A&E Freaks Viewers' Minds with Viral Smash
For cable TV network and WOMMA member company A&E, this summer has been all about viral marketing. That's thanks to a wildly successful promotion for the new season of "Criss Angel Mindfreak," which has not only generated a wealth of buzz for the show, but also increased its ratings by 18% over last season.
The viral campaign begins online at www.freakyourmind.com, where users are prompted to enter a friend's name and contact information. That friend then receives an email from the sender urging him or her to click on a link that points to a viral video clip in which Criss Angel guesses the user's name and does a card trick in which the user's phone number magically appears. Then, to top off the trick, Criss Angel calls that phone number with a promo for his TV series.
According to Guy Slattery, A&E's senior VP of consumer marketing, the campaign was still generating 45,000 videos per day as recently as last month -- well after the show's season premier.
