Hormel using social media to reach out to Spam fans

After 75 years, Spam is going social. Big time.

Hormel's popular canned meat product is attempting to boost both brand loyalty and sales by marketing in social media with real-time messages through its mascot and spokesman, Sir Can-A-Lot.

A new season for "Dancing With the Stars" began on Monday? There was Sir Can-A-Lot on Tuesday doing (what else?) the cancan.

March Madness is underway? There's Sir Can-A-Lot flying across the screen attempting to do a Michael Jordan-esque slow-motion slam dunk.

The Facebook and Twitter campaign, which also includes Pinterest, is part of Spam's March emphasis on social media under the theme of "Break the Monotony" of home-cooked meals by adding Spam, the largest-selling canned meat product in the United States.

"Spam is as American as apple pie. No one can steal that from us because of Spam's tradition," said Nicole Behne, Hormel's senior product manager for the Spam brand. "We need to continue to innovate."

Some of the Sir Can-A-Lot pieces are event specific, like the Irish jig he danced for a spot that ran around St. Patrick's Day. Some can be used multiple times, such as a "Game of Thrones"-themed post that can reappear throughout the HBO series' third season, which begins at the end of this month.

Spam isn't the only brand using social media to market products. During this year's Super Bowl, when the stadium lights went low during a power outage, Oreo tweeted the message "Power out? No problem. You can still dunk in the dark." That tweet went viral and was praised by the advertising community for its immediacy and humor.

The Spam team meets daily, constantly surfs the Internet to see what topics are generating buzz on any particular day and then social media posts — usually less than 15 seconds in length — are developed. The voice of Sir Can-A-Lot comes from a professional voice-over actor in Los Angeles. The animation work is shipped to a specialty shop in Portland, Ore.

"It's almost like a newsroom," said BBDO executive creative director Brian Kroening of the immediacy of the campaign.

Behne said Hormel researched its Spam customers — both lovers and occasional users — before launching its first national digital advertising campaign.

"We found that those families are more digitally engaged. They're into crafting, they have hobbies, they love to cook," Behne said. "They're social so we can go where they are."

"Social media allows everyone to be social and to have a point of view and interact. You don't have to be an extrovert to be on social media," Johnson said in an interview. "If Spam's target consumer is a user of social media, this should be successful for them."

But social media cannot be totally substituted for conventional print and broadcast media.

"If you're trying to attract my 78-year-old parents, who don't use the Internet, it's not going to be very effective," Johnson said.

Despite all the jokes made about Spam, it remains a very popular staple among U.S. consumers, with a growing international following. Spam is available in 44 countries.

In the United States, according to SymphonyIRI Group, a Chicago-based market research firm, Spam sales were up nearly 7 percent year over year in the 12 months ending Feb. 24.

"Social media allows us to target our message to a narrower base of consumers that have a higher likelihood of buying this product, which makes it more cost effective," she said.

Kroening called the Spam community "a built-in nation of enthusiasts."

"Our question was how could we activate them more?" he said.

BBDO's Kelli Ask, account director for digital integration, said the evolution of social media made the task easier.

"Social media is more mainstream, it's woven into their lives," Ask said. "It's their passion for the brand that makes this work. Our job is to give them content."

"It's all about getting more people into our community," Behne said. "I want to make Sir Can-A-Lot famous."