Updated - HP 31 days of the Dragon Social Media Case Study

31 Days of the Dragon

Word-of-Mouth Marketing Program
Case Study

© Ivy Worldwide, Inc.

31 Days - Program Overview

What this program is:
HP is deepening its commitment to the blogosphere and supports new media
initiatives that build strong relationships in this unique community of writers, reviewers,
fans and enthusiasts of every kind. To accomplish this, HP is providing thirty-one HDX
“Dragon” systems to thirty-one selected bloggers for thirty-one days to give away to
lucky readers of their sites during the thirty one days of May.
Why Bloggers?
HP’s mission is to build and maintain long-lasting relationships with
bloggers/influencers and to support them in their endeavors. HP believes
bloggers/influencers are an exceptional and dedicated segment of the
communications and media landscape and are increasingly influential.

This is an opportunity to raise more awareness about the HDX and other HP
products and to generate more conversation about HP in the blogosphere. Also,
we wanted to say “thanks” for all their great work, as well as thank the readers for
their participation and support of blogs and forums.


What Is the HP HDX Dragon?
HP’s flagship notebook –fully loaded

• 20.1” 1080P Hi-def screen
• Intel Extreme Edition processor
• BluRay Player

Prize package valued over $5,500 including:
• Microsoft Office
• Corel PaintShopPro X2
• Corel Painter Essentials
• Corel UleadVideo Studio Plus 11.5
• Symantec Norton Internet Security
• Viva Piñata game
• Microsoft Flight Sim
• Microsoft Flight SimExpansion Pack
• Gears of War game
• Pirates of the Caribbean -Dead Man’s Chest-BluRay
• Pirates of the Caribbean -At World’s End -Blue Ray
• Pirates of the Caribbean -The Curse of the Black Pearl -BluRay

The Challenge

 We engaged influencers by initiating and fostering meaningful and relevant
relationships that had begun with the HP tx1000 promotion.

 We tapped into both their vast readership and wealth of consumer product
experience.

 We developed a strategy that enabled HP to talk with influencers, not at them,
in such way that value was realized by both parties.


31 Days of the Dragon
Why the Program Worked
We thought about the results we wanted and worked backwards to ensure we delivered.
Asking and answering these questions also defined what we measured.

What do we want people to take away about HP?

How can we leverage HP’s partners to make this more impressive and share costs?

What would help drive traffic and ultimately sales on HPshopping.com?

How do customers search for products?

How to ensure that HP comes up more than its fair share of the time in these searches?

How could we drive traffic to the participating blog sites?

How could we empower the bloggers and their readers to endorse HP and then go out
of their way to share this information with others?


Sustaining Results
HP commits to WOM

 Relationships that had been formed at Gnomedex with the HP tx100 continued to
yield benefits a year after the show with this new promotion.

• HP engaged influencers in a new and innovative way with the HP 31 Days
of the Dragon contests.

• The influencers had no restrictions on how to run their own promotions.

• Influencers continued talking about their brand preference and have
embraced subsequent HP promotions.

 Influencers had more and better access to HP at all levels, giving them more and
better content so they could continue to grow their readership.


Contest Results

• Contest was timed to take place before HP’s largest product launch of the year

• This was successful in building up significant momentum and building readership for
the sites that covered the launch
– By running the contest prior to the launch, HP helped grow the audience and word-
of-mouth of the 31 sites and thus the value of the HP news which they covered

– Estimated reach for the program is well over 50 million impressions (Alexa data)
due to the overwhelming coverage by the participating sites and others
discussing/mentioning the giveaway

– HP also now has a goldmine of consumer feedback and traffic stats that can be
incorporated into their upcoming planning and development processes


The 31 Participating Bloggers

Digital Inspirations The Gadgeteer
Slashdot Review Bleeping Computers
Gear Live I Started Something
http://blogs.digitalmediaphile.com/barb/ Geekzone
Planet x64 Hardware Geeks
Lockergnome OSNN
The Green Button Gotta Be Mobile
What the Tech Windows Now
The Digital Lifestyle Geek.com
MediaBlab Last100.com
JK On the Run Bink.nu
DigitalHomeThoughts.com BostonPocketPC
Ars Technica Neowin
AbsoluteVista.com The Tablet PC
Windows Connected GeekNewsCentral.com
Notebooks.com
• Together, these sites have a combined readership of well over 12 million a month
• Many new bloggers contacted us within the first 36 hours of the promotion wanting to know
more about HP and how to work with Buzz Corps


Blogosphere Embraced Promotion

• Influencers delivered HP and product-specific messaging with their
third-party endorsement
• Giveaway and coverage reached over 125 countries and has been
translated into more than 40 languages

