It’s been a busy few months over in the our office, we have scooped a number of new social media accounts and we also have a few new team members who will be revealing themselves to you shortly I expect.

I don’t normally cover that many case studies on the blog but I decided recently that I am going to try and do more of this. This is mainly because when I have been speaking at events, people really seem to prick up and listen more at the case study section. I think most people prefer to here about practical application rather than the theoretical side.

So here goes – one of the online word-of-mouth marketing campaigns that has got us really excited has been the launch of Audio Technica’s search for an alternative Christmas Track. Here’s some campaign blurb we have written to put you in the picture:

The popular music manufacturer is looking for fun and vibrant YouTube video entries from the underground music scene that put a positive new spin on the age old tradition of Christmas carols.

The nationwide competition, which is being judged by Grammy & Brit award-winning record producer and chairman of the Music Producers Guild Steve Levine, is being formally launched via Audio-Technica’s social media channels of Facebook and Twitter.

The online competition is not restricted to any particular type of music so bands, DJs or music producers from any genre have the opportunity of scooping either the top prize of £500 or five runners-up prizes of £100 worth of Audio-Technica equipment. As an extra incentive the first 100 entries will all receive a free pair of Audio-Technica ATH-CK51 headphones worth £30 each.

image We launched this particular campaign last week and we have already had some brilliant entries and posts from influential bloggers in this area. To bring it to life I have enclosed one of the video entries for you to take a look at – it’s quite amusing although I do admit if feels weird writing about Christmas already.

This campaign has come about because we held a strategic social media workshop with Audio-Technica a while back now and from that workshop we drew up a clear strategy to help them become more fun and engaging online. I think this campaign is a great way of doing this, as it allows musicians to express themselves using their own user generated content.

The campaign I have highlight here is just one we are working with them on. We are also helping Audio-Technica with some blogger relations and have a number of new campaigns to tell you about later. To help bring blogger relations to life I thought I would share a quick post from one of the product reviews we have organised recently to give you a flavour.

The great thing about Audio-Technica is it produces really good quality products that are right down my street and if you have good products, then your customers or bloggers should say nice things about them and if they don’t then you can use that feedback to make the products better. Don’t be scared to ask bloggers, or any influencer for that matter, their opinion.

To stay in touch with the latest entries, just subscribe to Audio-Technica’s YouTube channel here.

So that’s enough about the campaign, if you can play a musical instrument, why don’t you have a go and get yourself a free pair of headphones? You never know it could even be fun!

About Chris Norton

Chris Norton is the founder of Prohibition and an award winning communications consultant with more than twenty years’ experience. He was a lecturer at Leeds Beckett University and has had a varied PR career having worked both in-house and in a number of large consultancies. He is an Integrated PR and social media blogger and writes on a wide variety of blogs across a huge amount of topics from digital marketing, social media marketing right through to technology and crisis management.