Donna's Promo Talk - Promotional Marketing that Creates Excitement and Gets Results

A Couple of Promotional Contests Make the News

After my last post on The Top 10 Consumer-Generated Content Contests I came across a couple of odd news stories, one associated with a contest I covered in the post and another which I hadn't.

First is regarding the Oscar Mayer Jingle Contest which made the AP news reports. An Arizona State Police officer thought he had a hot one on Interstate 10 when the Oscar Meyer Wienermobile came cruising through Tucson. He ran the Wienermobile's plates briefly though a computer check and found the giant hot dog on wheels was, well, hot. The 27-foot-long, 11-foot-tall vehicle was on the road for the contest promotion in which contestants sing the Oscar Mayer jingle for a shot at appearing in a commercial. Officer Korey Lankow caught up to it and ran its "Y-U-M-M-Y" license plate to make sure it was street legal. The plate came back as stolen.

Lankow pulled over the Wienermobile, and two more officers arrived to help. It turns out someone had indeed stolen the "Y-U-M-M-Y" plate off the Wienermobile in Columbia, MO, back in February. Oscar Mayer company spokeswoman Syd Kinder said they reported the theft to police there and got a replacement plate the same month and notified police in Missouri.

Jeff Kendell, 23, of Salt Lake City, was a passenger, in the Wienermobile, or "hot dogger" in Oscar Mayer lingo. Kendell handed out wiener whistles to the officers, and proceeded to snap pictures. Arizona Highway Patrol spokesman Quent Mehr said Lankow is hearing plenty about it from his buddies. "The officer, he's just like, 'I don't believe this is happening,'" Mehr said. One comment I read on this South Florida Blog said, "It's a good thing it wasn't a Donutmobile...the cops would still be holding it"

The promotional contest that I didn't cover in my post and which made the news on Promo's website is the "How Do You Banana Malibu" for Malibu Rum. The contest invites those of legal drinking age to submit videos interpretations of the classic song Banana Boat, better known as Day-O. Videos where accepted on YouTube which posted the Official Rules that stated that the submissions had to be in by June 13th and the winner would be announced on or about June 30th.

Well it appears they announced the winner on Monday, which was June 25th, and some entrants where upset that they released the winning video early. I really don't understand why anyone was concerned since they couldn't submit anything into the contest after the 13th anyhow. But it just stresses the fact that you just never know and really need to abide by what is written in the "Official Rules" on any promotion.

Anyhow, Penrod Richard, the corporation that owns the brand, apologized for any confusion but was really happy with the results of the promotion. You can watch the winning video below and also visit YouTube to see the other finalists and some 84 that qualified to be posted.The winner will be awarded either a banana grow or $25,000 in cash. What would you choose?

Top Ten Consumer Generated Content Promotional Contests

My first and my second post in this blog were about Dove's Real Beauty campaign which both described two interactive promotional contests that invited consumer generated content. In those I referenced the Doritos Super Bowl Promotion that started us off on this trend earlier this year. Dove quickly followed with a consumer generated ad for their Dove Cream Oil Body Wash which aired during the Oscar's. Since then more and more brands have followed suit and this promotional trend has continued to grow and grow.

I'm not sure if the consumer generated content promotional trend has reached its peak or not, but it may be close. I've been reading one new announcement after another regarding a new promotional online contest that involves having the consumer create and submit something that ties back into that particular brand. These contests select a winner that must provide a degree of individual skill or uniqueness whether it's writing a song, creating a video, uploading a photograph, composing a themed essay, whipping up a creative, new recipe, or showcasing some degree of talent.

Contests are often used to help reinforce the brand or product/service attributes and their positioning in the marketplace while at the same time engaging the customers. Sometimes they make a great fit, other times they're not quite right. I wrote about a Heniz Ketchup Contest a few weeks ago which poses that very question. Over the past two months I've saved many of the online articles from PROMO Magazine that has been reporting on these new promotional contests as they are announced. So, I thought I'd list the Top 10 Consumer Generated Contests here with a quick summary of each. For a more detailed description of each you can click on the link that will open that article from PROMO's website.

