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

HP’s You on You Project Video Contest Promotes Creativity

It's Wednesday, therefore it must be Lipsticking. Yes it's my guest blogging day over at the Lipsticking blog so I'd like to inform my readers here of what I wrote over there. For those of you that may be a bit younger than I and don't quite get the first sentence, it's a reference to a late 60's film called "If it's Tuesday, it must be Belgium". I of course changed the day of the week to suite my needs! So from now on you know what I'm talking about and I won't explain it again. Thank you Suzanne Pleshette.

One other thing before I give you my post for the week. I was invited to join the writer's team at the Examiner.com and am now the official Rochester Social Media Marketing Examiner and just wrote my first article. So I would really appreciate you following me there even if you're not from Rochester, NY. If you are from Rochester, then you definitely should! Without further ado, here's my post:

HP just recently launched a new video contest which they're hosting on their YouTube channel called the HP You on You Project that invites people from around the world to create and share videos that express who they are – WITHOUT showing their faces. The contest is an extension of HP’s “The PC Is Personal Again” ad campaign which you probably have seen that features celebrities such as tennis champion Serena Williams, recording artist Fergie, and Olympic gold medalist Shaun White. They appear in a series of "hands" commercials discussing what they do with their HP PCs that do not show any of their faces.

It appears to me that by their selection of these particular celebrity spokespeople that HP is definitely trying to market to a younger, hipper, female audience with this campaign. With two strong, well-known women in the mix, plus one young, hot guy, they should be engaging well with this audience. It a bit different than this HP ad that ran earlier this year with NBA all-star Kevin Garnett wandering through his daily routine and using his HP to check up his competition.

Anyhow, this new contest is really about encouraging creativity. HP is utilizing new video remixing and webcam video creation tools on YouTube that allow people of all skill levels to submit high-quality, professional looking videos that showcase their own individuality.

“HP hopes to inspire and foster creativity,” said David Roman, vice president, Marketing Communications, Personal Systems Group, HP. “Combining personal passions, digital remixing tools and the YouTube stage means we’ll be able to gather, celebrate and reward expressions of originality like never before.”

Promotions Help to Give Starbucks the Most Popular Brand on Facebook Title...For Now

Promotions on Facebook pay off for brands according to a post written last week on the Inside Facebook blog. It appears Starbucks, with now over 3.7 million fans, recently passed Coca-Cola to become the the most popular brand on Facebook. How'd they do it?  The blog states "A good combination of a well-done Facebook Page, fun promotions for fans, and effective Facebook home page Engagement Ads. In fact, Starbucks gained nearly 200,000 Facebook fans last week alone."

The blog included a chart that shows that Starbucks saw some significant spikes of traffic on July 18 and July 21 when the company was running its Free Pastry giveaway. Fans who printed out this invitation could redeem a free pastry with the purchase of any beverage.

This was not the first promotional campaign Starbucks ran on Facebook either. Earlier in July they were promoting the launch of Starbucks branded ice cream and were distributing coupons for free pints through its Facebook application. I actually took advantage of this and printed the coupon which then appeared on my wall and invited me to share it with my friends, which I did. Who doesn't like free ice cream, right?

I also gave them the mailing addresses for a couple of my close friends so that Starbucks could send them a free Starbucks ice-cream coupon courtesy of their "Friend". BTW, I did buy the ice cream and it is very delicious, although it is definitely not Weight Watchers approved.

"Free coupons can be a very viral way to do promotions on social networks, as long as it's a compelling offer," noted Justin Smith, editor of Inside Facebook. He pointed out that other companies such as Papa John's and Ben & Jerry's have also had success at making coupons available via Facebook.

These are further success stories which help to prove my case that I been writing about now over the past year or so that social media and promotions are a winning combination. These "Social Sweeps" which is the term I've created that refers to an interactive promotion, such as a sweepstakes, giveaway, contest or instant-win game, that integrates with at least one social media platform to help create awareness and buzz.

Another great example is the Jones Soda Roadtrip Jones Photo Contest that not only is using social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook to get the word out about the promotion, but also to allow users to actually enter the contest through status updates and tweets. This was a first that I have seen and I’m sure we’ll see plenty more like this as well as new ways that we haven’t seen yet.

