W Magazine April 2010 Issue - Featuring Jennifer Aniston & Gerard Butler
W Magazine may be having editor-in-chief and creative director changes, but its marketing department is going strong and getting very creative with its efforts.
In my Facebook News Stream today, I saw the below post from W Mag. If you use your smart phone and take a picture of any ad in the April 2010 Issue and send to W mag, not only do you sign up for deals through its email list, but also enter to win $1000. So, what do we have going on here in terms of fashion marketing?
W Magazine Intergrates Facebook, Cell Phones & Print Magazines for its latest contest
1) Mobile Marketing - use of the smart phone and sending to W mag is a great way to integrate mobile marketing into a campaign. Readers could be passing by a newsstand or at a doctors office and still be able to participate in the contest right then and there with their mobile phone.
2) Social Media Marketing - posting on Twitter and Facebook, along with its blog, W magazine used social media outlets to spread the word through interaction with its current followers. This reaches out to consumers who currently are not subscribers and consumers that are. Social media channels help W Magazine connect with users that they might not have had interaction with if the contest was solely spoken about in its print publication.
3) Sweepstakes - Having a grand prize is an excellent incentive for people to participate in the contest. Not only do participants receive great info about brands they love, but a possibly of winning $1k is not bad either. While sweepstakes are a great way to get consumer attention (and for them to sign up for your newsletter), keep in mind to not sell consumer personal information to third parties. No one likes spam (the faux meat or the annoying email).
4) Print Advertising – Of course its no surprise the W Mag uses its traditional print publication as an outlet for its latest contest. Its the bread and butter of the brand, and they are just getting creative about how to bring more eyes to those advertiser pages. The brilliance of this campaign, is that readers have to consciously look at advertiser ads, meaning definite consumer interaction with those ads and can be tracked by the photos that users submit. Finally a way for print advertisers to see how many people “like” their ad.
I am really excited to see this from a major fashion publication. The use of the different media is finally coming together for mass execution and I would love to know the results of this contest. If my W magazine subscription was forwarded to my new address I would be all over entering! Maybe I will go pick up the W April Issue just to do a test run.
UPDATE 4/9/10:
Neiman Marcus Ad taken by my iPhone
We had a copy of the April W Mag laying around the office, so I put this contest to the test. I thumbed through the mag, and found a Neiman Marcus ad. Took a snapshot with my iPhone and sent it to the W email. A few hours later, I received an email from W Magazine, with the subject line “Neiman Marcus”. Keep in mind, that I didn’t send any text in my email when I entered the contest. All I did was submit the photo. I was really surprised at how precise the email back to me was. It had the ad’s brand name in the subject line, had a custom telephone number to contact about the featured Chanel purse, and listed other Chanel events.
I cant help but wonder how the heck this email was created. Is someone over there looking at each entry manually and then sorting emails and sending back the correct branded message? Does each ad have its own unique call tracking number? This campaign goes much deeper into marketing then it looks like on the surface. Emails and call tracking make this once-non-traceable marketing medium show its potential to boost consumer behavior.