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Viral Marketing Success Story:
Houston of Natural Science (HMNS)
The Houston Museum of Natural Science (HMNS) was one chosen to showcase the world-famous Exhibition for the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. HMNS quickly realized that while the exhibit was expected to generate a great deal of interest, it didn't have a lot of appeal for their core audience. The success of the exhibition, therefore, would rest in how it was marketed.
The Houston Museum of Natural Science quickly called in Spur Digital to help reach the targeted demographic audience and generate interest in the Exhibit. HMNS was, also, hoping to acquire new patrons and members to further their future revenue.
Spur digital worked with HMNS to identify the target market for the campaign and developed an integrated online media plan to reach those audiences. The campaign featured an online contest that was marketed through targeted online media outlets including relevant Web sites, Search Engines and third party E-mail lists. Viral marketing was an important component of the campaign, so Spur developed an innovative strategy to get people to refer their friends.
Spur identified the target audience as males 18
to 34 years old who were fans of action and
fantasy films, frequent video game players
and movie renters, tech-savvy who generally
didn't hang out at museums. Based on this
information, Spur chose search engine
advertisements that would accompany specific
search words, dedicated e-mail
advertisements, sponsored e-mail
advertisements, banner ads on web sites
targeted toward the desired audience, and
e-mails to the HMNS list.
Did it work? You bet! The results
were excellent. The impact of the viral
marketing effort was astounding - over
23% of registrants came
originated from the Tell-A-Friend feature.
The direct marketing efforts yielded
impressive results as well. In total, the
12 week, locally-targeted
online campaign yielded more than 2
million targeted impressions,
40,000 unique visits,
almost 12,000 and 6,000 invitations
sent by friends at a cost per action of less
than $3.00. These
contributed to the record attendance of
almost 100,000 over 3 months. |
