If the idea of grown adults playing an online virtual farming game (and often shelling out real cash to do so) doesn’t surprise you, then check out FarmVille‘s newest neighbor: Lady Gaga. Yup, the Pop Princess of Weird has partnered with online social gaming wizards Zynga to bring you the future of cross marketing. And it hurts so good. 

If you are unfamiliar with the FarmVille sensation (which boasted 11 million players in August 2009 one month after its release, 33 million in September 2009, 80 million in February 2010 and now numbers are in the hundreds of millions worldwide), it is a virtual online game available on multiple platforms now including: Facebook, MySpace, iPhone, Android, Farmville.com, MSN Games, and Yahoo!. As the name implies, players build a farm complete with crops that need planting, watering, and harvesting, animals that need tending, and buildings that offer unique benefits. Players (or “neighbors” as they are called in the game) can visit each other’s farms helping out and giving virtual gifts. While the game is free to play, in-game items can be purchased to enhance game-play or give certain advantages.

In a cross-marketing play, Zynga has partnered with Lady Gaga to promote her newest album “Born This Way” through the game. One leg of the promotion is that if you purchase a $25 Game Card (like a gift certificate for in-game “money”) from Best Buy, you will receive Gaga’s new album and other game items as a free download upon redeeming it in FarmVille. Not a bad deal if you play FarmVille and had planned on buying “Born This Way” anyway. [See banner ad above.]

FarmVille players can also visit a Gaga-themed farm titled “GagaVille” featuring crystals, unicorns, and colorful trees where they can unlock and listen to songs from “Born This Way” after completing tasks. The music streams are powered by radio giant Clear Channel’s digital radio service iHeartRadio, marking the first time they have partnered with a social gaming firm. “In addition, Lady Gaga will announce codes that unlock exclusive Lady Gaga-inspired limited edition virtual items on 148 Clear Channel stations on May 17, including New York’s Z100 and LA’s KIIS-FM.”

“I want to celebrate and share ‘Born This Way’ with my little monsters in a special way that’s never been done before,” said Lady Gaga. “Zynga has created a magical place in FarmVille where my fans can come play, and be the first to listen to the album.”

That “magical place” comes complete with a Gaga-themed shopping experience. Players must spend real money to buy virtual items like the unicorn “Purple Ponytail”, a “Fame Sheep”, “Sparkly Glasses”, other outfits for your character,  a “Crystal Stage” and fountain. (But don’t worry – items like the “Bedazzled Tractor” and “Violet Gem” can be bought with coins earned in the game.)

The promotion also reaches across other Zynga games and platforms. Words With Friends (basically Scrabble), the popular mobile social game available iPhone, iPad, as well as Android devices, will feature a daily “Words with Gaga” contest, giving players a chance to win Gaga prizes including tickets to an upcoming concert and a signed copy of “Born This Way.” Zynga is also rewarding players with limited edition Lady Gaga virtual items on RewardVille.com.

This is the second time Zynga and Lady Gaga have teamed up. In March 2011, the two entertainment icons teamed up to raise more than $3 million for Japan relief efforts.

UPDATE: 5/19/11

I just ran across a banner ad for the Gaga/Zynga promotion on YouTube. The video insert features a farmer and his family planting real crystals and brushing pink haired ponies – pretty funny actually….

While I didn’t actually end up completing the process, I thought I would share the images of my test walk through with you in order to give you a rough idea of the INITIAL process.

(Keep in mind that Captico can handle all of this as a part of our campaign/packages for our clients.)

Step 1: Design Your Ad

You can have your Facebook Ad link to any website you wish. In this example I chose to link to the Captico Facebook page as opposed to the Captico website because the goal of my fake ad is to get people to connect with us on Facebook as opposed to drive traffic to our website.

Next, I enter my title. I want to catch the eye of people who are interested in Social Media as our Captico Facebook page provides information specifically related to social media and Facebook news. The Body text I enter tells the reader exactly that.

I chose the Captico logo for the image, but you can choose anything you want.

