Got Milk? Taps MySpace with New Campaign
Amy Johannes
Promo
March 19, 2008
The company behind
the Got Milk? tagline is rolling out a new campaign
targeting teenagers to get them thinking about milk and
music. Only this time, it’s using a social networking
site to do it.
In a first for the firm, the California Milk Processor
Board is targeting teens and is turning to social
networking site MySpace.com to promote its new 2008
“White Gold” ad campaign. The company created a page on
MySpace to promote White Gold and the Calcium Twins, a
team of new fictitious characters turned rock stars who
spread their love of and devotion to milk through music.
Visitors to http://www.myspace.com/whitegoldiswhitegold
can learn more about the band, download its latest
single, “One Gallon Axe” and watch the music video from
the site. Four other milk-themed songs will roll out in
the coming months.
“Given this target audience we are going for, which is
teenagers, and the amount of time they spend online for
communication, entertainment and research, the online
component was very important for this campaign,” said
Steve James, executive director of the California Milk
Processor Board. “Rather than just launch TV as we used
to do, we felt since this was a little bit odd we’d like
to seed the band almost as a real band online and let
people discover it, the music and the humor.”
The board is also releasing music videos from the band
on YouTube, with links back the White Gold MySpace page
to attract more viewers.
Next month, the board will launch 30-second TV spots
tagged with an interactive Web site http://www.whitegoldiswhitegold.com
launching April 7.
The Web site is meant as a “seeding effort,” James said.
“When we launch TV in a month will already have a little
bit of traction.”
“We’re trying to give [milk] a new spin,” said Paul
Charney, associate creative director for Goodby,
Silverstein and Partners, the ad agency handling the
campaign and the band’s song lyrics. “We’re trying to
make it a little bit more fun.”
The board wants visitors to enjoy the band its music
while learning about the benefits of milk, added Brian
Houlette, associate creative director for Goodby,
Silverstein and Partners.
“But we’re not trying to trick people,” Charney said.
“We want people to be in on the joke.”
This summer, the board plans to launch a consumer
promotion tied to the campaign. While details are still
being finalized, Charney said it would likely involve a
music remix contest.
Banners on MySpace.com promote the campaign. TV spots,
print ads and PR will also support the promotion.