Donna's Promo Talk

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.” 

SocialSweeps - Integrating Interactive Promotions with Social Media For a Winning Combination

Last week I wrote this post about the new Wildfire App that enables marketers to easily promote their interactive promotions on social media platforms such as Facebook and MySpace. The real benefit that I pointed out is the viral marketing component that social networks enable. 

This prompted me to utilize a term that I first used a year or so ago called SocialSweeps. I define SocialSweeps as an interactive promotion, such as a sweepstakes, contest or instant-win game, that integrates with at least one social media platform to help create awareness and buzz.

Interactive promotions are powerful ways to motivate interaction on the Internet. They are highly measurable and most of the time can be very effective when integrated with the right incentive, however they certainly can't achieve defined objectives if proper awareness of the promotion is not created.

So now by integrating a promotion with the viral features of social media you can spread the word about your promotion and your company far more widely and cost effectively than ever before. I believe it is this type of marketing that can create positive brand awareness and is a perfect fit with many types of social media, especially social networks.

HBO Promotes Season 2 of True Blood With Sweepstakes & Social Media Created by Vampires

I didn't get a chance to write a blog post yesterday because I was preparing for my daughter's graduation party which we hosted at our home. I believe it was a success and think that everyone had a good time. We were a bit anxious when some huge thunderstorms came rambling through late yesterday morning and some hail was reported. But it cleared up and ended up being a beautiful night.

I've been trying to write my Friday/Saturday posts about interactive promotions tied in with entertainment marketing since there as so many big moives released during the summer season. However, I already wrote earlier about the Transformers, Transform Your Dad, a big promotion Kmart did for Father's Day. The movie opened nationwide this past Wednesday instead of Friday and it's been way in the lead at the box office. So there really isn't another movie coming even close to it this week to report on.

What has been big this week is the start of the second season of HBO's TrueBlood which premiered last Sunday. HBO really used social media in some innovative ways to promote the return of season 2 such as creating a blog called BloodCopy which is written by true vampires and creating a microsite, The American Vampire League, which is all about protecting the rights of vampires. Then there is The Fellowship of the Sun which is the ministry created to protect their members against vampires. HBO also set up Facebook Fan Pages for each: here's the BloodCopy Fan Page, the AVL Fan Page and the one for Fellowship. Fans can follow them here on Twitter as well as various vampire character pages such as @SomniusX. Plus they have developed this BloodCopy Wiki.

HBO is running the Escape the Everyday Sweepstakes with a grand prize of $10,000 towards HBO, TV service, Internet, phone and so more courtesy of HBO. There are also instant win prizes consisting of the True Blood Season 1 DVDs, Fangtasia, Fellowship of the Sun and American Vampire League t-shirts and True Blood Logo mugs. The sweepstakes began on May 23 and ends July 3. 

To play the game you first have to choose if you want to be on the side of the mortals or the vampires. There's a viral marketing component to this as well where visitors can "Suck in Your Friends" by sending them an email post card inviting them to play or posting this widget on their Facebook page or many other social media options.

BMW's Mini teamed up with HBO with a co-branded print and digital ad campaign. Their Mini was one of several real brands being pitched to vampires. The campaign is comprised of national print, online and out-of-home outlets. The ads featuring blood-red versions of the Mini Cooper and Mini Clubman, have headlines like: "Feel the Wind in Your Fangs" and "Type GO." Digital ads ran on Yahoo, CNN, AOL, the TrueBlood home page on HBO.com, and the show's microsites.

Wildfire's Online Promotions App Helps Promote AT&T's Favorite Foursome Sweeps on Facebook

I first wrote this post called Interactive Promotions Together with Blogs Create a Winning Combination back in February of 2008. Well now that social media has really gone mainstream, it's not just integrating promotions with blogs, but also with social networks like Facebook, which is now the largest social network, and Twitter, which has become the fastest growing web brand. Back when I wrote this post I coined the term "Social Sweeps" and I've seen quite a lot of these types of promotions make their appearance since then.

Interactive promotions are highly measurable and most of the time can be very effective when integrated with the right incentive, however they certainly can't achieve defined objectives if proper awareness of the promotion is not created. Well now this new company called Wildfire Interactive has created a web tool and Facebook application that can help do just that. With the Wildfire App you can create an integrated promotional campaign for your brand on Facebook, Ning, MySpace and your website that includes a sweepstakes or a user generated contest.

