Thinking out side the box. This is a great post and Im glad I caught the re-blog. Worthy read.
Create An Online Buzz That Goes Viral For A Lasting Effect!
One of my favorite stories of using the internet to get your message sent around the world in minutes and hours is from a company you may not expect to use social media marketing in this way.
Universal Studios New Media Marketing Vice President Cindy Gordon was in charge of the PR and media blitz for the launch of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
Now most of us would be thinking of the major traditional ways a company of this size would be marketing a new theme park ride or a new section of their park such as billboards, TV ads, Radio ads and perhaps even trying to get the Super Bowl air time for an ad. Of course all of these cost some major money too.
But Cindy Gordon had a different plan. That plan paid off very well. It was a huge success.
We all know that Harry Potter is one popular guy and he is famous all around the world. In fact, J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series has been translated into 65 languages and sold over 325 million copies. Warner Brothers grossed over $3.5 Billion just in the movie theatres. That's not mentioning all the items that get sold from toys, tshirts and whatever else people think of to sell about Harry Potter.
What Cindy Gordon decided to do was to set up a top secret webcast ( like a teleconference with video) but only invite seven people to view this webcast.
Now, brace yourself, because this is the really cool part. She invited seven BLOGGERS! These bloggers had the top Harry Potter fan type blogs in the world. These bloggers had access to Harry Potter fans. It was important for the success of this social media marketing campaign to understand that the fans are where it is at when it comes to really spreading the news fast.
Universal did not have to hire a media firm, an ad agency or any other expensive advertising. This was a very small budget item that carried with it immense viral potential. Instead they spent some money and time on preparing a very professional webcast.
These seven bloggers began a buzz by racing with this juicy detailed information back to their subscribers and fans.
From those SEVEN people the news spread to over 350,000,000 (million) people world wide! From those seven bloggers the new theme park addition of The Wizarding Of Harry Potter spread like wild fire. This is where the media had to go to get the news, this is where the top news agencies in the world found out and then printed it in their newspapers and reported it on their news stations.
This is such an amazing story. Whenever I am down about our online marketing, I read this story because it really helps me to get motivated. Of course, most of us don't have 350,000,000 fans, not even on our facebook fan pages but the base that you do have- you can certainly learn to create viral content.
Viral in the social media world is a good thing. Viral means having a few people take your message to the masses- online and offline.
Traditional media takes weeks and months to make you famous, on the internet it can happen to you overnight.
If you know your audience, understand your prospect, know what they are looking for and provide exactly that- your message could have a large reach that would be huge in your niche market. If people like your message enough, they will send it to their family and friends, who will then send it to theirs and so on and so on...
Think outside the box!
This video I posted below is my favorite viral video of all time. This toilet company had to think of something exciting about toilets! Not the most fun thing to sell, don't you agree? So this Swedish Self Cleaning Toilet company made the following video and it has 2, 461,820 views on youtube. This company not only sold toilets from this one short video it also helped send a great message. Watch it to find out.
People love to spread things that they find interesting or entertaining or a message that they resonate with. Think about some of the 'out of the box' things that you can do to create information, photos, video and stories that your sphere of influence will spread for you.
Copyright © 2010 By Katerina Gasset, All Rights Reserved.*Create An Online Buzz That Goes Viral For A Lasting Effect*
Copyright © 2009 by Laura Jefferson, Acquire Real Estate
I specialize in Buying and Selling Lexington South Carolina Real Estate in and around the Midlands of South Carolina. If you are thinking about buying or selling your home in Lexington, Lake Murray, Gilbert, Irmo, West Columbia, Columbia, Red bank, Pelion, Gaston, Chapin, Prosperity, Saluda, Newberry or other surrounding areas of South Carolina, and more importantly, want to work with the local area expert, please contact me at your earliest convenience.
That was a great video. I should get a toilet like that. Maybe super-model type Swedish ladies would come over to my house too.
That should inspire us to keep blogging. Thanks for the re-post as I missed it the first time around.
I love the Harry Potter 7 key people blog story. It just shows that a message can be spread quickly and effectively. A great example is the Apple Tablet computer that Apple hasn't even confirmed yet (as of 1-25-2010). The buzz they created was so amazing that it shadowed over the Comdex event and Apple wasn't even there with a booth.
Hi Laura,
This is a great post that I missed and am going to use this information in meeting this morning when talking about the power of social media!