Ad Track: Microsoft wants you to throw a party for its Xbox
NEW YORK -- On a recent Saturday, about 1,000 women across the country moonlighted as marketers for Microsoft's newest Xbox services.
House cleaners, hairdressers, guidance counselors and IT technicians got a $150 pack of Xbox freebies for opening their homes to at least 10 friends or relatives.
And they earned bragging rights.
"It's cool because the kids in my school were like 'oooh,' " says Aimee Maldonado, 40, a guidance counselor at a high school in Yonkers, N.Y. "They think I'm so cool."
She was among the first 10,000 people in the U.S. to try a batch of new Xbox Live Internet-based games and services, which include streaming video, movie rentals from Netflix, as well as photo-sharing and other social-networking features and shopping.
Microsoft signed up Maldonado and the others to drum up interest among women like them in the services and the newest Xbox console, whose price was cut in the fall to $199.
"We've sold 20 million consoles to date globally since we launched three years ago," says Heather Snavely, Microsoft's director of interactive entertainment business global platforms. "In order to get to the next 20 million, we need to get a new audience of women and teens. We're going after them in ways that are different than ways we've done before."
The Xbox event hosts used their own Xbox 360 consoles to demonstrate the new services, which also require broadband Internet service and subscriptions to Netflix and Xbox Live, a service that offers social-networking activities and game play with friends in other cities.
They got an Xbox party pack of freebies that included microwaveable popcorn, Xbox trivia game Scene It? Box Office Smash, an Xbox universal media remote control, a three-month subscription to Xbox Live, and 1,600 Xbox Live points (used for game, movie and TV show purchases).
Xbox found women including Maldonado and Chicago-area resident Danielle Jamil through a service called House Party, which sets up home parties for marketers. House Party has a database of 100,000 names of people who have provided a profile of personal information and who want to be "brand advocates." The advocates host a preplanned party to show off the marketer's brand to their friends.
"It's a tremendous opportunity in terms of building a brand," says Jamil, 36, a manager at a marketing firm who lives in Downers Grove, Ill. "People trust their friends more than they trust an ad or a commercial."
Marketers pay House Party from $120,000 for holding 1,000 parties to $300,000 for up to 5,000 parties. The marketer's only additional costs are for such incidentals as the sample box for hosts.
Microsoft was one of the 43 clients for which House Party orchestrated events this year. Others included Fisher-Price, Kmart, Kraft, Poland Spring water and Clairol. Next year, the company has more than 85 parties lined up.
Based on the profiles, House Party picks people most likely to talk about a brand or service and settles on a group of hosts for the client marketer. "We're trying to get authentic enthusiasm going," says CEO Kitty Kolding. "We know that word-of-mouth is far more valuable and has more impact when the person delivering the message has a real passion for the product."
To get picked to host a party for 10 to 20 guests, women who own an Xbox had to answer questions about how active they are on social-network sites such as MySpace. Selected hosts then received weekly e-mails with party tips and reminders leading up to the event.
Kolding says the company tries to work the list so the same people aren't always picked. "We try to gather a whole new group of consumers every time we do an event," says Kolding. "We don't want serial hosters."
Shannon Arnett, 30, of Batavia, Ohio, was excited to be picked as an Xbox host.
"We have the older Xbox 360," she says. "When it first came out, (the games and services were) more geared toward the men. … Now, Xbox is trying to bring everyone together."
NEW & NOTABLE
Whopper of a body scent
Spend enough time inside a Burger King, and you can walk out smelling like a Whopper.
Or, for $3.99, you can buy a new men's body spray from Burger King called Flame that makes guys smell like the famous, flame-broiled meat.
"It's for real," insists Brian Gies, vice president of marketing impact at Burger King. "Who couldn't use a little help from The King in the seduction department?"
The fragrance — which he calls a great stocking stuffer — went on sale Dec. 14. It's not available inside Burger King restaurants but can be purchased at New York-based Ricky's stores or ordered online at FireMeetsDesire.com.
Is a french-fry-scented men's spray next? "You'll be the first to know," he promises the Ad Team.
The party's over for GM
For the ailing auto industry, there's not much to celebrate — and no money in the corporate marketing coffers. Reflecting both those things, General Motors' Chevrolet brand has dropped out of its New Year's Eve sponsorships. Over the last few years, Chevy has run advertising on major TV networks broadcasting the famed midnight ball drop in New York City's Times Square. It also hosted major on-site promotions, such as its sponsorship of Mary J. Blige's 2006 New Year's Eve performance. The singer performed on a Chevy-branded stage that was decorated with Tahoes.
The New Year's Eve pullback is yet another example of how GM is trying to drastically slice marketing costs. The automaker has also said it will not run its traditional ads during 2009 Super Bowl or the Academy Awards.
Holiday basket case
So, maybe the holidays aren't exactly the healthiest time of year. (The Ad Team is up about 7 pounds collectively.) So it's all the more reason to give a "Health Basket" from healthgifts.com. Choices include:
•The $24.95 "Raising the Bar" basket, filled with beneficial dark chocolate treats — made with organic and Fair Trade chocolates.
•The $69.95 "Take Heart" basket, filled with products ranging from special omega-3 salmon oil to sardines in organic olive oil.
•The $149.95 "Flash in the Pan" basket for menopausal women, containing everything from "Get a Grip" herbal tea to antioxidant-rich Sea Buckthorn Oil body wash.
"Now, when people call me a basket case," says founder Randi Luckman, "I consider it the highest compliment of all."
Marketers hungry for iPhone apps
As it tries to capitalize on the rise of home cooks — and the increased use of digital devices — Kraft Foods is now promoting a 99-cent iPhone application that lets users browse through more than 7,000 recipes, watch food-prep demos and find the nearest grocery store through GPS. Kraft says this new app is "a first for any food or consumer packaged-goods company."
Not willing to shell out 99 cents for an app but dying to try one? Free Target and Gap apps, created by mobile ad maker AKQA, offer last-minute shopping ideas. More than 100,000 downloads of the free app have been made since launching recently.
By Laura Petrecca and Bruce Horovitz
ASK THE AD TEAM
Q. I was wondering who plays the little boy child in the E-Trade commercials? He is adorable and has me laughing my eyes out.
—Eileen Reynolds, Clearwater, Fla.
A. Because the baby is a baby, his name is not being released by E-Trade or the ad agency, Grey, which created the ads. However, we can tell you a little about him and the ads. He made his commercial debut before an average 97.4 million viewers during the Super Bowl last year. At the time he was about 10 months. Mobile ads currently being shown were made a few months later, making him a commercial veteran at the age of 12 months. But a few months are years when it comes to a baby's commercial career. In earlier ads he needed some help from his mom, who appeared on a monitor that was off-camera. She cooed and talked to him to help keep him calm during the shoot. In the later ads he was able to follow simple directions such as picking up the BlackBerry when asked. But according to E-Trade spokeswoman Pamela Erickson, the "magic" happens thanks to the right script and a grown-up voice that matches the baby images.