A Successful MySpace Social Media Campaign

There is a common perception that marketing campaigns on sites like Facebook and MySpace do not produce the ROI that other online marketing efforts do. Social media marketing is still very new and one reason for the lack of success is that a lot of marketers are just not experienced in marketing to these types of communities. Last year I wrote abut A Successful Facebook Marketing Campaign from Target.

Adage recently had an article about how successful Disney has been on MySpace continually revitalizing the MySpace profile it created for its 2006 dance-themed movie “Step Up”.

From the article:

The proof is in the numbers: box-office receipts, DVD sales, number of friends on MySpace and results from a Nielsen NRG study, to be more specific. Each provided Disney concrete evidence that continually revitalizing the MySpace profile it created for its 2006 dance-themed movie “Step Up” didn’t just help boost the movie’s DVD sales and turn its follow-up, “Step Up 2 the Streets,” into a surprise box-office hit; it also managed to expand the movie’s already sizeable and enthusiastic group of fans. The movie’s MySpace profile has more than 156,000 friends.

A tactic that worked very well for Disney was that they realized that one of the keys to being successful within social networks is not to continually hit consumers over the head with a marketing message but rather to maintain a steady stream of contact with them.

One of Disney’s big wins from this campaign was that they are able to measure the success of its MySpace campaign. And the numbers show how big an impact the MySpace campaign had on the success of the movie.

An in-theater Nielsen NRG survey conducted during the sequel’s opening weekend concluded that “Step Up 2 the Streets” was noticed more than its predecessor because of its MySpace profile. Compare its findings with those of a similar study conducted during the first film’s opening weekend: 49% of total respondents saw an ad or information for the movie on MySpace, compared with 37% who saw information on its profile for the original movie. More than twice as many males 25 and younger saw information about the sequel (57%) compared with the original (28%). Among females, the numbers were closer but still higher for the sequel (54%) than the original (46%). And in probably the most interesting finding, 58% of those with a MySpace profile recalled seeing an ad or information for the sequel, while only 26% of those without a profile remembered seeing anything about the movie. Those numbers were also up from 2006 — 50% vs. 13%.

Jack Pan, VP-marketing strategy and special projects for Disney, said the lesson to be learned is that social networks allow marketers to more efficiently expand their group of consumers while getting the most out of already established marketing properties.

“It’s one of the great things you can do on MySpace,” he said. “We had a robust group of people who were interested in this movie, so we felt it was natural to just continue the dialogue with them as opposed to starting a new one and rebuilding another community for the sequel.”

The MySpace page was not just an advertisement for the movie. Disney spent time and effort in building up the MySpace site by allowing users to interact with the movie’s director and stars, participate in a variety of contests, win a chance to appear in the movie and gain admittance to an advance “Black Curtain” screening of the film, where they met and spoke to stars of the movie and its soundtrack.

All of these moves not only built brand awareness but also helped create armies of evangelists for the brand.

“The community part is big for us, because creating a forum for discussion and allowing a group to collectively share their interests with each other is like having a digital street team,” Mr. Pan said. “By giving these ambassadors content to play with and opportunities to be invested in, we feel like we’re providing value to them, and their enthusiasm can do a lot of marketing on our behalf. You see a much more lasting and viral impact than you would through other forms of media.”

In addition the MySpace site went through different iterations depending on where the movie in the Disney pipeline. The same URL was used for both movies and the site will be repurposed again for the DVD release of “Step up 2 the Streets. This continuity of URL and updated content is one reason why the Step Up” MySpace profile has 156,000-plus friends, and that didn’t come from one effort; it came from a succession of efforts. They have grown their community and kept it engaged by giving them reasons to keep coming back.”