1. Doritos Unlock Xbox Contest - They're at it again, but this time with a partner. Consumers are asked to submit their ideas for a video game featuring Doritos for Xbox Live Arcade. Five finalist will be chosen to work with Xbox game designers to create an online version of their game that consumers will vote for online in November. The actual game will then be released in Summer '08.

2. XM Satellite Radio/Current.TV V-CAM Contest - Viewers of Current.TV can submit a TV spot (V-CAM) showing what turns them on about XM. Current.TV features programming created by and for consumers 18-35 who will then have a chance to vote online for what clips they think should be broadcast. Next XM executives will select up to 4 winners whose spots will run in rotation on Current.TV and will each receive $1,000.

3. Sephora and theBalm Design Contest - Consumers can submit designs to represent theBalm's shadyLady eye shadow product which will be sold in Sephora stores. One winning design will be chosen to inspire the design of the product as well as included on the packaging. Consumers can vote for their favorite online and then automatically be entered into a sweepstakes for a chance to win shadyLady products. (I passed this one on to a few of my packaging design buddies).

4. Applebee's Big Burger Showdown - They've teamed up with The Food Network in search of the best burger recipe to add to Applebee's menu. Chef Tyler Florence from the Food Network along with Applebee representatives will choose 4 regional finalists to compete in October at the Burger Showdown in New York City. The winner will receive $5,000 along with the chance for their recipe to join Applebee's menu.

5. Oreo & Milk Jingle Contest - Consumers can submit a video of their group (2-15 people) singing the O-R-E-O jingle or be videotaped singing the jingle at a participating Major League Baseball event. 10 finalists will be posted online where consumers can vote for their favorite. The top 5 will then compete in a live competition in Times Square hosted by Carlson Daly. The final winning group gets $10,000 and their video broadcast on a Times Square super sign.

6. Oscar Myer's Sing the Jingle, Be a Star Contest  - While on the subject of jingles, Oscar Myer has been running this contest for several years, so they've been way ahead of the trend. But this year they have tied-in in with American Idol and are offering the 3 grand prize winners not only the chance to appear in a national TV spot for Oscar Myer next year, but also a trip to the Season 7 finale of American Idol in Los Angeles. Consumers can enter either individually, or for the first time, as a group (up to 5) either online, by mail or audition in person at Weinermobile stops. Consumers will then vote online among the 12 finalists selected by the judges. The final 3 winners will include one soloist in English, one in Spanish, and one group (either language).

7. HomeWood Suites by Hilton Simple Moments Contest - Following in the footsteps of Dove's Real Beauty Campaign, Hilton is also looking for real people to feature in their advertising campaigns. Families are invited to upload a photo online of their favorite "Simple Moment" from a vacation along with a brief written description. Three winning photos will be selected by a panel of judges that best ties in with the "Simple Moments" concept. Times Square is again being utilized as the broadcast vehicle where the three winning images will be shown on a billboard during September and the families will get to travel to NYC to view their photos along with some spending money for the trip. Homewood Suites also plans to incorporate the winning images into their advertising.

8. Hyatt Ultimate Adventure Challenge - Hyatt Hotels is also looking for real families. They want to feature them in webisodes they are producing to help promote some of their key resorts. Participants can register online and submit videos that show their passion for adventure and why their family should be selected to compete in a series of competitions taking place at these resorts. The competitions will be filmed and posted online. Twenty families were chosen to attend a casting call that took place on June 16th. The webisodes will begin appearing on Aug. 15th and the winning family will be selected Sept. 28th.

9. California State Fair Be A Star Contest - Even a state fair has gotten on the consumer generated content bandwagon. They've partnered with MySpace and are inviting consumers to upload a video that could become part of a new TV commercial. "Big Fun" is the theme of this year's fair and the video should show family and friends acting playful, silly, or childlike to show that fun never grows old. The winner will also receive $500 and the new campaign will be announced sometime in July. The Fair takes place Aug. 17 - Sept. 3rd this year.

10. Cherrios' Spoonful of Stories Contest - For the aspiring writers in us all General Mills is expanding its Spoonful of Stories promotion to include a contest. The annual promotion, which gives away children's books in boxes of Cherrios, will also award $5,000 to be best unpublished children's story. Unpublished authors can submit their stories online for a panel of judges to review. Three finalist will be chosen who's stories will appear on the promotion's website. The grand prize winner will have their story evaluated by Simon and Schuster which may chose to publish it.

