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

Happy New Year - Top Searches of 2008

Well it's almost New Year's Eve and I wanted to write a quick post to wish everyone a wonderful and safe evening whatever your plans may be. We're staying at home tonight and have a nice dinner on the menu. My daughter will be having friends over later, so I'm enjoying the peace and quiet now with just me and my dog, Shadow. So I cracked open a Corona, put on some old CD's on the stereo and sat down at the computer.

So as 2008 comes to a close I wanted to reflect on the year and just thank all my readers. I never have gotten much conversation going back and forth on this blog, but I do have a fairly consistent subscriber base and when I do a post my page views to go up. So I'm assuming that my words are not going unread. So thank you for stopping by and please feel free to leave a comment at any time in the future.

At this time of year it's always interesting to read the many opinions and forecasts that people have for the new year. Some are fairly safe to predict, others, who knows? Yesterday the ClickZ Network ran this article - The Year in Search: A 2008 Review that I found interesting. It's amazing how much we can tell about ourselves just by reviewing the words we search for online. Here's a few of the highlights:

In the U.S. the words that were the fastest rising were Obama, Facebook, ATT, iPhone and YouTube. One of the words is our new President, the other all relate to online/mobile communications. However, on a global level Sarah Palin came up #1. I didn't realize she gathered such an interest worldwide.

Top political campaign buzzwords were, Joe the Plumber, Jeremy Wright, Maverick, William Ayers and Bridge to Nowhere. Most of these can lead us back to Ms. Palin.

What I find heard to believe is that Brittney Spears is still at the top coming in as the #1 search on Yahoo. She beat out Obama. However, the most influential woman searched wasn't Brittney, or Sarah Palin or Hillary Clinton for that matter, although Sarah and Hillary came in #2 and #4 respectively. It was Angelina Jolie!

And based on the keywords I've mentioned, what do you think the #1 Brand is? ....Apple came in on top!

Donna's Promo Talk didn't make the top blog list, Perez Hilton beat us out! I guess we love our celebrities.

Anyhow, I wish us all a happy and healthy New Year full of good friends and family and hope we can all find some prosperity and success in the year ahead.

Wish Happy New Year

Wish Happy New Year
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Christmas Weekend at the Movies

Well I hope everyone had a nice Christmas. I love the days after Christmas because they usually provide us with some extra time to catch up around the house and just relax a bit. We got a chance to watch some DVD's as a family, which was wonderful, and then ventured out yesterday to see one of the many great movies that hit the theaters on Christmas Day.

After doing some online research we decided to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button which I would highly recommend. It's one of those epic movies that spans a whole lifetime and involves both joy and heartache. I thought Brad Pitt was very good, although my husband and daughter felt he could of done more with the part (and my daughter is the one currently studying drama at NYU). However she and I did agree that we loved watching Cate Blanchett and were surprised to learn she didn't get a Golden Globe nomination for this role.

I was looking on the movie's official site and it doesn't appear to have any entertainment marketing partners. I guess it really doesn't need any. I was trying to think of a brand that may be a good fit and quite honestly I couldn't.

Now the movie Marley & Me staring Jennifer Aniston won at the box office and became the highest grossing film ever to open on Christmas Day. Brad Pitt's Benjamin came in right behind it. The WD-40 Co. partnered with Fox Films for “Marley & Me" to promote the company’s new Spot Shot, an instant carpet stain and odor eliminator marketed as environmentally friendly. Now that's a good marketing match.

“’Marley & Me’ stood out [because] it complemented our target audience and was coming out around the holiday timing, which was the same timing as our distribution in the marketplace,” Patricia Olsem, the marketing director at WD-40 said. “During the holidays, there is a big uptick in pet purchases and adoption, and this product does remove pet stains.” 

Their promotional campaign revolves around a consumer offer to save $5 on a ticket to the movie with the purchase of Spot Shot. At SpotShot.com the $5 offer is promoted and links to this microsite where visitors can learn about the product and watch a movie trailer. National grocery stores have various P-O-P promoting the offer and consumers who buy the product get a coupon at checkout that tells them where to redeem the offer.

So, we most likely will make it to another movie before the holiday week is over. Any recommendations on which one to see next are welcome.

Wintry Weekend Helps to Boost Holiday Online Sales

Well, we made it back from our trip to South Carolina last night which we took in order to visit my parents and celebrate Christmas a little early with them as well as with my sister, brother and their families. We had a beautiful non-eventful day driving home yesterday where much of the East Coast was sunny, cold but sunny.

My sister Fran did get a chance to create a ElfYourself.com movie of her and her family after learning from my post about the updates they made to this year's most popular viral marketing campaign. I've promised to make some and share them over the holiday. I also have to finish making our 2009 photo calendars. I started this traditional three years ago and now my family expects to receive Donna's photo calendar as a gift. I'm just running a little behind this year, they'll be done by the first of January!

