Creating Sustainable Social Experience Through Quality Consumer Word of Mouth: VIBE Goes Viral
Challenge: VIBE was seeking a differentiated experience targeting the urban community. They required user-generated video to support their Rap Battle Contest and consumer traction for their sponsor, the new AT&T. The content had to be free of copyright material; submissions had to align with sponsors’ requirements, and the initial influencers had to be quality independent artists. UnBound was tasked to... Continue reading...

HGTV Drives Online Buzz and Search Visibility for New Show
HGTV, a Scripps Networks channel, is America's leader in home and lifestyle programming, and sought to promote the new show "Living with Ed," a reality show about actor and environmental activist Ed Begley Jr. The objectives were to quickly generate awareness, inspire tune-in, drive traffic to the show's official site, and reach core and supplemental audiences. A quick search on... Continue reading...

Dove Summer Glow -- Word Of Mouth Campaign -- Australia
In 2006 Unilever Australia enlisted The Word Of Mouth Company to raise awareness of a new skin care segment -- self-tanning moisturizer -- and to start the buzz about their new product, Dove Summer Glow, via an evangelism program. Launching in March 2006, The Word Of Mouth Company started the Dove Summer Glow word of mouth marketing (WOMM) campaign in... Continue reading...

Survivors Raising Their Voices for Good
"Voices of MammoSite" is evangelist marketing: a national, volunteer-based, ambassador program supporting a unique breast conservation therapy for breast cancer patients. MammoSite 5-Day Targeted Radiation Therapy is a short-duration alternative to the challenges presented by typical therapy (lumpectomy, then six to eight weeks of whole breast radiation) and to the physical/emotional trauma of mastectomy. The Challenge: In 2006, roughly 110,000... Continue reading...

Anheuser-Busch Recycling Word-of-Mouth Project for St. Charles, Mo.
GOAL Anheuser-Busch Recycling wanted to increase the amount of recyclable materials -- particularly aluminum -- in the curbside recycling program and decrease materials that end up in landfills. Recycled aluminum is generally less expensive than purchasing new aluminum for cans and aluminum bottles. STRATEGY To develop a comprehensive Word-of-Mouth (WOM) marketing plan to help the company decrease materials that go... Continue reading...

American Skiing Company -- MyA41.com Passholder Community
People love to ski, and skiing is a social activity. The "All for One" season pass gave passholders living in the northeastern U.S. the unique opportunity to explore all of American Skiing Company's (ASC) northeast resorts -- Killington, Mount Snow, Attitash, Sugarloaf, and Sunday River. ASC had been exploring opportunities within social media and wanted to create a program that... Continue reading...

The DIFF Blog -- Searching the World for the DIFFerence
It was time for Quicken Loans to have a blog. We just didn't know what to blog about. Mortgages? Finance? Credit? Real Estate? Ummm. Boring. We really needed to come up with a theme for our blog that could show the things Quicken Loans does best. Focusing on our core business just didn't seem to have the appeal we were... Continue reading...

Getting Bloggers Onside
Problem: The launch of the Nokia 6682 SmartPhone, a cool technology-forward niche product without the budget of a mass launch, posed the challenge: How to get influential bloggers onside, to create awareness and sales? Solution: Nokia worked with Matchstick to develop a simple and innovative word of mouth marketing campaign. To solve the marketing challenge, Matchstick screened and recruited influential... Continue reading...

Second Chance Tree Project Takes Reforestation from Virtual World to Physical World
The Challenge 1) How do we, a social media agency, effectively enter and gain acceptance within Second Life? 2) How do we overcome "donor fatigue" and demonstrate the power of virtual worlds to positively impact a "real world" socially-responsible initiative on behalf of a reforestation non-profit partner, Plant-it 2020? The Concept Converseon took a cultural anthropological approach by spending a... Continue reading...

Jig-A-Loo Product Launch/ Awareness Campaign
Background: A favorite product in Canada for industrial and commercial uses since 1958, Jig-A-Loo launched to the Canadian retail sector a decade ago. In the Spring of 2007, Jig-A-Loo made its debut in the US. Challenge: Fanscape was approached by agencies Horizon and Taxi to deliver a creative and integrated online word-of-mouth marketing campaign designed to reach potential consumers and... Continue reading...

