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

T-Mobile's Home for the Holidays Campaign Goes Viral

You may have already seen and heard about this holiday campaign from T-Mobile: There's no Place Like Home for the Holidays. You know the saying and the song, right? 

T-Mobile hired 100 women who joined their corporate spokeswoman, Carly Foulkes, back on December 1 and staged a surprise performance of this song in the Woodfield Mall outside of Chicago. We all know Carly, that striking brunette that appears in T-Mobile ads wearing that signature color, magenta dress. T-Mobile selected 100 women from different races and ethnic background, shapes and sizes, who all got to wear that same magenta dress and surprise shoppers by prancing around the mall singing that song and encouraging all to join in.

The performance was filmed by director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, who has directed several episodes of Glee. It was then edited down into a three-minute video that has now been going viral on YouTube and on the T-Mobile Facebook page. You just can't help but smile when you watch this video which is the same feeling for those that are hooked on Glee.

Trish Cox, senior director of advertising and brand at T-Mobile had stated that women consumers really had a fascination with Carly and her magenta dress. “One of the things that has taken hold [with the campaign] were the magenta dresses she’s wearing,” Cox says. “Over the course of time, we’ve asked ourselves what we could do to capitalize on this idea.”

Since the video was posted on YouTube last week it already has nearly 2 million views. So it has definitely gone viral. T-mobile is also promoting it through rich-media banner advertising and some paid search ads. They also are planning to send it to their customers and employees as a “special holiday greeting”.

To further engage their customers, T-Mobile has also launched the Home for the Holidays Sweepstakes on their Facebook page which invites fans to write, in 100 words or less, why they want to go home to visit their families for the holidays. Three lucky winners will be selected from all the entries who will receive round trip travel to anywhere in the United States so they can spend the holidays with the ones they love. The sweepstakes ends today, so if you're what to enter you need to check it out now.

The campaign is all intended to reinforce the company’s position as one that is “all about connecting and sharing and providing connections and relationships among people,” Cox says. In my opinion it's also another great example of how to successfully market to women, integrate video with a promotional sweepstakes and engage fans on Facebook. I am not a T-Mobile customer, and won't be switching from Verizon anytime soon, but I am enjoying this video and hope you do as well. I am also really looking forward to my daughters coming home for the holidays.

Marketing Your Company During the Holidays and Beyond - Podcasts from my Christmas Eve WCEOhq Radio Show talk

This past Christmas Eve day I had the honor to again be a guest on the CEO Hour on WCEOhq Radio. This is an interactive two-hour Intenet radio show broadcast live on Fridays from noon to 2 pm EST and available as podcasts to listen to online at WCEOhq Radio Archives or to dowload and listen off your computer, iPhone, Droid or Blackberry. Since it was the Christmas holiday the assumption was that the "live" audience wouldn't be very big, so I thought I'd share the recorded podcasts of my segments here.

The show's theme was Marketing Your Company: During the Holidays and Beyond which was focused on how businesses are celebrating the holidays this year and a look into trends and forecasts for 2011. So I invite you to take a listen to my segments and let me know what you think of my 2011 predictions, and  also would love input on how you think I did as a radio voice.

If you would like more info about the show and have an interest in possibly participating please contact me. They are always looking for interesting guests.  Thanks and I hope you had a wonderful Christmas.

Part 1:  MP3 File

Part 2:  MP3 File

 

Atlas Shrugged Video Contest utilizes Facebook to help spread the word

Some of you may be old enough to remember reading Atlas Shrugged back in high school, a novel by Ayn Rand first published in the U.S. in 1957. The novel's title is a reference to Atlas, a titan in Greek mythology. Atlas carried the weight of the heavens on his shoulders. In Ayn Rand's classic novel, the thinkers, the innovators, the doers of the world must carry the weight of a world gone wrong.

Now over 50 years later Atlas Shrugged has become popular again. In light of today's economy and political landscape a whole new generation has been reading the book. So the Ayn Rand Institute (ARI) decided to create a new Atlas Shrugged website to further promote the book to today's online world. To help increase exposure and drive traffic to the site they also decided to develop a user-generated contest.

