William Baker was an avid sweepstakes player. Every day after work, he’d troll the Internet for a solid two hours casting his odds.
Over the years, the mechanical engineer won some minor prizes. But in January, a certain sweepstakes offering made him think of his 22-year-old son, William (who goes by his middle name, Ryan). The Be a Big Shot Record Exec sweeps from AT&T Wireless and Zilo Networks offered the chance to live in New York City for a month and learn the ins and outs of the music industry at a major recording label.
It sounded perfect for Ryan, a music lover set to begin a degree in audio engineering with dreams of starting his own studio. Ryan entered — several times — at his father’s urging and hoped that lighting would strike twice. (The year before, he’d won a red-carpet trip to the MTV Video Music Awards through an MTV sweeps.) On April 1, Ryan received a phone call notifying him that he had won. He assumed his dad was playing an April Fool’s joke on him, but when he phoned him at work, his father’s silent shock confirmed the call was for real.
But Ryan came to New York City this summer with a heavy heart. His father died suddenly just 12 days after Ryan won the sweepstakes. “I’m not necessarily a religious person and I don’t really believe in fate, but I can’t help but think this was meant to happen,” he said outside Arista Records’ Manhattan office, where PROMO spent a day shadowing Ryan.
His experience in the city was documented by Zilo TV, an on-campus network that reaches more than 6 million college students. The 30-minute piece will be shown eight times this fall and will incorporate AT&T Wireless in the program. (Ryan was given an AT&T photo phone to use during his big league internship.)
A lanky redhead with attentive blue eyes, Ryan is quiet, but he’s not uncomfortable with letting AT&T, Zilo and Arista use him for their own purposes. He’s thankful for the experience and a possible jumpstart on his own career. “I’ll be their poster-child or whatever they need me to be; I’ve had a great time here,” he said.
The Be A Big Shot promotion is one of five Ultimate Experiences sweeps prizes hosted by AT&T Wireless between June 2002 and June 2003, and developed by Frankel, Chicago. One prizewinner traveled to three different concerts on three different continents; another scored a VIP trip to the PGA Tour Championship. The Record Exec program marks the second time AT&T Wireless has teamed with Zilo; in the first outing, the partners awarded a seat behind the scenes for the shooting of a Warren Miller action ski film.
More and more marketers are using consumers in their campaigns. The methods run the gamut — from Subway’s weight loss stories with Jared Fogle to Nokia’s strategy of letting students create TV ads for the brand. While the Subway strategy is an example of old-fashioned testimonial advertising, the advent of reality TV has made the use of real people in ads more popular. And while promotion industry veterans toss around the term “experiential marketing” ad nauseam, the attempt to incorporate consumers into marketing campaigns is fresh.
“It’s the next level of testimonials,” says John Zamoiski, president of New York City-based The GEM Group, of the Subway and other marketing variations. “Real people are the most credible kind of advertising you can think of and it’s so much stronger to have a person who had success with a product speak rather than a claim.”
Career spinning
Zilo isn’t the only company hoping to reap rewards from Ryan Baker. The last time Arista Records made such waves with the young adult demo was when characters from MTV’s The Real World interned at the label in 2001. This time around, Arista thinks it may have indeed found an employee in Ryan.
“Not only did the label get great visibility out of this, but I think we found a great future record exec,” says Laura Swanson, senior VP-publicity at Arista, a division of BMG.
Back at home in suburban Lawrenceville, GA, Ryan passes time mixing beats for songwriter friends and promoting Atlanta’s electronica music scene. It’s a long way from the private car that picked him up at the airport and transported him to a Midtown Manhattan luxury suite at the Shoreham Hotel on Fifth Avenue. Other perks included $1,000 in weekly spending money, plus $2,000 for new clothes.
The hefty budget and allowance were part of the image. “If you showed up in New York City and were suddenly a record exec, what would you need?” asks David Isaacs, CEO of New York City-based Zilo Networks. “You’d need money to spend, and you’d need cool clothes for parties and transportation.”
Ryan’s time at Arista was broken up into one-week stints in four different departments. First, he worked in the publicity department, where he met the managers of hot names such as Usher and Outkast.
Next, Ryan spent time in Arista’s A&R (artists and repertoire) and marketing departments, before finishing off in the sales division. As he perched next to a sales assistant one morning, Ryan was focused. The assistant explained how the division tracks how an artist’s TV and radio appearances affect records sales per week.
Across the way from Ryan on the 39th floor sat Jordan Katz, the senior VP-sales. Inside the corner office offering views of the Hudson River and Central Park, Katz welcomed questions from Ryan and shared how he had started as an intern at Arista 16 years ago.
“Be humble, read a lot, listen a lot, ask questions and stay in touch with everyone you’ve met here,” Katz advised as he addressed Ryan from his black leather couch in front of a TV continuously playing music videos. Down the hall, music blasted from offices and conference rooms as mixes were played for professional music critics.
Later on, Ryan shared the highlights of his time at Arista over a Bloody Mary. (He’d been out late the night before at a Video Music Awards pre-party hosted by producer Jermaine Dupree.) Among Ryan’s favorite experiences were accompanying artist Pharrel to a series of appearances on MTV’s Last Call with Carson Daly and CBS’ Late Show with David Letterman. He also hung out at the filming of a Dido video and a Vogue photo shoot for a new artist named Kelis. But it didn’t take long for Ryan to become nonchalant about spotting stars at the label or on the street. As Pink strolled through Arista’s lobby, he barely blinked. Most of the celebrities had egos too big for this down-to-earth Southern boy.
Still, Ryan plans to follow up with people he’s met at Arista about a possible job in one of their Atlanta offices. “I can’t really see myself here [in Arista’s New York City headquarters], but it was great to check it out.”
Experiential poster child
How do you package someone like Ryan and turn that experience into a TV program representative of your brand? Pretty easily. The Zilo crew followed him around to clubs, rolled footage of him in the office and then organized a limo party followed by a Fannypack concert at a Greenwich Village club on his last weekend in NYC. Piece it together and there’s a show reaching Zilo’s college-age demographic.
While Ryan’s situation is glamorous, others are not. Take Jared Fogle for example. In 1999, his college roommate penned a story in their school newspaper about how Fogle lost 245 pounds by eating Subway sandwiches. Since the tale reached the chain’s marketing department, Fogle has appeared in 20 national and 10 regional Subway ads. He travels 250 days giving motivational speeches and participating in American Heart Association charity walks, which Subway sponsors.
Now, Subway is plugging Herman and Sherman Smith, a set of identical twins from Louisiana who lost 215 pounds collectively on the “Subway diet.” A visit to www.Subway.com features Jared and the duo prominently. The $220 million account for Milford, CT-based Subway recently moved to Fallon, MN.
The original idea was to feature Jared in one TV commercial, but the feedback to the wholesome looking young man with the modest smile was tremendous. “We were getting calls, letters and faxes from people saying they were now encouraged to eat healthier,” says Subway spokesperson Les Winograd.
When no spokesperson emerges, brands capitalize on other consumer-centric ideas. In Nokia’s case, students work like a charm. The Irving, TX-based company this fall introduces its New U college advertising program at five universities. The academic program includes a one-day visit to a college advertising class from Nokia’s marketing and brand manager. Discussion centers on the client/agency relationship, as well as the product and the goals for it. The students are then given the semester to devise a TV spot for the product, from copy writing to filming and editing.
The program began last year and was such a success two student ads were made into national TV spots. This fall, consumers can vote for their favorite one at www.nokiausa.com and the makers of the winning ad score a trip to the Nokia Sugar Bowl. More spots may be made into actual commercials. “This is a real life advertising experience that they can’t find in a text book,” says Bridget Ahar, Nokia’s group manager of consumer marketing. Dallas-based The Marketing Arm handles.
Elsewhere, Smirnoff this month kicks off a Get Discovered promotion that will ultimately include consumer photograhps in print ads for the brand (September PROMO). Get Discovered will hit 10 markets through November and then return in March and April 2004. At on-premise events, consumers are encouraged to take digital pictures which capture the “high energy” essence of the Smirnoff brand and upload them at www.smirnoff.com. Pictures will be included in local advertising. Consumers can also receive entry info at retail. Colangelo Synergy Marketing, Darien, CT, handles for Stamford, CT-based Diageo’s Smirnoff.
Tell us what you really think
Some brands simply ask consumers to chime in. In Zone Brands, home to BellyWashers and TummyTicklers beverages, does just that. The company relies on children to develop new product lines and marketing ideas. In fact, the BellyWashers tagline, “The Coolest Thing in the Fridge,” was chosen by kids via an online poll.
Atlanta-based In Zone two years ago kicked off a BellyWashers Kids’ Board, a panel of 15 eight-to-12-year-olds to serve for one year. The board met at a summit at Universal Studios in 2002 and held brainstorming sessions with the company’s founders. Sixteen kids are participating in this year’s panel. At term’s end, the most active panel member walks home with a $5,000 scholarship.
“Involving our consumer in our marketing is at the core of In Zone,” says Kathy Ver Eecke, marketing manager. “We don’t have the same size marketing budgets as some of the larger companies, but even if we did we would still be talking to the consumer at the same level.”
Older consumers can be even more useful for public awareness campaigns — taking on tobacco companies is not kids’ play. The American Legacy Foundation, leaders in the truth advertising campaign, employs a street team of 25 to 30 individuals to tour each summer and spread its message. This summer was the fourth year of the campaign. The team hit concerts and tours including Lollapalooza, the And 1 Mix Tape Tour and Vans Warped Tour.
To join the crew, consumers 21 and older submitted applications at www.truth.com. Along the stops, the crew handed out truth gear, including headbands and hats with tobacco statistics on them. Youth could visit the truth booth at the Vans Warped Tour to star in their own anti-tobacco ad and then e-mail it to friends. GTM, Atlanta, handles the program for Washington, DC-based American Legacy.
Beverly Kastens, American Legacy’s VP-marketing, says she doesn’t know if such programs would work for every brand. “For us, the quality of people willing to participate in a truth campaign is so high because it is such a good cause,” she says. “Every year, we are amazed by the talent and the communication skills from these kids.”
Likewise, Zilo, Arista and AT&T Wireless were impressed with their Record Exec front man. It’s always a gamble when brands decide to feature a sweepstakes winner in a high-profile way. “We could not have hand-picked a better winner for this,” says Ian Hall, manager of national sponsorships for Basking Ridge, NJ-based AT&T Wireless. “He’s passionate about music, he’s tech savvy and he’s just a great guy.”
And let’s not forget that P. Diddy (or Sean Combs if you want to get technical) was once a regular guy. He kicked off his career in the biz at the tender age of 19, following an internship at Uptown Entertainment. Perhaps we’ll be seeing more of Ryan Baker. He may just need to juice up that name a little.
Network
