Q: Tell us how Moda Solutions promoted eBillme through social networking sites.
A: It was a way to tell the world what we do and turn the online payment solution into a fun thing to do. During the month of November, visitors to YouTube and Facebook saw an ad promoting the Shop and Confess Web site, www.shopandconfess.com, where they could upload video confessions of purchases they have made and kept secret from friends and family. A $1,000 winner was named every week and $20,000 was awarded to the grand prize winner.
Q: Why did you decide to combine the themes of shopping and confession?
Yet, people love to talk about shopping. The contest gave them a way to have fun and talk about those purchases. A bunch of the videos ended up being confessions to significant others about weaknesses the shopper has. Also, we observed a more general trend in entertainment that is based on real-life people sharing something personal. Shopping fits very naturally into this trend.
Q: What worked best about the campaign?
A: Besides the fact that shopping is a topic that touches the hearts of a lot of people, the contest was simple to use.
In the month that it ran, 63 videos were submitted and some of the confessions ended up being covered by mainstream media. One of the videos involved a controversial confession about candy that went viral, getting 600,000 views in one month and making it onto the home page of YouTube.
Q: Is there anything you would differently?
A: We are considering reopening the contest next year and having it run for a longer period of time. There seems to be a pattern to this type of campaign. They start slow, pick up momentum and become quite interesting toward the end. These campaigns seem to have their own momentum and once they build, you want to keep it going because people are having fun.
