Marketing Virgin

I thought the keynote presentation at the Texas eMarketing Summit was interesting. Here is a brief synopsis of the case study:

Background: HP was preparing to launch a $5,500 personal computer. In an age where PC’s typically sell for $500-$1,000, they knew they were facing an up-hill battle. Scott Ballantyne, HP’s VP General Manager, teamed up with Buzz Corps, a company that specializes in word-of-mouth marketing.

HP and Buzz Corps launched a new program titled “the 31 Days of the Dragon” where they picked the top 31 blogs that follow HP. They contacted each blogger and invited them to give away one of the new $5,500 computers to their readers. The bloggers weren’t told how to give it away - it was entirely up to them. The only stipulation was that they had to give the PC away on a particular day of the month that HP assigned to them.

Results: For 31 days, 31 bloggers promoted their contest. Traffic to these blogs increased by triple-digit percentage points. HP saw website traffic increase exponentially while sales for the $5,500 computer soared well above previous expectations.

For a minimal investment, HP was able to have phenominal results.