I have had the privilege of working with the team over the past six months on The Atlas Shrugged Video Contest which we launched at the beginning of November. It invites people to create a short web video, three minutes maximum, describing how Ayn Rand’s epic story relates to current issues in today's society or in their own life. Submission are being accepted up until December 8.

A panel of judges selected by the Ayn Rand Institute will chose a grand prize winner who will receive $5,000 and a 2nd prize winner who will receive a $1,000. Judges will look for a video that is original, clear, articulate, logical and creative. There will also be a Viewer’s Choice winner who will be chosen by the public as the video that receives the most votes. They will receive an Apple iPad loaded with writings and videos of Ayn Rand. Voting will continue up until December 22.

I initially made the recommendation to ARI's agency, Emerge Partners, who developed the overall contest, to utilize the WildfireApp as the platform to host it. I had just completed the Blog Paws or Bust Video Contest using Wildfire and learned quite a bit about using this app. The app enables you to access the contest from both the Atlas Shrugged website as well as off the Atlas Shrugged Facebook Page. Emerge Partners developed this video that appears on both sites and communicates the contest details.

ARI and the team at Emerge Partners have been promoting the contest on Facebook, Twitter and through email and have also reached out to some bloggers who write about contests. We are just now starting to get some vides uploaded and have five as of today. We've gotten many incomplete submissions, those that entered without uploading a video. So I've been following up with them and most say they are still working on their video, so we anticipate a good response to this contest.

By utilizing the Facebook platform for this contest it allows other people to help spread the word. When someone enters they can post their video on their wall which will then appear in their news feeds to all their friends. The app also allows for them to send a personal invite to up to six of their Facebook friends in which they can then ask them to visit the Atlas Shrugged Facebook page and vote for their video and also to encourage them to enter. This is another great example of a Social Sweeps program which combines the benefits of social media and promotional marketing.

So I invite you to visit the Atlas Shrugged Video contest, tell me what you think and also to help spread the word. Lights. Camera. Activism.

Top Ten VIral Videos of All Time from Ad Age

I was going to skip writing a blog post today since it's the start of the Labor Day weekend and there isn't much online activity going on. But, hey I'm still at my computer and it's after 4 pm EST on Friday, so why not?

My last post was on YouTube's Day in the Life video project. So when I read this article, Advertising Age's Top 10 Viral Ads of All Time, I thought I'd pass it along. Yes, Mr. Old Spice does make the list, but he's not #1. What does take the #1 spot happens to be one of the first viral videos to hit YouTube almost four years ago and is still going strong.

Will it Blend? from Blendtec takes the honors. It now has it's own YouTube channel with over 100 video uploads and over 323,000 subscribers. Here's the highly popular Will it Blend iPad version.

Now they aren't the oldest video on the list. Pepsi's Gladiator was first launched on January 1st, 2004, featuring a much younger Britney Spears, along with Beyonce and Pink. Check it out.

So, if you happen to get stuck inside this weekend because of Hurricane Earl, well at least you can spend some time on YouTube checking out the rest of the videos on the Ad Age List as well as those from A Day In the Life project. Hope you have a great holiday weekend whatever your plans are. 

2010 FIFA World Cup gets underway and marketers gain exposure from many video views

The world's most popular sporting event, the FIFA World Cup™ kicked off on Friday, June 11, in South Africa. This is the first time the 32 final teams are competing for the world’s most sought after trophy on the African continent. The final will be played July 11, 2010 at the Soccer City Stadium in Johannesburg.

Since last week #worldcup has been on Twitter's top trending list along with #Italy, #forzaItalia and #paraguay. Us Americans are even getting into the sport this year especially since our team won their first match on Saturday against England which was a big upset. They play Solvenia next this Friday, the smallest country at the FIFA World Cup.

These games are an advertiser's dream from a global standpoint. Recent stats released from Web video analytics firm Visible Measures puts Nike's "Write The Future" campaign at #2 on their top 10 viral video list from last week. The three-minute video has been viewed over 22.8 million times in just three weeks. The ad follows soccer stars like Italy's Cannevaro, England's Wayne Rooney, Brazil's Ronaldinho, and Spain's Ronaldo in action as alternate versions of their futures flash before their eyes.