Step 2: Targeting

This is where we choose to whom the ad will appear. In my example I have selected DC, MD, and VA because those are the primary locations where are clients come from (though Captico does serve clients alla cross the country). If you are a small brick and mortar store in Cleveland that sells radioactive puppies, you may only what to target to Cleveland and cities that surround it. You can be as specific or as broad as you wish.

Demographics will further refine who your ads appear to. I have specified users who are 21+, of either gender, who have “Social media” listed as an interest in their profile and who graduated college. You can get very specific here targeting hobbies, ages, gender, and even companies or schools!

Step 3: Campaigns, Pricing, and Scheduling

This final step will be familiar to those of you who work with Google AdWords and Keywords. Here you specify how much you are willing to spend per day (you are charged each time your ad is clicked) and how much per click you wish to “bid”.

You can also choose the dates and frequency with which your ad will appear.

Well, I hope this brief walk through helped lift some of the veil around Facebook Ads! Please feel free to contact us with any questions or to help get YOU started with a Facebook campaign!

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You may also be interested in:

How to add Facebook Like and Share Buttons to Your Website

Facebook: Like

Facebook Ditches Fans in Favor of Likes

When Twitter first announced Promoted Tweets, they described them as “ordinary Tweets that businesses and organizations want to highlight to a wider group of users”. They would “be clearly labeled as ‘promoted’ when an advertiser is paying, but in every other respect they will first exist as regular Tweets and will be organically sent to the timelines of those who follow a brand. Promoted Tweets will also retain all the functionality of a regular Tweet including replying, Retweeting, and favoriting. Only one Promoted Tweet will be displayed on the search results page.”

As far as functionality goes, the Promoted Tweet in question from http://twitter.com/DisneyPixar seems to be “sticky” to the top of search results (when searching that topic) regardless of its chronological entry point (Think AdSense for Google). You can get to this Tweet by clicking on the ”Promoted” Trending Topic. While I’m sure Toy Story 3 would trend naturally at some point, having an official Tweet sticky to the top of search results ensures that the first tweet people see is positive. (Which can be really good if your movie sucks and is getting negative feedback.)

Another interesting comment from the Twitter-ups back at launch was this: “There is one big difference between a Promoted Tweet and a regular Tweet. Promoted Tweets must meet a higher bar—they must resonate with users. That means if users don’t interact with a Promoted Tweet to allow us to know that the Promoted Tweet is resonating with them, such as replying to it, favoriting it, or Retweeting it, the Promoted Tweet will disappear.” This calls to mind Facebook‘s feature of “x-ing” out an ad and then asking you to provide feedback as to why you closed it off your page (which they claim to use to serve you better ads). Its a feature I like though and hopefully Twitter will stay on top of this Promoted Tweet feature to keep our Twitter streams from turning into spam boxes.

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Additional Reading:

Twitter’s Promoted Tweets: What You Need To Know

Twitter tests new Promoted Trends feature with ‘Toy Story 3′ from Disney’s Pixar

Twitter Again Apologizes for Outages, Bugs

Twitter Inserts Promoted Trends in Trending Topics

Meet The Leanforwards.

• The A&E Leanforwards are a critical audience segment your clients can’t afford to miss.
• A&E Leanforwards are highly engaged consumers who “lean in” instead of sitting back when watching TV.
• They crave programming that’s authentic, emotional and compelling.
• Leanforwards watch A&E to connect, to be challenged and to viscerally experience every moment on the edge of their seats; people watch other networks to escape, relax and tune out – resulting in a passive viewing experience.

A&E is brilliantly (in my opinion) presenting their audience almost as a reality show of its own to potential ad space buyers. They have created an identifiable character (the lean forward) and built an entire interactive environment (in this case a “museum”) around it. Visit the website and you can see Exhibits (the current shows), learn more about Leanforwards (called that due to the fact that they are SO ENGAGED in what they are watching that they lean forward towards the TV), peruse Nielsen statistics and study videos, play a game and win “artifacts of victory” like computers and TVs, or “shop” in their tongue-in-cheek Lean-Oriented gift shop (where everything except the $9999 ENGAGEment Ring is conveniently out of stock as I’m sure some people would attempt to purchase these quirky items).