Clear Channel NEW! Populating Site with Musicians Campaign
Background: The NEW! website is Clear Channel's just-launched effort to discover new musicians and give exposure to talented artists. NEW! uses the strength of Clear Channel's local radio brands to introduce audiences to new and developing artists early, before songs are "on the radio." Listeners choose from hundreds of songs and videos, plus exclusive home videos and interviews. Challenge: Fanscape... Continue reading...

WOM Brings ACDSee to DigiScrappers
Digital Scrapbookers download images at a rate that results in their collections growing exponentially. Organizing soon becomes an obvious necessity. In conjunction with ACDSee staff, we utilized WOM and Web 2.0 tools to introduce ACDSee's powerful organizing capabilities to digital scrapbookers. The conversation started with a post in a forum outlining how ACDSee Photo Manager met our organizing needs. People... Continue reading...

Accelerade-ing the Atheletes
When the 800lb gorilla in the sports drinks category has a marketing spend 100 times greater than yours, how do you launch a new brand successfully, and at a premium? That was the challenge Cadbury-Schweppes asked Ammo to accept with the re-launch of Accelerade in the summer of 2006. We recommended inverting the usual logic: Rather than competing with Gatorade,... Continue reading...

Regiftable.com: Using a Microsite to Generate Word of Mouth Marketing
Challenge: How do you deliver credit education to consumers during the holiday season when spending is at an all-time high? Position: Money Management International, a nonprofit financial education organization, assumed that consumers would be looking for cost-saving resources and strategies. Our take was that, if done correctly, regifting may be a suitable alternative to purchasing holiday gifts. In addition, regifting... Continue reading...

Establishing Campus CEO as an Indispensable Tool for Aspiring Entrepreneurs
Kaplan Publishing hired Rose Communications to promote its big winter title: Campus CEO: The Student Entrepreneur's Guide to Launching a Multimillion Dollar Business. The book, by Randal Pinkett -- winner of NBC's The Apprentice, an academic superstar, and CEO of a multimillion dollar business -- empowers students to create and grow their ventures. Fresh Perspective Google. Yahoo! YouTube. Facebook. The... Continue reading...

Intriuging the Influencers
In December 2006, our agency was hired to amplify the launch of K-Y INTRIGUE, Johnson & Johnson's first premium lubricant. Our New York and San Francisco-based program reached sexually active female Influencers 25-35 years old, with a willingness to discuss intimate topics and share information on health and beauty. The Intrigue Concierge, who managed the program, set the mood for... Continue reading...

Carlo Rossi: Jug Simple
Carlo Rossi's iconic wine jug has been a staple on American shopping lists for decades. However, with its core consumer base growing older and the proliferation of new wine brands, the large-format wine category struggled to hold its ground at retail. Carlo Rossi needed a radical refresh to stay relevant. We needed to expand the market to a younger, more... Continue reading...

Creating Excitement for the Dell DJ Ditty
THE CHALLENGE: Dell wanted to enter the increasingly competitive digital music space. But, given that the brand had little music credentials, and would only be selling the DJ Ditty online and through mall kiosks, we needed an innovative strategy that could launch this new MP3 player into one of the most crowded categories in the world, to one of the... Continue reading...

Nike: Beware the Long Ball
The Challenge: Nike's Retail Brand Marketing division and their partner Dick's Sporting Goods wanted to own Major League Baseball's All Star Game weekend with a call that rallied the city of Pittsburgh and positioned both companies at the heart of baseball culture. That was a tall order given the hype and media frenzy surrounding the event. To stand out, our... Continue reading...

Age-o-Matic: Viral Campaign Allows People to See How They Will Look in the Year 2057 -- Or If They Stay in a Bad Job
Age-o-Matic: Viral Campaign Allows People to See How They Will Look in the Year 2057 -- Or If They Stay in a Bad Job WHO: * CareerBuilder.com * Cramer-Krasselt: Design and art elements * Oddcast: Web design and technology WHAT: When we were thinking about how to engage people online, giving them a chance to play with the brand seemed... Continue reading...

Dow Chemical: Giving Employees Something to Talk About
In March 2007, The Dow Chemical Company introduced a new tool designed to encourage, facilitate and amplify dialog among its 43,000 employees worldwide -- an internal blog authored by chairman and CEO Andrew Liveris. While a key goal of the Access Andrew blog was to communicate Andrew's vision to the organization and make him more accessible to employees at all... Continue reading...

