MySpace You Tube "Smash-Up" Promotion
09/07/2006
I've been MIA the last few days from Diva Marketing. Sorry but I've been in another country with Diva blogger Marianne Richmond .. or so it seemed to me. No girlfriend, it wasn't a (well deserved) holiday on the beach with drinks that have cute little umbrellas. We were playing and working in MySpace and YouTube. Which believe me .. is a whole new world.
Every once in awhile you work with people who are willing to step off the mundane path and blaze a new trail. Donna Lyons-Miller, founder and CEO of GourmetStation, is one such amazing women.
Yesterday we took a deep breath and launched an innovative promotion - Get Out Of The Dog House Video Campaign. It's lots of social media / Web 2.0 interwoven with traditional strategies and with a touch of heart - donations to the Borzoi (Russian Wolfhound) Rescue Foundation.
At Donna's suggestion Marianne and I will be blogging the progress on Diva Marketing Blog and on Resonance Partnership. We hope to share some of the lessons we've learned and will learn along the way. We also invite and encourage your suggestions, feedback and of course participation. It's been a bit of a rocky road .. MySpace makes Typepad look like Web 10.0 in terms of page development so we will be tweaking as the campaign progresses.
So how's it coming along? In under 24-hours, with no promotion - 2 orders Zip videos.
Part 1 The BackStory - Get Out Of The Dog House Campaign
A few months ago Donna & I caught up for brunch at Food 101, a great restaurant in Atlanta's Morningside neighborhood. Donna was looking for a Big Idea, on a limited budget of course (!), that would help lift awareness of the GourmetStation.
Light bulb moment! A viral video contest would be cool. Off I went to develop a fun little project that was to morph into motion art (kinetic) with mountains of moving pieces. Lucky me to have Marianne to partner with on this project.
Sidebar: What is one ROI from blogging? Relationships that lead to friendships and even business partnerships.
We're fondly calling this a Smash-Up Promotional Strategy because it is built on a smash-up of a number of social media tactics: MySpace, YouTube, viral, word of mouth; as well as, traditional marketing tactics: PR, couponing and partner relations. Why include traditional? Because not all your customers are online all the time.
Objectives
- Motivate consumer interest in GourmetStation
- To reinforce GourmetStation’s positioning as a “gifting solution" to current customers
- Introduce GourmetStation’s positioning as a “gifting solution” to a new target audience
Goals
- Create a viral video contest that engages the target audience in a fun, interact manner
- Capitalizes on key consumer trends: user generated content, video, reality entertainment, and online social networks
- To increase brand awareness and interest about GourmetStation within the existing target demographics
- To evaluate the potential of a younger target group to generate incremental sales.
From the heart - We are proud to partner with the Borzoi Rescue Foundation. Borzoi's are very special to Donna who is involved with the rescue of these sweet dogs. GourmetStation will donate $10 to the Foundation for every Get Out Of The Dog House coupon that is redeemed through 12-31-06.
Promotional Elements
- MySpace
- YouTube (to house contest videos)
- Relationship strategies
- Websites and video directories
- Traditional and online public relations
- eMail campaign
- GourmetStation website
- GourmetStation extend product line
- GourmetStation couponsof various levels
Viral Marketing - There are cute little buttons
And More Viral Tactics - Tell A Friend eMail, down loadable music, and the sweetest photo slideshows of Borzoi rescue dogs, dogs that need a home and a special Favorite Pooch slideshow. Send me a jpeg of your dog and I'll add it to the show getoutofthedoghousepics@gmail.com. Yes, of course little Maxie is included!
MySpace Friends - Another unique twist in this kinetic strategy - building relationships with comedians on and off MySpace. It's not unusual for companies to tap into the music community on MySpace. However, the comedy community has been overlooked .. until now. It seemed like a natural extension of our MySpace strategy. The Get Out Of The Dog House teaser videos were made by comedian Jed Fearson and TruGritz's Jen Gordon. They're also going to introduce us to their MySpace "Friends." Very cool cha cha cha!
Looking forward to seeing Your video of How You Got Into The Dog House and How You Got Out Of The Dog House! Good luck .. hope you win the Grand Prize - 12-months of GourmetStation Dinner of The Month valued at over $1000.
Next Challenge: Find and install the code for a MySpace metrics tracker and fix broken links!
