2009 PRO Awards: 31 Days of the Dragon
Agency: Ivy Worldwide
Client: Hewlett-Packard
The HDX “Dragon” laptop had been on the market for nine months and sales were slowing down. Prior to another product launch, HP wanted to entrench itself better in the blogosphere and other new media that influencers live in to reinvigorate buzz and sales around the laptop, while at the same time increasing the company’s awareness prior to a new product launch.
HP gave 31 influencers each a Dragon laptop to give away to their readers. Each blogger created a contest tailored to their specific audience. They engaged them in discussions about HP and the Dragon and publicized third-party endorsements of the product and the company.
Bloggers joined forces to build contest site 31daysofthedragon.com and promoted the giveaway with active links to all the other sites involved in the program. They also created and shared other marketing materials, including graphics, logos, videos and RSS feeds. Reviews and readership benchmarks were shared and cross-promoted among the blogger community.
The campaign succeeded. As a result of more than 50 million media impressions, which reached 123 countries and were translated into 40 languages, sales for the Dragon increased by 84%.