How Quicken Loans Became A Yahoo! Answers Knowledge Partner
A majority of mortgage consumers do research online before choosing a mortgage product and mortgage company. Reaching those in the "research" phase is critical to influencing potential customers. That's why Quicken Loans saw a huge opportunity available with the launch of Yahoo! Answers and began putting together a program to become active in the Answers community; we wanted to provide... Continue reading...

PETCO Uses Online-WOM to Drive Conversion and Lower Return Rates
Challenge: In any extremely competitive online market the challenge to drive conversion, increase customer engagement, and lower return rates is at the forefront of every marketers mind. PETCO, a leading retailer of premium pet food, supplies, and services expressed the need to find an innovative way to harness its customer voice to improve its business. Solution: PETCO knew that they... Continue reading...

2007 Chambord Trade Influencer Education
While Chambord -- a black raspberry liqueur from France -- has good distribution and awareness, there is little knowledge of its point of difference. Through relationship building and the creation of brand education experiences, Chambord and Ammo's objective was to win support from Trade Influencers in 10 U.S. cities, before consumer marketing activity began in 2008. Ten Chambord Brand Ambassadors... Continue reading...

Launching Best Buy's Insignia 4GB Bluetooth MP3 Player
Situation: Best Buy, a Fortune 100 growth company, launched its Insignia 4-Gigabyte Bluetooth-Enabled MP3 Player, the first of its kind in the marketplace, exclusively on BestBuy.com. Best Buy needed to publicize the product via online avenues to drive traffic to their Web site for product purchase. Challenges: - Distinguish the Insignia Player from the crowded MP3 marketplace, including iPod. -... Continue reading...

Pandemic Flu Leadership Blog
The Department of Health and Human Services aims to encourage Americans to prepare now for pandemic flu. They are calling on leaders -- employers, civic and faith leaders, and health care providers -- to educate their communities, patients, employees and congregants about the importance of preparedness. Ogilvy PR coordinated a day long Leadership Forum in Washington D.C. to gather prominent... Continue reading...

DuPont Science Stories
With this pilot program, DuPont wanted to encourage conversations and increase awareness amongst an audience of "curiosity seekers." This is a group that is hungry for information and seeks out environments like blogs to gather it. Denuo concluded that DuPont's 200 year history of scientific innovation made for amazing stories. Researching these led to the discovery of a rich vault... Continue reading...

Cross-Country Hype for a Ride for Three Reasons
Bob Lee, a 65-year-old cancer survivor, is riding his bicycle 6,500 miles across America in A Ride for Three Reasons. 100% of all donations will go to three charities: American Cancer Society, Les Turner ALS Foundation and National Hospice Foundation. Quicken Loans is the main sponsor of A Ride for Three Reasons and we have created a new website and... Continue reading...

The LeBron Etch-A-Sketch Video - A Slam Dunk!
The Cleveland Cavaliers, a sister company of Quicken Loans, commissioned a professional Etch-A-Sketch illustration of LeBron James from Etch-A-Sketch artist George Vlosich. Vlosich video taped the entire five-hour process. From that source video, they created a five-and-a-half-minute video with prominent Quicken Loans/Cavaliers imagery and uploaded it to YouTube. The Quicken Loans Marketing team stepped in to promote the video and... Continue reading...

Reinforcing Brand Messaging with Fruity Cheerios
Situation: General Mills wanted to maintain buzz around Fruity Cheerios, a product introduced in summer 2006, while reinforcing brand messaging that Fruity Cheerios is a cereal moms and children can enjoy together "guilt-free." Challenges: - Maintain buzz around a product that was launched eight months prior to the start of the campaign - Find a way to reinforce brand messaging... Continue reading...

Introducing the Fiber One Chewy Bar: Driving Awareness and Sales Through Blog and Influencer-Based Outreach
Situation: General Mills introduced its newest product, Fiber One Chewy Bars. The company wanted to publicize the product via online avenues to raise awareness of the brand and encourage purchase. Challenges: - Distinguish the Fiber One Chewy Bars as tasty fiber supplement snack bar in an over-saturated snack bar market. - Execute campaign without an informational web site from the... Continue reading...