Pepsi, although not an official sponsor of the World Cup, and its Oh Africa campaign has been viewed more than 11.8 million times since being uploaded to the Web in early March. The campaign features international stars like Lionel Messi and Thierry Henry playing African kids on an animated soccer field and is now attracting over a million views a week.

Coca-Cola is the only official World Cup sponsor that made last week's list and, ironically, had nothing to do with uploading it online. Coca-Cola's History of Celebration campaign, which traces the inception and history of World Cup goal celebrations, was actually uploaded by South African magazine Marketing Mix in early March, and has since racked up over 570,000 views online

Here in the states Coca-Cola is sponsoring a FIFA World Cup Promotion with their Powerade brand. There is an online sweepstakes offering a chance to win $10,000 towards a Home Depot Room Makeover in the form of a gift card along with eight $1,000 Home Depot gift cards. They are also running an instant win game from codes given out on the product for chances to win Coca-Cola FIFA World Cup™ branded soccer balls, t-shirts, hats and more Home Depot gift cards.  

A few years ago I worked with The Vidal Partnership on a promotion for Wendy's tied to the 2007 Coppa America Tournament held in Venezuela that year. I fulfilled the prizes for the promotion and sent three grand prize winners to the game and gave out many branded items for the secondary prizes. I had some very happy winners. 

Good luck to all the teams. Let's hope for good sportsmanship, teamwork and behavior from the fans. Social media combined with a big sporting event such as this is great way to bring the world closer together.

MomsRising Video follows the rules and goes viral!

Many times I've heard this question asked, "Does your company create viral videos?". The answer to that is clearly no. A company can't really create a viral video, however, there are many that create videos. It's really up to the people if the video goes viral.

Well now we have a another great example of a new viral video. It was created by the organization, MomsRising, which works to bring together millions of people who share a common concern about the need to build a more family-friendly America. Their Mother of the Decade video was released just in time for Mother's Day and already has been sent to over a million people and has received many hundreds of thousand reviews. It also has been featured throughout the blogoshphere in many, many blog posts, just like this one.

The video utilizes some fairly innovative technology that allows for personalizing the content with an individual's name throughout the video, and not just in plain text. This was sent through an email marketing campaign to members of MomsRising.org. Here's the link to my personal video:

Utilizing new technology alone is not going to guarantee you that you'll have a viral hit on your hands. Here's some of the basic rules you need to incorporate into any social media campaign, including viral marketing, if you want it be be successful.

1. Make it relevant - It's all about knowing who your target audience is and giving them content that they will relate to and engage with.

2. Make it personal - When you can, add as much personalization to your message as you can. But if you can't do one-to-one, then customize into as many different segments as you are able.

3. Make it brief - People today have the attention span of 2.7 seconds, about as long as it takes to read a tweet or text. Grab them in the first 8 seconds and then try and deliver your message in the next 50 seconds.

4. Make it creative - Entertain your audience and incorporate images, graphics, type design and talent that will add to your message, not detract from it.

5. Make it easy to share - Provide the tools (links, buttons, widgets, email) to enable your audience to pass the word and share it with their friends along with the catch phrase you would like them to use.

I immediately went and shared this with five women friends that I thought would appreciate it's clever message personalized just for them. Today I found out that one of the women that I'm currently working with on developing a custom Facebook page for one of my clients had her hand in this project. Very cool.

So next time someone asks if I can help them create a viral video, I just may say yes, but only if we follow these rules.

#PMABlur Conference Day One Highlights: Mt. Dew's DEWmocracy & Jet Blue's Twitter programs engage customers

Day one of Blur, PMA’s 2010 Integrated Marketing Conference got underway today. I arrived in Chicago this morning a little behind schedule since my plane out of Rochester was delayed because the crew was late! They arrived with breakfast bags in hand and told us once we got settled on the plane that they had a late night.