So if you know of some interesting "Social Sweeps" being implemented or have one that you're specifically working on that you'd like to share, please let me know. I'll be more than glad to write about it.

Oh and I almost forgot to mention. If you're dying to try some of the new Starbucks ice cream they still as of today have $1.00 coupons on their website.

Brands and Bloggers Converge at BlogHer '09 in Chicago

Today many women bloggers are meeting up real time in Chicago at the Annual 2-Day BlogHer Conference taking place at the Sheraton. My good friend and mentor from the Lipsticking Blog, Yvonne DiVita is there since she'll be speaking on a panel this afternoon about turning Blogs into Books. Unfortunately I'm not there because I waited too long to register and they sold out! So instead I am reading about it from my desk, checking the live blogging going on, the tweets and various other posting on the BlogHer website. 

I attended my first BlogHer conference two years ago in Chicago which was a few months after I launched Donna's Promo Talk. I did write a post about Blogher '07 that you can read if you'd like more background about BlogHer. I learned quite a bit at that conference, but most of all I met many other women bloggers and made connections that are still strong today.

BlogHer just announced this morning the dates and location for BlogHer'10 which will be in New York City for the first time on August 6th & 7th with BlogHer Busines '10 on Aug. 5th! Now this one I can't miss!

What's the difference about attending a BlogHer conference from the usual marketing conference that we all attend?  Well it happens to be the largest blogging conference for women which means its attendees are highly influential consumers that brands want to get in front of. So while us marketing folks may normally just get a conference bag with say a notebook and flash drive if we're lucky, at BlogHer you have your choice of some really good swag. Not only that, but brands are sponsoring events and promotions at the conference to capture the hearts and minds of these women, especially the mommy bloggers.

Procter & Gamble is there promoting its Swiffer brand through its sponsorship of a pre-event that took place yesterday afternoon at the Chicago Hyatt Recency. The brand had recruited six women to develop a social media site called the SocialLuxe Lounge and in which they named the event after. The Swiffer SocialLuxe Lounge offered guests manicures, pedicures and something called "clean-tinis". There was also Swiffer product demonstrations, giveaways and a special performance by SONY BMG recording artist Chris Mann. Now as a homeowner with two dogs, I use Swiffer a lot and mine is falling a part, so I sure could have used one of those giveaways.

The Swiffer SocialLuxe Lounge also hosted the first annual BlogLuxe Award meant to honor top bloggers in eight different categories whose blog encompasses quality of writing, influence, entertainment and integrity. To celebrate the redesigned Swiffer WetJet, Swiffer also had an award for "Cleanest Blog" with the winner getting a year supply of Swiffer products.

P&G also has the Tide and Bounce Laundry Lounge which is offering bloggers a chance to win a free Kenmore washer & dryer by asking them to write a comment about why they need a new washer & dryer. Those not at the conference can also enter by tweeting #LaundryLounge 2 enter. #BlogHer09.

GM has been sponsor of BlogHer since 2006 and this year their Chevy Brand is a Platinum sponsor of the conference. They have provided a fleet of fuel efficient carpool vehicles for transportation to and from the conference and the Sheraton. Chevy models include the Camaro, Equinox, Traverse, Tahoe Hybrid, Malibu and more. That sure beats paying for a cab or waiting for the shuttle bus!

Walmart of course is a sponsor and is hosting a few different events. Linsey Knerl, one of the women bloggers from their Elevenmoms will be there signing copies of her book, 10,001 Ways to Live Large on a Small Budget and she'll also be giving away free copies to the first 100 women at the booth. Next is celebrity chef Paula Deen who will be cooking up some goodies during lunchtime on Saturday for those that would like first tastes of her new line that will be sold exclusively at Walmart bakeries.

PepsiCo is also a major sponsor and has several of their brands present including Pepsi, Tropicana and Frito-Lay. The company is hosting a Tweet Up this afternoon on the topic of Purpose. They have lined up two powerful women, Jill Beraud, CMO PepsiCo and Lee Woodruff, Author and Journalist to discuss what Purpose means to you. You can join the discussion, #Pepsi and tell them what purpose means to you. 