The Online Challenge of the 'Bounty One Sheet Challenge'
Situation: Manning, Selvage & Lee Digital was brought in to promote an online sweepstakes from Bounty called the "One Sheet Challenge," that invited consumers to submit an original essay explaining how they use one sheet of Bounty to clean tough messes. The grand prize was a $30,000 kitchen makeover. MS&L Digital began work on the project five weeks before the... Continue reading...

Light Iris Launch
OBJECTIVE: Introduce new mothers, expectant women and influencers to the new brand and web site, LightIris.com. CHALLENGE: Launch a new brand web site for mothers created by a man in a competitive marketplace for less than $10k. STRATEGY: In an earnest effort, do something that is remarkable, share the experience through a blog, and get others talking about it. APPROACH:... Continue reading...

Fiskars Brands: Creating a Long-Term, Sustainable, Customer-Led Movement
Challenge: There was no emotional connection between Fiskars Brands crafting division and their customers. Goals: - Increase awareness/credibility - Increase online conversations 10% - Create community of 200 empowered, kindred spirits - Increase sales 10% Solution: We sent out a national call seeking four customers interested in a part-time paid position as a Fiskars Ambassador. They didn't have to be... Continue reading...

Word of Mouth Campaign for ABSOLUT LOMO
Pronto has, on commission by Great Works and ABSOLUT, performed a word of mouth campaign for ABSOLUT LOMO: a competition in ABSOLUT's virtual Gallery called the Lomo Wall where visitors could upload their own lomo style pictures with their own vision of ABSOLUT. Over 27,000 competing photographers had posted their contributions by the end of the competition. Pronto's mission was... Continue reading...

BzzAgent Frogpond Hopping With Online Word of Mouth
When BzzAgent dredged its “Frogpond” in July 2007, it didn’t know how many of its 300,000 Agents would visit. After all, Agents had grown accustomed to receiving physical products in the mail. How would they react to programs that included no product samples, no coupons, and no rewards? About a dozen online properties bet that Agents would react positively. The... Continue reading...

Golf Digest "Drive for the Green"
Conde Nast magazine Golf Digest used Peersuasion to create "Drive for the Green," an integrated online golf game, viral marketing program and online survey. Registrants played a fun, multi-level golf game, with opt-in, survey and sweepstake elements. Word of mouth, banner ads and email newsletters directed users to a dedicated microsite, where they registered for the game. Sponsors included Visit... Continue reading...

Allstate "Keep the Drive" Evangelizes Safe Teen Driving
The Allstate Foundation is an independent, charitable organization that recently conducted a national survey of teen driving attitudes and behaviors. In 2006, Allstate and Edelman created a teen-to-teen movement, Keep the Drive, designed to harness the power of peer influence to help teens make responsible choices when in a car as a driver or passenger. The program provided teens with... Continue reading...

Starbucks CheerPass Campaign Spreads Holiday Cheer Online
What is holiday cheer? According to Starbucks, it's a random stranger holding the door open for you because you have a bunch of packages. It's taking your kids out because you know your partner needs a rest. Starbucks wanted to use cheer as the concept behind their 2006 holiday PR campaign, and the program developed needed to encourage customer participation... Continue reading...

AXE Gamekillers Take Over MySpace
Every young, single guy has a common enemy -- the Gamekiller. A Gamekiller is a person who interferes with your efforts to pick up women. In 2006, AXE's ad agency, BBH, developed a group of 14 Gamekiller characters who were on a mission to stop the AXE guy from getting the girl. Once AXE had this cast -- from the... Continue reading...

Unilever "AXE Ride"
Nearly 50 percent of today's American youth are non-Caucasian, yet many mainstream marketing campaigns neglect this target. Not Unilever. The maker of AXE, currently the bestselling men's personal care brand in the U.S., set out to influence the one audience that was defining popular culture and just happened to gel perfectly with AXE's sleek and edgy brand personality. To generate... Continue reading...

Chevy Aveo Livin' Large Campus Challenge
CHALLENGE: There are few groups more skeptical of traditional media today than college students. With Honda, Toyota, and Nissan entering the sub-compact segment, Chevy needed to communicate the benefits of an Aveo (spaciousness, quality, and low cost) to its core audience. General Motors needed a way to be promotional, yet authentic; if the target audience felt the online content was... Continue reading...

