A couple of weeks ago, Ingrid and I had the privilege of being invited to HBO Asia’s blogger event for their new show, True Blood, with the promise of a bloody good time.
One thing that was obvious about this event, was that we certainly weren’t invited just to hear about True Blood and be treated to an exclusive screening of the first episode (though that certainly happened too), but there was really a nice mix of activities the first of which was to mimic the pose of the True Blood poster pictured above.
After some food, Karen from HBO told us a little bit more about True Blood as well as Max, the channel on which it will be airing:
After that and a preview of the show, an interesting segment came up, where a bartender took the stage to show us how to “make” Tru Blood, a drink that the vampires in the show drink. Incidentally, Tru Blood was a true *ahem* viral campaign that ran in the US prior to the airing of True Blood there.
Tru Blood
Following this, three volunteers were asked to replicate the drink, and Claudia, Ben and Nadia gamely stepped up to the plate, with Claudia winning.
Overall this was a pretty fun event and I really liked the fact that the HBO team brought a mixed bag of activities to the event, rather than the normal “thanks for coming, here’s our product” drill that we seem to get all the time.
True Blood airs tonight (April 9th) here in Asia at 9pm on Max, so don’t forget to fight for the remote!
I was previously blown away by HBO’s level of personalisation with their outreach attempts, which was really the catalyst for me to meet Karen, Angela and Yin Qi for lunch awhile ago.
What They’ve Done
The first time I met anyone from HBO, was at Social Media Breakfast | Singapore 3 way back in August of 2008. Yin Qi was there and the first casual connection was made. Stemming from that, there was an event for one of HBO’s shows, “Flight of the Conchords“, and ended with a regional contest which was well-talked about.
The Inspiration
When I asked them about who/what prompted the dabble in social media, surprisingly, there didn’t seem to be an “Eureka!” moment, but rather something that grew organically. Ultimately, it all came down to fit: “Flight of the Conchords” is very heavily viewed via online channels like YouTube, they resonate with the younger audience who is online, and the very nature of the show made it the perfect talking point.
Obstacles
From our discussion, the difficulty faced wasn’t so much organising something in Singapore, but organising something regional. This is something agencies should definitely take note of in Asia, because differences between countries within the region can be pretty big, and at the minimum, a basic understanding of that would be added value.
Metrics
As their first foray into social media, it was as much an experiment as anything else, so hard metrics were not particularly the focus. However, they were sufficiently satisfied with the online discussions and conversations to be convinced it was a worthwhile avenue for future efforts. Even though no hard metrics are available, just looking at the YouTube videos produced on the “Flight of the Conchords” blog from all over the region, the comments and the links, it looks like it certainly did not go unnoticed by the blogosphere.
What’s Coming Next
I got the benefit of discovering that a second blogger outreach event will be happening this year, this time for a different show, “True Blood“. Given that I missed the “Flight of the Conchords” event as I wasn’t in Singapore, I’m looking forward to this
What do you think are they key points from HBO Asia’s social media journey? Is it an issue that agencies don’t have regional capabilities as yet? What do you think HBO Asia could do better? Comment away!
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1) The products are a fit.
I write about blogger outreach here all the time, and have a regular Music Monday column over on my own blog, why wouldn’t I write about a direct mail effort or a music cd that I received? If I had received, say, a home gardening kit, it would definitely have been harder to talk about.
2) Agenda-setting instead of hypodermic needle
I believe receiving stuff like this is more agenda-setting (giving you a subject to think about), rather than a hypodermic needle (injecting you with their version of the “truth”). This is a popular mass media theory, where I might see reports on crime on the news, and think more seriously about crime in my area, but not necessarily accept the crime rates reported as true. It prompts me to think about a particular subject, but not to accept everything said as truth.
In this particular case, HBO got me thinking about their products, but nowhere did they try and say “this is the best stuff ever” nor try to tell me how awesome they are. I had a cd that which encouraged me to listen to them and come up with my own conclusions.
Would I have blogged about either True Blood or Flight of the Conchords otherwise? Maybe, maybe not. I am a big TV watcher, but vampire shows aren’t my thing. However, I am always on the lookout for new and exciting music. I think what this particular blogger outreach exercise has done is empower me to talk about them, regardless of how I feel. When I hear someone talk about FotC (as it randomly happened last Friday), it enables me to jump into the conversation and even offer to share the cd. While I’m not a fan of the vampire genre, if I hear someone talking about True Blood, I can always say “hey, you’d appreciate a copy of this calendar I got.”
Ultimately I think the result is to organically encourage conversations, positive negative or neutral. I hope to be in a position to carry out an outreach programme and ask bloggers how they felt about it after the fact someday!
Earlier this year, I got an email from Yin Qi from HBO Asia, who I met at a Social Media Breakfast, asking me if I was back from exchange and that HBO had a little something to send me for the new year. I replied yes and provided them with my address.
HBO Handwritten Note
When the package came, I was pleasantly surprised to find not one, but two True Blood calendars, as well as a handwritten note from Yin Qi. I mean anyone can send calendars, and a printed note would have been fine, but a small difference like a handwritten note, really helps such efforts at building a relationship stand out.
That aside, I think the strategic elements of this outreach effort are pretty strong.
1) By giving me two calendars, HBO Asia has made it easy for me to give one (or both) away, thus getting the word out more effectively. Word of mouth doubles (at the very least), not counting if I put it in a public place like the Campus Radio studio.
2) The calendars also come with stickers (which the note drew my attention to), which allows for tertiary students like me who have laptops open all the time, to conveniently take one and stick them on the front, as many people do in school. The stickers aren’t explicitly “HBO Asia” or “True Blood”, but quirky ones like “Bloody Free” and “Juicy Date” which just encourages people to ask a question about them.
HBO True Blood Stickers
Excellent effort from HBO Asia, and I’m looking forward to see and hear much more from them in 2009!
