Donna's Promo Talk

DMB Promotes New Studio Album with a Facebook Listenting Party Contest

I'm sitting here watching American Idol as I'm writing this post. I missed last night's show and tonight is when they will reveal the top three for this season and send someone home. We've always been a family that really enjoys music. I've been pretty proud of the fact that we raised our two daughters exposing them to good music. It's great to be able to say that we all enjoy listening to some of the same artists with The Beatles being our all time favorite band and the Dave Mathews Band one of our favorites during their lifetime.

My husband and I took both our daughters with us to their first concert to see DMB perform. It was at a summer outdoor concert on the lawn at Darien Lake which is a theme park with a performing arts amphitheater that's right off the New York State Thruway between Rochester and Buffalo. Our daughters were both pretty young then, but old enough to appreciate the experience and to be actually familiar with the music. They were however wondering "what's that funny smell?".

My oldest daughter Kelsey is just finishing up her first year at NYU and was lucky to attend the DMB concert a few weeks ago in New Jersey which was the band's second performance after kicking off their new tour at Madison Square Garden the night before, April 14th. She was still singing Satellite the next day and amazed at how great a band they are.

Now after a long break from the studio the band traveled down to New Orleans to complete work on their much anticipated new studio album, Big Whiskey and the Groogrux King, which is slated to be released on June 2. They have put together a great promotional campaign utilizing social media to launch the album and since I'm a "fan", I have been receiving regular email message regarding the promotion which is called:

DMB BIG WHISKEY AND THE GROOGRUX KING ADVANCE LISTENING PARTY CONTEST - Party With the King For a chance to win the GrooGrux Grand Prize'!

Fans are invited to host a listening party and create a Facebook Event page scheduled for Memorial Day weekend and invite all their friends. Be one of the hosts of the 100 event pages with the most attendees and they win a personalized advance watermarked copy of the new album to use for the listening party. Hosts must submit an entry form on the Advance Listening Party Contest Page by the May 12th deadline.

Hosts are encouraged to promote their listening party by:

• Posting notes to their Facebook profile with the Event link
• Post photos and comments on the Event page
• Tweet the Event link on Twitter
• E-mail and AIM friends

The host of the best listening party will win a trip to meet Dave Matthews and see DMB perform live from the front row at Cruzan Amphitheatre in West Palm Beach, FL on Saturday, August 15th!

To enter this stage of the contest hosts must post a video to their Facebook Event Page after their party. Videos will be judged by a combination of:

• The number of guests at the party
• Degree to which the album thematic elements are incorporated (artwork, songs, New Orleans, etc.)
• The degree to which music is creatively presented

I'm going to try and talk my daughter into entering the contest. I figure she'd have more luck getting a good number of guests to attend them I would. So we'll see. DMB will be on tour till the beginning of October. They are one of the best bands to see live. The album is available for pre-order and comes with a bunch of different packages that include some extra tracks and other promotional merchandise as well. I'll be one of the many listening to the album on June 2nd!

BTW - Allison just was sent home from American Idol. Looks like my eariler predication of the top three was a little off. We're now down to three guys, Danny's in instead of Allison. Well at this point it's Adam's to loose! He did perform an amazing rendition of Led Zeppelin's Whole Lotta Love!

X-Men Origins: Wolverine Premiere Contest Goes to Tempe, AZ & Pappa John's & 7-Eleven Partner Up

Marvel Entertainment's X-Men Origins: Wolverine opened up nationwide in movie theaters today. It seems that every summer the movie season starts earlier and earlier each year and with May 1st falling on a Friday this year the season has begun.

My daughter Alex, who's a high school senior, got to see the movie already today with a group of her girlfriends and loved it. They also all loved watching Hugh Jackman and she was very impressed when she learned that he spent 18 months working out to physically get in shape for this film. And I've just seen the trailer and will agree that he does look pretty hot!

The film hosted a Premiere Contest promotion in which they invited fans to go online to the Official X-Men Origins: Wolverine website and mark their town on a map of the United States. The town with the most votes got to host the premiere screening of the film in which the winner was Tempe, Arizona. This link takes you to Yahoo where this image and others of the premiere screening in Tempe are posted. Hugh Jackman himself announced the contest in this video that was uploaded to YouTube.

Papa-John's Pizza is an official sponsor of the film and is currently promoting their XL X-Treme Cheese Pizza as well as special edition X-Men Origins: Wolverine Gift Cards. They've built a promotional micro-site that includes wallpapers, images and buddy icons as well as an online game called Time Warrior.

