The $1 Billion Marketing Gamble of Quicken Loans

How would you like to combine to of your favorite pursuits into one activity? If you like NCAA basketball March Madness and you like money, Quicken Loans has an opportunity too good to refuse. Quicken's Billion Dollar Bracket Challenge could be a life changer- correctly guess the winner of every NCAA tournament game beginning with Thursday's contests and you win $1 billion- it's just that easy. Of course, it is not just that easy; odds of someone having a 63-0 bracket have been estimated to be 1:9,223,372,036,854,775,808. That is 1 in 9.2 quintillion, or in other words your odds are not very good at all. Before throwing in the towel and passing on Quicken's contest, it is worth noting that 20 prizes of $100,000 each will be awarded to the best "imperfect" brackets.

What is Going On?

Has the marketing team at Quicken Loans lost their collective minds? Why risk being saddled with a $1 billion obligation if someone does beat the odds and win the contest? At the very least, Quicken is on the hook for $2 million in prizes for the imperfect brackets plus marketing costs for the promotion. On the contrary, Quicken is poised to get a high return for its lucrative investment. Here are three reasons why:

• Exposure from publicity - Quicken is partnering with Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffet's firm, on this promotion. Quicken Loans is getting extensive publicity in traditional media channels as well as via sharing on social media.In a highly competitive environment to gain basketball fans' attention, Quicken Loans may have succeeded in rising to top-of-mind when it comes to companies marketing around March Madness.
• Treasure trove of data - The promotion has a cap of 15 million entries, or perhaps better described as 15 million data records. It is not a sarcastic statement- look at the entry form for the Billion Dollar Bracket Challenge to understand what Quicken is up to. One estimate puts the cost to secure a single high-quality lead at anywhere from $50 to $300 each. Quicken stands to secure leads (quality to be determined) for a tiny fraction of the normal cost.

• Build customer relationships - Cynics wonder if Quicken will look to profit from data collection that occurs through the promotion, selling consumer data to other companies. Quicken insists its interest is in identifying prospective customers with whom engagement efforts can be focused. Who knows what percentage of entrants into the Billion Dollar Bracket Challenge will be high quality leads for Quicken Loans, but at least it will have captured information about a sizable batch of people that may have an interest in Quicken's offerings.

Be Creative but be Strategic

Promotions like the Quicken Loans Billion Dollar Bracket Challenge are potentially effective for their novelty and PR value alone. However, a great marketing campaign ultimately connects tactics with marketing strategy. In this case, Quicken may have an ultimate goal of increasing the number of mortgage customers or revenues. Additionally, relationship goals such as number of subscribers to an email newsletter or size of community on social networking sites could be objectives that are intermediate accomplishments on the road to securing a paying customer. Promotions are the fuel that power the marketing engine, helping an organization advance toward its goals.

If you are one of the millions filling out brackets this week, good luck!

Guns and Baseball: Weighing Social Responsibility

Independence Day is a time to reflect on the rights and freedoms that makes the USA unique. Sports are deeply intertwined with American life, so it seemed only fitting that a minor league baseball team would schedule a promotion celebrating one of the most treasured and in recent years, debated rights: the second amendment right to keep and bear arms. In a sector of the sports industry in which promotions seemingly are limited only by the creativity of marketers responsible for hatching them, Second Amendment Night with the Huntsville Stars (AA affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers) does not look out of place. Considering some of the promotions other Southern League teams are doing (Garden Gnome Night with the Jackson Generals and Leprechaun World Championship Wrestling with the Jacksonville Suns), a promotion saluting gun rights is no more out in left field (pun intended) than what other teams have on their promotions schedules.

Exercising Social Responsibility
Why is Second Amendment Night with the Huntsville Stars being talked about? In addition to free admission by showing an NRA membership card, the team would be holding a raffle for three guns in a tie-in with a local gun and pawn shop. It is this link with firearms that drew criticism for the promotion. Horrific images of highly publicized gun crimes in Aurora, Colorado and Newtown, Connecticut are too fresh on the minds of many Americans. While rights afforded by the Second Amendment have not changed, attitudes toward guns have shifted. Thus, a promotion that likely would have drawn zero publicity outside the Huntsville area a few years ago has gained national attention in recent days. The Huntsville Stars will still hold Second Amendment Night tomorrow minus the raffle for guns. The dilemma faced by the Huntsville Stars is an example of how an organization must weigh social responsibility against business decisions.

Do Good to Do Well
Americans have high expectations for businesses to engage in socially responsible behavior. Surveys done at different points in time by Cone Communications have found a large majority of consumers (80%+ depending on the survey) believe corporations should be accountable for producing and communicating commitments to social responsibility. Expectations are that companies demonstrating social responsibility will be rewarded by buyers for their efforts or at the very least companies failing to embrace social responsibility will be punished at the cash register. We will never know if the Huntsville Stars would have received negative reaction to giving away guns since that part of the promotion has been scrapped. The team announced on its website that the raffle would not be held "in the best interest of baseball." That is an often-used statement in the sport, but one that is very fitting in this situation. Social responsibility must be an overarching consideration that guides all decisions in a business.  

Sporting News - Minor League Team Cancels Gun Raffle at 'Second Amendment Night'

Look for the Dark Spots

One of the most heralded adages in marketing is "timing is everything." Opportunities come and go, often unplanned and with a very small window in which to act upon them. Sure, strategic planning is important, but the chance to benefit from the spontaneous must be part of a marketer's mindset. This idea came into play during last night's Super Bowl. Early in the third quarter, play was disrupted by a power outage that lasted 34 minutes. Not only did the unexpected darkness sideline the two teams, the highly scripted TV broadcast was derailed as CBS had to scramble to fill time.

Too bad for CBS that it did not have quick thinkers like some of the brands that immediately took to Twitter to post blackout-themed messages. Four Super Bowl advertisers - Audi, Oreo, Tide, and VW - posted humorous brand messages on Twitter during the blackout. These brands enjoyed additional exposure beyond their televised spots; Audi's message had nearly 10,000 retweets, and Oreo's blackout-themed tweet had more than 14,000 retweets. Not only was the ingenuity of these brands impressive, but their quick response was even more noteworthy given the speed with which these impromptu brand messages were approved internally.

What can we learn from the blackout of Super Bowl XLVII? The takeaway is to look for the dark spots. We have been conditioned to look on the bright side, run to where there is daylight. But, there are times that darkness sets in, creating a gap that can be filled. Audi, Oreo, Tide, and VW walked the line of tastefulness very adeptly - using humor to alleviate the awkwardness of an extended delay in the game. Some brands have not been so tactful at responding to dark spots. For example, J Crew was criticized heavily last fall for running a free shipping promotion with a theme related to Super Storm Sandy. The tactic came off as insensitive to severe weather conditions that millions of people were facing.

In addition to being in good taste, looking for dark spots requires good timing. In a world in which today's headlines are soon old news, good timing of marketing efforts in response to unplanned events is critical. When the recent woes of Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o captured national attention, the Florence (KY) Freedom of the independent Frontier League soon announced a Manti Te'o Girlfriend Bobblehead promotion on May 23. Not only will fans get a bobblehead doll resembling Te'o's girlfriend (actually it will be an empty box), but a section of the stadium will be reserved for fans to sit with their imaginary girlfriends or boyfriends. The team gained exposure for the promotion by announcing it at the peak of the story's media coverage. Impact of the announcement about the promotion would have been diminished had the team waited until closer to the season to announce it.

Timing is everything - for strategically pursuing bright spots and quickly acting upon dark spots.

Ad Age - Marketers Jump on Super Bowl Blackout with Real-Time Twitter Campaigns