have to admit that I am one of the few people left who never watches reality TV. So the fact that I got hooked on this reality show made me think about the marketing elements involved and why I couldn’t get it out of my head.
It all started one Monday morning when I logged onto MSN.com (which is my default home page on my computer). Right there on the top of the page was an animated banner promoting Rock Star: INXS. That night, when I started seeing promotions on TV that matched the banner, I became interested. I watched the first episode, was entertained, but didn’t get hooked right away. It wasn’t until the next morning when I started up my computer again, and there it was, right on the home page of MSN — a recap of the show, plus all kinds of clickable online marketing elements that took me deeper into the show and its characters, music, and energy.
There was nothing low budget about CBS’s co-branding with MSN. They spared no expense, including all the best elements of online marketing, all in one spot: RockStar.MSN.com. (Although there was also information about Rock Star: INXS on CBS.com, this site did not draw you in and make you come back for more the way MSN’s did.)
Below is a list of online marketing elements from RockStar.MSN.com, along with a brief look at how incorporating similar features can maximize your next campaign.
Take advantage of co-branding for maximum exposure
CBS co-branded their reality show with one of the biggest properties on the web, MSN, and partnered with an already established, well-known rock band, INXS. Between the two brands, the show was off to a strong start, with built-in credibility and reach (MSN technology and traffic) and existing interest (the INXS fan base).
Co-branding works when all parties involved benefit from the partnership. MSN and INXS benefited from the television exposure, while CBS benefited from the technological resources and huge exposure MSN provides to the online world. It was a win-win situation for all parties.
Use message boards and blogs to generate new content
Click on any of the Rock Star: INXS contestants’ profile pages and you could find their personal blogs about the previous night’s performances, and read their random thoughts and about their latest fears. There was also a message board so fans can ask questions and give feedback.
Blogs are an efficient way to keep content fresh and keep the audience coming back for more. But generating new content for your website every day or every week can require a tremendous amount of resources. Whenever you can, have your customers (or in this case, the viewers and the contestants) generate content on your website. It also helps make the site interesting as well as sincere.
Encourage audience participation
Rock Star: INXS was not the first television show to ask the audience to log in to their website or to send a text message to cast their votes. However, this media campaign is worth mentioning here because it is the ultimate way to create synergy between an offline and an online campaign.
The same idea works with any type of contest or special information that your audience can only get online. The benefits of pushing an offline audience online is that you are then able to track their behavior in far more detail than you could with traditional advertising. Once you get a customer to your website, you can really monitor their activities and find out what they are most interested in. In this case, CBS and MSN can tell which contestants get the most views, what songs get downloaded most often, and how the audience feels about the show in general (by reviewing the message boards). You just can’t get this type of detail about audiences or customers from television marketing alone.
Keep selling
Any well-thought-out promotional website has an element of e-commerce. You used to be able to log on to RockStar.MSN.com, pull out your credit card, and start browsing through all the songs from the show, available for $0.99 each exclusively through the MSN Music store. Here you could purchase and download songs performed by your favorite contestant as well as the version performed by the original artist. You could also click on the “Store” link to view all of the INXS products you could possibly want.
Throughout both the music download area and INXS products area, you could easily click over to more general MSN shopping areas, making this the perfect gateway to keep visitors moving through all channels of MSN. Or, you could pop over to iTunes and download the latest versions of JD Fortune’s “Pretty Vegas” to your iPod.
Don’t let visitors ignore your advertisers
If you forgot to record an episode of Rock Star: INXS on TiVo, or just wanted to see your favorite contestants perform again, you could download the videos online. However, don’t think this gets you out of seeing the television commercials that come with the show. As I downloaded the Week Two performance of Daphna, I had to watch a 30-second Honda commercial first. No fast-forwarding allowed. After all, it’s advertisers like Honda that are footing the bill for all this.
Use mobile marketing
No cutting-edge marketing campaign is complete without involving mobile marketing in some way. CBS teamed up with Verizon Wireless to offer such gimmicks as INXS ringtones, wallpapers, and phone video clips. Along with some very targeted banner ads and well-designed landing pages, it incorporated many elements that encouraged fans to keep clicking.
The Rock Star: INXS online marketing campaign contained all the elements that make me excited about being an online marketer. Whether it’s co-branding with other web properties, hosting creative blogs, or providing targeted music downloads, the campaign has something to encourage every fan to get hooked, tell friends about it, and log on for more.
This campaign is just one example of how one brand successfully combined elements of both traditional and new media marketing to make a powerful impact. Keep reading to learn more about what types of new media elements attract what type of audience and how to ensure that your marketing message is delivered to the right audience, at the right time, in the most effective way possible.
References
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DiGuido, Al. 2006. Marketing Budget Allocation: Follow the Money. ClickZ, April 6.
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Internet World Stats. 2008. World Internet Usage and Population Statistics. www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm
La Monica, Paul R. 2006. To Be on TV or Not to Be on TV. CNNMoney .com, March 27.
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____. 2006b. Online Video: Must-free TV. CNNMoney.com, April 10.
Lerma, Pete. 2006. Making the Switch. ClickZ, April 4.
Newcomb,