Microsoft's Blogger Lounge @ Macworld 2007
The Mac Business Unit at Microsoft (MacBU), creators of Office for Mac, sponsored a "Blogger Lounge" at the recent Macworld conference in San Francisco (Jan 9-12, 2007). Located in the main Exhibit Hall, this Lounge supported the Mac blogger community by providing free, fast internet access and a comfortable environment for people to write about their experiences at Macworld. In... Continue reading...

MultiVu Helps HealthPolitics.org Increase Audience Through Specialized Internet Programming
Pfizer wanted to create an online educational health forum. Pfizer enlisted MultiVu to create the video content for podcast and web-based delivery that is the basis of HealthPolitics.org. Case Study: "Health Politics with Dr. Mike Magee" is a weekly internet-based electronic media program that explores complex topics at the intersection of health care and policy. Supported by veteran health leader... Continue reading...

The Return of Transformers
The Re-release of the 20th Anniversary animated movie. Needs: Sony/BMG Home entertainment wanted to bring back the 20 year old animated movie "Transformers The Movie" but didn't want it to seem like a big corporate push and wanted to incorporate the fan interaction. Solution: VIABUZZ incorporated a cross promotional campaign between Sony/BMG Home Entertainment and Teen Social Networking Community TagWorld.com.... Continue reading...

Boise Water Park Puts Its Money Where Its Guests Are
Tiffany Quilici, marketing manager for the Roaring Springs Water Park, wanted to increase revenue, but not necessarily by increasing the number of season pass sales. Instead, she wanted pass holders to come more often, stay longer ... and spend more money. Following a Chamber of Commerce presentation by BlueLine Grassroots Marketing, the concept that fewer people are responding to advertising... Continue reading...

Fighting Words: GM Responds to Thomas Friedman
Situation: New York Times Op-Ed columnist Thomas L. Friedman attacked GM over a sales promotion in two states calling the company "dangerous," "a crack dealer," and connected Hummer sales directly to soldiers dying in Iraq and Afghanistan. Strategy: GM executives resolved immediately to respond as strongly as possible to the Friedman column, with the objective of reaching at least as... Continue reading...

Yahoo! Answers -- A Global Exchange of the World's Knowledge
In December 2005, Yahoo! launched a new community designed to harness the world's knowledge. When you have a question, Yahoo! Answers connects you to more than 400 million Yahoo! users to find you an answer. The underlying concept is simple but powerful -- what the world knows is vast, and tapping into that collective wisdom enables you to unlock the... Continue reading...

Yahoo!'s Yodel Anecdotal: Read. Comment. Repeat.
Over the past several years, Yahoo! embraced social media -- blogging in particular -- and encouraged open and honest representation in the blogosphere. Yahoo! executives value blogs as means to communicate directly with target audiences to build relationships, dialogue and trust. Yahoo! watched the proliferation of its product blogs and determined a need to provide a blogopsheric home for corporate... Continue reading...

Yahoo! Music "Get Your Freak On"
The growing popularity of online video-sharing and digital music created a perfect combination for Yahoo! Music to engage music enthusiasts with a one-of-a-kind promotion. Yahoo! Music created a program called "Get Your Freak On" where fans are invited to star in user-generated music videos for their favorite artists and songs. This ongoing program has resulted in wildly popular videos for... Continue reading...

Building a Better Blog Strategy @ Yahoo!
Since the Yahoo! Search Blog launched in 2004, blogosphere growth has exploded and Yahoo!'s participation has kept pace. In 2005, Yahoo!'s influencer marketing team was formed to cultivate the conversation and raise awareness at Yahoo! about the value of effective blogging. As blog evangelists and strategists, we identify influential and up-and-coming industry bloggers; track what they're saying; and report back... Continue reading...

Student Social Networking Site Builds Loyalty and Generates New Travelers
People to People Student Ambassador Programs -- the largest student travel organization in the country -- provides educational opportunities for K-12 students in to travel to foreign countries to learn about their histories, governments, and cultures. The programs enjoy a 98% satisfaction rating among participants, but suffer from extremely low awareness. Challenge: Since students must be nominated and accepted into... Continue reading...

