top myspace marketing examples

I will admit when I first stumbled into MySpace I really didn’t think it was much more than a bunch of horrendously ugly pages with really cheezy music. However if you are willing to dig a little deeper you can find some legitimate companies and organizations who are using MySpace. If you’re ready let’s dive in

Chances are if you are like me you think MySpace is slanted towards the teen and early twenty-ish demographic. While I don’t place too much stock in how truthful people are when they enter demographic data, I can say MySpace has a lot more than just teenagers. One of the key factors you’ll need to accept if you are going to take advantage of marketing opportunities on MySpace is it’s a hangout for the hip and trendy set, and not neccisarily just teens. If you’re potential customer is more likely to drive a Toyota Scion instead of a Chrysler Mini-Van then you are in the right spot.

One of the first thing MySpace did right was get popular celebrities (or their ‘people’) to set up spaces. For example the pages of Ryan Seacrest, Madonna, Sarah Jessica Parker, Jessica Simpson, and Oprah seem to be legitimate profiles. Whereas those of Condoleza Rice and George Bush hopefully aren’t fooling many people. Once the right celebrities are involved fans will follow with the hopes of getting added as “friends”.

Some other important areas of MySpace center around music, TV and pop culture. Fox saw this coming and for 2006 set up profiles for the American Idol contestants, for example see Chris Daughtry’s page. Other well known musicians who are on MySpace include LL Cool J, Mary J Blige, The Red Hot Chilli Peppers, and The Pussycat Dolls. The tie in to clubs and music so strong it’s quite common to come across DJ’s or bands who are heavily promoting themselves on MySpace.

Next let’s look at some examples of corporations and big businesses who are using MySpace. The energy drink Red Bull has a page as does Aquafina, however traditional soft drinks like Coke and Pepsi aren’t, and if they are they are hidden pretty well because I went looking for them. In my opinion this is pretty serious oversight on their part. One of the more interesting examples of corporations in MySpace comes from Wendy’s with a page named squarevision. If features the square Wendy’s hamburgers in a series of flash movies.

While some corporations are clearly dipping their big toe into the waters at MySpace there are still plenty of opportunities there, and since Steve Rubel who now works at Edelman who has MySpace as a client I’ll pass along a few suggestions.

• The first thing I’d like to see is official company or celebrity profiles identified. It would really be helpful to know if I was looking an something that has been authorized, a devoted fan site, or something put in place by a clever prankster.
• Next I’d like to see MySpace try to woo more “legitimate” businesses into area. Soft drink companies, car companies, movies, TV shows, even candy like Orbitz and Mentos seem to be a natural fit.
• Next how about showcasing some of the more interesting, well thought out or well executed MySpace pages. For example Squidoo sends out the Squidoo Lens of the Day
• Lastly would an official MySpace HTML/CSS editor be too much to ask, all sorts of people are developing all sorts of tools on their own, and I’m not so sure I trust all of them to not do something funny to my page like putting in a hidden link or two

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