"Pillock" and Budweiser's missed opportunity

You know what a "pillock" is? 

Full disclosure: I'm married to an Englishwoman, so I have firsthand experience with the word. But millions of Americans who haven't had the pleasure of such familiarity were confronted with it during Dame Helen Mirren's PSA for Budweiser last night. The "notoriously frank and uncensored British lady" offered these words of advice for Super Bowl partiers: 

"Don't be a pillock."

Sensing a brilliant omnichannel move by Budweiser, I scooped up my tablet to run a quick search on the word. Apparently, I wasn't the only one.

Whoa! Google Trends doesn't provide absolute data, but still! Surely, there was a targeted keyword buy that would have led freshly-educated Americans to a microsite extolling the proper usage of the word. Surely, Billy Connelly, John Cleese, Russell Brand, and a stern Judi Dench would offer a lexicon with which to mock would-be drunk drivers.  

No! Not a pence!  And stop calling me "Surely."

The King of Beers is even putting up a mobile site and donating money every time their #giveadamn hashtag gets used, but I only found out by doing research for this post. What a great microsite this would have made! #dangit. 

Which highlights the strategic importance of letting a smart search marketer in the room when planning a big brand campaign. They can help you double down on your wonderful TV spot (and it is, in fact, a wonderful spot from Anomaly). 

Show some love to your performance marketing team this week. 

Rob Pait tries to live by #dontbeapillock. He's the managing director of Three Sixty Digital Talent, an executive search firm dedicated to helping great companies find marketing leaders.