There’s a nice case study in this week’s issue of PR Week from Danielle Lipp that discusses our work over the past several months with BarelyPolitical.com, highlighted by the launch and campaign around the Obama Girl character. LaunchSquad’s Melissa Klein has done an outstanding job leading this effort and working with company founder Ben Relles to build the BarelyPolitical brand.
[Note: Check out Brett's post today on Exclamation about Next New Network's acquisition of BarelyPolitical].
Lipp writes:
“Using the video as a hook, LaunchSquad wanted to build the site’s brand and position Relles as a thought leader in the political and digital media spaces. The idea was to let the video spread virally and, once it started gaining traction, leverage that for attention from the media.”
“In any sort of viral campaign… the authenticity is what makes it important,” says Melissa Klein, LaunchSquad account manager. “Putting out press releases is not what a viral campaign is about, so I was very hands-off in the beginning because we wanted people to enjoy it on their own and really find it for themselves.”
The story concludes:
“The key action of this effort was the initial inaction. Giving the video time to circulate before promoting it was crucial to establishing its authenticity. Relles and Klein both knew that “viral” today no longer means something spread friend-to-friend; rather blogs act as content spreaders. Using the ABC story as a hook to generate interest helped drive the millions of views and media impressions. And the strategy from the start of creating something beyond just a video guided the follow-up videos and additional content that have kept the story going.”
Update:
Danielle blogged about the Next New Networks/BarelyPolitical acquisition.