June 9, 2009

Energizer "keeps dancing" their way to increased brand awareness, sales
Facebook contest launched to celebrate 20th birthday of Energizer Bunny

Much like its furry mascot, the Energizer digital campaign just keeps going…and going…and going. Launched by Spider Marketing Solutions a year-and-a-half ago, the digital marketing strategy for the battery giant is increasing its social media presence with last week’s launch of the beloved bunny’s 20th birthday party application on Facebook.

Fans of the Energizer Bunny, known to his friends as E.B™, can join the ‘Keep Dancing’ group on Facebook and build their own birthday party by adding friends. The user with the most friends on December 31, 2009 will be crowned the winner and awarded prizes.

“The goal of this Facebook initiative is to interact with E.B.’s fan base in an engaging way,” says Ian Barnett, VP Business Development for Spider Marketing Solutions. “He already has about 8,000 fans on a previous fan page we launched in September 2008 so in celebration of his 20 th birthday we decided to bring E.B. to life in social media for existing fans.”

The initiative was developed based on what Spider felt people were doing on Facebook, what they wanted to be doing on Facebook and what seemed like a natural action.

“You can’t build an idea based on something that is not a natural action,” he says. “It’s natural for people to want to connect and to have the most friends on Facebook so we decided to do something viral that is basically a popularity contest that allows fans to be social.”

In just two days, 32 parties have been started.

“Those parties started WITHOUT any media or us even posting it on E.B.’s page. So the only way people know about it is through our friends from Spider,” says Barnett.

Contest promotion began yesterday.

Energizer’s overall digital marketing strategy is to own their own consumer database that they can utilize for one-to-one marketing. In order to accomplish this goal, Spider developed different migration paths, with social media being one that would drive consumers through to the Energizer site.

“The party is the next push,” says Barnett. “Throughout the year we’ll send emails out to our database, including those people who may not already be E.B. fans, inviting them to join the party.”

The invitation will include a downloadable coupon which will “close the loop and drive sales”.