17th
Integrating marketing. Or, throwing it on the wall and hoping it sticks…
So, we are precisely two days in to the release of our “Ed McMahon” series of videos that compliment our “traditional” FCR Band jingle commercials. While completely unplanned from a timing perspective, their release has coincided nicely with our YouTube cover song contest (of aforementioned jingles).
While we were careful (and contractually limited) not to link the Ed promotions to the contest directly, we did cross link accounts and micro-sites. And, are working on the generally accepted internet principle of more content = more activity across all properties. It seems to be raising awareness and both campaigns seem to be feeding off each other. However, we have yet to see any bloggers commenting on both campaigns or referencing each as a component of the other (or an overall strategy). We’ll see how that plays out. My initial take-away is that we *should* have been more dilligent with securing rights to Ed across media for *all* purposes, so we could have more flexibility with mash-up work.
On a related note, our YouTube homepage spot (an expensive proposition indeed) does seem to have been “worth it” in terms of exposure for and activity in, our contest. Probably would not have been as successful without it. This bodes well for YouTube as a “broadcast” medium for us. We’re stlll crunching the $/eyeball and activity numbers, but it looks promising (despite the hefty price tag). New initiatives of iTunes and T-shirt gadgets to help extend the brand and interactivity should also help. Also, *really* glad we engaged such a savvy blogger such as @Halcyon to handle our community outreach. If ever anyone doubts that talented community managers should *not* be part of the media budget, please email me directly. It is worth weight in gold.
More “results” to follow, of course we’re only 1/2 way through the show, with voting not set to begin until the week of 11/2. But, already we’ve received some very good, engaging covers of our ads, and it’s great to see folks engage with your brand like this….good stuff!
Stay tuned,
ACEdge
