So, did you watch the premiere of the third season of Mad Men last night? I did and I enjoyed it. I don't watch much TV during the summer, but this show is definitely worth making the time to. I was going to record it, but didn't bother since I watched it live. I was hoping to rent the DVD of season two and watch it prior to last night's show, but that didn't happen. So instead watched this recap instead.
I wrote this post a couple of week ago regarding several brands that are doing promotional tie-ins with Mad Men right now which include BMW, Banana Republic and Clorox. The show was all BMW last night and since I'm a BMW owner I enjoyed seeing some of the older models shown in the commercials. Also while we were on vacation the week before last we did some shopping and I got to visit a Banana Republic store and pick up the Mad about Style Guide which allowed entry to the Casting Call Contest. I wanted to get my daughter, the NYU drama student, to enter but we ran out of time and entries are now closed. The semi-finalists are supposed to be announced this Friday.
Well the AMCTV network itself actually launched three online marketing initiatives for the show that I didn't cover in my prior post. All three are meant to engage fans and are great examples of viral marketing used on several social media platforms.
One interactive marketing program is called MadMen Yourself which invites fans to create a ‘60s cartoon avatar that they can download and use in their profiles across various social media. Users go here on the MadMen website to assemble an on-screen persona from body types, features and accessories drawn by well-known online illustrator Dyna Moe. First it asks if you're a suit or a skirt (male of female)? It does kind of remind me of the highly popular ElfYourself program created for OfficeMax.
Next program is an online trivia game sponsored by Eight O’Clock Coffee entitled “Which MadMan Are You?” Players can answer a series of questions and, based on their answers, get sorted into categories represented by the show’s main characters.
The third interactive campaign is also sponsored by Eight O’Clock Coffee and offers “Mad Men” e-cards on their website that visitors can share with friends to remind them of upcoming episodes, plan get-togethers and share feedback on the show.
There is also the MadMen Facebook Fan page and of course you can also follow MadMen on Twitter. There are several MadMen characters you can follow on Twitter as well. Ad Age's Media Guy Simon Dumenco wrote this funny article about a week ago about the tweets from Don Draper, Roger Sterling, Joan Holloway, Pete Campbell and Peggy Olson. Simon said " How great is it that Twitter transcends the space-time continuum? My presumption is that "Mad Men" characters are somehow tweeting directly from the '60s -- using, I'm thinking, early toaster-oven-sized prototype cellphones with abacus-like interfaces (cellular technology actually dates back to work done at Bell Labs in the '40s, so it's possible, right?).
Anyhow, enjoy the season. The marketing folks on the MadMen team have certainly given fans enough engaging opportunities to have some fun and share their friends and other fans.
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