For those of us not at BlogHer that have a blogging buddy attending like me,  we're able to send our friend a special gift by following @PepsiCo on Twitter and then sending a DM with our friend's name. Pepsi promises to have a surprise waiting for the buddy at their booth. I sent them Yvonne's name, so I hope she gets it.

Typepad, which this blog is powered by, just sent me a message because I had told them I would be there (opps). They're hoping I make it tonight to the Sparklecorn Extravaganza that they're co-sponsoring. So sorry Allyson from Typepad, we'll have to meet another time.

The lists goes on, but that gives you all a pretty good idea. I have to get going now so I can join in on the Pepsi Tweet Up soon. Next year I promise I won't wait till the last minute to register. I'm sure it'll be a sell out again, especially being in New York! Hope you having fun Yvonne!

Cetaphil's Comfortable in My Skin Contest Engages Women

It's Wednesday already again which is my day to guest blog over at the Lipsticking blog. I've been writing here on this blog about many great promotions that are integrating social media with their contests and sweepstakes. I keep referring people to the last one I wrote on the Jones Soda Roadtrip Jones Photo Contest. This one is pretty engaging as well and one that I did decide to participate in to see exactly how it works. So here's my post. Hope you enjoy!

Here's a brand that is definitely marketing to women online and has done, what I think, a great job with this latest interactive promotion.

The Cetaphil brand is a line of skin care products that I'm sure most of us women are familiar with since the products have been around for quite some time. They claim to be the #1 dermatologist and pediatrician recommended brand of cleansers and moisturizers. They recently launched the the Comfortable in My Skin campaign that includes an interactive, online contest.

This promotion is another example of a brand inviting consumers to create fun and personalized user-generated content (UGC) around the brand. However this one takes it another step further and then encourages them to share the content by providing easy ways to make it viral through their social networks and websites.

First they ask entrants to explain where and what makes them feel the most comfortable in their skin by completing the sentence “I feel comfortable in my skin when I am…”.

Next participants are asked to select what paradise vacation spot they would choose as their getaway from a choice of Marriott & Renaissance Caribbean & Mexico Resort destinations. They then have to select a Kate Spade getaway bag and fill it with their favorite Cetaphil products and any other items that they'd like to take along with them. I'm already dreaming of where I would want to go just by writing about this!

The last step involves having them share their content via widgets, blogs, IM, email and other options and then invites them to review and vote on other content that has been submitted.

Jones Soda's #RoadtripJones Photo Contest Utilizes Social Media Like No Other

Jones Soda is known for its vibrant soda colors and its unique packaging that features constantly changing labels that are generated and submitted by consumers. They also are recognized for their unique marketing initiatives and "alternative distribution strategy" in which got them started originally in some truly unique venues, such as skate, surf and snowboarding shops, tattoo and piercing parlors, as well as in fashion and music stores. 

Well the beverage maker recently launched a unique summer photo contest which should result in some interesting new soda labels. They have partnered with Griffin Technology, which produces iPod/iPhone accessories, on the Roadtrip Jones contest which started last week and runs through August 28th. It is meant to celebrate “the Great North American Roadtrip” and invites consumers who are on any type of trip, from an afternoon cruise on the lake to a 10,000 -mile trek across the continent, to participate.

They're giving away 10 Griffin iTrip AutoPilots each week. Plus, the best roadtrip photos will be printed on the labels of thousands of bottles of Jones Soda. One grand-prize winner will win a $500 shopping spree on Griffintechnology.com.