Launching i-mode Phone Service for the 2nd Largest Telco
Using an integrated mobile online and offline media campaign, we drove 51,000 of StarHub's customers to a microsite that presented the i-mode concept (internet on a phone). Using Vocanic's Groundswell technology, it also elicited the data that would allow us to identify Influencers who were positive to the concept -- 5,000 advocates were identified. The microsite also included a "pop"... Continue reading...

NCAA Football: Tackling Online Fans
How do you reach younger fans and virally promote a brand? Sports Media Challenge engaged the online community by launching the official NCAA Football blog, Every Game Counts (EGC). EGC attracts fans with exclusive posts from celebrity guest bloggers, many who have never before engaged the online community. Coaches such as University of Texas head coach Mack Brown and University... Continue reading...

JetBlue Lovers Unite to Share Brand Perks with Peers
Problem: Within a highly competitive airline industry, JetBlue Airways sought a creative way to spread the unique JetBlue experience deeper amongst college students. Solution: What better way to promote a unique airline like JetBlue than through the consumers that already love the brand? That was JetBlue's philosophy when it partnered with RepNation to identify a network of evangelists on college... Continue reading...

Microsoft Causes a Huge Stir with New Website Launch
Problem: To introduce a new site, Windows Live Expo, whose value stemmed from user participation, Microsoft needed a unique approach to rapidly drive widespread awareness and usage on college campuses. Not an easy task when you're a social listing site competing against Craigslist and a multitude of new social classified and networking sites. Solution: To create the buzz essential for... Continue reading...

100-Market Street Team "Shocks" Students
It's been said that a picture is worth a thousand words. That's the principle Shock Magazine was founded on when the publication launched with minimal editorial content, instead focusing on shocking images. Priding themselves on the fact their readers can also be photo journalists, Hachette Filipacchi sought a launch campaign that would boost not only Shock's awareness and circulation, but... Continue reading...

Neutrogena Taps Consumers to Promote Line of Men's Grooming Products
Neutrogena was tasked with building brand awareness of its line of grooming products for men on colleges and universities across the country against a group of competitors with significantly larger marketing budgets. Neutrogena chose a non-traditional marketing approach, relying on user-generated content at the central focus for the campaign. In doing so, Neutrogena allowed consumers to shape opinions and drive... Continue reading...

Inside the Firewall
With the 16-25 year old male demographic in mind, Pod looked for game and entertainment sites that were already capturing the audience's attention. One genre that was very "sticky" and popular was the "Escape From The Room Games." In these games, there is only one way out of the room, and players search for clues and combine them in such... Continue reading...

Paparazzi: Viral-Marketing Campaign for Peerflix
Pod design created a "blog fodder" game that spoofed celebrities behaving badly, a favorite topic of blogs across the Internet. Peerflix is a P2P network for exchanging DVDs, making it a natural fit for Hollywood. In Peerflix Paparazzi, The user takes on the role of a paparazzi photographer tasked with capturing valuable shots of the scandal de jour. The better... Continue reading...

2007 Jeep Compass Uncharted Campaign
To build awareness around the 2007 Compass, Jeep wanted to build a social networking campaign that tapped into the power of MySpace. Since MySpace was known for promoting emerging musical artists, Jeep wanted to leverage this and tie it in to one of the top selling points of the new Compass -- a powerful stereo system. To do this, Jeep... Continue reading...

All New 2007 Dodge Caliber, Pig & Bear Campaign
Working with agencies BBDO Detroit and PHD, and at the direction of the Dodge brand, Organic created an in-depth persona for its target audience. Through the development of this persona, it was found that MySpace was the perfect media target for this campaign Dodge placed Pig & Bear as a featured profile on MySpace, and also pushed ad units within... Continue reading...

Sprint Entertainment Anytime
Sprint was introducing a new wireless entertainment service and wanted to generate buzz and curiosity around its release. They wanted something that would create a unique experience that would inspire viral distribution and also ultimately drive traffic to the Power Vision site. Organic created an unbranded video of a man sitting in a cab. The users were allowed to control... Continue reading...

Clearification.com
A Windows Vista awareness building site targeting digitally modern influencers, Clearification.com is a pre-launch "icebreaker" site designed to raise awareness for Windows Vista prior to product availability. For this program we teamed with our primary agency, McCann Erickson, and brought in viral experts Mekanism to create a very unique campaign. The program centers around comedian Demetri Martin, who is busy... Continue reading...