Well, there you have the Top 10 Consumer Generated Content Promotions for May and June which I could have easily expanded to 15. At this rate, maybe I'll have to make this a monthly post. We'll see. If you have any that you're working on or know of, please pass on the information to me in an email and I'll consider it for the next round or possibly it's own post if it warrants it.

Adidas New Zealand Takes Top Promotion Award at CANNES

The Cannes Lion 2007 awards were given out last week at the 54th Annual International Advertising Festival. The winning ads were awarded Bronze, Silver and Gold Lions and the Grand Prix was awarded to the best of the Gold Lions. During the festival week participants viewed over 25,000 ads from around the world in categories such as film, press, outdoor, interactive, radio, media, direct marketing and sales promotion.

Last year they added the PROMO LION award category for the first time. Their definition of sales promotion is "activity designed to create immediate activation and/or offer for the sale of a product or service. This may be effected using sampling, tie-ins, competitions, events, in-store advertising (POP materials), PR, exhibitions, direct marketing, and other promotional marketing methods in ways that build/create brand equity with consumers and customers, are sustainable and distinctive." They go on to say that the LION will be awarded to "the freshest creative ideas that are intrinsically linked to brands and achieve measurable results." So it does appear that the CANNES LIONS do put most of their emphasis on creative.

With that definition of promotion setting the stage for the PROMO LION, it somewhat answered my question as to why they weren't any interactive promotions, such as online sweepstakes, games or contests, on the list of winners. Cannes did include digital media in the list of "Use of Media" categories, but they had a separate category just for Interactive, so maybe they were entered there. I did look and there were many CYBER LIONS awarded and quite a few that looked a lot like promotions. Nonetheless, it is gratifying to see that on a global scale promotion is defined as building and creating brand equity.

So with that quick review on the Cannes LIONS (I, needed to know) here's what we have in the PROMO Category this year. The Grand Prix was given to "Bonded by Blood" for Adidas/NZRU out of Auckland, New Zealand. The entry was for a ruby shirt which fell under the "Clothing/Footwear and Accessories Category.

Adidas's objective was to create an emotional bond between the All Blacks Rugby squad and their fans while growing sales of All Blacks apparel by 15%. For the past several years they have produced a commemorative poster that announced the squad. This year they not only created a limited-edition poster that featured the players, but also included their DNA. Each of the 40 players donated some of their own blood which was embedded into the paper during the printing process. 8,000 posters were made available to those fans that purchased an All Blacks jersey. Each poster came with a certificate of authentication and the "Making Of" was shown in stores on plasma screens and on a promotional website which you can view here.

All 8,000 posters sold out and sales of Adidas All Blacks apparel exceeded the goal at a 24% increase. The promotion received many media mentions on TV as well as in print. It goes to show that those fans down under are passionate about their teams. I guess I'm not the target audience for this so I don't quite get it, but yes it is a highly creative idea. The agency that developed the campaign was TBWA/Whybin from Auckland and the funny part is the Executive Creative Director's name is Andy Blood. He told the NZ Creative Blog "I am shocked, stunned, and completely mind blown" about winning the Grand Prix.

We only had one US PROMO LION winner, "That Girl Emily" for Court TV which won the Best Integrated Promotional Campaign Category. This promotion also was a Reggie finalist this year and I recognized it since I remember voting on it as a judge for PMA's Reggie Awards. Deep Focus was the agency that entered at Cannes and The GEM Group is listed as the Reggie Award agency. The challenge here was to create a buzz around the launch of a new TV series for Court TV, Parco PI.

They created "Woman Scorned" billboards which played on the adulterous content of Parco PI and were supposedly purchased by Emily who was trying to get back at her cheating husband. Social media was the channel of choice to further the exposure and buzz. So even before the billboards were placed, the "That Girl Emily" blog was started which told the story from Emily's point of view about her cheating husband, Stephen, and the "fourteen days of wrath" she would enact upon him.