Wildfire is currently in beta and it's been by invite only. I requested an invite, so I'm on board and just dying to try out a first promotion utilizing it on Facebook. I've got a couple of small programs I'm working on that may be a good fit for this.

A current promotion that I entered and have promoted on my Facebook Page is for an adventure travel agency called Access Trips that's based in New Zealand. They are utilizing the Wildfire App to promote their Brazil Surfing Trip Sweepstakes. So I entered the sweeps and invited two of my friends on Facebook to join me if I win. Then I invited some of my other Facebook friends to enter the sweepstakes.

AT&T has integrated the Wildfire App into one of their big summer promotions. Up until just yesterday, June 22, golf fans could enter the AT&T “Favorite Foursome” sweepstakes to win a VIP trip for themselves and three friends to the final two days of the 2009 AT&T National Tournament, to be played July 4 and 5 at the Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, MD.

AT&T offered three different ways to get into the game. One was through mobile using any wireless carrier in which fans could text TRIP to 21234 to be automatically entered for a chance to win. They could also visit AT&T’s Facebook page in which they could enter using the Wildfire App and they could also choose to invite three of their Facebook friends to join their own “Favorite Foursome” and in exchange could get a special AT&T national sweepstakes graphic posted to their Facebook Wall.

The third method of entry into the Favorite Foursome Sweepstakes was by clicking through a banner ad at the AT&T Fan Zone web site and filling out an entry form there. The winner will be selected by a random drawing from all the entry methods and win four round-trip flights to Washington DC, two nights of lodging, transportation passes and access to the Grey Goose lounge at the event, and a $400 gift certificate redeemable at the competition’s Front 9 merchandise area, among other perks. I entered, so wish me luck!

The new twist that the Wildfire App brings to the promotion is the viral marketing component on Facebook. Those that have hundreds of friends on Facebook can promote it on their wall and very easily invite their friends. So I believe it is this type of brand awareness that is a perfect fit for social networks. If anyone would like more information you can contact me or Wildfire. I would be happy to toss around some ideas on how it may be a good fit with your marketing objectives and get one of these started!

Father's Day Photo Blog Sponsorship Giveaway

In light of Father's Day being tomorrow I'm writing this post regarding a Father's Day Blog Giveaway promotion. Now I usually don't do these sponsored posts because I write mostly to marketing folks about online promotions. But I thought that since these types of blog contests and giveaways are becoming so popular, why not see how they actually work. Plus, all of us marketing folks are consumers as well and the majority of us will be celebrating Dad's day in one way or another.

So this giveaway is sponsored by UPrinting.com who even sent me a jpeg image of their logo so I could easily include it in my post, so here it is. They are offering $250 in prize money and and a free 16"x20" Gallery Wrapped Canvas Print to the blogger that they randomly select who follows the criteria for entering. So far I've said that UPriting is the sponsor and I've included their logo. Now I have to post a photo related to Father's Day and include some captions describing it. Here goes:

This is a photo of my dad, Alfred, with me taken back in early March of this year. I went down to visit my parents who now live in the Myrtle Beach area for a long weekend and we had some beautiful weather. We're sitting out by the pool here in my sister Fran's backyard.

My father has been a hero this past year. He's been supporting my mom who has cancer and who had to go back on chemo treatment after a recent surgery to remove her gal bladder. So we're are all so grateful to my Dad for all he's been doing to help our mom and all that he will continue to do. My father has always been so strong and supportive during any major crisis in our lives. It was always the little stuff that we fretted over too much. We love you Dad!

So perhaps I'll win the top prize and get to take everyone out to dinner on my next visit down south. If not then at least my sister will hopefully show this to my Dad since he still doesn't have his own computer.

Now back to the promotion. I also have to tell you a little bit about our sponsor. UPrinting.com is a leading online provider of business cards, color brochures and mailing postcards. They started this Blog Sponsorship Program earlier this year and invited me to register, so I did. I didn't participate in their first promotion in which they gave away $100 last month. Now I wasn't going to participate in this one either, but they were persistent and sent me another email message that they were extending the deadline for Father's Day till June 29. The winner will be selected on Tuesday, June 30th, so wish me luck. The next one is a Summer Photo Contest, so stay tuned for that.

You can learn more about UPrinting and their Blog Sponsorship Program on their UPrinting Blog. They wrote that they weren't sure at first how bloggers would react, "but that all changed during March and April. Applications from those that had participated in our competitions and promotions began streaming in at an alarming rate." So if you're a blogger and interested in registering to participate in their Blog Sponsorship program you can here.

