times, down to the location of our choice.
Image credit: CDC