Participating sites/blogs won long-term and gain readership

• 31 participating sites/blogs saw an average 150% increase in traffic
with some increasing as much as 5,000%
• Additional traffic to the participating sites is sticking well after the
giveaway, with the monthly volume holding at about at an average
50% increase


HP Promoted Partners

HP included its partners to share costs and goodwill

• HP partners provided software and shared in the halo effect of the
promotion while giving both bloggers and their readers the applications
and content needed to showcase the power and features of the HDX Dragon

• This effort was significant, not just because it highlighted the HP ecosystem,
but because it further solidified the product, HP’s positioning, and greatly
enhanced the overall appeal

• This also helped HP offset some of the program’s cost


Enthusiastic Audience Reaction

Readers/entrants created more than 10,000 videos on sites such as
YouTube.com and Blip.tv
• Google reports well over 380,000 links discussing the giveaways
• In excess of 25,000 entries received by participating sites
• Amazingly, there have been virtually no negative comments about HP or
the promotion that we can find associated with the giveaway
• Numerous bloggers outside the 31 have asked us to become closer to HP,
thus increasing the size of HP’s influencer network
• Many sites asked their winners to post commentary or write their own
reviews of the HDX Dragon for subsequent publication on the sites intent
on keeping the story, traffic and conversation alive well after the 31st unit was
given away


Results Were Amazing

• 31 top bloggers promoted the contest, HP, the HDX Dragon and each other –
this had never happen before
• Each blogger created its own unique contest
• HP and the HDX were talked about for well over 31 days with third-party
endorsements for the product and the company
• Portal was managed by the bloggers to coordinate
• Bloggers built a contest-specific site to promote giveaway
• 200,000+ links on Google and growing – $0 media spend
• Content from reviews and readership benchmarks were shared and cross-
promoted among bloggers
• Bloggers reported an average increase in sustained traffic well over 100% per
site


Business Results

Business advances, sales gains, increased product awareness and competitive advantage

Results from HPshopping.com (month over month data)
• 84% increase in sales on the HDX Dragon system
• 14% increase in overall traffic
• 10% increase in overall consumer PC sales
• Sales figures for the month of the program set several records
• This is usually a softer month and does not include channel sales
• The sales gains are continuing even 2 months after the program

Costs
• Total cost for systems, shipping, software and paying to offset taxes for the winners:
$250K (costs shared by HP and partners)
• $0 media spend


Sales Results

Data from Hpshopping.com


Google Results

Over 380,000
links on
Google,
with results
ranking high
on
key word
searches
important to
HP


Google Results


Content Generated

Just
because
the
content
was done
by a
blogger
doesn’t
mean it
isn’t
professio
nal
or won’t
sell


Content Generated


Content Generated

The community even created Web 2.0 tools to
help readers follow the contests and drive
the viral aspects of the giveaway


Content Generated

Readers created videos to enter
the several of the giveaways
• In one contest, they even
created their own
commercials for the product and
HP
• They also created videos to
thank HP, as well as review, and
to show off the product after the
giveaways
• Together, all of the videos for
the giveaways were watched by
well over 10 million
consumers


Content Generated

Showing the power of
consumer generated
content, word-of-
mouth marketing and
social media all at
once, influencer Chris
Pirillo’s numerous
videos were watched
by over millions of
consumers and
included viewers
praising the HDX and
HP in his scrolling
comment window.


Blogger-created Website
www.31daysofthedragon.com
This site was created by the bloggers to concentrate traffic, Digg results and improve the
viral nature of the giveaway. They also shared traffic stats and links with us and each other


Contest Pages Look at how HP,
the HDX systems
and Buzz Corps
are mentioned
and positioned in
the following
contest pages
This was
consistent across
all 31 sites as
well as others
that mentioned
the giveaway
These are the
kind of results
most marketers
would die for


Contest Pages


Why It Worked

HP and Buzz Corps took the time to build up real relationships with the influencers
• We really know them at a personal level –we consider each other friends, not just
cards in a rolodex
• We spent over a year demonstrating that we were willing to do the right things for,
with and by them and therefore earned their trust

We asked them to participate in the creation, execution and follow-up of the giveaway
• They helped design the rules and helped manage and organize each other –this was
more of a partnership than a program

We selected the sites/bloggers to create a complementary group that could provide
significant coverage/penetration of HP’s target markets and the blogosphere
• Selecting just the biggest or text-only blogs would have limited the results and the
coverage


Key Takeaways

We demonstrated the true power of the community – they are greater than the
sum of their parts when they work together

