Have you heard of the new Fox show Lone Star? I had seen one commercial for it, but it really caught my eye, when I received an email a couple of weeks ago from Klout.

Of course, I responded to the email and this past Thursday, I received a HUGE box in the mail:

And the following inside the box: cocktail napkins, 4 plastic wine glasses, 4 plastic beer mugs, plastic ice bucket, soft cooler, bottle opener, corkscrew, 2 posters, tub of popcorn, t-shirt, 2 show posters and a DVD of the pilot of the show. All branded with the Lone Star name.  Awesome!

So what’s Klout? Klout calls itself the “Standard of Influence” and rates Twitter users and gives them a score of their clout based on reach, amplification and network.  In a few seconds, it gives you your Klout Score by combining factors such as the number of lists the Twitter user is on, your retweets, and your mentions… all of which are factors that are much more important than the commonly looked at “follower numbers”.  How many followers you have is irrelevant if no one is listening to you, and Klout attempts to quantify how much people are listening to you.  It’s  a great measure, and is quickly becoming the “standard”, as they say.  I have looked up many people I know from Twitter, and the scores seem reasonable based on how influential I know these people to be.

What Klout is starting to do, is partner with companies to give offers to people who have high Klout scores.  I have received a few like this (Covergirl, Starbucks in partnership with BzzAgent), but this was, by far, the most impactful presentation.

The idea is that I am supposed to throw a party with the contents of the box, and watch the pilot episode with my friends.  Brilliant thinking Fox!  Here are a few reasons why it’s great marketing:

• Gets people excited about the build-up to the show
• Makes enjoying the show a social activity
• Makes the receiver of the package (me!) feel special
• Gives people something to talk about after watching the pilot and enjoying the “party in a box”
• Targets people who are influential

Fox has also coupled this with other social media tactics, including a Twitter account (@LoneStarOnFox), use of QR codes in print ads, strong use of hashtag (#LoneStar), a Facebook page and a sweepstakes on Facebook.

Overall, a very smart social media campaign by Fox.  The major feedback I’d have for them is to start earlier.  I received the party box on Thursday, the premier is on Monday, and I’m supposed to plan and have a party in that 4 day period.  Also looking at their Twitter page, it looks like thy just started promoting it last minute, with only 300 followers (although follower number aren’t everything, right?). Their Facebook page has been  active longer, but still only has 1,900 fans, a small amount for a national show. It’s important to remember that social media is a slow build medium, so you need to start early!

So, did I have the party and watch the show?  I didn’t have the party, as it wasn’t enough notice for me, but I DID watch the pilot I received.  I loved it!  The cast is great, and the plot is just a twisted mess of lies (in an intriguing way!). I’m looking forward to seeing more of it, and will certainly be watching the premier on Monday!

Have you seen campaigns like this?  What do you think of the idea of this campaign for “influencers”?

I came across this this morning, and wanted to post it as a GREAT way to take the “same-old” and turn it into something newly creative. Look at how it stops people in their tracks. It’s unexpected and new.

What other examples have you seen like this that are unexpected ways to advertise or promote a product?

I’ve noticed a lot of people automatically cross-posting from one social media site to another lately. They have all their Twitter updates feed to Facebook, all their LinkedIn updates feed to Twitter, or all their Delicious tags updating Facebook. I’ll say right off the bat, that I find this frustrating (especially when it comes from savvy marketing people). Why? Because each of these audiences is different, and each tool is used differently. You wouldn’t take a Coke ad that was specifically written for a Golf magazine and put it in Vogue, would you? No, because the audiences of each magazine are different and the brand’s message may be slightly different for each audience.

