31 days of the dragon case study

8/14/2019 31 Days of the Dragon Case Study

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HP 31 Days of the DragonWord-of-mouth Marketing

Case Study

®



31 Days of the Dragon - Program Overview

What this program was:

HP wanted to deepen its commitment to the blogosphere and its support of the

new media initiatives that build strong relationships in this unique community of

writers, reviewers, fans and enthusiasts of every kind. To accomplish this, HP

provided 31 HDX “Dragon” systems to 31 selected influencers to give away to

lucky readers on their sites over 31 days (one per blogger).

Why community influencers/bloggers?

HP’s mission was to build and maintain long-lasting relationships with bloggers

and site owners and to support them in their endeavors. HP believes these

people represent an exceptional and dedicated segment of the communications

and media landscape and that their influence is on the rise.

This was an opportunity to both raise awareness about the HDX and other HP

products and to generate more conversation about HP in the blogosphere. Also,

HP wanted to say “thanks” to the influencers for all their great work, as well as to

their readers for their participation and support of blogs and forums.

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What is the HP HDX Dragon?

• HP’s flagship notebook

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

• Blu Ray Player

• Prize package valued over $5,500 including:

• Microsoft Office• Corel PaintShop Pro X2

• Corel Painter Essentials

• Corel Ulead Video Studio Plus 11.5

• Symantec Norton Internet Security

• Viva Piñata

• Microsoft Flight Sim

• Microsoft Flight Sim Expansion Pack

• Gears of War

• Pirates of the Caribbean - The Curse of the Black Pearl - Blu Ray

• Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead Man’s Chest- Blu Ray

• Pirates of the Caribbean - At World’s End - Blue Ray3



31 Days of the Dragon - What’s Amazing

• During the promotion, the 31 top bloggers promoted the contest,

HP, the HDX Dragon and each other – an unprecedented occurrence that showed the collective power of a community

banding together

• Each blogger was able to create their own unique contest ,

specifically tailored to their audiences and goals

• The promotion garnered over 31 days of positive discussion on HP

and the HDX, accompanied by third-party endorsements that

quickly resulted in a significant sales increase

• Bloggers also created and shared custom marketing materials,including dedicated site, graphics, logos, videos, RSS feeds and

then cross-promoted these items with each other

• We could not have bought the results achieved

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31 Days of the Dragon - 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 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 $250K (costs shared by HP and partners)

• $0 media spend

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HP HDX Dragon Sales Results

6

Giveaways Begin

Giveaways EndEven after the program sales

are well above normal, trendingup and hitting record highsshowing the long-term effectsof the program

Data from HPshopping.com




• Contest was timed to take place before HP’s largest product

launch of the year• This was successful in building up significant momentum and as

well as solidifying the foundation for the announcements

• By running the contest prior to the launch, HP helped grow the audienceand 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

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Blogosphere embrace the promotion

• Influencers delivered HP and product-specific messaging with theirthird-party endorsement

• Giveaway and coverage reached an amazing 123 countries and has

been translated into 40+ languages

Participating sites/blogs win 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 thegiveaway, with the monthly volume holding at about a 50%

increase

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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 31 sites

and 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

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31 Days of the Dragon – Results Beyond 31 Days

• 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 onthe sites intent on keeping the story, traffic and conversation alivewell after the 31st unit was given away

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HP Leverages Partners

HP leveraged 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 theapplications and content needed to showcase the power andfeatures of the HDX Dragon

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

• Plus, this helped HP offset some of the program’s cost

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Why 31 Days of the Dragon Worked

We thought about the results we wanted and worked backwards to

ensure we delivered• What do we want people to take away about HP?

• How can we leverage HP’s partners to make this more impressive and

also share costs?

• What would help drive traffic and ultimately sales on

Hpshopping.com?

• How do customers search for products and what can we do so HPcomes up more than its fair share of the time?

• How could we drive traffic to the participating blog sites?

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

Asking and answering these questions also defined what we would

measure

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Why 31 Days of the Dragon Worked

HP and Buzz Corps took the time to build up real relationships with theinfluencers

• We really know them at a personal level – we consider each otherfriends, not just cards in a rolodex

• We spent over a year demonstrating that we were willing to do theright things for, with and by them and therefore earned their trust

We asked them to participate in the creation, execution and follow upof the giveaway

• They helped design the rules and helped manage and organize eachother – this was more of a partnership than a program

We selected the sites/bloggers to create a complementary group thatcould provide significant coverage/penetration of HP’s target marketsand the blogosphere

• Selecting just the biggest or text-only blogs would have limited theresults and the coverage

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Key Takeaways

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

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

• Showed how marketing can be genuine and still deliver sales

• The readers and customers appreciated our “give back” approach and

overwhelmingly came out to praise HP, their products and thecompany as a whole

• Reached the Facebook, MySpace and other social media crowds viathe influencers with less risk and cost and much greater results than if we targeted these sites directly

• They were also empowered them to create and use all of themarketing material and Web 2.0 tools for the giveaway

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Key Takeaways

Giving control to the bloggers was never a risk or a concern –it was a benefit

• We knew they would do what is in their best interest, which is to promotethe product and HP via their contests

• By allowing the bloggers to design their own contests and then givingthem a unit to give away, we removed a lot of the legal and internalapprovals required for such a campaign

• Working with the influencers delivered a real viral effect for HP -- resultswere 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 motivatereaders to become buyers for all our other campaigns