In keeping with their unique marketing style, they are giving consumers several ways to enter the contest and have integrated social media into the contest rules.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Film Embraces Emerging Media Marketing

It's Wednesday, therefore it's my day to guest blog over at the Lipsticking blog. So while I usually write about promotions associated with entertainment marketing on Fridays, it appears to be the norm this summer to release movies on Wednesdays instead of Fridays. So of course I just had to write this post today about the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince movie which was released today. So please read my post which I've included  here:

For any us mothers with teenagers we are all aware that today is the official release date of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth Harry Potter film in the series. My daughter and her friends attended the midnight show last night and didn't get to see it at their usual movie theater location since that one was already sold out. Now that my daughter has friends that are old enough to drive at night, we don't have to worry about which parent is going to go with them or stay up late enough to pick them up. They drove themselves all back to my house and I woke up with four young bodies sleeping in our living room this morning.

My older daughter is currently away this week attending a summer drama camp, so I don't know if she's seen the movie yet. If not she probably will by tonight. Since she came home from her freshman year in college she's been talking about this film and reread the first three books to get back into the story again. She even got her dad reading the books now. He just finished the second book and she's thrilled that he's reading them. My turn is next which I promised I would do when we go on our summer vacation this year.

Both of my daughters, who are just a little over a year apart in age, really grew up with Harry. It has been an really wonderful experience and they can't thank J. K. Rowling enough for inventing these characters and the world that they live in. They constantly are throwing out character names and phrases that leave me bewildered. Even though I haven't read the books, I have seen the movies, so I'm not completely ignorant about what they're talking about. I wrote about Harry Potter before in this blog post back in July, 2007 which was Harry Potter Month since the 5th movie was released, Order of the Pheonix, followed 10 days later with the release of the last book, Deathly Hallows.

Mandela Day Campaign Integrates Social Media to "Make an Imprint"

Here's a new campaign for a social marketing cause that is utilizing social media marketing, a highly interactive promotional website, viral marketing components and some big name celebrities, all in it's marketing mix.

The Nelson Mandela Foundation, along with the help of 46664, Interpublic Group's Gotham, Morgan Freeman, Clint Eastwood and a host of several other big name personalities, are inviting people to "Make an Imprint" through community activism in an effort to celebrate the legacy of South Africa’s former President Nelson Mandela. The campaign is urging people all over the world to join them in a bid to create an official Mandela Day, which would be held on Mr Mandela’s birthday each year, July 18.

46664 is the campaign that bears Mr. Mandela’s Robben Island prison number and which was originally launched to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS. Mandela Day celebrates the idea that each individual has the power to transform the world, the ability to Make an Imprint.

TV, print, outdoor and Web advertising has been implemented over the past week to drive visitors to MandelaDay.com where they can sign up for volunteer work directly and learn more about the broader initiative which is to raise awareness for social issues, inspire volunteer work, and commemorate the former South African President's 91st Birthday, July 18, as Mandela Day. Here's one of the videos:

Mandela Day from mandeladay on Vimeo.

Visitors to the site are also invited to create and upload their own personal content in the form of a video in which they can insert images of themselves alongside up to six of the partner celebrities. The video will also display the campaign's official open-hand symbol which participants can then send to friends by posting it on Facebook, YouTube, and other social media platforms. A Facebook fan page has been created that people can join to stay current on the campaign as well as follow it on Twitter @mandeladay.

"They brought us in around November [of last year] to figure out what to do next," said Peter McGuinness, CEO of the New York City-based Gotham. "We said, 'Why don't we go farther upstream,' which meant tackling the root causes of HIV/AIDS."

Addressing such a range of issues -- race, inequality, gender inequality, poverty, and lack of education -- also, in theory, appeals to a far larger base of potential volunteers, according to McGuinness. "That was the breakthrough," he said.

Perhaps as a result, in less than a week, the site has registered over 50,000 volunteers and as of tonight there were 123,875 minutes pledged.

Gotham developed all creative work for the larger integrated campaign for Mandela Day, all of which features a call-to-action asking individuals for 67 minutes of their time -- a figure correlating to the 67 years Mandela has spent fighting social injustice.

Last week, the agency unveiled an art exhibition at Grand Central Terminal in Vanderbilt Hall dedicated to telling the story of Nelson Mandela that will run through July 22. On Mandela Day, July 18, there will be a special concert at Radio City Music Hall hosted by Whoopi Goldberg and featuring artists such as Stevie Wonder, Alicia Keys, Will.i.am, Gloria Gaynor, Dave Stewart, Aretha Franklin, Cyndi Lauper, Queen Latifah, Josh Groban and others.

