Converge Weekly

The Vampire Diaries is an American supernatural-fantasy horror television series developed by Kevin Williamson, based on the book series of the same name by L. J. Smith. The series premiered on The CW on September 10, 2009. Since its Pilot, the series has received mixed reviews; however, as the season progresses, it’s promising to be a “supernatural drama that is a first-class production, featuring an insanely gorgeous cast, sharp scripts and a brooding vibe that is hard for even the most levelheaded adult to resist.” (LA Times)

Following is a SMS Case Study featured in Mobile Marketer, done for the program this Halloween:

Name and city and state of marketer:
The CW Network, a joint venture between Warner Bros. Entertainment and CBS Corporation, Burbank, CA, USA.

Name and city and state of agency or marketing services firm:
ChaCha Inc., Carmel, IN.

Duration:
Oct. 24, 2009 – Oct. 29, 2009.

Objective:
The goal of the campaign was to promote The CW’s Halloween-themed episode of “The Vampire Diaries” airing Thursday, Oct. 29 at 8 p.m.

The ad copy for this campaign is built around the theme “Halloween Sucks!”

Each day during the six-day campaign had different copy.

Target audience:
National campaign targeting men and women of all ages, additional focus on the keywords vampire, Vampire Diaries and The CW.

Strategy:
Drive multiple messaging with a wide range of ad copy.

With 56 creative executions the strategy was also to drive interaction and generate response from users.

Call to action:
Tune-in for “The Vampire Diaries” Halloween episode on Oct. 29, 2009.

Results:
Recorded over 50,000 responses to the response code.

When measuring the “The Vampire Diaries” campaign for keyword query growth, searches for “vampire” or “Vampire Diary/Diaries” increased as follows:

“Vampire” – Average daily questions increased from 565 to 1122 (+199 percent).
“Vampire Diary/Diaries” – Average daily questions increased from 91 to 249 (+275 percent).

Lessons learned:
Continue to build on multiple layer ad copy to increase user interaction and maintain a fresh conversation through the life of the campaign.

Surprise finding:
ChaCha’s user base is very interested in the topic of vampires.

Strategy quote from brand executive:
“The CW has some of the most passionate and tech-savvy fans of any network, which means we need to engage them and fuel that passion for our shows on every media platform available,” said Rick Haskins, executive vice president of marketing at The CW, Burbank, CA. “The CW’s young viewers are practically tethered to their mobile devices.

“They use them to stay in constant touch with their friends, family and the world, and as a result, we believe it’s vitally important for us to stay connected with them wherever they may be,” he said.

What challenge did mobile address:
“As we were gearing up for the Halloween episode of our freshman hit The Vampire Diaries, we wanted to tap into a non-traditional promotional vehicle that would enable us to get our messages in front of our viewers in a highly targeted and unique manner, and that’s exactly what an innovative mobile service like ChaCha provided,” Mr. Haskins said.

Local Take-Away:

Such interactive campaigns can be done for any brand or television program to reinforce the brand message, increased recall and interactivity.