The fictitious Emily got over a million hits to her blog and was seen in viral videos tossing out Stephen's belongs onto the street. The campaign stressed the payoff of hiring a private detective like Parco PI. It received extensive media coverage and became a model for viral marketing. You can see the surveillance video on PMA's website.

It's getting harder and harder to put our marketing efforts into specific categories as the lines are becoming more and more blurred. Promotional marketing today is being implemented in all types of media...Online, TV, Radio, Outdoor, Print. So what happens is that promotion doesn't always get the credit it really deserves. But recognition is increasing and the industry continues to grow so it must be doing its job - increasing sales and building brands.

Political Marketers Launch First Interactive Promotion

Political marketing has really started to embrace the digital world and the presidential candidates are using the Internet for both fund raising efforts as well as to get their voices heard. Many seem however to still be using the old push strategy by sending out email blasts, writing in their blogs and keeping their websites up to date on all the latest news about themselves. The campaigns are just really starting to get underway, so we should be in for quite a ride between now and November '08.

I've been keeping an eye on what our New York Senator Hillary Clinton has been up do. Hillary is probably today's most written about politician. In fact I just read an article that announced a couple of new books just published about her which they say now you could probably fill up a entire bookstore just with Hillary books. When it comes to Hillary people seem to either really love her or really dislike her. There's not many in between. So, whatever camp you may be in, you have to admit she's a pretty fascinating and determined woman.

So, why am I writing about Hillary in a promotional marketing blog? Well, Hillary just completed the first ever interactive promotion for a political campaign. She ran an online contest which asked people to vote on a campaign theme song for her. She first announced this online song contest with two web videos which drew over a million views on YouTube and the campaign's website. More than 200,000 votes were cast online and 25,000 wrote in to cast their own song choices.

Then on Tuesday the Hillary team announced what this most anticipated winning theme song was. However, the news here really wasn't about the winning song, but more about the web video that  announced the winner of the contest. If you haven't seen it yet watch it here before you read any further.

This ingenious web video features Hillary spoofing the Sopranos series finale as the "boss" with a guest appearance from Bill Clinton in the supporting role as the spouse. I laughed out loud when I saw this and couldn't believe how closely they matched the drama of the Sopranos finale while still tieing in to the song contest. You can read the post I created on the Sopranos finale here.

Hillary sits at the diner table going through a juke box and you see her flipping through the song titles which are the sames names as the finalist songs that were in the contest. But then you start to hear in the background the song from Journey, Don't Stop Believin, which was part of the send up to the Sopranos, but wasn't in the song contest. Then you start to see all the similarities, from Johhny Sack glaring at Hillary from the counter as he gets up to walk by the table, to what we are told is Chelsea parallel parking the car outside. Bill even complains that Hillary didn't order onion rings for the table, but carrot sticks instead!

More than half a million people visited the campaign's website yesterday to view the video which surpassed the number of visitors that came to the site the day Hillary announced her candidacy. "We are excited by the tremendous response we've seen online for our song contest," said Clinton Campaign Internet Director Peter Daou. "Hillary has charted a fresh course online, using the Internet in creative ways to engage people and bring new voters into the process."

The blogs and newspapers are calling the video "brilliant" and "really cool". The campaign's website has the Hillary Hub where you can find all the links. I can't wait to see what they'll do next. It's going to be hard to top this one. By the way if you're wondering, the winner from the online song contest is Celine Dion, "You and I". It wasn't the one I voted for, and as Bill said in the video, he was rooting for Smash Mouth. Oh well.

Lip-Sticking Sweepstakes: Blogs and Interactive Promotions

A colleague and friend of mine, Yvonne DiVita, a professional writer and publisher, writes a blog called Lip-Sticking, Smart Marketing to Women Online. Yvonne has been my inspiration behind Donna's Promo Talk. Her and her partner, Tom Collins, through their business, WME Blogs, are my blogging expert team and have been instrumental in both getting this blog off the ground and helping it grow.