Using PR to Spark Buzz with Kettle Foods' People's Choice Program
Challenge To fend off increased competition from mainstream consumer brands entering the natural food category, Kettle Foods invested in a PR program to increase brand awareness and drive product trial in support of its national sales push. Solution By leveraging the cult following of the brand, Maxwell PR created the annual People's Choice campaign, inviting fans of Kettle brand Potato... Continue reading...

An Influencer Marketing Campaign to Re-energize Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer
PROBLEM Pabst Blue Ribbon had suffered from years of continuous sales declines and wanted to reverse this trend. SOLUTIONS * Tap into pre-launch WOM about the brand to understand how the brand was currently being perceived in the marketplace * Redefine the brand using the learnings garnered from listening to marketplace WOM * Create a program to turn brand learnings... Continue reading...

Creating Buzz for the Canary Project
The Canary Project is an effort by photographer Susannah Sayler and a team of researchers, writers, and designers to gather images of global warming and display those images in ways that bring them to the attention of the widest possible audience. The objective of the campaign was to bring to the attention of as many people as possible The Canary... Continue reading...

Ground Force Network's Campaign to Launch Online Retailer's Customer Community
MusiChristian.com has many loyal customers and was in search of a way to engage them in promoting their summer sale and website re-launch called Launch Party 2006. The Ground Force Network provided a solution by creating a platform in which to launch a customer community called "Launch Party Insiders" in support of this one-month promotion. Ground Force launched the customer... Continue reading...

Expo TV Videopinion Program to Encourage Consumer Product Dialogue
The Videopinion Program was developed to give consumers an outlet to publicly express their passion for products and services. Written product reviews can be impersonal, while Videopinion reviews were designed to convey the depth and impact of a true word of mouth experience. Videopinion reviews open the door to unique and authentic product discussions. Videopinion reviews allow consumers to connect... Continue reading...

CoffeeCup Software Ambassador Program: CoffeeCup Ambassadors are Smoking Hot!
In 2006, CoffeeCup Software created our Ambassador program to help our fans promote CoffeeCup by giving them tools and resources to spread the word about us. We selected over 6,000 of our users by evaluating certain purchasing patterns over the past 10 years and sent them a customized e-mail inviting them to become an Ambassador. Each ambassador that accepted our... Continue reading...

Walking the Talk to Sustainable Growth Values Blog
Program Summary: Ask employees to help define the behaviors that exemplify each of the values (quality, innovation, integrity, accountability, collaboration, passion & leadership) by providing real workplace examples. Two members of the Executive Committee hosted a 24-hour employee blog focused on one of the seven values. Employee comments were collected to build the framework for recommendations to the Executive Committee... Continue reading...

Sprite/LOST Experience
Program Summary: The LOST Experience is an Alternate Reality Game (ARG) designed to bring consumers closer to the fictional world of the ABC TV show, LOST. The ARG features 4 advertisers embedding clues into their online & offline properties for consumers to discover more information about the show's characters. Sprite began on May 10th by placing the new Sublymonal.com URL... Continue reading...

Did You Hear? Glenn Beck LOVES Coke zero!
Program Summary: Chapter One: This summer, radio talk-show host Glenn Beck regularly mentioned his love of Coke zero. He made a humorous reference to the high level of his love of the brand ... including a tongue-in-cheek death threat if we ever stop offering it ... in a cross-over interview on CNN Headline Prime. Chapter Two: Coca-Cola decided to join... Continue reading...

128: The Magic Number
As Coca-Cola fountain availability spread across the U.S., company President Asa Candler used a simple, powerful program to build the refreshing beverage to the right members of each geographic community. His efforts drove tremendous results and helped make Coca-Cola what it is today. Asa Candler launched a brilliant sampling campaign. In a letter to his brother in Nashville, Candler spelled... Continue reading...

Did You Hear About The Secret Formula for Coca-Cola?
Program Summary: The 1919 sale of The Coca-Cola Company included the beverage formula. Imposters and con artists sold numerous fake formulas purported to be the Real Thing. As new owner, Robert Woodruff decided to acknowledge the public fascination about the formula. He hired Pinkerton Guards to transport the formula from New York (where it was serving as collateral for a... Continue reading...

