Park & CO president, Park Howell, came up with a great idea to help his ad agency staff better understand new media. He led his agency to create their own employee Film Festival competition.
The agency’s staff were divided into 8 teams. Each team had to create a self-produced video that would be uploaded to YouTube and then they were to generate traffic to their video. The winning team would receive $1,000. The winning criteria was to get the highest number of clicks.
The winning team was led by Kim Hodge and team members included Courtney Steuck, Heidi Moore and Sabrina Sherrell, also known as the “Bad Ass Babes.” They attributed their success to a well planned marketing strategy. They knew that cute animal video’s often became a popular subject that easily became viral. They created a 30-second parody of a Gap commercial, with dogs lip syncing to Depeche Mode’s “I Just Can’t Get Enough.”
The group started planning the shoot and called on a host of friends, the area’s best directors of photography, editors, and grips. They were able to persuade the crew to donate their time promising to use the $1000 prize money and donate it to a local animal shelter.
Following a day of shooting and edits, the team got together, and played the video. They knew immediately that they had a winner!
At the official opening to the Film Festival, all the videos were played and awards were given for Best Cinematography, Best Actor/Actress and Best Direction. Then the 8 teams were set free to their offices to upload the videos onto YouTube and to start spreading the word.
The Bad Ass Babes constructed a great email to accompany the link and out it went, with “Dogs Helping Dogs” in the subject line and our pledge of $1000 to charity if their video got the most clicks in their agency’s competition. They posted it to every person in agency and personal address books and to their Facebook pages. They also identified blogs and websites dedicated to animals, and within 2 weeks their video was being viewed in countries as far and wide as South Africa, The Netherlands, and Australia.
They also had numerous dog-related Yahoo! groups working with us, sending out daily reminders to their members to click the video. Rhodesian Ridgebacks are featured heavily in the piece and breed groups around the world started to take ownership of the piece and joined forces with us to ensure the dog’s video would win.
Their video was even posted on the largest dog blog in world www.dogster.com
Kim’s team grew from 4 people, to an online network of over 40 people, all dog lovers, because of the charity aspect made contact with animal blogs around the world to promote the video.
After a 4-week posting, the team ended up with 8350 clicks, with their nearest competition over 7000 clicks behind!
The teams winnings were donated to The Arizona Animal Welfare League/SPCA, the state’s oldest and largest no-kill shelter, which provides temporary homes for nearly 2,000 dogs and cats every year and offers medical and behavioral treatment for those in need.
The winning video:
Park&Co have been already been able to utilize the results of their contest in client and prospective client meetings. It has been a great tool to promote their agency.
Wow…what a brilliant idea! Your employees get a better understanding of new media, and you can show potential clients what is possible with that same media.
I’ve recently been hired on in my first traditional agency position as digital director and my main role is to help our clients, and their brands, understand the importance of new media and how we can integrate it into their traditional marketing and advertising campaigns. I’m finding that my biggest challenge is educating our existing employees about it. I’ll definitely take a lesson from Mr. Howell on this one…my hats off to him.
Thanks for sharing!
Conrad,
Thanks for taking the time to share your comments. I’ll be sure to pass on your comments to Park Howell and his staff.
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Hi Michael. Thanks for featuring us in your blog. It’s always a privilege to be included in your warm company. Happy St. Patty’s to you.
Park, I’m always glad to feature agencies that are letting their creativity flow within the social media space. Thanks for a great example. I really like your blog as well. It’s great to see agencies willing to put their stake in the ground and stand for something. http://www.parkhowell.com A Brighter Shade of Green Marketing … very cool.