Yesterday I had a chance to visit Lip-Sticking and was deeply moved by Yvonne's post in honor of Father's Day, "The Dad Effect". While my Father's Day post focuses on interactive promotions with a little bit of a personal story, it doesn't connect with your emotions as Yvonne's does. I am constantly moved by her writing and how she can make you feel that you're talking to her in her living room. The focus of Yvonne's blog is to change the way women are marketed to online, so it's definitely a place for us marketers to visit regularly. Please check it out. Lip-sticking has made it to the top of Seth Godin's z-list before, although I'm not sure of it's ranking today.

So in return for being my "Blogging Experts" I have become Yvonne and Tom's "Promotions Expert". Yvonne really wanted to be the first to do an interactive promotions in her blog, so this month we launched the Lip-Sticking Sweepstakes. Yvonne has built quite a network by connecting and making friends with many other bloggers so she'll be promoting a different blogger each month by including their products as the monthly prize giveaway. This month readers can enter the sweepstakes for a chance to win Blue Moon Bliss Bath & Body Products.

Interactive promotions, such as sweepstakes, games and contests, are one of the most powerful ways to motivate interaction online. So by including these fun tools in a blog we feel they can create interest, help to start relationships and meet new people, and then convert them into registered prospects that could start a dialog for a permission-based, data-driven relationship.

"Yes, there are bloggers who are not in it for the 'money'"...says Yvonne "but, because the nature of blogs is to create community, it seems natural to use interactive promotions to attract new visitors and to show regular visitors a 'good time'. Plus, those of us who want to take advantage of this outstanding online tool to build a new business for ourselves, or to monetize a hobby - the better to save for that Disney cruise or trip to Hawaii - can do so...quickly and easily. For those who aren't looking to conduct business or sell anything, you can still play! Sometimes, it's just for fun!"

So, I am now in the business of developing and managing interactive promotions for blogs. We've figured out an easy and affordable way for bloggers to get a promotion up and running on their blog quickly. Through my business, DDC Marketing Group, we are offering a "Promotional Sweepstakes Blog" Solutions Package. This package basically includes consultation and advice on the overall promotional concept, development of the official rules, creation of the entry form, management of the database, and the drawing of the winner(s). Other services can be added on to this such as prize notification and fulfillment if requested. I haven't even added these services to my website yet. Blog first, website next.

For brands it's a great opportunity to engage customers through a social media outlet that's more personal and interactive than a web site and provides the opportunity to initiate that one-to-one dialog with a permission-based program that opens a direct line of communication with the perspective customer.  And if help is needed to launch and maintain a blog, well my friends over at WME Blogs can help with that as well. Visit Scratchings & Sniflings, a pet blog sponsored by Purina and written by Yvonne. We launched a "Cute Cat Video Contest" there that needs some more submissions if you have any cute cats!

So, we'll let you know how this starts to shake out. We'll be going to the BlogHer Conference at the end of July that's taking place in Chicago and we'll be talking to many other women bloggers and some brand people about this opportunity. In the meantime if you or anyone is interested in knowing more, please contact me. 

Dockers and Shutterfly Each Celebrate Dads with Interactive Promotions

Happy Father's Day to all you Dads. In honor of Father's I wanted to write about a couple of interactive promotions that tie very nicely with today's holiday.

First is a brand that I have had the privilege of working on a couple of years ago, Dockers, for a back-to-school promotion. Today Dockers is celebrating Dads with a huge interactive promotion entitled DADS WALL OF FAME. At 22 stories high it is the World's Largest Tribute to Dads. They are inviting visitors to their website to post a photo and tribute of their Dad which will be included in the wall online as well as live in New York's Times Square today. By including their Dad's email address this interactive promotion will automatically then send Dad an email inviting him to see his tribute online.

“The Dockers brand dresses more fathers in the U.S. than any other men’s clothing brand, so we are extremely excited to lead the world’s largest effort to tell him, ‘thanks dad!’” said Sherri Phillips, Vice President Dockers Brand Marketing. “We encourage everyone to celebrate Father’s Day by logging onto www.dockers.com/dad and posting a photo and personal message to their father.”    

For every tribute posted Dockers will donate a $1.00 (up to $50,000) to the National Prostrate Cancer Coalition. "We are honored to be working with the Dockers® brand to bring attention to this deadly disease,” said NPCC CEO Richard N. Atkins, M.D. “Every dollar we raise will go toward education and research programs to help more people learn about prevention, early detection and treatment of prostate cancer.”