This morning I've been getting caught up with my email and newsletters. Here's some recent news comScore released today that is somewhat on the positive side. This past weekend generated $677 million in online spending, nearly double that of the weekend closest to Christmas last year. They claim it was due to the wintry, snowy weather that a good portion of the nation experienced. (Sorry, but it was 75 degrees and sunny in Myrtle Beach on Saturday). Here's what they said:

“Because of the way the shopping days fall this year with five fewer days between Thanksgiving and Christmas, there is no perfect adjusted-day comparison to make at this point in the season,” said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. “However, online spending over the most recent weekend was clearly substantially heavier than the corresponding weekend nearest Christmas last year, which suggests that many consumers opted for the cozier confines of online shopping rather than having to brave the severe cold and snowstorms affecting much of the northern half of the country. It’s also clear that this year’s compressed shopping season has resulted in some consumers buying online later than they did a year ago. A positive late-season boost for online retail perhaps, but it’s ultimately not going to do much to make up for the significantly shorter shopping season this year.”

Here's a chart that represents this year's holiday online retail sales: 

So, while the overall numbers are still down for this year, this weekend did come as somewhat of an unexpected gift.

Anyhow, I just want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah or however you chose to celebrate the time of the year. It is a time to spend with family and reflect on the many things that we do have to be grateful for. Thank you for sharing some of your time here and I hope to be part of your 2009 days.

This Holiday's ElfYourself.Com 3.0 Partners with JibJab

So far my overview of this holiday's top promotions have mainly covered viral marketing programs that have consisted of uploading photos of friends, family, co-workers and pets and having fun sharing them. I recently got some updates on the holiday viral promotion that started it all, Office Max's ElfYourself.com, so now I felt it was time to include this campaign.

I've written several posts over the past year about ElfYourself.com which was developed two years ago during the 2006 holiday season by digital marketing agency EVB and then really took off during the 2007 season. It has now become an annual holiday tradition where millions of people worldwide visit the holiday site to turn themselves, family, friends and pets into hilarious dancing elves.

New this year at ElfYourself.com 3.0, users can upload up to five photos and select one of four holiday dances – Classic, Disco, Charleston or Country. The site generates a personalized movie staring your photos of dancing elves that users can send as holiday eCards, “QuickPost” to social media sites, or share with friends via a new Facebook app. Take a look at a few sample ElfYourself movies here:

Disco Elves    Country Elves

The Disco Elves movie feature's OfficeMax’s Bob Thacker and Ryan Vero and JibJab’s Gregg and Evan Spiridellis.

Also new this year in addition to more elves and new dances is the option to purchase a digital download of your movie so you can keep it forever at a cost of $4.99. You can also apply your ElfYourself image to merchandise and purchase custom photo gifts such as coffee mugs, mouse pads, ornaments and playing cards. So Office Max is now making a profit directly from these little guys, which they hadn't been before. OfficeMax also partnered with JibJab for this year's campaign to add many of the new entertaining features and capabilities.

Here are the campaign goals that they set for this year:

• Greater brand association
• Higher user-retention
• Stronger social media presence

Here are some of the stats so far on how the campaign is doing this year (11/21 - 12/15):

• Total elves created: 57,000,000
• Average number of ElfYourself movies created per user: 4.5 movies
• Average time on site: 15 minutes
• Blog post on ElfYourself (11/08 - 12/08 - 11,088 mentions)

Well I guess this blog post adds to that number. 

Anyhow, it's a fun promotion. We had someone at my office make one of the four of us managers and passed it around. This weekend I'm heading down to Myrtle Beach again to see my family and we'll just have to make one or two of these for a good laugh to have together.

Enjoy and if we don't have a chance to touch base again soon, I wish you a very Merry Christmas.

Purina's Holiday Critter Carols Gets The Pets Viral

My good friend Yvonne DiVita who is the founder of Lipsticking.com, which I am honored to be a guest blogger, also writes a blog for Purina called Scratching and Sniffings. Yvonne brought to my attention on this post she wrote today about this holiday promotion that Purina is doing on their PetCentric site. Since I've written a few posts this holiday season on some fun holiday viral marketing campaigns, how could I ignore one that has gone to the dogs (and cats too).

Yvonne invited me to hop on over to PetCentric to create a Critter Carol. Once there you can create a pet holiday greeting e-card and let your dog or cat wish your family and friends a happy holiday season! All you need to do is upload a photo of your pet to their background, choose a holiday song, and let 'em sing, let 'em sing, let 'em sing!

So I uploaded a photo of my dog, Shadow, that I took and used on my holiday photo greeting card last year and I made Shadow sing, sing, sing. He's accompanied by two other dogs that Purina supplied.

PetCentric gives you the option to embed your greeting, which I have here, put in on your Facebook page, which I have as well, and email it to your friends. We just can't seem to get enough of these viral holiday promotions this year. So check it out and enjoy! Thanks Yvonne for letting us know about this fun promotion!

This Season's Holiday Viral Marketing Hit: Sephora's Mistletoe MakeOver

Today's was my day again to be the guest blogger at Lipsticking.com, so please hop on over and join me . This week I'm continuing my coverage of interactive holiday promotions with this post about another great viral marketing promotion. It's Sephora's Mistletoe MakeOver, a virtual website that's a fun way for women to try on the hottest makeup trends.