Influencer marketing is about conversation, not news

• The HDX Dragon had been shipping for 10 months when the giveawaysbegan

• There were zero new messages or products in this program15



Key Takeaways

Influencer marketing is a cross-departmental function

• This was an integrated marketing program designed to sell and promoteHP – it was not a PR program by any means

• We combined, used and leveraged sales programs, affiliate offers andother marketing avenues to both inform and motivate readers to becomebuyers of all things HP

A holistic program such as “31 Days of the Dragon” forces competitorsto become reactive to our marketing

• No other company can copy this once HP did it

• Yet, every competitor knows they need to react and therefore are now

playing catch up to our game, not focusing on theirs

• When the bloggers are covering HP, they have less time to talk aboutcompetitors

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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 theblogging 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 HPHDX series notebook.”

Bruce Greenwood, HP Vice President North America Channel Development

& Marketing

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Comments From HP

"Designing a program that drives awareness and demand for our

products by collaborating WITH the bloggers rather than one FOR themwas 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 PR 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

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Comments From The Bloggers

“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

“Traffic spiked first day … [I] am getting more traffic from sites you wouldn’t

expect and it is sticking. This program has really helped grow my site.”

Michael Reyes, www.hardwaregeeks.com 19

http://site419.mysite4now.net/webserf/CS2K7/blogs/absolutevista/archive/2008/06/08/final-hdx-dragon-given-away.aspx

http://thedigitallifestyle.com/

http://www.bostonpocketpc.com/

http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/

http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/

http://www.bostonpocketpc.com/

http://thedigitallifestyle.com/

http://site419.mysite4now.net/webserf/CS2K7/blogs/absolutevista/archive/2008/06/08/final-hdx-dragon-given-away.aspx



Select Comments from 31 Sites (unedited)

“This is one of the best contests I've ever heard of or participated in, beforethe 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 thatpeople come up with. :)”

“I LOVE HP now … even I don’t win all 31 of these, I’ll probably buy a tx2000from them.”

“There is no doubt that this system is simply amazing! I can’t believe HP is givingaway 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. Itreally 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 thesemammoth companies can’t afford it. And it would really enhance the public’sopinion of them I’d think. Even if I don’t win, I’ve still gotten something out of allthis - 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.” 20




“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 tobuild awareness about the HP Dragon Notebook but instead they look to thetech community to get the ball rolling. Well done!”

“Let’s face it, sharing with your community is an effective way to buildcredibility. 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 allaround when you consider that the lucky winner of the HP Dragon will havenothing but great things to say' about HP and Chris during the winnerinterview. :) Splendid move on HP’s part!”

“I have yet to check out the Dragon, but I guess this will push me to jumpingover 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 thispossible. Now I am going to hp.com.”

21

http://prillo.com/

http://prillo.com/




“HP is going all out on this one. This machine is indeed a monster, and hopefullythis 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 thecommunity.”

“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 abovevid 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, wheneveranyone 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 blogsand get more people interested in sites that they didn’t even know about. I’d bea heinous liar were I to say that I was aware of all 31 sites before this particulargiveaway, and even my presence on this site is a testament to that.”

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“Wow. Benefits for all! You guys get heavy traffic, plus better interlinkingbetween 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 allinvolved. I now think far more of HP.”

“Wow this is an amazing opportunity. HP’s are amazing machines. Currently Iam writing this on an HP computer bought last November and it is probablyone 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 withsomeone getting a chance to Win it thats even better who gets that is going tobe over the moon I think it class it sounds Fast good Memory :) Hp Should Geta Medal For giving this away thanks Hp.”

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Google Results

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Over 380,000links on Google,

with significantresults ranking

high on key wordsearches



Google Results

25

The giveawayallowed HP to

have 100%glowing results

and peoplepraising the

HDX on the first

5 pages of

Google when

searching for

the product



Content Generated For The Giveaway

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Just because thecontent was done

by a bloggerdoesn’t mean it

isn’t professional

or won’t sell




27

The community

even created aWeb 2.0 tools to

help readers

follow the contestsand drive the viralaspects of the

giveaway




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Readers created videos

to enter the giveawaysand in one contest, even

created their own

commercials for the

product and HP

They also created videos

to thank HP, as well asreview, and to show off

the product after thegiveaways.

Together, all of the videos

for the giveaways werewatched by well over 5

million consumers.




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Showing the power

of consumergenerated content,word-of-mouth

marketing and socialmedia all at once,

influencer ChrisPirillo’s numerous

videos were watchedby over 1 million

consumers and

included viewerspraising the HDX and

HP in his scrollingcomment window.



Website Done By The Bloggers

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www.31daysofthedragon.com

This site was created by the bloggers to concentrate traffic, Diggresults and improve the viral nature of the giveaway. They also

shared traffic stats and links with us and each other.

http://www.31daysofthedragon.com/

http://www.31daysofthedragon.com/



Contest Pages

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Look at how HP,

the HDX systemsand Buzz Corpsare mentionedand positioned inthe followingcontest pages .

This wasconsistent acrossall 31 sites aswell as othersthat mentionedthe giveaway.

These are thekind of resultsmost marketers

would die for.



Contest Pages

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Contest Pages

33



Contest Pages

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Contest Pages

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Contest Pages

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The bloggers also

created their own

banner ads andshared and

customized them for

each other



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