This morning marked the first snowfall of the season for Abilene, Texas. In honor of this momentous occasion (and not only momentous, but momentary - the snow will be completely melted any moment now, although we appreciate it while it lasts), here are a few fun holiday campaigns to warm up your week:
(1) Hot or Not Snowmen - Target Brands, Inc. presents hotornotsnowmen.com - a collection of photos of the world's most eligible snow-bachelors, and invites viewers to rate each one as "Hot" or "Not". (Bringing back junior high memories, anyone?) Once you've rated one snowman, the next photo appears, providing potential hours of snowman-viewing cheer. A sidebar allows you to share the site with your friends on social media, or to check out Target's Weekly Ad for brand savings.
(2) Santa Yoda - The LEGO Group is promoting its LEGO Star Wars collection with a starfighter-load of holiday-themed fun at the legosantayoda.com microsite, hosted by none other than the jolly Jedi master himself. Visitors can share holiday video e-greetings starring their favorite LEGO Star Wars characters (my favorite involves carolers interrupting a quiet evening at Vader's house), upload photos for the LEGO® holiday scene contest, and add to their own LEGO Star Wars holiday wish list. For every e-card shared, LEGO will donate one new LEGO toy to the U.S. Marine Corps' Toys for Tots program.
(3) NoiseTrade - NoiseTrade.com isn't specifically holiday-focused, per se, but as a purveyor of free, legal music, it naturally has Christmas albums at the top of the list this month. NoiseTrade enables musicians to build their fan base by providing their albums free to consumers. This free marketing model draws many artists who are just starting out, but also features a few more well-known bands, such as Thousand Foot Krutch. If you want to break up the Christmas music with something mellow and folksy, check out my friends Josh Powell & The Great Train Robbery, who just released their free EP last week.
The thing I love about all three of these sites is how they share a bit of cheer (Internet fun, videos and contests, music) with customers, for free. Their first step at building relationships is to give. Certainly, giving entails risk - your recipient might never return your love. Your customers might feast on your free content, and never return the goodwill by purchasing anything.
But it might also lead the way to a beautiful friendship, with customers who think you're fun, kind, decent, and generous, and who are eager to support you and to introduce you to their friends for years to come.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment