Provo Gets Crafty with Multimedia
Crafters are creative sorts, so it stands to reason that when marketing a new product to them, you’d want to get creative as well. Provo Craft did just that to introduce its Gypsy mobile crafting device, using multiple channels to spread the word about a hapless bounty hunter in search of 10 “stolen” prototypes. The campaign generated more than 200 million Web site page views, became a trending topic on Twitter and, most important, led to the product selling out on Home Shopping Network (HSN) within hours of its debut.
The Gypsy was designed to allow busy crafters, primarily women, to create scrapbooks and other crafts while on the go. When Provo Craft provided prototypes of the Gypsy in focus groups, several participants were so enamored with the product that they jokingly refused to return it, says PR consultant Alex Koritz. When brainstorming how best to market the Gypsy last year with its agencies, Struck Media, Sprout Marketing and Action Figure, several people recalled the reluctance of consumers to part with the prototype — and from there the theme of the campaign evolved.
The centerpiece of the campaign was 10 brief videos focusing on Donnie K., a bounty hunter hired to retrieve 10 Gypsy prototypes that testers had failed to return to Provo Craft. While chronicling Donnie’s inept efforts, the videos also provided the first glimpses of the Gypsy and its benefits. The company created a YouTube channel and a microsite, RogueGypsies.com, in July to host the videos, as well as a blog supposedly written by Donnie.
To launch the campaign, Provo Craft sent an e-mail to its consumer database (which Koritz says has several hundred thousand subscribers) in which the company president asked recipients to be on the lookout for the “rogue Gypsies.” In addition, the company bought banner ads on craft sites and blogs featuring mug shots of the alleged thieves with tongue-in-cheek headlines such as “When Scrapbookers Go Bad.”
In addition to buying ads on relevant blogs, Provo Craft “seeded” bloggers by giving them samples of the Gypsy to review. This is a somewhat regular practice for the company, but Koritz emphasizes that it does not penalize bloggers who fail to provide favorable copy by withholding advertising or information about future products. “We always encourage them to give honest reviews.”
ON THE TRAIL Throughout July the Donnie character kept crafters abreast of his efforts via his Twitter feed, twitter.com/roguegypsies. (Sample tweet: “Gypsy Definitions – 1. One inclined to a nomadic way of life 2. Provo Craft’s new portable crafting device 3. Royal pain in my backside.”) The significant social component of the campaign tied in with the fact that “social media was a big initiative for the company in general,” Koritz says. “Before you do a campaign like this, you have to build your followers.”
To enhance the buzz and attract even more followers, Provo Craft gave away roughly 25 Gypsy devices via Twitter, using a “first person to answer this question” contest format. “Giveaways really build hype,” says Koritz. Nonetheless, he advises limiting them to a specific campaign or a predetermined cadence — every Wednesday at noon, say — so that your audience doesn’t become so used to them that they diminish the product’s perceived value.
The night before the Sept. 24 sales debut of the Gypsy, exclusively on HSN, Provo Craft hosted “parties” on its Facebook page and Twitter feed, facilitating chats among crafters, answering questions about the product, and giving away another 100 or so Gypsies to continue stoking crafter interest. On Twitter, the hash tag #gypsy even became the number-two trending topic in the hours prior to the product’s going on sale on HSN.