I just became a new user of Foursquare and used the location-based tool to do my first official check-in at the Fairmont Hotel here in Chicago and got my first points. The only other “friend” that checked in at the Fairmont was David Berkowitz. He’s been using the tool much longer then I have and has been on a multi-city trip around the country the past couple of weeks. So when I caught up with him later I asked for a few tips on how this is supposed to work.

I missed the opening session which was a welcome from Bonnie Carlson, PMA’s president, and then the opening keynote from Univision Communications. I settled in to hear Marc Hanson from Pepsi’s Mt. Dew speaking about their integrated marketing campaign, DEWmocracy. They ran the first part of this campaign in the summer of 2008, tying into the presidential election year. They asked consumers to vote for their next Mt. Dew in which they gave them a choice of a red, white or blue flavor. Voltage, a red raspberry flavor, won with 43% of the votes and Mt. Dew rolled out the new product in 1st quarter ’09.

The ROI Mt. Dew saw was 36 million cases of product sold, 85% which was incremental. They achieved this through off-shelf placements in end caps, coolers and other locations at retail. They claim that the campaign was all about “bringing the voice of consumers and a unique product to store shelves”.

I’m skipping now to my favorite break-out session of the afternoon which was in the Digital track from the marketing team at Jet Blue, Morgan Johnston and Tara Ryan-Carson. They shared with us some of what they’ve learned over the past year as they’ve experimented with social media, mostly Twitter. They started off talking about how they dealt with a crisis situation when one of their jets sat on the tarmac at JFK for hours enraging customers and becoming a PR nightmare. They learned that they needed to listen to the customers' complaints and explain to them as best they could how they were going to fix it for the future.

Disney's Alice in Wonderland scores well on Facebook

Last Friday we finally had the long-awaited theatrical release of Disney's Alice in Wonderland. Casting Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, together again with Tim Burton, was enough to get all of us fans charged up. Unfortunately I haven't yet had the chance to see the movie and I understand the reviews have not been so positive. When your expectations are so high, it's sometimes hard to live up to them. Nevertheless I still plan to see the film soon in the theater.

I did become a fan of the Alice in Wonderland Facebook fan page, which as of today has over 1.1 million fans. I think they've done a pretty good job of engaging the fans. They've included some fun applications and have been updating the wall consistently with video clips of the movie and interviews of the cast members as well as short polls. 

The one, fun app they've developed invites fans to join the Mad Hatter and his army to battle the red queen. Fans can replace the Mad Hatter's face in an image with a face from one of their Facebook photos which can then be shared with friends. So I've included mine here.

Fans can watch the movie trailer and also purchase tickets to see the movie at a theater in their area from right off the page. The polls ask you simple questions like "who's your favorite character?" and  "who would you most like to be?" And of course fans can also see what all the other fans are saying about the movie, most of what I see on the page is very positive.

So effective social media marketing with Facebook fan pages doesn't have to be a very complicated issue. Sometimes the simpler the better. The trick is to engage your fans so they keep coming back. Therefore, the more you post, the more they can interact with you. And each time they interact with you it then provides you with the opportunity to gain more fans by having them share your brand and your message with their friends. So we all don't have to go MAD trying to be too WONDERFUL!

If you've seen the movie, please let us know what you think of it. Thanks.

We Are the World 25 for Haiti debuts during opening ceremonies of Olympic Winter games on NBC

Tonight is the opening ceremonies of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics which will include on NBC the debut of the updated version of "We Are the World", re-recorded to benefit the Haitian earthquake relief efforts. Twenty-five years ago, the iconic recording, “We Are The World” generated millions of dollars to help ease suffering in Africa and now "We are the World 25" will benefit the Haitian earthquake.

Original producer Quincy Jones and co-writer Lionel Richie both came back and assembled an amazing lineup of singers and actors back on Feb. 1st in Los Angeles to re-record the song. Kanye West, Janet Jackson, Celine Dion, Barbra Streisand, Pink, Lil Wayne, Miley Cyrus, Jennifer Hudson, Santana, Jeff Bridges and "Slumdog Millionaire" composer A.R. Rahman are among the nearly 80 performers who all donated their time and talents.

