Todd! Todd won the IMC blog comment contest and will soon enjoy his own copy of IMC the Next Generation, Five Steps for Delivering Value and Measuring Returns Using Marketing Communication. Todd, I?m so happy that you won the book contest. I laughed when I pulled your name out of my Red Sox hat, knowing that you’ve commented so many times, but like everyone else, you were entered only once! I would have been happy for any of you, of course. You all had such interesting comments, I liked reading them! Todd, please e-mail me with your snail mail address so I can send it to you in time for leisure reading over holiday break! I?m at aondis@mix.wvu.edu.

Viral Marketing and Sales Promotion

This week I?d like to bring up viral marketing and its connection to sales promotion. Viral marketing, you ask? Does that really stimulate short-term purchases? Well ? not usually. But because viral videos and games are on the Internet, they attract visitors to a brand?s web site and promote site registrations. One thing we have learned (again) in IMC 617 is that building a strong customer database is an essential part of the IMC approach, and a legitimate objective for sales promotions. Developing a database of customers is very difficult for most consumer packaged goods brands, since they sell through retailers who hold onto this valuable information without ?sharing? it with the manufacturer. Viral marketing attracts customers directly to the brand, where they can be registered in a customer database or be exposed to other ?sales oriented? promotional messages, including typical sales promotion tools like coupons.

Viral Branding Fun

The other thing I like about viral marketing is that it?s fun. It?s holiday time, and I know a lot of you who have made it to Week 8 and the beginning of Week 9 in the IMC program are also balancing work demands and lots of gift-giving and social occasions with family, friends, and co-workers. Are you feeling run down, like a nearly-empty roll of wrapping paper that isn?t quite long enough to cover more gifts? This may be the right time to recharge yourself by experiencing some of the entertaining viral holiday promotions your favorite brands are offering. After all, some very hard-working marketers made them just so we can improve our quality of life (vis a vis involvement with their brands).

Viral Short Films

• Freixenet. Have any of you seen the new advertising film by Freixenet? The brand involves us in its ?Unplan the moment? message by asking Martin Scorsese to direct a 9-minute ?film about the making of a film? called The Key to Reserva in which the main characters find a key ? to a box that contains a fine bottle of Freixenet sparkling cava! There?s even an ?unplanned moment? to keep the message consistent. ;-) This 9-minute film format definitely recalls the BMW The Hire films, but it is a totally different execution, a somehow cute-and-dramatic film in which Scorsese pays homage to Alfred Hitchcock films like North by Northwest and The Birds. I like it!

In addition to drawing us in with the film, and counting our incremental hits to their special microsite, Freixenet wants to add us to their database. I really liked the appeal they used to get visitors to register with their site. Freixenet doesn?t force us to register before viewing, but offers us a ?survey? to answer the burning question: ?We hope you loved Martin Scorsese’s film. If next year you had to do a short film, which director would you choose?? I took the survey. (In case you?re wondering: M. Night Shyamalan )

• Burger King. I don?t know if it?s the end-of-term/holiday stress talking here, but the ?Whopper Freakout? short film actually moved me emotionally. In my opinion, this film was done so well it could actually double as an instructive tool for IMC 613 Brand Management students. The wizards at Crispin Porter + Bogusky made a connection between the Whopper, family traditions, and life in America and wrapped it all up with their spokescharacter, the King. Shockingly, site registration was not required, even for e-mailing a link to the film or copying the code to link the film onto a blog or web site. But that is my only criticism, that this awesome execution should have gone farther to achieve registrations or offer discount incentives for Whopper purchase (especially since we won’t leave without buying some delicious BK fries and a drink). If you watch this, tell us what you think.

Viral Photo Fun

• Pepsi. If we register ? and only if we register – Pepsi will let us create personalized digital snowglobes with our own photos and e-mail them to our friends. In exchange, they will make a donation of up to $50,000 to America?s Second Harvest, a national network of food banks. Hmm. These are cute, and I know you all like cause marketing, but I wonder if they?ve already reached their $50,000 maximum donation? Future registrations could just be gravy for Pepsi.

• OfficeMax: In other end-of-term stress + viral holiday marketing news, I?ve made a total elf of myself. This made me laugh, but I don?t see the connection to the OfficeMax brand. Or am I missing it?

One last thing: I want to share this animated holiday card from WVU President Mike Garrison. It’s beautiful, and for all of us in the online IMC program, it’s a very warm reminder that we also have a “home where the server is:” in Morgantown, West Virginia. I can’t wait to go back next May for the IMC Weekend.

– April

As Always:

?Ask April? (like ?Ask Todd?) is Open! Click ?reply to article? and ask anything you?d like to know about IMC 617 Sales Promotion or the IMC program at WVU.