7-Eleven was also another entertainment marketing partner of the film and featured life-size standees of some of the film’s most popular characters- Wolverine, Sabretooth and Gambit which they displayed nationwide in stores. Limited edition Slurpee cups also featured these three characters, a new Slurpee flavor, Mutant Berry, was developed in partnership with Dr Pepper and special silver-colored Big Gulp cups inspired by Wolverine’s indestructible adamantium skeleton that is part of the secret Weapon X program were also offered. Slurpee makes a brief appearance in the film when the character Blob is seen with one of the drinks that is colossally bigger than any human has ever sipped. This promotion lasted for one month leading up to today's release of the film and was promoted online at www.slurpee.com.

You can follow the film on Twitter @xmenorigins which currently still only has less then 1,000 followers. 

Easter Bunny Chuckles at the Recession as Sales at Candy Companies Rise

With Easter Sunday coming up this weekend and the fact that many people are craving chocolate because they've given it up for Lent, it seemed fitting to write about candy sales. I mentioned this in the post I wrote last week regarding how some marketers are doing well in this recession and the candy companies are one of these industries. 

The New York Times reports that while we can’t quite pinpoint why, for many, sugar lifts spirits dragged low by the languishing economy. For others, candy also provides a nostalgic reminder of better times. And not insignificantly, it’s relatively cheap. “Candy companies are relatively recession-proof,” said Peter Liebhold, chairman of the Smithsonian Institution’s work and industry division. “During the Great Depression, candy companies stayed in business.”

Many big candy makers are reporting rising sales and surprising profits even as manufacturers of other products are struggling to stay afloat. Cadbury reported a 30 percent rise in profits for 2008, while Nestlé’s profits grew by 10.9 percent, according to public filings. Hershey, which struggled for much of 2008, saw profits jump by 8.5 percent in the fourth quarter.

Cadbury's Mini-Eggs and Creme Eggs are synonymous with Easter. I personally am a sucker for the mini-eggs and always buy them for my daughters' Easter basket (and of course for my own stash as well).

Cadbury wanted to extend the Cadbury Easter experience beyond the Easter Egg Hunt this year to an interactive online experience. The Cadbury Easter site builds on an already strong relationship and loyalty with the consumer. First off it's got that lovable white bunny that greats visitors and invites them to explore Cadbury products and to play the "Flying Bunny" game that challenges players to help the Easter Bunny deliver Cadbury Mini Eggs to homes. Visitors can also view this "Clucking Bunny Fly Over" TV ad.

The site reminds us that this is only going to be around till Easter, so you better enjoy it now before the website and the eggs are gone.

Also, Hershey's, Cadbury and Reese's have teamed up on an Easter promotion called the "Colors of Spring Coloring Contest" which is open to children between the ages of 4 - 12. Parents can send in their child's colored page for a chance to win a $1,000 Savings Bond which will be awarded to three different age brackets: ages 4-6, ages 7-9 and ages 10-12. The Coloring Page/Entry Form can be found at www.keepeastereasy.com. Secondary prizes are Hershey's gift baskets.

So I wish everyone a Happy Easter and don't forget to get your fair share of all these chocolate treats...and help the economy in the meantime!

The Final Four is Here - What Brand-Sponsored Bracket are you following?

Well the Final Four has been decided and will play each other today. I'm feeling guilty that I have not written even one post about March Madness this year. I guess all the conferences I attended this past month have taken me a bit away from the world of sports.

So today we're looking at what should be the best day of the annual NCAA Basketball Tournament: The two semifinal games, starting with Connecticut vs. Michigan State at 6 pm EST, followed by North Carolina vs. Villanova, both covered on CBS. Our Syracuse Orangemen at least got through a couple of rounds this year.

Then tomorrow finally for all the die hard baseball fans (say Hi to my Dad, the classic Boston Red Sox fan) it's play ball! The Major League Baseball season opens with the Atlanta Braves vs. the defending World Series champion Philadelphia Phillies on ESPN2.

Last year I wrote this March post that included some pretty innovative online promotions around the NCAA Tournament that involved blogs and social networks. This year however Twitter is the hot topic.  Most of us didn't know a Tweet from a Retweet this time last year. But hey I have to admit, I'm one of those that's been kinda obsessed by the whole thing and it's growing fast... currently at about 7 million users, up 15 times from a year ago, according to Nielsen Online. Then after just hearing Guy Kawasaki's Keynote about Twitter at the SES NY Conference a week ago,  you really see how marketers are integrating it into their mix.

Twitter Gets the Congress Tweeting and Others Searching

The growth of Facebook was a focus of my last post and now I can't help but write about Twitter. ABC World News with Charlie Gibson tonight talked about Twitter. After covering President Obama's first address to a joint session of congress, their next story was about how many of those members were busy adding their own commentary by Twittering while sitting in the audience. Now you know that this is going mainstream when you have the evening national news covering this story!