So while the majority of us marketers don't have the luxury of putting on such an elaborate campaign, there are elements of what they're doing here that can be implemented on a much smaller scale, even at a local level. So please check it out and while you're at it perhaps you can spare 67 minutes of your time to "Make an Imprint".

Mets Fans Try to Break Guinness World Record with Wise Potato Chips Big City Crunch Promo

We're just about at half-way through the baseball season and I realized I haven't written any posts this year regarding a MLB promotion. Last year I wrote quite a few. This post last May was about MLB teaming up with Indiana Jones on the release on the new film sequel. This post last July was all about Baby Ruth's User-Generated "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" video contest. Then almost two years ago to the day I wrote this post about the MLB and MasterCard promotion that included the MLB Dreams Sweepstakes and another user-generated contest.

So I really felt compelled today to write about this promotion that's taking place this evening, July 10th. It's doesn't include a major interactive promotion or user-generated contest. It is just a pretty creative promotional event. And where else would it take place, but in New York City.

Wise potato chips will be attempting to to set the Guinness World Record for the most potato chips ever crunched at once at the New York Mets' new stadium, Citi Field. The Mets will be playing the Cincinnati Reds tonight as the Big City Crunch gets underway. Every fan entering the new ballpark will be handed a .75-oz. bag of Wise Potato Chips. At a designated time, instructions will be given to open the packages and, when given the go-ahead, to start crunching.

"As New York's favorite snack food, it's only natural for us to support one of New York's favorite teams, the New York Mets," said Jolie Weber, Wise Vice President, Brand Marketing. "We developed The Big City Crunch to give Mets fans -- the most vocal and passionate fans in baseball -- a chance to be a part of history ... a loud history

Representatives from Wise have been in and around the area driving a Wise-wrapped van and distributing Wise Potato Chips. They also have been getting consumers to try the Wise "Spin the Wheel" game where players were given the chance to win Big City Crunch-branded merchandise, as well as tickets to tonight's game.

Representatives of Guinness World Records will be on hand tonight to record the occasion and, if all necessary criteria are met, will certify that a world record has been set.

The promotion was developed to increase awareness for the chips and leverage Wise’s sponsorship as the official potato chip and Cheez Doodle of the New York Mets. Wise's sports marketing agency, Source Communications, came up with the promotion which is a complement to a season-long advertising presence at Citi Field, including outfield and LED ads for Wise brands.  A New York local print, outdoor, TV and radio ad campaign promoting the Big City Crunch and featuring Mets shortstop Jose Reyes, began back in May and will run through tonight's event.

They even have some social media integrated into the mix by creating a Twitter page. So we can follow them on Twitter here to find out if they're successful or not. If anyone can make noise, its New York baseball fans. Yes, I'm a New Yorker and a Mets fan (but not a fan of that other New York team)!

Warner's Fit-to-a-T Bra Fitting House Party Gives Women What They Want

Today is Wednesday, therefore it is again my guest blogger day over at the Lipsticking blog. I first started writing over there over a year ago and one of my first posts I wrote was this post about a really cool promotional event that Hershey's sponsored and executed with an interesting marketing firm called House Party to help launch their new Hershey's Bliss Chocolate line. Well I had to write about House Party again because I wanted to share info about this other party with the Lipsticking readers since the blog is all about marketing to women. The party is called Warner's Fit-to-a-T House Party. Here is the post for you readers as well.

House Party™ integrates actual social events that happen in the real w orld with social media in the online world. One of their parties actually consists of thousand parties on one day which take place across the country and include an exclusive brand experience at the center of the action. These specially designed parties are sponsored by a leading brand and take place in the homes of carefully selected consumer hosts who can invite their friends, family, neighbors, classmates , co-workers, whoever they wish, to experience these uniquely fun parties and the products they feature.

Warner's wanted to sponsor bra fitting parties to help support the launch of their new Invisible Bliss bra which is designed for women to wear under t-shirts. So House Party recruited 1,000 hosts for this event and also got Redbook on board as a co-sponsor.

