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 Frogpond site, a special section within the BzzAgent homepage, went live with nine featured websites, including AuctionPAL, Care.com, Kayak.com, iVillage, OkCupid, OurStage, Pinger, Simply Audiobooks and SmartBargains.com. Each site was profiled in the Frogpond, where Agents could review the profile, visit the site, and share their opinions with others by using tools created by BzzAgent.
BzzAgent developed a number of fun features to simplify the spread of online “Bzz.” It designed forward-to-a-friend email tools, click-through icons for social networks, easy-to-use review fields, and even a “Mad-Libs”-like engine that generates a wacky review based key words submitted by the Agent.
The company anxiously “flipped the switch” on July 23, 2007. Almost immediately, thousands of everyday people flooded the Frogpond. They interacted with BzzAgent, one another, and, most of all, the sites being promoted.
After four weeks the numbers were in. Site profile pages enjoyed 94,185 visitors, of which more than 41,000 clicked through to the featured website. But the Frogpond is about more than page views. It’s about facilitating the spread of online word of mouth. To that end, almost 7,500 Agents forwarded a site to a friend – a staggering conversion rate of 49 percent. In other words, nearly half of those who received an email recommending a featured website in turn visited the site. Moreover, the nine launch sites averaged 1,000 reviews – each! And nearly 4,000 Agents displayed trackable icons on their blogs and social network profiles.
Credit Information
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Client: AuctionPAL, Care.com, Kayak.com, iVillage, OkCupid, OurStage, Pinger, Simply Audiobooks, and SmartBargains.com
Agency: BzzAgent
Budget: Varies by client
Date of Campaign: 7/23/2007 - 8/22/2007
Contact Name: Joe Chernov
URL: http://www.bzzagent.com/frog/FrogPond.do
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