You can take a look at the "Twitterstream" yourself at Tweet Congress. You'll see some respectful disagreements and some real enthusiasm for the President that runs right down party lines. I've been on Twitter now for almost a year, but have to admit I haven't been as regular a tweeter as many of those that I follow. Recently though I've been trying to learn and participate more in this social media phenomenon since it's been becoming so popular.

One thing I've been trying out lately is the Twitter search tool. So last night during the address I not only logged in, tweeted and saw what those that I was following had to say, but I used the search feature to see what people in general on Twitter were saying about this particular subject. It was really cool!

Winner of Samsung and NFL "That's How I See It" Stories To Become a Super Bowl Commercial

As I'm writing this post I'm watching Game 2 of the NFL Playoffs, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens. The Steelers are the favorite to win, but so were the Eagles who lost to the Cardinals earlier today. So the Arizona Cardinals are headed to Super Bowl XLIII to play against the winner of this AFC Championship Game.

Super Bowl XLIII will take place two weeks from today on February 1 in Tampa Bay. If the Steelers don't win this game the predictions are that there will be little interest in who actually wins the Super Bowl since the Steelers are the only team left in the running that has a big national fan base. So, we'll soon see.

Besides the ad from Dorito's Crash the Super Bowl Video Contest that we will see during the Super Bowl which I just wrote about in this post. We will also see another consumer-generated commercial that will air during the Pregame Show on NBC that's a fan's story from Samsung's "The NFL. That's How I See It" promotion.

For eight weekends, Samsung, the Official HDTV of the NFL, and NFL Films toured various NFL markets stopping at Best Buy retail locations and NFL stadiums across the US to capture stories of how fans see the game. Hundreds of fans shared their stories such as a New York Jets fan who had his wife sign a contract before marriage allowing him to catch every home game; a superstitious Washington Redskins fan who can't be bothered during games; a New York Giants fan who won over his future brother-in-law with tickets to a game; and a faithful San Francisco 49ers fan who calls the game following September 11, 2001 the most memorable she's ever seen.

There have been two rounds of voting. The first round of 24 videos was posted on nfl.com/howiseeit from November 20 to December 3. Then the second group of 24 was posted December 4 to December 17. 275,000 votes were cast and the final nine videos that included one wildcard were announced on December 18. Final voting took place up till January 4. The winning story, determined by the number of fan votes and a panel of NFL and Samsung judges, is now being transformed into a commercial to air during the pregame show prior to Super Bowl XLIII.

"Samsung and the NFL developed this campaign to involve the all-important fan. The stories collected truly exemplify the unique passion fans possess for the game of football," said Tim Baxter, VP of sales and marketing at Samsung Electronics America. "We are excited to open these stories and look forward to turning the winning story into a commercial for all to see on Super Bowl Sunday."

This Super Ad promotion is part of Samsung's "That's How I See It" campaign which includes four unique commercials showing how fans experience the NFL through their Samsung HDTV and an interactive microsite that contains fan stories, and even purchasing advice from notable celebrities and athletes like NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason, Rich Eisen of the NFL Network, legendary rocker Alice Cooper and television personality Regis Philbin.

We now have a score of 16 to 14 with the Steelers over the Ravens in the 4th Quarter. So, I gonna go now and watch the rest of this game. Go Steelers!

Countdown to Super Bowl XLIII - Dorito's Ad Contest Kicks it up a Level

Well the first month of 2009 so far has been all about Obama and football. I've already posted here regarding Obama's inauguration promotion, so now it's that time of year to start our countdown to Super Bowl XLII which is taking place on Feb. 1st in Tampa Bay! So what better interactive promotional campaign to start off this annual media blitz with than Dorito's!

In it's third year of developing a consumer-generated content contest tied-in with the Super Bowl, Doritos is currently in the final phase of it's $1 million Super Bowl ad challenge with consumers voting for one of five finalists eligible to win tickets to the Big Game.

 We're down to five final entries from nearly 2,000 submissions in the third annual Doritos “Crash the Super Bowl” contest. This year again, the winning ad will be aired during the broadcast of the Super Bowl. However, Dorito's has added another layer and will award the winning contestant $1 million if the Dorito's ad takes the #1 spot in the USA TODAY Ad Meter rankings that rates the popularity of the TV spots appearing during the game.

Voting is currently taking place online for one of the five ads and will continue just up until Jan. 25. Voters automatically have a chance at winning a pair of ticket to the Super Bowl. 21 pairs will be awarded, one pair per day.

The final five ads have been submitted by the following participants: Joe Herbert of Batesville, IN; Oren Brimer of New York, NY; Eric Heimbold of Venice, CA, Chris Roberts of Burbank, CA, and Michael Goubeaux of Los Angeles. They were chosen by a panel of Doritos judges and will each be awarded $25,000 and a trip to Tampa Bay to view the game from luxury suites.