A&E has given us an excellent example of “thinking outside” of the proverbial (or perhaps quite appropriate in this television oriented case) box. They have created a highly unique campaign with great viral potential. And if you dont believe me, pretend you are a media buyer and go play Wake the Planner and see if you wouldn’t send that link to your colleagues! Especially when you can pit your company against that rival outfit… (I like to throw things at the lazy planner…)

The study revealed that “60% of Facebook fans and 79% of Twitter followers are more likely to recommend those brands since becoming a fan or follower. And an impressive 51% of Facebook fans and 67% of Twitter followers are more likely to buy the brands they follow or are a fan of“.

While these numbers may not shock most of us involved heavily in social media, it should serve as a heavy handed reminder that consumers are beginning to EXPECT that companies have a presence. They want to be able to reference your product in a recommendation and link right to it. Take this example, from Twitter:

Burts Bees is a popular lip balm brand who until recently did not have official social media presences. They actually just launched their Twitter page on March 23rd 2010 (and seven days later have 235 fans). Check out these two tweets (below).

Both of these girls are spreading brand awareness for Burts Bees and recommending them for the use of chapped lips. Countless studies have shown that people trust peer reviews more than advertising, but there is no link to Burts Bees website or a store to buy or anything. Now that they are on Twitter, fans and followers can reference the lip balm maker easily and enable other users to easily access the official site – which leads to all of the goodies that come with an official page – advertising, info, and connecting directly with your consumer. They can also monitor whats being said about them. Check out this tweet:

This fan not only has provided a link to the official Burts Bees twitter, but even posted a picture of himself holding up the product! Talk about an endorsement! But along with the brand ambassador creating power Twitter gives you, it also requires work on your part. You must respond to and engage your fans. Thank them, give them public acknowledgement, show them you care. Burts Bees may have just joined Twitter but they are already elbow deep in the community that they want to create around their products. Check out some of THEIR tweets:

In the three Burts Bees tweets above you see that first they acknowledge the user with thanks and then they credit them with a RT (retweet) – which is usually a glowing testimonial to their products! These “followers” not only love the products and recommend them to others, but they are PROUD to do so! These are the kind of marketing opportunities that your ad department DREAMS of.

A similar story plays out on Facebook where I (a big Burt’s Bees fan myself) found their official Facebook Fan Page when I saw an ad for Chapstick’s Fan Page and thought if THEY were online then Burt’s Bees must be too, so I searched for them and found them! And I’m not the only who did that! Just check out this comment (right) I left on their Facebook Fan Page on February 15, 2010 – 10 people did the same thing I did! People WANT to connect with brands they feel strongly about and WANT to share this with their friends.

Another great element to social media is being able to address issues and concerns immediately as they occur. In this post by a Facebook user we see that they are disappointed in the parent company of Burt’s Bees. A Burt’s Bees representative can quickly move in and correct or add information to educate consumers. Notice they did not just delete the negative comment. This adds transparency and builds trust among consumers. They have nothing to hide and are willing to address any concerns users might have.

Feedback can also result in new product ideas or spreading news about your other products. Until I visited their Facebook Fan Page I didn’t know that Burt’s Bees made makeup. One user requested pet shampoo. The user to the right expressed a product design improvement – which Brand reps jumped all over. Customer Service is huge and builds loyalty.

If you as a consumer know that your voice is heard, that your business matters to a company, you tend to go back there – and tell your friends to do the same. Take advantage of the ready built social media worlds in Twitter and Facebook and engage in the discussion with your consumers. It’ll pay off!

To learn more about getting started in Twitter, check out our other blogs:

How to Sign Up for a Twitter Account

How to Customize and Set Up Your Twitter Page

Anatomy of a Tweet – Definitions of Common Terms and Symbols

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You may also be interested in:

How to add Facebook Like and Share Buttons to Your Website

Facebook: Like

Facebook Ditches Fans in Favor of Likes