Paula Skaper and Kim Madu of Kinetix Communications recently merged social media and marketing to promote an online contest starring the Pacific National Exhibition's mascot, KC Bear. They shared their findings at DM Day, a direct market conference held at the Westin Bayshore on Thursday.
They found that traditional online contests were dropping in popularity, so they used Myspace, Facebook and Youtube to promote the PNE and drive traffic to a email subscription program for the PNE and generate interest in online contests featuring a mascot named KC Bear.
They also found that while Facebook generated over 500 friends (and counting) for KC, and Youtube videos featuring rides shot from the mascot's perspective proved very popular. Myspace turned out to be an inappropriate venue for a kid-oriented mascot, and as soon as their online contest was finished they discontinued their Myspace presence. They also found that responding to email, friend requests and other interaction with the mascot proved to be a bigger job than they anticipated.
Even though the contest is finished, KC Bear's Youtube and Facebook presence still drives people to subscribe to the PNE's email list, showing social media is clearly a viable and growing part of any marketing push.
