Ryan Merket’s Blog

Ice cream giant Baskin-Robins created a Facebook event to help promote their 31 cent scoop night. The lucky night is on April 30th, mark those hCal enabled calendars.

I think what is really interesting here is that Baskin-Robbins is utilizing the already existing Facebook functionality to promote their campaign. They didn’t need to go to any advertising networks, or agencies to create a viral channel. Because their campaign is event driven, it just makes sense for them to create a Facebook event. At current count, there is over 100,000 users who have confirmed that they will be ‘attending’ the event, with over 80,000 users who have been invited — and the campaign started yesterday!

I think companies really need to look at doing more natural, immersive social campaigns like this. If you have a special incentive that you think your audience will be excited about, instead of sending a direct mail piece, try to put your brand in the paths of the communication model — such as social media.