karnellKNOWLEDGE

Burger King Leverages 411-Song to Launch SMS Music Recognition Campaign

It's time to turn up the music, quite literally, in your mobile digital lifestyle.

411-Song not too long ago launched a new music recognition service for mobile customers of AT&T, Cingular, T-Mobile, Sprint and Verizon.  The service provides radio listeners with SMS Text Messages of both the artist and song title of the music they hear over the airwaves.  The listener simply calls 411-Songs, waits for the beep, and then let the song play for 15 seconds, 411Song will name that tune for you via text message, including the artist info and an offer to buy the album or ring tone. The first ID is free, however all subsequent IDs are 99 cents per song charged directly to your phone bill.

Leveraging 411-Song's song recognition technology, Crispin Porter recently developed a branded SMS music recognition campaign for Burger King to promote its teen-targeted metal group Coq Roq.   Visitors to CoqRoq.com are immediately exposed to a call-to-actoin that asks, "Wanna hear what we think of your music? Dial 1-888-ROQRANT on your cell phone and we'll tell it like it is." Callers are prompted by Coq Roq "lead singer" Fowl Mouth to play 15 seconds of any song into their handset. After 15 seconds the voice shouts "I've heard enough, my ears are bleeding!" The user quickly receives a text message that mentions both the artist, song by name, and wheter it rocks or not.

Pimp My Push Chair

Linda Vezzoli with Viral Charts recently sent an e-mail announcing  Midway Games latest racer, "LA Rush" (www.larushgame.com) launched this week with a viral film from Maverick featuring two streetwise LA toddlers comparing their buggy's "bling".

Check out the film at www.pimpmypushchair.com

The spot was directed by Seamus Masterson with viral tracking by The Viral Chart www.viralchart.com.

Nestea's "Broadbranded" Entertainment

Last week Nestea launched its own sensory-overloaded broadband site (http://www.nesteaice.com) targeting 12-to-24-year-old males. The site incorporates original music videos, a design pallet on which to design custom T-shirts, and a multitude of other original content that intended to engage both visitor usage and word-of-mouth.

Make time to check out "ICE 'N Stories," the first two in a series of vignettes about a wannabe rapper puppet, Ice 'N, made entirely of fake ice cubes. Also make sure to check out the candid-camera style short film starring El Yielazo, an offbeat wrestler whose mission is to rid the world of 'hotness' by targeting unsuspecting Nestea Ice drinkers.

"We wanted something that would take on a life of its own and maximize the viral potential of the Web," Mel Clements, Nestea's interactive marketing manager, said in an article written by
Gavin O'Malley. The site is part of a larger marketing campaign that will include more traditional methods, which launch later in the summer.

Chevy Drive to Web/Photoblog Contest

Those who watched last nights MLB All-Star Game on FOX witnessed a large banner unfurl over the Chevy billboard in Comerica Park. My first impression was that this was an uber-gorilla marketing tactic by another .com site looking to make a big brand splash. The Banner simply displayed a URL that read "HHRYA.com". I attempted to hit the site and was met with a "timed-out" error. Obviously I was not the only one intrigued to uncover what was at the URL. When I was finally able to access the site this morning, I was surprised to find myself on a landing page promoting Chevy's new cross-over vehicle the HHR. The car is scheduled to be available later this summer and Chevy has undertaken some innovate cross-channel campaign and gorilla marketing tactics to target a young and hip demographic.

Specifically, the HHRYA.com landing page is promoting a photoblog contest co-sponsored by TextAmerica (http://www.textamerica.com). Chevy is seeking the best still or video image that incorporates the letters "HHR". Images can be submitted at the landing page (http://www.hhrya.com) or by email/cell phone at hhrya@tamw.com. The individual that submits the image that receives the top vote every week will win either a Pioneer XM2Go or and Apple Ipod Photo. The most creative still or video submitted and posted throughout the duration of the campaign (7/1/05-9/9/05) will win the Grand Prize, a Custom Chevy HHR as well as be featured (along with four runner-ups) in upcoming Chevy Advertising campaigns. Being a fanatical Red Sox fan, my vote goes to the below still:

Billy the Finger

Virgin Mobile Canada has recently added another chapter to their “The Catch” campaign. This most recent execution is called “Billy the Finger”. Promoted with fake “Wanted” posters in Toronto which only mentions the Billy the Finger website (there is absolutely no mention of Virgin Wireless), the campaign intends to capitalize on word-of-mouth/viral distribution. They help enable this with a send to a friend feature on the site labeled “Finger a Friend”.

