We have done a couple of rather successful partner widget campaigns with a unique twist (QR codes). The idea is simple: give media partners (sites with large amounts of traffic) song premiere music widgets that they embedded on their sites. For example, with the Pistol Annies album launch, we had 5 different song widgets (one for each song) on 5 different sites. The widgets, which were promoted by each site, allowed fans to hear a new single from the album for the first time. Once they listened to the single in its entirely they were able to scan a QR code or click the widget in order to unlock and collect one of five badges. Once they unlocked and collected all 5 badges, they were able to enter in a sweepstakes for a chance to win a flyaway to meet with the band.
This is also a good examples of some of the multi-component comprehensive campaigns we have been involved in. Here are some of the components.
Microsite:
We designed a microsite, hosted on the Pistol Annies website, that served as the start-point and
Widget:
The widget itself was developed in Flash and delivered via the Amazon CDN to ensure it would reliably and cost-effectively deliver over a million views during a week period. The widget featured a pre-order link to iTunes, as well as links to the rules and information about the promotion. Once a user finished streaming a song, it unlocked a QR code/link they could use. This encouraged users to listen to the whole song.
Partner Sites:
The widget was premiered on 5 different partners sites (one each day) including the Pistol Annies website. Partners included: US Magazine, Country Weekly, The Boot (AOL) and Billboard Magazine.
Mobile Sweepstakes Application:
The QR code on the widget linked back to a “universal mobile application”. This application allowed fans to unlock, collect (and share) Pistol Annies badges. Badges could be shared on Facebook or Twitter.
Once all five badges were collected, fans were then able to enter the sweepstakes. The mobile application automatically remembered who they were, so logging in was not necessary. The application was built on HTML5 and jQuery mobile and was accessible from the broad range of both desktop and mobile browsers.