My fellow Kodak friends should take note of this promotion. Hopefull they'll see it posted on my Facebook page! Many other brands are starting to participate in social media marketing programs like this for bloggers. If anyone is interested in doing something like this please contact me. We have a great network of women bloggers and readers you can tap into through the Lip-Sticking.com network. And again, a Happy Father's Day to my Dad and to my husband, Kevin, and all you dads!

Jeff Hayzlett, Kodak's CMO, Talks About Social Media to Benefit the Rochester Ad Council

I've now been a guest blogger for Lip-sticking.com for the past nine months and have been contributing a post every other Wednesday. Well, this week I started my weekly schedule which will now consist of every Wednesday, with maybe a few exceptions here and there. I'm very honored to be one of the five women bloggers on this site and looking forward to continuing my contribution to this girlfriend community in which we cover topics on marketing to women including promotional and social media campaigns targeted to women.

Today was the annual luncheon of the Rochester Advertising Council which I attended as I have done for many years so my blog post on Lip-sticking was about this event. The Rochester Ad Council is an impressive organization unlike any other local Ad Council in the country. It connects many of the local non-profits to us marketing and communication professionals who donate our time and talents to help them with their marketing efforts. This annual luncheon is the organization's biggest fund raiser and has brought in some notable speakers in the past, such as the Domestic Diva herself, Martha Stewart who visited here two years ago as well as Rochester's Mayor, Bob Duffy who spoke last year.

This year's keynote speaker was Jeff Hayzlett, CMO and VP of Eastman Kodak Company who spoke about Kodak and Social Media. You can continue reading about Jeff's presentation here on Lip-sticking in which he totally engaged the audience very much.

I hope you all continue to follow me both here and on Lip-sticking and please feel free to contribute at either blog. I thank you for your continued support.

Pixar & Disney's UP Partners with Northwest Airlines on a MySpace Sweeps

Today's Friday and new at the box office this weekend is the much anticipated animated film "UP" from the folks at Pixar and Walt Disney Studios. So let's take a look at who ended up as the prime entertainment marketing partner associated with this family film.

Northwest Airlines WorldVacations teamed up with Disney to create the “Up Adventure of a Lifetime” Sweepstakes. To enter, users have to be registered on MySpace and then list the UP MySpace profile page as one of their top friends on their own profile page. Next they need to add a comment to the UP MySpace profile page. The winner will be chosen randomly and receive a three-night trip for four to any European location serviced by Northwest Airlines. The sweeps is open till June 8.

Besides offering a way to enter the sweepstakes, UP's MySpace page let visitors view trailers of the film and watch short episodes with the movie’s main characters, learn more about the characters, read a plot synopsis, view a gallery of stills, and download wallpapers, posters and buddy icons. The MySpace profile page links to both the movie’s official page and to a dedicated movie page on Yahoo with videos, stills and a countdown widget.

Reviews from both the critics and the viewers are both giving UP an A- so far. So it should have a great weekend at the box office. Walt Disney Pictures also has some surprises for their guests who attend a Disney movie on opening weekend. The Jonas Brothers are scheduled to show up at radom at a few select theatres.

So let me know if any of you go to see the movie this weekend, and if you run into the Jonas Brothers!

Digital Moms Survey Part 2 - Connecting through Social Networks

A couple of weeks ago I wrote this post on Lipsticking which was Part 1 of the "Digital Mom" study conducted by Razorfish and CafeMom. They surveyed 1,500 online moms who are reported users of at least two Web 2.0 technologies and have actively researched or purchased online within the last three months. Part 1 told us about the ways moms are consuming media and the range of emerging technologies they have embraced. Most of the findings fortify what we already know, so it's great to have some third-party findings to back them up.

Today I wrote again on Lipsticking regarding Part 2 of the report which deals mostly with Connecting with Moms through social networks. It includes an overview of the five core segments of socially connected moms that they have profiled that represent a diverse mix of varied life experiences, values and motivations. For this part of the survey a random sample of CafeMom active users were asked to complete an in-depth survey in which these key findings are based on 1,740 members who completed it.

Moms today are spending more time on the Internet and dedicating an increasing share of that online time to social networks than ever before. The majority of moms indicated that their use of the Internet has increased over the last 24 months, and that this increase in web usage has come at the expense of traditional media. Moms reported spending 18.5 hours per week online, including an average of 8.1 hours on the social networking site CafeMom.