One of my favorite digital marketing agencies, EVB San Francisco, came up with this idea and executed it along with TAAZ.com, the virtual makeover website. It's their best work since the very popular ElfYourself.com holiday viral marketing campaign. So please check out this campaign here.

JC Penny Goes to the Dogs with Holiday Viral Video

In continuing to highlight some of this year's best holiday interactive marketing promotions, I was just introduced to a hilarious viral video by, of all people, my husband. Now I'm the one that's supposed to be staying on top of what marketers are doing this season, but I hadn't seen this till today.

 It coincided with the yearly question, "Dear, what do you what for Christmas?, the kids are asking". This is the time of year that most men start to think about what gift to get their wife or girlfriend and most don't have a clue. So I'm sure that both men and women can really relate to this viral video called "Beware of the Doghouse" which was created for J.C. Penny .

The gift that a man buys a woman for Christmas (or her birthday) is very important and tells a lot about him. If he gets a great present most of us women will be very appreciative and proceed to tell everyone about how great a job he did. Get us a "practical" present and it’s the doghouse for that man. So any man who watches this video will really think twice about his gift selection this year.

In this clever viral marketing campaign created by Saatchi & Saatchi, New York, JC Penny shows us what happens to one man who dared to give his wife a vacuum cleaner for Christmas. As my mother has always said, "when in doubt give gold!" Now if every many would remember that jewelry is always a girl's best friend it would be a win-win for us all. Enjoy!

Top 3 Mistakes Marketers Make When Running a Sweepstakes

by Guest Blogger, Carolyn Wilman, Contest Queen

As the Contest Queen I have a very unique perspective on promotions involving  sweepstakes and contests. Not only have I been a marketer for over 20 years, but I have also been a sweepstakes hobbyist for 8 years, giving me the experience of having “sat on both sides of the table”. When I talk to other marketers and they discover my marketing niche they ask me how to “stop those evil greedy professional sweepstakers from entering”. You don’t. You use them to viral your promotion further and faster, increasing the ROI on your promotions. Here’s how:

MISTAKE 1) Trying to Stop “Professional Sweepers” from Entering

Here is the question I pose to you: If all the sweepers stopped entering, who would enter your promotion?  No one. This mistake leads directly to Mistake #2.

MISTAKE 2) Only Doing Front End Marketing

What do I mean by that? Most marketers consider a project done as soon as the promotion is launched and off they go on to the next project. There are two parts to this mistake:

1)  Not doing enough to address the average person’s concerns encouraging them to enter

2)  Not getting the entire company and all departments on board with all marketing efforts including sweepstakes.

When I meet someone new and they learn about my hobby, I ask them why they don’t enter. I get the same four answers over and over again. If these concerns are not dealt with, on an industry-wide scale, the percentage of the population entering sweepstakes will not increase. The top four concerns of the non-entrant are:

a)    They will sell my information
b)    I will get heaps of SPAM if I enter
c)    My information will be stolen (identity theft)
d)    No one really wins

UPS Regifting Holiday Promotion Aims to Go Viral

Now that Thanksgiving is over and we all survived Black Friday we can turn our attention to the Christmas Holiday promotional marketing campaigns. It's December 1st already so I thought I better get started reviewing some of this year's top online holiday promotions.

This one from UPS that launched last week got my attention. It's a take-off on the regifting phrase that originally was coined on a Seinfield show back in January of 1995. Regifting, the practice of pawning off unwanted gifts that you may have received to unsuspecting friends and family, is now going virtual in this viral marketing campaign.

UPSRegifter.com is a comical Web site where visitors can upload a photo of an unwanted gift or choose one from UPS' gallery, and then regift it. The site makes it possible to send these virtual regifts to friends, family and co-workers in an eco-friendly way which requires no wrapping paper.

Michael French, a spokesperson for UPS said that the effort is an attempt to find the cutting edge: "UPS delivers packages, and we want people to know we can deliver fun in cyberspace." The company hopes the idea goes viral to promote general brand awareness as well as UPS' desire to promote sustainability.

This 1950s-era B&W instructional video is available to help explain the concept to amateur regifters.

A recipient of a virtual regift item will receive an e-mail with a link to claim the regift. Then the regiftee can join in by regifting the item they received to someone else or by uploading a photo of a new item to regift.

UPS partnered with integrated marketing agency T3 to design and develop the site.The campaign is meant to raise awareness of UPS at a time when DHL has left the domestic shipping business, said Chris Wooster, group creative director at T3.

"We wanted to find some touchstones for the holidays that everyone shares. Everyone has had the regift. We all have closets full of them," Wooster said. "We didn't have to explain [regifting] to everyone. The less you have to set the stage, the more success these things can be."

UPSRegifter.com also is integrating social networking site Facebook by offering a downloadable regifting application. The Facebook distribution is "gravy" for the UPS campaign, said Wooster, citing the network's recent layout changes that downplay the role of applications. Banner ads on ups.com and on Facebook are promoting the campaign.

We'll have to wait and see if this viral campaign gets anywhere near the success that Office Max's Elf Yourself has had over the past couple of years. Check it out and let us know what you think.