Chevrolet Enlists 30,000 Consumers to Create Ads for New Tahoe
Background: Chevrolet needed a big idea to create buzz for the all-new 2007 Chevy Tahoe. Problem: How to leverage the Tahoe's sponsorship of The Apprentice by creating a promotion that would allow the public to experience the product in an interactive and entertaining fashion. Solution: Create an online promotion at chevyapprentice.com that allowed "armchair" apprentices to create their own commercial... Continue reading...

Alltel Wireless 'Courtroom' Campaign
Background: MyCircle allows Alltel customers to call up to 10 people for free, no matter which network they're on. The other newtorks were not pleased with this approach. Poking fun at the other networks became the basis for the Alltel campaign. Problem: Alltel, the 5th largest carrier, challenges the status quo by offering innovations others cannot. With limited marketing funds,... Continue reading...

Creating Teen ViralMentalists for an Anti-Tobacco Use Movement
Challenge: When South Carolina received their tobacco settlement, the Department of Health and Environmental Control was tasked to create an awareness campaign for youth about the dangers of tobacco use. So, they tapped Brains on Fire to tackle a big issue in Big Tobacco's back yard. Position and Solution: When we surveyed the landscape, we saw that other states were... Continue reading...

Creating a Brand Ambassador Movement: Fiskars Brands
Challenge: There was no emotional connection between Fiskars Brands crafting division and their customers (scrapbookers and crafters). Goals (by 12/06): - Increase awareness and credibility - Increase online conversations by 10% - Create a community of 200 empowered, kindred spirits Position and Solution: We agreed the answer was to create a Brand Ambassador movement. So we sent out a national... Continue reading...

PETCO Analyzes Product Reviews to Promote Best Products & Reduce Returns
Over 60% of American households own at least one pet. Pet owners are passionate about their pets -- and the products they use. In 2005, Americans spent an estimated $35.9 billion on pets and pet-related goods and services. Leading specialty pet retailers PETCO understands that their customers are pet lovers, not just pet owners. They are dedicated to creating a... Continue reading...

Gap Ambassador Program
The Gap Ambassador Program, a viral marketing campaign, was designed to drive awareness and trial of Gap's new denim fits through word of mouth influence and testimonials of brand Ambassadors. To connect deeper with women and strengthen brand loyalty through meaningful, one-on-one interactions, Gap selected 100 women throughout the company's top 10 markets and anointed them brand Ambassadors. Once identified,... Continue reading...

Stellar Gin VIP Program
In 2005, Brown-Forman launched Stellar Gin in four test markets. Ammo Marketing was approached to develop an influencer program to promote trial and awareness among young professionals in the Indianapolis market. In recent years, Indianapolis has experienced a surge in upscale nightclubs, and all the trappings that come with them: velvet ropes, bottle service, and VIP rooms. Ammo developed the... Continue reading...

Creating Word of Mouth in a Pre-Launch Project
"Happybean" was the follower in the tofu market. Their point of differentiation was in the technology behind Happybean, and the company was interested in finding out how best to make that clear to consumers. As part of our pre-launch marketing, we made it our objective to study and understand the product fully -- and to understand how consumers interpreted the... Continue reading...

The Word-of-Mouth Power of Brand Messengers
The power of brand messengers: 1. 200 evangelists were recruited for product seeding. 2. Evangelists were encouraged to purchase the Hamsville Bacon at the grocery story and have a party, inviting friends and neighbors to socialize and sample the product. 3. The evangelists passed along a survey (printed on cards) to their friends and neighbors who attended their party. 4.... Continue reading...

How a Nonprofit (ASHP) Researched and Used WOM to Grow
The American Society of Health-Sysrtem Pharmacists (ASHP) research manager (Colleen Bush) conducted a "campaign" to create internal awareness of the power of WOM communication and provide strategies for ASHP to incorporate it into their programs. She conducted secondary research to see what's new in WOM research (which led to "finding" WOMMA), followed by a strategic membership survey called the Speak-Up... Continue reading...

Square Enix's Enthusiast Community Program to Promote Dragon Quest VIII
Challenge: Square Enix, a leading developer, publisher, and distributor of video games, was looking to launch the latest title in the Dragon Quest series -- a legendary franchise that had sold more than 40 million copies worldwide. While the series had been wildly popular in Japan, it had a diminished presence in North America. How could they generate enthusiasm and... Continue reading...

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