The influencers took the messages and delivered them to the buyers with third-
party credibility and authenticity

• Showed how marketing can be genuine, done by others and still deliver sales
• Influencers also created all of the marketing material and Web 2.0 tools for the
giveaway
• The readers and customers appreciated our “give back” approach and
overwhelmingly came out to praise HP, their products and the company as a whole
• We reached the Facebook, MySpace and other social media crowds via the
influencers with less risk and cost and much greater results than if we targeted
these mass market sites directly


Key Takeaways

Giving control to the bloggers was never a risk or a concern – it was a benefit!
• We knew they would do what was in their best interest, which was to promote the
product and HP via their contests
• By allowing the bloggers to design their own contests and then giving them a unit to
give away, we removed a lot of the legal and internal approvals required for such a
campaign
• Working with the influencers delivered a real viral effect for HP --results were
far better than most companies’ attempts to create their own viral marketing and
videos
• It showed us how to drive traffic, place higher on Google and motivate readers to
become buyers for all our other campaigns
Influencer marketing is about conversation, not news
• The HDX Dragon had been shipping for 9 months when the giveaways began
• There were zero new messages or products in this program


More Key Takeaways

Influencer marketing is a cross-departmental function
• This was an integrated marketing program designed to sell and promote HP – it went well
beyond just a PR program
• During the giveaways and beyond, we combined, used and leveraged sales programs,
affiliate offers and other marketing tools to inform and motivate readers to become buyers
of all things HP via the influencers

A holistic program such as “31 Days of the Dragon” forces competitors to become reactive
to your marketing
• No other company could copy this once HP did it
• Every competitor was trying to react and therefore were playing catch up to our game,
not focusing on their game (we heard this from the 31 influencers)
• While the influencers/bloggers were covering HP, they had less time to talk about
competitors


Comments from HP

“Buzz Corps consistently delivers results. Through their keen understanding of
how to harness the power of Google search and strong ties with the blogging
community, Buzz Corps delivered record HP Home and Home Office Store
traffic, conversion and sales for the HDX series during the 31 Days of the
Dragon promotional period AND into the following months. Nearly double the
performance of traditional paid Web ads and at a fraction of their cost:
BRILLIANT marketing!”
Scott Ballantyne, HP Vice President & GM Consumer Computing

“By recognizing the influence of our partners in the blogosphere and tapping
into the creative thinking of Buzz Corps, the 31 Days of the Dragon program
Achieved outstanding unit sales and great exposure for our first HP HDX series
notebook.”
Bruce Greenwood, HP Vice President North America Channel Development
& Marketing


Comments from HP

“The amazing thing about 31 Days of the Dragon was that Buzz Corps’ program took a
shipping product with average sales and turned it into a halo product with phenomenal
sales. This gave the HDX Dragon series the shot of adrenaline and exposure it needed via
in-depth influencer reviews, community feedback, super-creative contest entries and overall
lift in Google search results that worked when nothing else did!”
Dana Harrold, HP Product Marketing Manager

“Unleashing the blogging community’s creativity by giving them the freedom to promote
and merchandise the HP HDX series has yielded fantastic results! The community did not
stray from the product’s key selling points and drove exposure well beyond our
expectations.”
Michele Kennedy, HP Advertising Manager

"Designing a program that drives awareness and demand for our products by collaborating
WITH the bloggers rather than one FOR them was very new and exciting to me. The
enthusiasm, creativity and buzz generated by the 31 Days of the Dragon program exceeded
my expectations ten fold.“
Tom Augenthaler, HP Worldwide PR Manager


Comments from Influencers

“Mad props for HP for selecting the HDX Dragon as the vehicle for this. Is there
any doubt in your mind why HP is taking (market) share and making bank? They
are a company that 'get's it.”
John Obeto, Absolutevista.com

“First I just want to say how pleased I am to be part of the promo and the fact that
it's NOT targeted at the big sites like Engadget is a refreshing change.”
Ian Dixon, thedigitallifestyle.com

“We generally average over a million page views a month and past few days alone
we are up to 574,362 page views. The uptake is much higher than any other
contests or promotions we have done, due to the prize and community linking.”
Steven Hughes, www.bostonpocketpc.com


Unedited Readers’ Comments

“This is one of the best contests I've ever heard of or participated in, before the 31 Days of
the Dragon I didn't even know about this machine. HP really knocked it out of the park I
think, plus it's fun watching all of the contests that people come up with. :)”
“I LOVE HP now … even I don’t win all 31 of these, I’ll probably buy a tx2000
from them.”
“There is no doubt that this system is simply amazing! I can’t believe HP is givin away so
many of these top notch systems; in light of that, this might be one of the best directed
audience advertising campaigns ever…”
“This is so good for all parties involved. Props to HP for doing this thing. It really makes me
like that company more so than I already did. All the big computer companies should be
doing the same thing. It’s not like these mammoth companies can’t afford it. And it would
really enhance the public’s opinion of them I’d think. Even if I don’t win, I’ve still gotten
something out of all this -it has introduced me to a bunch of cool sites I’ll be visiting from
now on.”
“This is a great promotion from HP and to get the word out on this product.
Hopefully other companies can follow suit with this strategy.”