In a nutshell, the Billy the Finger site streams video in which finger puppets act out various scenarios involving a shady cell phone salesman who attempts to convince Billy to sign up for one of those “bad” cell phone places. Viewers are able to make decisions on behalf of Billy, which produces various outcomes of the story. These include a trip to prison, a threesome, a hot cheerleader, circus acts, unintentional rear entry and finger burning.

source: AdRants & PuppetVision

Victoria's Pink Panties

Strip poker is an ideal way to promote underwear. At least it works for Victoria's Secret PINK brand of undies, aimed at 18- to 24-year-old women. You can use your real name or have the pink panty poker nickname generator select one for you. All you need to provide is your childhood pet's name and your underwear preference. The loser of each hand must remove a piece of clothing. You can even replay each striptease. What happens when you, the computer player, loses a hand? You start a strippin'. From whom do we owe this lovely piece of viral content: Crispin Porter + Bogusky out of Miami. These are the same guys who did the Burger King Chicken Fight campaign in 2004. As usual—props!

London 69, a sexy campaign for Eurostar

Eurostar is running an integrated marketing campaign in Belgium to promote its summer connection to London. The price for a two-way ticket it's 69 Euros, so the advertising concept rotates around the 69 (sex) position.

Outdoor advertising invites those who pass by to text an SMS and interact. Online ads are running to drive traffic to www.eurostar.com/londonXperience where a community game gives away tickets to London. A viral video is also part of the effort (too bad the "send to a friend" option is missing).

The agencies behind this campaign are TBWA\Belgium and Hypervision for what concerns the interactive part.

source: AdverBlog

People do Stupid Things…..

By subscriber count, Skype and Vonage are the two largest VoIP providers. If I asked the average American which of the afore mentioned services they have heard of before, I would put my money on Vonage. However, according to Sandvine, Skype dominates the North American VOIP market with 46.2% of minutes and 40% of bandwidth. Waterloo, Ont.-based Sandvine, which tracks 1,100 VOIP service providers, said Skype users also account for 35.8% of individual VOIP callers on North American networks. Skype's internal numbers reports that they have 35 million registered numbers, and claims 150,000 new users’ sign up daily. This is without spending a dollar on promotion or advertising.

The above data is startling for anyone who has been subjected to the onslaught of television, print and digital promotions from Vonage. Analysts suggest Vonage is spending about $10 million/month and adding 15,000 new subscribers/month. However, if you look at recent data provided by TNS Media Intelligence this spend level seems conservative. TNS reported that Vonage spent $21.8 Million in the online channel just in the month of April 05. This positioned them as the second largest online advertiser on the net.

With all this money being dumped into the market, I wonder if:

1.) Vonage is making any tangible headway against Skype?

-and-

2.) Is their gratuitous advertising spend actually producing good business results?

The chart provided below, (generated by BlogPulse) tracks the % of blog posts across the last 6 months which contained the term “Skype”, “Vonage”, and “VoIP”.

Skype and VoIP move together, while the noise level of Vonage remains rather flat (in fact, it dips to one of its lowest points in April: the time they effectively were sponsoring the entire Internet so to speak). To the extent that the buzz in blogs is any indication of a trend (which has yet to be formally proven), Skype is quickly becoming synonymous with Voice over IP-not Vonage.

Furthermore, if we were to calculate Vonage’s Cost Per Acquisition using the $21.8 Million monthly online spend as a benchmark-they are paying and estimated $363 per new customer. Pile on top the cost of television and print media the final customer acquisition cost is around $400. At that CPA level, they would need to ensure they hold on to each of those customers for about 2 1/2 years to ensure they break even.