Something old and something new is a great philosophy with which to power an awesome outreach marketing strategy. Hollywood Branded hit that nail on the head with a project they recently did for their client, PassionRoses.
Hollywood Branded used a more traditional marketing tactic—working with a celebrity—and morphed their strategy to fit snugly with the way the modern consumer likes to hear about a brand—organic social media chatter and created a bang surrounding PassionRoses.
Oh, and I should mention they did it without a budget.
PassionRoses has just launched a B2C operation that sells high end roses handpicked in Columbia which are sold to floral gift-givers all over North and South America.
They are owned by a B2B parent company and debuted their consumer site in early 2014. In order to drive traffic to their online store and awareness of their high end brand, they tasked agency Hollywood Branded with making a bang surrounding their company in order to drive new business for Valentine’s Day.
In the spirit of outreach marketing’s primary philosophy—reaching out to the right people at the right time—Hollywood Branded partnered up with Warner Brother’s artist Jason Derulo to promote their client.
Finding the Right One
While PassionRoses was looking for the right influential voice to align with, Jason Derulo was eager to make an over-the-top romantic gesture for his “right one.”
So why was this such a perfect fit for PassionRoses? Let’s take a look:
Jason Derulo has the clean image that PassionRoses wanted to align their brand with.
He has a huge and loyal social network.
Not only that, but, Jason Derulo’s girlfriend is America Idol winner Jordin Sparks who also has a clean image and huge social network as well.
It was Valentine’s Day, the perfect time of year to use an adorable couple to promote beautiful flowers.
Working with a celebrity in this instance was a great fit. This is not always the case and I have seen this be a confusing area for brands, primarily when a celebrity’s fan reach has no contextual tie in with a brand but marketers use that celebrity anyway because they’re persuaded by numerical qualifiers.
But, when one of America’s favorite couples can be part of a campaign promoting roses, that’s a pretty good use of working with a celebrity, don’t you think? Especially in the way that Hollywood Branded implemented. Without paying a celebrity a ton of money they were creating authentic brand coverage and organic chatter across the social web, all core principals of outreach marketing.
The Plan
Hollywood Branded reached out to Jason Derulo and his team by offering to build out a super romantic suite for he and his girlfriend. They would fill the suite with 10,000 PassionRoses.
In return they asked for pictures on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
Hollywood Branded spent an entire day building out the suite and working with a photographer to cover the process.
The Best Part: The Bang
Now, not all strategies and tactics make bangs, but this one did and PassionRoses couldn’t have been happier.
The project scored over 187MM impressions from 50+ press outlets including, People Magazine, E! Online & E! News, Us Weekly, Huffington Post, Perez Hilton, OK! Magazine, and many more. The results for the client – success on all fronts accompanied by a trackable and sales impacting drive of traffic directly from the social media post sites to the new website.
Key Takeaway
Now, I know that it’s not a good fit for most brands to pair up with celebrities so I’m not suggesting you bookmark this post and contact your favorite pop star. What I am suggesting is that Hollywood Branded provides us with a valuable takeaway with this case study: Reaching out to the RIGHT people at the RIGHT time.
Next time you want to approach someone to help you spread word of mouth brand coverage, ask yourself the following questions:
- Does this person contextually make sense with my goal?
- Does this person’s audience care about my brand and product?
- Does the timing make sense to reach out to this person right now? Perhaps they’re a better fit for a future campaign?
- How can I creatively help them share information about my brand?
- What strong visual assets can I offer this person when they talk about me?
How are you going to up the game on your outreach digital marketing strategy and follow PassionRose’s example of hitting the nail on the head when it comes to reaching out to the right person at the right time?
Also, if you have a creative outreach marketing case study you want to share, email me and let’s collaborate!