Visitors can also view the Reuters sign webcam which will be live all day today and check to see when their tribute is up. Everyone who posts also gets a promotional offer for a discount to shop online at Dockers.com which of course a Father's Day Sale is in progress.

I made a tribute for my husband, Kevin, who is the father of our two daughters, now both teenagers. The process to post went easy, but when I tried to view the webcam it wasn't working. Must be down just temporarily. I wanted to make a tribute for my Dad, but he and my mom are still part of that group of seniors that are not online, so he wouldn't see it. They tried it once, back before we had high-speed Internet access, and they didn't like it tying up their phone line or the fact that they got too many Viagra messages. SPAM is still an issue, but we're going try to get them back on board again soon.

Another interactive Father's Day promotion I'll highlight quickly is the SUPER DAD Sweepstakes from Shutterfly. This is an online instant-win game which visitors to the site register to have the chance to play and "Celebrate Dad". If they match all three pictures on a virtual camera screen they win a Panasonic digital camera and then automatically are entered in the grand prize sweepstakes for a chance to win a $10,000 family vacation. They can come back and play once a day everyday for 40 days up until June 30th when the promotion ends. Shutterfly is awarding one prize per day which the computer will randomly pick a winner. ePrize is managing this instant-win and sweepstakes promotion for Shutterfly.

So again Happy Father's Day to my Dad and to all the fathers of the world. I know that if my Dad had one wish today it would be for my Mom to totally beat the cancer that invaded her body earlier this year. She's one of the lucky ones though that because of my Dad insisting she see a doctor right away, they found it early. It appears that they have removed all the cancer from her breast and she's now finishing up radiation treatments and will start on medication next. Thank you Dad, I believe you saved her life and what could be more precious than that.

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer and Gold's Gym Interactive Promotion

As we continue down the path of summer movie releases this season I thought I'd also continue my coverage of some of the more interesting interactive promotions associated with them. Today's film release includes the new adventures of our Fantastic Four heroes called: Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Twentieth Century Fox has teamed up with Gold's Gym to promote the release with an interactive promotion that includes a sweepstakes and an innovative online "Fantastic Four" promotional micro site.

Visitors to the site can enter the sweepstakes for a chance to win one of four Fantastic vacations each themed to one of the Fantastic Four's super powers....Mr. Fantastic can stretch his legs on the miracle mile, expand his mind and extend his view in Chicago; The Invisible Woman gets to have her worries disappear on the beaches of Miami; The Human Torch can check out the smokin' volcanoes in Hawaii and The Thing can break the mold by tackling a mountain adventure in Colorado. Pretty creative trip prize packages that all include a $500 Visa Gift Card for some spending money.

As experts in the fitness area, Gold's Gym also includes on the promotional micro site 4 fantastic fitness workouts from expert trainers that cater to individual fitness goals such as increasing muscle agility and achieving a firm body. They've also included an interview with Ramona Braganza who helped train the Fantastic Four cast in which she gives insights into their fitness routines, diets, and lifestyles. And of course, the site also offers Fantastic Four wallpaper downloads and icons. NMA Entertainment and Marketing created and negotiated the promotion which launched on May 29th.

The film is the second installment of the adventures of these comic book characters as they face a new challenge, the Rise of the Silver Surfer who comes to earth to prepare for it's destruction.  Reed (Mr. Fantastic), Sue (Invisible Woman), Johnny (Human Torch) and Ben (The Thing) must unravel the mystery behind of the Silver Surfer while also confronting the return of their mortal enemy, Dr. Doom. It's kinda hard to take a surfer dude who has cosmic powers and flies through the universe on his surfboard too seriously and I hear he's not all that bad. First reviews on the movies says it fun and entertaining and that they don't take themselves too seriously.

There's also a Fantastic Four MYSPACE Profile that's been created for the film. Here visitors can enter the Fantastic Four Friends Contest to win "Cool Prizes for you and your Top 4 Friends". This promotion is sponsored by MYSPACE and Fox and to enter the user must skin their profile with an animated Fantastic Four skin and add it to their profile as a friend and submit it via the Fantastic Four page. This contest is really a sweepstakes since the winners will be chosen by a random drawing. Grand Prize is a $1,000 cash, a iPod Nano, a year's membership to a Gold's Gym plus $100 gift certificate for Goldsgear.com, a 4-pack of XBOX 360 games including the new one on this film, a Fantastic Four complete toy set from Hasbro and also from Quicksilver a wetsuit, Silver Surfer board shorts and $100 gift certificate.

Interactive promotions that include sweepstakes and contests such as these are now a big part of what entertainment marketing is all about. I'll continue to report on the unique ones as the summer film releases continue.

Heineken Sponsors Latin Music Awards with Two Online Sweepstakes

Well now that we've all calmed down a bit from the shock of the Sopranos non-ending finale we can all continue on with our lives. Last week I was posting on three campaigns done last year by Ryan Partnership who took the place as PROMO Magazine's Agency of The Year. All three for Campbell Soup, Dove and Heineken Light included interactive marketing as a dominate focus in their promotional campaigns. I had mentioned in the last post on this subject that I'd get back to writing about a couple of promotions for Heineken that I was involved with this past year. So  here they are...

I've been working with The Vidal Partnership, a full-service marketing communications agency that is also the largest independent Hispanic marketing agency in the country. In an earlier post I highlighted The Copa America Instant Win Game sweepstakes promotion for Wendy's that is currently going on. Another one of their clients is Heineken which they hired me to handle the sweepstakes administration for two of their promotions this past year. Music plays a big role in the lives of Hispanics and Heineken is one of their top beer brands of choice. So Heineken has been one of the major sponsors of both the Latin GRAMMY Awards and the Billboard Latin Music Awards.

Last Fall Heineken drove traffic to their website by inviting visitors to enter the online sweepstakes for a chance to win a trip to the Latin GRAMMY Awards. They were being held in New York City for the first time at Madison Square Garden and the winner got to spend a 3 day weekend in NY to attend the awards ceremony along with a VIP pass to the official After Party.

I conducted the drawing and managed the grand prize fulfillment for the winner, Joseph Menard, who was traveling from Vermont. He was so thrilled with the prize and I saved the email he sent me after he returned: "WOW! Everything was SUPER GREAT!!!  The Grammys and the parties were the best time I've had in a long time. Everyone was so very nice. I was in the crowd outside the Today Show and Al Roker spoke to me.  Thank you and please thank the sponsor for me and everyone involved for the great time I had on my trip."

I just love this part of my job in awarding prizes, especially trips and hearing back from the winners on how much they enjoyed themselves. Heineken did a similar sweepstakes promotion as sponsor of the Billboard Latin Music Awards and again drove people to their website to enter for a chance to win a trip for two to Miami for 4 days to attend the awards ceremony along with other associated events.

I drew Lupo Quinonez from New Jersey as the lucky grand prize winner for this sweepstakes who got to travel to Miami with his girlfriend at the end of last April. They stayed at the beautiful Lowes Hotel in South Beach and attend all the events Heineken had arranged for them. Lupo had such a good time that we became email friends and he still corresponds with me wanting to know what promotions I'm working on next. He wrote me a thank you card that said "I just wanted to say thanks for all. You and everyone from Heineken USA were really nice. We had a great time." and he sent some photos along with the card which I've included one here.

I'm looking forward to working with The Vidal Partnership and Heineken soon on the next promotions they develop for both these sponsorships. It was just announced last week that The 8th Annual Latin GRAMMY Awards will be taking place in Las Vegas this year at Mandalay Bay on November 8th. So it should be a really fun grand prize trip to fulfill. It just goes to prove that finding sponsorships that align with your brand and promoting them through interactive promotions such as sweepstakes is a great way to connect with your target audiences.

Sopranos is Interactive Marketing at it Finest

What everyone seems to be talking about this morning, and which I can't get out of my head, is the Sopranos finale that was on HBO last night. If you Tivoed it and haven't watched it yet, then you may not want to read this post or anything else online today. I wasn't planning on writing about the Sopranos, but then I read this post, Sopranos Finale Crashes HBO Web Site in Outrage, by the editor of Adotas, Jason Jaramillo, and it just got me thinking about it again and adding a comment. Jason says the following:

"While the finale is the story here, the interesting point is that the ongoing convergence of television and online media have reached new levels. Fans absorb the content of a show like the Sopranos on one medium and then immediately utilize the web as their voice to express points of view. Audiences see the web and television as symbiotic and the response to the Sopranos show simply reinforces how the two are becoming very interdependent."

