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 the engines for "Living with Ed" resulted in many listings discussing living with Erectile Dysfunction ("ED") instead of the television show on HGTV. HGTV turned to 360i, its longtime strategic digital marketing partner, for recommendations on how to achieve these goals.
360i recommended embarking on a blog outreach campaign, encouraging bloggers to create their own reviews and recommendations of the show. This was designed to stimulate more relevant content and links back to HGTV's flagship site, driving online buzz to inspire tune-in, increase site traffic, and raise overall awareness for the show. Additionally, the new content would result in more relevant listings in the search results, thereby pushing down erectile dysfunction results. The incremental number of links back to HGTV.com through the blog posts would catapult the official web site to the top of the search listings as well.
Results:
* Strong influx of viral marketing built momentum with core audiences (TV viewers and environmentalists) and supplemental audiences (organic, automotive, cooking)
* New blog postings and inbound links ensure HGTV.com maintains top rank in search results (first "erectile dysfunction" post appears as #53 in search results)
* Blog posts ensure relevant postings for 90%+ of the first 13 pages of Google and Yahoo! search result
Credit Information
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Client: HGTV (Scripps Networks)
Agency: 360i
Budget: Undisclosed
Date of Campaign: January 2007
Case Study URL: http://360i.com/case-studies.php
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