I recently came across two very creative marketing promotions that really caught my attention. One is high-tech and the other is quite low-tech, but both share two common ingredients: interactivity and personalization. An irresistible combination!
Let’s start with the high-tech: Recording artist LL Cool J’s easy and fun photobomb online app to promote “Whaddup,” his latest single.
Photobombing — a hot trend in pop culture right now — is defined by MacMillan Dictionary as, “the practice of spoiling other people’s photographs by making silly expressions or moving into the background just before the photograph is taken.” It’s especially popular on Facebook and other social media sites.
The rapper is giving fans an opportunity to get photobombed by him virtually on Whaddup.LLCoolJ.com, by uploading their photo to the site using a very simple, fun interface. Users can then share the photobomb on Facebook and Twitter.
This is such a great, innovative marketing tool to attract visitors to his website and promote his music. Heck, I’m not even all that into rap and I couldn’t resist doing one! And when I did, I listened to the song on the site and found that it was catchy and I liked it. Think I’ll put it in my workout playlist.
A second marketing promo that really impressed me is from a bloggers’ conference I went to, BlogHer ’12 in New York City. The event included a huge expo with exhibitors of all sorts of consumer products, all vying for the attention of the thousands of female bloggers in attendance.
Most of the booths had the usual giveaways of product samples, pens and tote bags. But the one booth I remember, and will never forget, was Zicam, the cold remedy. Zicam gave away personalized charm bracelets.
Each bracelet came with an “I Love to Blog” charm, and at their display you picked out three additional charms from a variety available. Then the staffer put it all together for you into a pretty nylon gift bag, along with a bottle of Zicam, to take home. They tied this idea into their product with a card that read, “It’s a charmed life you lead, so don’t get sick.” Well done, Zicam.
LL Cool J and Zicam clearly understand the power of drawing in your targeted audience by engaging them in a uniquely personal way. Both of these campaigns resulted in a marketing promo that people not only want to use, they want to show off — and then exponentially more people receive the marketing message. Smart.