House Party's CEO, Kitty Kolding, shared this with us the following: “The experts at Warner Bras have data that show that most women do not wear the correct bra size nor do they know how to select bras that fit them perfectly. So we worked with Warner Bras to design and deploy a national program of parties that gave women a trusted setting – the home of a close friend – in which they could learn, share and find the perfect bra. And at the same time, they had fun and shared that fun on the event website that ties all the parties together. To make it work, we did what we always do which is make a brand or product experience into an authentic, legitimately fun social gathering that delivers real value to consumers and extremely powerful marketing tools to our Fortune 500 clients.” 

PROMO 100 2009 Agency of Year - Catapult Marketing

Every year on June 1st Promo Magazine unveils its PROMO 100 annual list of the top promotional agencies in the U.S. I usually write a post about the PROMO 100 Agency of the Year shortly after the list comes out. Well this year I'm a little late, but it's still worth writing about.

The 2009 top spot went to Catapult Action-Biased Marketing which is headed up by COO Paul Kramer, a well-known name in the promotional agency circle. They reported $28.5 million in 2008 U.S. net revenue, a 69% increase over 2006. The growth came from mostly three areas: a new interactive discipline, geographic expansion and additional work for existing clients.

Catapult Interactive debuted in January 2007 as a way to round out the agency’s services and has proven to be a “great engine” for organic growth, stated Bill Hewson, president, Interactive. As a result the agency expanded its work for its clients, including Pedigree, Intel and Subway.

Subway is a longtime client who the agency first developed a relationship with about six years ago, working on merchandising at its restaurants. That work has expanded to national programs, including Subway Scrabble, a popular instant-win game promotion that incorporates hundreds of millions of game pieces on Subway cups and sub wraps. Each year, the agency has worked on improving response by incorporating new best practices. Listed here are their Eights Ways to Improve the ROI of Online Games of Chance. The game is scheduled to start up again in August.

Earlier this year Catapult was also awarded the Best in Show in the 2009 Promo Interactive Marketing Awards for its Pedigree Million Dog Mosaic campaign. The campaign generated funding for a new Pedigree foundation dedicated to helping dogs find good homes. I can remember seeing those ads and wanting to go out immediately and adopt those dogs! Catapult created a promotional website which received about 1 million page views and where people uploaded 55,000 photos of their dogs. These photos were then woven into a mosaic image of a cute puppy. Each time a new photo was uploaded, Pedigree donated $1 to the foundation.

Catapult was also a finalist in four categories in the 2008 Pro Awards for its Pedigree Dog Adoption campaign: Best Multi-Discipline Campaign, Best Cause-Based Promotion, Best Campaign Targeting a Micro Audience, and Best Creative.

Another long time client is Australian Wine brands Rosemount Estate and Lindemans which has since grown to include additional brands such as Beringer, Meridian, Bohemian Highway and Little Penguin. Catapult struck a deal for the Rosemount brand with Gordon Ramsay, the star of the Fox Network reality cooking show Hell’s Kitchen. Later this month when the show premieres on July 21 the Rosemount brand will be integrated into it with retail promotions around the placement. “When you have a relationship with a company and an understanding about how they work and what their objectives are, you can add value to other parts of their business or brands,” said Matthe Jonas, their client and President of West.

One of Catapult’s core strengths has been shopper marketing. “In today’s marketplace you need to have programs that are as appealing to the shopper as they are to the retailer,” Kramer says. “We influence what people actually do, not what they say they will do.”

Congratulations to the team at Catapult. We'll be keeping an eye of what other exciting integrated promotional marketing programs they launch in the upcoming year.

NOTE: Catapult announced today, July 7th, that Paul Kramer has been named CEO. Kramer has worked as the agency’s COO since its founding in 2005. “Paul has been integral to our success since joining D.L. Ryan Companies as a managing director in 1990,” said David Ryan, founder and CEO of D.L. Ryan Cos. “His career has been marked by an unwavering ability to create effective and memorable sales and marketing programs for world-class marketers across a broad range of industries.” Congratulations to Paul.