Similarly, each social media tool has a different audience, is used differently and has a different culture. For example, for me, I view each of these sites as follows:

• Facebook – connecting with friends; not very businessy (when talking about personal profiles), updates are a few times at most a day
• Twitter – connecting with people with similar interests (for me, mostly marketing and social media), somewhat businessy, updates are frequent (sometimes up to 20-30 times/day)
• LinkedIn – connecting with people in order to network, very businessy, updates are infrequently used (starting to catch on though)

Given the above, if I cross-posted all my Twitter updates to Facebook, I would be doing a few things — I’m pushing my business stuff on my friends who probably have no interest in it, and I’m doing it at an overwhelming pace given the culture on Facebook.  In addition, I’m using lingo that my Facebook friends don’t know, such as RT, @, #, etc. Why would I want to do that??  It’s blatently ignoring how people operate on Facebook, why they’re there, and overwhelming their stream with posts that they probably have no interest in.  They have signed up to be my friend, not necessarily to hear about all of my business interests.

So, do I think there are some posts that work as cross-posts?  Absolutely!  And, that’s why there are a few applications that allow you to choose when it’s appropriate to cross-post.  For example, applications like Selective Twitter Status (use the hashtag #fb in a tweet to send it to Facebook), or using the hashtag #in in a tweet to send it to LinkedIn, choosing “Facebook” on TweetDeck or Seesmic when you want to update Facebook, or clicking the checkbox on LinkedIn to send you update to Twitter.

So, what about posting your business updates to your Facebook profile? While it’s a little off the topic of cross-posting, the concept is the same to me.  Have your friends signed up to hear about your business by being your friend?  No.  So, if you find yourself with over a quarter of your Facebook updates (a good benchmark to me) to be about your business, maybe it’s time to consider a business Fan Page so your friends can opt-in to receive your business updates.

The risk you run with not keeping these audience/culture factors in mind, is people will hide or unfollow you, and then they’re not seeing ANY of your updates. For example, I hide many people on Facebook because they overwhelm my stream, and unfortunately that means I don’t see any of their updates anymore. Update 4/30/10: LinkedIn has now added a “hide” option, so even more reason not to cross-post, or you’ll be hidden and never be seen again!

So, my final message is this… think about your audience and the culture before cross-posting!

What do you think?  Is it OK for people to automatically cross-post?  Why or why not?

Last Saturday, I got a chance to ride around Brookline in a red hot Ferrari for a half an hour! It was part of a program called Ferrari4Charity, run  by Ray Chang. Ray, who coincidentally is also from Lexington, started Ferrari4Charity and FreeFerrariRides as a way to give companies a way to advertise on cars.  He recognized that when people ride around in a hot looking car, like a Ferrari or an Aston Martin, people look.  Look, really is an understatement. Gawk is more like it.  Well, the program charges $6,000 to advertise on the car for a 100 mile period.  Ray rents the car for $1,500/day, slaps the advertisers’ decals on the car and takes people around for free rides.  What a great concept.  People get a fun ride. And the advertisers get many “gawkers”.

I was actually confused as to if this was a non-profit or not, and sure enough, his website had already answered that question: “No we are a not.  We are a for profit business and where the charity component comes in is that we like to donate some of our time, resources and profits to charities during a campaign or after a campaign.”

I had a blast on my ride!  It was very low to the ground, had an amazing pickup (although I think we scared the Brookline locals a bit!), and had smooth leather seats. Ray told me the car would sell for $250,000, a number I can’t EVER imagine spending on a car, no matter how rich I get (thinking positive thoughts).  A surprise to me — not to car aficionados, I’m sure — was that the engine was in the back of the car, and we could see it while sitting in the car.  Very cool!

So, what do I think of this idea?  I think it’s very innovative, and for sure gets people to look.  I wish I had taken photos of a few people with their jaws hanging open, and heads turned.  But, are they looking at the car, the ads or the people?  I tend to think they’re first looking at the car, and then wondering who is driving such a nice car, and then finally look at the ads.  As with many things marketing related, measuring ROI is tough.  Estimating eyeballs on the car is probably an easy task, but measuring if they see the ad is another thing, not to mention if they actually take it in, or are just taking in the car.  Then there are all the side benefits… people writing posts like this, people posting photos that show the advertisers in them, the viral effect of social media, etc.

In my current job, I don’t think I could justify the spend.  But, if I were working back at Jim Beam or Kraft again, spending $6,000 on something that would get me a lot of talk value, on a budget of $10-25MM, I would definitely consider it.

What do you think of the idea?  Would you spend that kind of money for 100 miles?