Harbinger Holiday Survey Hot List

Three things we learned (that you should know)

What’s on a woman’s mind this holiday season? More specifically, what’s on her wish list and what is she buying for others? Like you, Harbinger wanted to know. So, we asked women in our 1^st Harbinger Holiday Survey.

Here are 3 things we learned (see more top findings here) to consider for your future holiday planning:

See more top findings from the 1^st annual Harbinger Holiday Survey here.

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Yule be surprised: Holiday survey “sleighs”
possible gift giving myths

Would you believe, women place sports equipment as high on their holiday wish lists as men and are more likely to be wishing for tools this holiday season than beauty products?

Those are just two of the possible surprises in store for you in the findings of Harbinger’s 1^st annual Holiday Survey.

Check out these survey highlights for more…

What else we learned . . .

• Sports equipment fails to show up on the shopping lists of men (for their significant other), even though it’s #6 on women’s wish lists
• Tools come in at #9 on women’s wish lists, but fail to register at all with men as a possible gift
• Cell phones failed to crack the top ten wish list items for men or women

Be sure to check out our story - Three things we learned

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Harbinger’s Back to School Social Media Roundup

Social Media is all over the headlines this year and almost any brand that’s marketing is jumping in. The back to school season gave many brands good reason to get online. Here’s our take on four high profile campaigns and how they did based on Harbinger’s Social Media Scorecard.

Read through and then use our Scorecard to evaluate campaigns rolling out this holiday season.

**A note about numbers, ROI and measurement: The campaigns we’ve evaluated below are not ours and so we do not have a clear picture of the investment or the quantitative results of the programs. Our evaluation is purely qualitative based on the available facts.

Girls Night Out Back to School Forums by Crayola

	Score: 6/6, How did we get there? Crayola’s campaign was a great, engaging program that tapped into the excitement of back to school planning. It was true to the brand and engaged and energized the community in a relevant and meaningful way without losing the brand.

Crayola commissioned a popular mommy blogger, Jyl Johnson Pattee, to lead a blog panel with parent bloggers and consumers on back-to-school topics every Tuesday night in August. The Girls Night Out (#GNO) events were hosted online via Twitter with blogger participants providing their post-event thoughts on their blogs the next day. The weekly events were promoted on Crayola’s community site and on Facebook. Consumers who were not participating could follow the live conversations through Tweetgrid.

Schoolebrity by Kmart

				Not really – “Hey drop everything! We’ve got a contest!”
				Not really – certainly motivated people to enter, but it doesn’t really further any lasting conversation except: I would love to win!
				Not really – once the contest was over, the crowd dispersed.
	Score: 3/6, How did we get there? Kmart’s campaign had lots of amplification and buzz during activation, but no mechanisms to engage consumers in conversation or crystallize a community for long-term relationships. The online promotion provided consumers with a reason to get excited, but no reason to talk about it with others.

Kmart ran a tweens-targeted back-to-school campaign called “Schoolebrity,” which was supported with TV ads, flash banners, online games, in-store promotions, e-mail blasts and a sweepstakes contest. The goal was to convince tweens that Kmart clothes are fashionable, while wooing moms with the low Kmart price point. The grand-prize winner received a visit to their school from popular Nickelodeon personality Jennette McCurdy, star of the popular show iCarly, a Kmart shopping spree (with Jennette), and a trip for four to Los Angeles.

Schooled in Style: Smart Looks for Less by JCPenney

	Score: 6/6, How did we get there? Big budgets definitely make things easier, but JCPenney’s program had lots of cool content to get teens engaged with the brand. It encouraged pass-along and helped teens spark conversation with their friends.

JCPenney’s “Schooled in Style: Smart Looks for Less” campaign was a massive undertaking supported by digital, social, mobile and traditional media as well as unique special events and promotions with celebrities such as skateboarder Ryan Sheckler and indie pop rock band Hockey. The campaign called attention to the retailer’s exclusive higher-end brand name collections for teens.

A campaign website featuring a digital runway and ‘create your own looks’ tools; a Facebook community featuring updated content and custom apps, and text-for-tickets promotions to public events featuring Sheckler and Hockey, all served to connect teens to each other.

Get Organized for Back-to-School Blogcast by OfficeMax

	Not really – in concept maybe, but not for participants.			Not really – the live episode drew a sizable audience but was not able to spark further conversation or pass-along.
				Not really – 40 minutes is a long time to ask anyone to pay attention to anything and the panel portion doesn’t start until three and a half minutes into the video.
				Not really – no long term community connection
	Score: 2/6, How did we get there? An interesting idea and, at first blush: a simple concept, but we’ve got to believe that much was lost in the way the content was delivered.

OfficeMax held a "Get Organized for Back-to-School Blogcast," drawing 185 participants on August 6, 2009. The 40-minute live web event featured author and organizational expert Peter Walsh, "Tween Teacher" Heather Wolpert-Gawron, mom and blogger Ana Picazo and two students. Tips were offered to parents, teachers and students for preparing and organizing for back to school. The public could watch live online (or via an archived version) and participate through Twitter. The campaign was also supported with a promotional campaign featuring back to school offers and coupons seeded online.

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