
Dear Sony,
First, I wanted to make sure everything is good with you. I know its been a while since we have chatted. Actually, we have really never chatted. Though you did have Technorati reach out to me in early March 2009. It was just before SXSW 2009. You probably don’t remember, I know your a really busy company. Well with E3, your Samsung LCD venture, and of course that exciting announcement that Sade has an album coming out for the first time in like 9 years No offense but waiting 30 years for that album would of been better.(I’m just saying.)
So what I wanted to share with you is an update on the partnership you did with Technorati just before the SXSW 2009. I know with everything going on you don’t remember it. Let me try to jog your memory.
You were kind enough to send myself and 9 other bloggers these really kick ass Webbie HD video cameras. All you asked is when we use it at the conference was to tag photos and pics with the hashtag #webbiesxsw. How could any of us say no? (Look we both know Julia Roy sure wouldn’t! I think she tried to steal mine, so she could have two.) So with my trusty Webbie HD I mad amazing, educational, social media videos like this:
Pretty great huh? Fine, I suck at video taping. I get it. Okay, so Sony you may wonder, “why is this guy writing this letter to us almost 4 months after the fact? We aren’t sending you another free camera and you cant have a free PS3 either, so move along.” Do not worry. I do not want any free stuff, though if I were to hit you up for something it would be the PS3 Slim.
So back to my point of this letter. It must of taking some good faith in Social Media for a big company like you to the Webbie SXSW/blogger promotion. Not being able to directly measure the ROI for this campaign. Not knowing if it helped sell these devices. No doubt you could see the chatter on Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, and the other thousands of social networking sites. Yet, it is hard to measure if that chatter turned into sales.
Well, I have some good news for you. Social Media works. What you did worked. Let me give you some examples. I will do it in list form. People like lists!
-In the past 30 days 5. Yes, 5 families have bought the Webbie because they have seen me using at my kids school. Scary part is they all got the same color as me. So, now I have to put my initials on the bottom of it.
-At least 8 people have emailed me directly in the last 90 days to ask me about what video camera I use. Of that I know of 4 people who have bought the camera.
-Facebook..where do I start. When I upload a video it has that HD logo in the corner. The number of people who have commented on the quality of the video and sound is crazy. I can not say I know exactly how many people have bought the Webbie. I do know that there have been a lot of comments and questions about it on my profile page and fanpage.(yes, I have a facebook fanpage stop laughing at me.) Done laughing? Here is a Facebook video example that got the parents fired up about the Webbie:
So, there you go. I can confirm at least 14 sales of the webbie as well as several more potential sales coming your way!! That is not a bad ROI for sending a blogger a $200.00 video camera. We do not even know how many sales the other 9 bloggers generated. This is what I would call a success story, as well as a great case study showing that Social Media and Word of Mouth marketing do work.
Oh in case anyone at Sony sees this or who knows, maybe even reads my blog. No, I was not paid to do this. Yes, I got a free Webbie from Sony. There is your full disclosure at work!
Sincerely,
Dave Peck
Social Media Strategist