Project Frogway
Project Frogway
The Challenge
Houston Museum of Natural Science (HMNS) is one of the nation's third most trafficked and is a centerpiece of Houston’s Museum District. To keep up-to-date with the growth of online marketing, HMNS hired its online agency Spur Digital to design, market and manage a web-based campaign that would promote its world-class exhibit, Frogs: A Chorus of Colors.
Strategy
Spur Digital, Houston’s leading full-service interactive marketing agency, created a microsite for HMNS that would drive awareness and interest in the Frogs exhibit by engaging visitors in a variety of ways. Even with a small budget and a regionally focused market, Spur Digital was able to create an advanced interactive microsite that would use viral marketing as the backbone to the promotion.
Through viral marketing, Spur Digital and HMNS hoped to increase awareness of the exhibit and drive ticket sales. Since the campaign was geared towards families, Spur Digital felt the microsite had to entertain visitors as well as educate them on the development of Frogs.
Tactics
In order to entertain and educate, Spur Digital developed "Project Frogway" and a live "Frog Cam" which were highlights of the microsite.
"The Frogs interactive microsite proves that small companies looking to execute a regional interactive web campaign no longer need to dig into deep pockets to make their vision a reality," said Steve Latham, Spur Digital's founder and CEO. "It's great to work with clients like HMNS that value the importance of customer interaction and brand engagement through web marketing."
Visitors of the "Frog Cam" could watch live tadpoles develop into frogs via the microsite 24/7. "Project Frogway" allowed visitors to dress their own frog in outfits and accessories that range from "hip hop" to "fashionista". Once the makeover is complete, users then named their frog and watched it strut its stuff on the interactive "Frogway".
To encompass the viral marketing aspect of the campaign, visitors were able to send an e-postcard to friends and family. The e-postcard included an invitation to view their animated frog walking the runway and a link to the microsite.
Aside from the interactive elements, the campaign also featured "The Toadally Awesome Giveaway" in which visitors could register to win Pet Smart Gift Cards, dinner at Amazón Grill, or the revolutionary and interactive Nintento Wii.
Spur Digital also used Flash animation, rich-media banner advertisements and email blasts featuring the promotion in order to drive traffic to FrogsAtHMNS.com.
Results
This campaign is the first of its kind that developed the sights and sounds of an interactive site at a fraction of the price.
The budget for the campaign, including the microsite and online media, was in the high five figures and ran January 2007 through August 2007, with a short break in May 2007. Over the 7-month campaign, HMNS received tremendous response among visitors. They obtained 12.5 million impressions and 85,500 visits to the site. As far as sales, the microsite helped drive traffic that resulted in close to 10,000 online ticket transactions.
Overall, HMNS and Spur Digital proved with its microsite that a global medium like the Internet can be used to attract a local audience in a compelling, entertaining and measurable way.