“They are literally about to give Madison Avenue a run for its money,” Ann Mukherjee, Doritos group vice president of marketing, said in a statement.

While visiting the Web site, those voting in the contest can view all of the 1,961 ads that were submitted during the contest entry period - Oct. 3-Nov. 16, 2008.

Take a look back to learn more about Dorito's previous Crash The Super Bowl Contests here. This is my third year covering this promotion which has become the model for consumer-generated content contests. So, who do you think will be the winner this year?

Campbell Soup Promo Invites You to Vote for Your Favorite Dress and Protect Your Heart

Today I wrote my first 2009 post on Lipsticking and I choose a promotion that seemed the most appropriate to begin the year. It's one that clearly is marketing to women online; it includes fashion and a currently popular woman celebrity; it's for a great cause; and it's from a brand that we all have grown up with.

So please hop on over to Lipsticking here and read about how the Campbell Soup Co. has teamed up with television, film and Broadway star Jane Krakowski of NBC's "30 Rock" and runway designer Nicole Miller in the "AdDress Your Heart" promotion. It's all about raising funds and awareness for the American Heart Association's Go Red For Women movement.

This coming week it'll be time to start the annual countdown to the SuperBowl with posts covering this year's promotions and ads. So please stay tuned!

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

Unilever Digital Marketing Campaigns top PMA's Summit

Yesterday I attended PMA's first annual Digital Marketing Summit which was held at an interesting location, the Bridgewaters at the South Street Seaport. It was a beautiful day so it was great to have a location like this that allowed the sun to shine through the windows and skylights as well as having a wrap around terrace that enabled us to walk outside during the breaks. It was however a bit technology challenged with sun glares hitting the presentation screen, videos not running on queue and mics that left somewhat to be desired. But all in all it was worth the trade-off.

Rob Master, North American Media Director for Unilever kicked off the morning with a history of some of the most successful digital marketing campaigns that all came from Unilever brands. Rob shared with us that overall Unilever has shifted from digital being just a part of the media plan to this year it being the centerpiece of their strategy. They've made an organizational commitment to this strategy and have agreed not to plan online in isolation. Their key driver is consumer engagement and they have consistently reached this goal through rich storytelling that has helped to bring their brands to life.

Their journey first began with the Axe brand when they created some entertaining and engaging content specifically for online which ended up going viral. They first showed these short form films, "mini-stories" as they were calling them, to focus groups and tried to explain what these online programs were. This resulted in the term "webisode" first being put on the map.

Dove's Calming Nights products followed up next with a campaign which featured three original webisodes directed by Penny Marshall and starting Desperate Housewives actress Felicity Huffman. These webisodes which could be viewed on dovenight.com showed Felicity dreaming of visiting classic TV moms such as "Leave it to Beaver" mom June Cleaver, "The Munsters" mother Lily Munster and "The Brady Bunch" mom Carol Brady.

Next followed the birth of the "Viral Video" with the creation of Dove's now famous "Evolution". This video had legs way beyond their wildest estimates and proved that consumers are in control. 

Rob then shared with us an Evolution video parody that was posted here on YouTube.  Instead of a quick progression of a woman getting more beautiful, it was of a man getting fatter, older and uglier. Dove embraced this video instead of trying to shut it down.

Unilever’s I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter brand created an animated webisode series which turned its main character, Spraychel, into a star. Spraychel ’08 used political humor and asked the public to vote for her vs. butter and “demand 0 calories and great taste”.

Klondike Bar ran a consumer-generated video contest asking "What Would You Do for a Klondike Bar?". Some great videos have been submitted that can be viewed here which prove that there are some huge fans out there that love their Klondike Bars. Final winner should be announced this week.

“In The Motherhood” is a program developed by the Suave brand which started out by asking women bloggers to write about funny moments of being a mom. From these posts Suave has turned these stories into scripts and created a series of webisodes. They showed these at ABC’s upfront presentation this year since they will be moving them to primetime on the network this season. Here’s a great example of content starting online and moving to TV vs. TV shows going online.

So Rob wrapped up his review of the past and present digital marketing campaigns by giving us his recommendations on the top three ingredients that should be included:

1.    Provide a cross section of media that helps to bring the program to life

2.    Include relevant links to pop culture that provide opportunities for engagement and amplification

3.    Make sure you have rich and innovative storytelling at the center of the idea

Thanks Rob for sharing all this with us and kick-starting our day.

Stay tuned here to read more from some of the other great presenters PMA had lined up for us this day. I’ll be reviewing what we learned from McDonald’s, Borders.com, Digitas as well as those mobile experts who told us how to start implementing mobile into our online campaigns.