Now I wrote a post the day after the first episode of the final season began about HBO's interactive promotion, Whack-A-Soprano Instant Win Game that ePrize developed for them. So, I guess it's fitting for me to write about the Sopranos again the day after the final episode. I am after all, like the rest of my family, huge Sopranos fans.

I'm thinking of now maybe developing a new interactive promotion for all of us Sopranos fans called  "Whack David Chase". We could use the same instant-win game as HBO developed where we get chances to hit him on the head with a virtual mallet. Wouldn't that be fun?  Or we could start a consumer generated promotional contest in which we can submit essays or maybe videos of how we interrupt the last seconds of the episode should have been. The judges would select a winner who could win the chance to have their episode of the ending broadcast on HBO, and then meet David Chase to give him all a piece of our minds.

Anyhow, as I said in my comment to Adotas, I too like so many others last night had my heart racing like crazy thinking that Tony and his wife and kids were all gonna get whacked sitting in a diner listening to Journey no less!. Then when the screen went black with no sound, I jumped up looking for my remote thinking my high definition cable channel went out while yelling some obscenities at the same time! I then went online to check a blog from NJ.com by Alan Sepinwall that I had been reading during the season to find out if I had missed a shooting massacre. Instead I found out that everyone else was just as upset as I was and I apparently was one of the many thousands that went from TV to Online.

So, you just really gotta give David Chase credit for driving both our emotions and our actions. He sure knows exactly how to do what all of us promotional marketers are trying to do everyday...hit that emotional cord and get someone to act. It is a case of interactive marketing at it's finest. Thank you David!

PROMO 100: Henieken Light's Promotional Launch is Irresistible

Part of Promo Magazine naming Ryan Partnership the PROMO 100 Agency of the Year was the promotional campaign they created in launching  Heineken's Premium Light brand last year. At the time Ryan didn't have their own experiential marketing staff, so they originally hired an outside firm to help them do on-premise sampling and launch parties. This wasn't very efficient so it lead to Ryan forming it's own experiential marketing agency, Stage. They convinced Heineken USA that this new agency could handle the account by turning their conference room into a bar serving up what else, but Heineken Light to the clients.

The launch also consisted of giving the brand it's own highly interactive consumer website, HeinekenLight.com. This site nows plays off the new tagline introduced earlier this year "Irresistible" where visitors are first greeted by a very refreshing bottle of beer. They can learn about the brewing process and the brand's history. They can experience the beer by playing the "Taste the Difference" interactive game where they have to focus on the details of two very similar photos. They can download something irresistible such as kaladiscope screensavers and images of the unique bottle design. There are also Heineken light interactive invitations that they can use to "invite some friends over". Plus they can see the national advertising campaign and find out where the next events will be held.

To tie in with the current campaign, Ryan created Mission Irresistible, which included sexy women in trench coats and fedoras handing out samples of Heineken Light. The women took photos and collected e-mail addresses of the tasters then e-mailed the pictures along with a link back to the website to those who opted in.

Heineken ran this TV ad which includes the music by the Pussy Cat Dolls which I found on YouTube and included it here. Their latest ad featured on their website is set to the song "Beautiful", sung by Snoop Dogg and Pharell Williams. The most recent ad was created by Berlin Cameron United after an agency review. "What we've been trying to do strategically is introduce the market to the glamorous side of beer" said client brand manager Andy Glaser. "Building off our Dontcha spot we've tapped into a contemporary branding ethos. People want great product, great design and great taste".

I got the privilege to work on two Heineken promotions this past year that were both associated with two of their corporate sponsorships in which I managed the sweepstakes fulfillment portion. I'll save this and follow up with more about these sweepstakes promotions in one of my posts for next week. For now I just wanted to congratulate Ryan Partnership again for their great work and in being named "Agency of the Year".