Propagation Planning

The bridge between our world and the entertainment world

TONIGHT, Sabrina Caluori will be speaking at my agency about campaigns like this and how HBO engages advocates to help spread the word for their shows. The digital marketing department at HBO does a fantastic job bridging our world and the world of their entertainment properties. Let me give you a few examples:

1. True Blood: Vampires have announced their existence because a Japanese company has developed synthetic blood which allows Vampires to co-exist with humans. Here is a video for the marketing campaign they developed.

2. Flight of the Concords: If you think entering an alternative universe with vampires is difficult, try entering the universe of a New Zeland band trying to make it in the United States. HBO asked fans of Flight of the Concord to create videos of themselves singing their hit song Hiphopopotamus Vs. Rhymenoceros, the rap names of the two heroes. Fans embraced the challenge, even Andy Dick made a video for the competition.

3. Bored to Death Mobile Marketing: HBO worked with Augme Mobile (owned by Modavox) through Details Magazine to augment the print advertising campaign by deploying the mobile marketing tactic through Clear Channel Communications Taxi Media presence in New York. The taxi cab ad instructs passengers to use their mobile phone to text “bored” to 87415 or use their camera phone to scan a unique 2D code to sign up for mailing lists and obtain access to special content about the New York-based show.

If you are in the Tampa area, please join us tonight. Buy tickets here.

Brand and Fan Experience

I'm excited to have Darcy Raymond come into the office on Thursday to speak about advocacy. Darcy is the VP of Brand and Fan Experience for the Tampa Bay Rays. I'm particularly interested in talking about cult followings that sports teams create and how regular brands can use tactics and theories to create similar communities. Nathan Archambault, a freelance copy writer in New York City wrote an interesting Blog post on the Future of Advertising: Creating Cults, Not Ads that revolves around this subject and I want to see if Darcy agrees or not.

Here is his Bio:

Darcy Raymond joined the Rays in January 2006 as the team's first vice president, branding and fan experience. Since then he has developed a breakthrough fan experience at Tropicana Field, while overseeing the ares of customer service, game entertainment and ballpark experience.

Raymond has extensive consumer products and branding experience including five years with Procter and Gamble, the last two as a brand manager. He also led all marketing efforts as vice president of marketing for Mamma.com, a search engine company.

Raymond has an MBA from Harvard Business School. He also holds a Bachelor of Commerce from Concordia University's John Molson School of Business, in Montreal

Please join us November 5th at the 22squared offices to see Darcy and others inspire the Tampa Bay marketing and advertising community (Only $25).

At 22squared we believe that "when advocates talk, brands grow."

The Intention Economy

This is a great presentation. It's a bit long but worth every slide, take the time to really read it. I really like the statement by Charles Leadbeater, "You are what you share."

Digital Strangelove (or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Internet)

View more documents from David Gillespie.

Design Principles for Social Media Frameworks

David Bausola (Ag8) on Emerging Technology

View more presentations from Canvas8.

HBO. It's More Than You Imagined.

I finally had some time tonight to sit down with the HBO. It's more than you imagined story and after watching some of the presentations from Power to the Pixel I think HBO did a very good job of capturing my attention and taking me through the story. I wish the audio messages were sent to my real life phone to create a cross-media or transmedia story.

The best part of this experience was the map of the story which told me where I was in the narrative and how to track it. Each part of the story had a unique URL and a Share button that invited viewers to propagate the narrative with rabbit holes that they found interesting. My favorite was when the Mime was drowning and the midget (or little person) says, "Loose Lips Sink Ships."

 

I also love the invitation to become a part of the story and upload my own videos that might add to the narrative.

Lessons Learned in Transmedia Storytelling

At the Power to the Pixel conference, Christy Dena shares with us lessons that she has learned by creating and choreographing cross-media stories. She has 10 years worth of experience and has studied 150+ projects for this presentation. I really like what she says about Glocal events and documenting the story and what the audience can expect when they traverse into a new medium.

Lessons Learned in Cross-Media

View more presentations from Christy Dena.

Baker Tweet Video

BakerTweet from POKE on Vimeo.

Kelly Chapman Presentation on Transmedia Entertainment

Kelly is an experienced producer of transmedia entertainment. She walks participants of SPAA Fringe through the various formats transmedia takes, and step by step through how she's applied her knowledge to creating effective transmedia strategies for her own projects.

Kelly Chapman keynote SPAA Fringe 2009 from KCDC on Vimeo.

True Blood Case Study

Campfire played nice and returned the True Blood Case Study to their website for our enjoyment and inspiration. They did a magnificent job of using propagation planning to identify influencers, teasing them with clues. They promoted the show by blending the alternate reality of the narrative with our world.

Sabrina Caluori, Marketing Director for HBO will be speaking at 22squared on November 5th about the True Blood case study. Tickets are only $25 if you want to join us.

Manifesto for a New Ad Agency

Manifesto For A New Ad Agency

View more presentations from giles rhys jones.