The song will be available to download on iTunes immediately following the world premiere on NBC by visiting www.WORLD25.org. The “We Are The World 25 For Haiti” video will also be on the We Are the World 25 YouTube Channel which will have a donate now button. They've incorporated some viral marketing tools such as this widget that can be grabbed off their website to embed on a blog or website to help spread the word. It includes all the many social media ways you can share as well as a link to the We are the World fan page on Facebook.

Coca-Cola, a worldwide sponsor of the Winter Olympic Games, has joined forces with the We Are the World 25 team to help further create awareness and encourage people to donate through multiple ways. Here's a few:

The Coca-Cola Digital Network (CDN), which consists of 29 electronic billboards located in 20 major cities, will for the first time ever carry non-stop messaging from 9:00 p.m. ET on Friday until midnight Saturday. The boards will display the “We Are The World 25 For Haiti” logo and remind people to view the video and visit the website to download the song or purchase the DVD.

They are also dedicating their Times Square Spectacular sign to include the “We Are the World 25 For Haiti” messaging.

Coca-Cola's Facebook Fan Page will feature updates about “We Are The World 25 For Haiti” that will be shared with the more than 5 million Coca-Cola fans.

Celebrities and athletes that are part of the Coca-Cola Family will be using their social networks through their websites, Facebook pages and Twitter feeds to encourage people to support “We Are the World 25 For Haiti.”

My Coke Rewards will send emails and text messages to it's 15 million members encouraging people to view the video and visit the website.

So tune in tonight starting at 7:30 p.m. EST, download and donate! Let the Games Begin!

Super Bowl XLIV Sunday is here; Budweiser is Ad leader & Facebook Fans pick the Clydesdales #SB44

Super Bowl XLIV Sunday is finally here and while it's a frigid 17 degrees here in Western New York this morning, and the mid-Atlantic region is buried under two-feet of snow, the forecast for South Florida is a balmy high of 69 degrees and no precipitation. Well it's a good day to stay inside, watch some football and eat and drink. I'm sure many will blame the weather as a reason not to go to work tomorrow.

Well I've been writing and tweeting about the advertising and marketing surrounding Super Bowl XLIV for the past 2-3 weeks now. So we'll finally get to see what all the hoopla is about. Yes I'm hoping it will be a close game, but the Colts are definitely the favorite over the Saints.

Last week I tweeted about this one article from the Inside Facebook blog "Facebook Marketing Goes to the Super Bowl" which seemed to get many retweets, so I thought I'd share it here. Check out the post, it's a good summary of who has integrated the social networking site into their marketing mix. By the way, did you happen to hear the news Facebook shared on it's 6th birthday? They rolled out their new home page and announced they now have 400 million worldwide users!

I wanted to write today about Super Bowl XLIV's biggest advertiser, Budweiser, who has bought five minutes of air time during the game. At the going rate of $3 million for a :30 spot that equates to $30 million! Now I'm sure they negotiated a package price, but still we must drink a lot of beer in this country for that to pay off!

What the marketing folks at Anheuser-Bush did differently this year was to ask fans on their Facebook Page to view three different videos and then vote on their favorite that they'd like to see televised during the Super Bowl game. Each fan who voted could then publish the voting results to their wall so that it ended up in their news feed for their friends to see as a way to help the promotion go viral. The Inside Facebook blog post reported that 2,000 people had posted comments on the voting since it opened last Friday. The Budweiser Facebook page has slightly over 262,000 fans as of now.

Well obviously the voting is over by now and the favorite spot that will make its debut during the Super Bowl game is "Fence" which features the ever-popular Clydesdales. So as the Inside Facebook post states "Such a strategy definitely maximizes the audience of 100 million (or so) Super Bowl watchers and the approximately equal number of U.S. Facebook users, giving Budweiser potentially twice the audience for its buck."

Sorry Budweiser, but we stocked up on Labatt's Blue Light for today's game. Being so close to Canada, it's the best value going. Looking forward to the game, the ads and watching The Who perform at halftime! Let's go Colts!