More Readers’ Comments

“This giveaway is a perfect example of what building community is all about.”
“HP could hire a public relations company to organize a marketing campaign to build
awareness about the HP Dragon Notebook but instead they look to the tech community to
get the ball rolling. Well done!”
“Let’s face it, sharing with your community is an effective way to build credibility. HP is
right on the money to position their company in the minds of the people with this new
promotion.”
“Need a new notebook? Think HP Dragon. Need tech advice? Think ChrisPrillo.com-perfect
positioning for both! Definitely a win/win situation all around when you consider that the
lucky winner of the HP Dragon will have nothing but great things to say' about HP and
Chris during the winner interview. :) Splendid move on HP’s part!”
“I have yet to check out the Dragon, but I guess this will push me to jumping over to HP’s
website to check it out, and maybe even buy something there! (See how HP wins from
this?)”
“It sounds great and I want to say thanks to Chris and HP for making this possible. Now I
am going to hp.com.”


“HP is going all out on this one. This machine is indeed a monster, and hopefully this may
spur interest in their brand. Maybe this will cause other companies to follow suit and have
to do something similar.”

“Wow, amazing contest put on by HP. I applaud them for giving back to the community.”

“I did not think I would buy an HP. Then, you see something like the Dragon come out and
you can’t help but succumb to HP’s charms. (watch the above vid and check out HP’s site)”

“Personally, I think this is an excellent opportunity for both buzzcorps and hp. it’s good for
hp, because showing off is always a huge plus. frankly, whenever anyone familiar with this
unit is going laptop shopping, hp will be on their brain whether they actually win or not
(assumably not, if they’re laptop shopping… *smirk*).Beyond that, it is an excellent
opportunity to cross reference blogs and get more people interested in sites that they
didn’t even know about. I’d be a heinous liar were I to say that I was aware of all 31 sites
before this particular giveaway, and even my presence on this site is a testament to that.”



“Wow. Benefits for all! You guys get heavy traffic, plus better interlinking between blogs,
and hence better Google rank, The HP Guys get free publicity, and is cheaper for them than
actual advertising. 31 blog readers, one of them, probably me :), very satisfied! :)”
“Cheers to EXCELLENT marketing!”
“This is sheer genius! I wish I would have thought of this. Kudos to all involved. I now
think far more of HP.”
“Wow this is an amazing opportunity. HP’s are amazing machines. Currently I am writing
this on an HP computer bought last November and it is probably one of the best
computers I have ever owned.”
“Wow. This system has to be one of the best notebooks on the market right now.”
“Hey That Hp is Great It Looks So Wicked also the style of it is class and with someone
getting a chance to Win it thats even better who gets that is going to be over the moon I
think it class it sounds Fast good Memory :) Hp Should Get a Medal For giving this away
thanks Hp.”


Success Metrics
How We Measure
Reach Efficiency Consumer Cross-channel Emergent
Type

Example
Metrics

Insight

Benefit


HP Social Media Background

• 18 months ago, HP’s participation in social media
was light
• HP’s competition was moving doing something in
this space
• HP wanted to learn from others that were engaging
with social media and do it right
• HP identified the need to build a unified, integrated
approach to social media that included sales,
support, design as well as consumer/customer
engagement


In Conclusion

 HP sought new ways to engage highly opinionated, high-profile customers
• Gap analysis revealed community-engagement opportunity via WOM approach
• Relationship-building combined with WOM marketing was determined to be
extremely cost-effective
 HP partnered with Buzz Corps to devise strategy, tactics and metrics to ensure long-
term success in blogosphere
• Resulting boost in consumer awareness and positive discussion led to
significant sales gains
• HP acquired product, market and competitive intelligence that outstripped
expectations
 Community engagement strategies are becoming increasingly integrated into HP
marketing practices
 HP positioned for continued success by virtue of strong influencer relationships


Updated - HP 31 days of the Dragon Social Media Case Study

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