The Reason: A marketers guide to engaging cliques

Throwback Thursday: Call of Duty 4

Insight, Ideas, Impact... those are the steps we take to achieve successful marketing campaigns.  As always, I have proof.  Check out what we did with Activision for the release of Call of Duty 4.  Again, most agencies talk a good game about experiential marketing.  Here's how The Reason makes it happen.  

Insight.

The Call of Duty franchise already had a loyal, captive following - the hard-core gamer. As always, the key for the Reason was to identify the most relevant rituals where we could add value.  We decided to target key rituals for these gamers -- frequent visits to onine gaming communities and local GameStop stores.  

Ideas.

The goal was simple -- elevate game to "must have" status.  Based on Insight, we produced and managed 10 simultaneous events at GameStop locations in top 10 U.S. markets. These high impact events provided customers an exclusive opportunity to play Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare single-player before it was released to the public.

Here's a granular look at what we did:

• Campaign Theme. Created unifying tagline "The Evolution is Here" to anchor the entire campaign across all mediums. 
• Digital Promotions. Developed online messaging to virally promote events via message boards and blogs 
• Point of Sales. Created in-store promotional signage and event invitations which were distributed at retail
• Guerilla Marketing.  Wild postings and hand-to-hand distribution of event invites  

Impact.

Events received media coverage by G4-TV, Ain’t It Cool News, Weekend Distractions, Media Geeks, and GameStop TV.  Oh by the way, COD4 also went on to become the best first person shooter game of all time.  Doesn't get more "must have" than that.  Those guys created a great game and I'm glad we could create memorable experiences for gamers across the country.  

Throwback Thursday: Totally Wired

By now you know what The Reason’s all about – Insight, Ideas, Impact.  Check out how that thinking was applied when working with first-time author Anastasia Goodstein to promote the release of her book Totally Wired: What teens and tweens are doing online.  Most agencies talk a good game about experiential marketing; here’s how The Reason gets it done.

 

Insight:   Since the premise of the book was to educate parents about youth activities online, The Reason identified and targeted natural advocates who would effectively reach and influence parents: 1) Helicopter parents – because they are the parenting segment who want to be “in the know” and educate their peers on educational resources; 2) Influential teachers, librarians, and other educators of teens and tweens –because their credibility relies on their ability to proactively arm themselves with the most current, relevant information needed to better communicate with teens and tweens.

 

Ideas: The goal was simple – Get Totally Wired to the proverbial tipping point. To do so, rituals (activities of importance) for the targeted advocates were scrutinized to determine the best communications plan.  Ultimately, we designed and implemented a national tour anchored by regional PTA conferences and several high profile national education conferences.  Tour updates were managed via a branded microsite.  In addition, Procter & Gamble’s BeingGirl.com was sold as a national sponsor and blogher was brought in as media sponsor.

 

Impact:  There were two additional print runs and book sales increased by over 500%.  As Anastasia tells it… “The Reason has been instrumental in helping me take the message of my book to hundreds of parents and educators hungry for information about what kids are doing online and with other technology.  By helping me attract a blue-chip sponsor (Procter & Gamble) and coordinating speaking engagements across the country, The Reason has helped me exceed my goals for promoting Totally Wired.”

Throwback Thursday: Rescue Dawn

This is my first installment of Throwback Thursday.  I’ll be using this space to highlight some past(throwback) work.

I had the pleasure of working with 20^th Century Fox to promote the DVD release of Rescue Dawn.  This is one of the many projects, which continues to increase our digital marketing capabilities. 

Challenge: Generate awareness for Rescue Dawn DVD release.

Ideas(Implemented): (1) Brokered relationships with military-themed and Christian Bale fan sites to increase awareness of Rescue Dawn DVD release. (2) Utilized Rescue Dawn DVDs as currency to secure relevant mentions and placements in discussion forums, blogs, and social networks.  

Impact: Over 1.4 million DVD units sold.  We don’t take all the credit, but we were a major Reason for this success.