Shelli (@srjohannes) from Market My Words has a two-part interview (part one, part two) with FSM’s Creative Development & Marketing Director Ariel Aberg-Riger about marketing The Amanda Project. It’s quite long (but chock full)! A small taste:
What are the top 3 reasons The Amanda Project interactive model works for readers?
Most importantly, it’s an amazing, well-written story. We have fantastic, bestselling YA authors like Melissa Kantor and Laurie Stolarz working collaboratively to create a rich narrative core and to build Amanda’s world. It’s only with such a strong base that we are able to extend the story and invite our readers in to collaborate and interact as well. If they weren’t hooked in the first place, they wouldn’t care!
It’s a structured creative environment. We find that although the sky really is the limit in terms of what you can invent and who you can be on The Amanda Project, our readers and writers create most readily when we actually impose certain constraints. For example, every Friday we publish a new story on the site, and each week’s story ends with a call to action that asks a very specific question (e.g. Have you ever lied to make people like you? Is this Amanda’s purple ink?) which we find both lowers the barrier to entry for participation (aka the blank page effect), as well as creates a much more cohesive direction for the continuation of the story.
It’s universal. The Amanda Project deals with issues all teen girls (and anyone, really) can relate to – identity, friendship, difficult decisions, loyalties, secrets, the drama of high school life – so it’s easy to lose yourself in the character you create, and really immerse yourself in Amanda’s world.
Think long term, think organic, think partnership. That’s the message Mobile Youth is promoting in their recent long post about successful youth marketing strategies.
Engaging youth is no longer about short term spiking (ie campaigns), but a focus on long term creation…make youth feel significant, make them feel they belong.
They define the practice as partnership marketing, and go on to break down three successful strategies for marketing to youth:
Customer Service: good customer service – aka real human contact – is key.
Value Communication: Show that you care. Youth increasingly seek out companies and brands that display a set of core values similar to their own world view.
Event Creation: Not just sponsoring events from afar, but actually actively creating events lies at the heart of the most savvy of youth brands. Red Bull, Jones Soda, Boost Mobile (see above video) and Nike are all died-in-the-wool event creators.
No longer limited to catch phrases and mini alligators, 2d code is reporting that the world’s first multimedia novel as a t-shirt has just been published:
“Winksite have teamed up with author Alexander Besher to publish his latest novel “The Manga Man”, not as a book but as a T-shirt . The “Manga Man” T-shirt (photo below) displays a QR Code that links to a mobile site from which a prospective reader can display the narrative directly. There is much more to this than appears at first sight and you can read more on Winksite CEO David Harper’s blog.”
Although the design and tag line are a bit lacking (what is that climbing thing? “sayonara you’re about to be digitized”???), I love the idea of using QR codes in innovative ways. Especially in support of a larger narrative.
Shelli (@srjohannes) from Market My Words has a two-part interview (part one, part two) with FSM’s Creative Development & Marketing Director Ariel Aberg-Riger about marketing The Amanda Project. It’s quite long (but chock full)! A small taste:
