Until now, cable companies held a lock on “triple play” as a marketing phrase to indicate a consumer’s package of digital services, including phone, traditional cable and Internet access. Alas, social media has emerged as a (welcome) new threat to multi-channel marketing’s status quo and should be allowed to grab the “triple play” title (after all, cable has added a 4th play anyway — high-definition — with speculation of a 5th play in 3-D still to come).
Take the Lupus Research Institute’s Shady Ladies gala last Saturday night in Wellington, Florida. The goal was to stir awareness for a deadly disease that mostly affects young women. The evening event included dinner and good fun but, also, had silent and live auctions for celebrity sunglasses (Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scalfia, the Kardashians, Tom Bergeron of Dancing with the Stars fame, Beyonce etc.), as well as a few fashion pieces.
The organizers buzzed about the event on Facebook to sell tickets and raffles. Initially there was lots of intrigue but few buyers. It projected only 70% attendance with 24 hours to go. But 12 hours pre-event, the event sold out and was SRO. Why? It became a fascination. On a smaller scale, but with similar intensity, momentum for the Shady Ladies event was akin to Lance Armstrong tweeting his 2,400,000+ Twitter followers to see who wanted to ‘go for a bike ride’.
Single Play
The auction hit big and made great money, but the show-stopper was Badgley Mischka. Designers Mark Badgley and James Mischka were in attendance and personally sold a custom-fitted dress and accessories, plus two tickets to their upcoming fashion show.
Double Play
The dress was a fantastic item but what dramatically changed the energy was their decision to showcase a size 10 dress, not the size 0 that many expected (for perspective, the Olsen twins are two of Badgley Mischka’s most infamous models). This was a brilliant move. The mostly 30+ crowd bid up the deal to thrilling levels. The after-party Facebook buzz caught on. ‘Badgley Mischka makes a size-10 dress?!’ I would expect the Badgley Mischka store in Palm Beach to be very busy these days.
Triple Play
Not a bit of the resulting financial performance is measurable, but the upstream and downstream demand impact of analog and digital social media is bursting the seams of that size 10!
Chris Paradysz is CEO of PM Digital.
