In the era of internet marketing, in order for a social media campaign to be successful, it’s a given that it must move beyond traditional media (print, broadcast, radio) channels to include a consumer driven online PR and social strategy.

The question now isn’t whether the social media component is necessary for a campaign, but rather:

How can online and offline entities work together to effectively promote a campaign and build word of mouth marketing?

From my experience, having worked on both sides, one of the most important factors in ensuring the success of an integrated campaign is the need for traditional and interactive campaigns to be launched simultaneously.

It’s important for managers on both sides to coordinate a launch date for the campaign and make sure both traditional and digital media fronts are mobilized by this date in order to maximize exposure and build on momentum.

Case and point, the integrated publicity campaign for the premiere of the third installment of the New Moon trailer on the MTV Video Music Awards this week:

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KML had the chance to spend some time talking with Jonathan Waud, who recently appeared on Bravo’s Make Me a Supermodel Season 2. He not only won us over (we may be slightly biased)– he won over the fans by winning the vote for Favorite Model.

Since we love all things social media, we thought we’d take this opportunity to ask our favorite supermodel some questions about how he uses social media and the web to connect with his ever-growing fan base.

How active would you say you are online?

I love to be online but I’m always on the go so I don’t get as much surf time as I’d like. Thank goodness for mobile!  When I am home, I do everything online–  Facebook, banking, news, staying in touch with family.  Everything.

What are your five favorite web sites you can’t live without?

Google is my home page, Style.com, Topgear.co.uk, iTunes, Facebook, oh and of course KARMA Media Labs! (laughs) Read the rest of this entry »

Last Monday, KML had the honor of attending the red carpet premiere of the horror/comedy One Eyed Monster, starring… Ron Jeremy (playing it straight - it’s rated R people!!) and Amber Benson (from Buffy the Vampire Slayer fame).

Our Mission:

To help represent… er… the star of the movie, The “Monster”, on Twitter while he worked the premiere.

While this may not sound like your typical work assignment, it’s one that the KARMA crew enjoyed — as we, his “Monsterettes”, were able to report live from the movie premiere and share details with all of the movie (and monster) fans.

Our approach?  Report on arrivals, comment throughout the event, share Twitpics, and respond to fans over the course of the movie and premiere.

While the premiere is long over, you can still follow our star on Twitter at @RonsMonster (note- be prepared for some candid remarks and humorous, slightly NSFW photos).

And for a small plug for our client… One Eyed Monster is not only hilarious, it’s now available at Amazon.com.

Monsterettes, over and out.

KML was out to support Leslie Gornstein’s recent book signing event at The Grove to promote The A List Playbook - How to Survive Any Crisis While Remaining Wealthy, Famous, and Most Importantly, Skinny.

For anyone who doesn’t know by now, Leslie is E! Online’s Answer B!tch, who answers fans questions and reveals some of Hollywood’s dirtiest little secrets.  Want to find out how Beyonce and Britney Spears stay at the top? Does Eva Longoria really use store bought hair color? Do stars really eat anything they want and remain thin? You can find out all about it in Leslie’s book.

While Leslie has mastered the art of developing on online presence via E! Online and her popular blog AListPlaybook.com, it’s interesting to note that she has also embraced print publication as another means to satisfy the appetite of fans hoping to get juicy secrets on their favorite celebs.  In recent months, we’ve also seen Perez Hilton expand from the blogosphere with his book Red Carpet Suicide.

So what does this tell us?

While the masses seem to be gathering their Hollywood dirt across thousands of gossip sites (the choices are becoming limitless), it’s important to remember people are also feeding their interests the old fashioned way- in print.  Which proves that people like choices about media - whether it’s online or traditional.  The key is to keep those media choices in mind with getting your content into your fans’ hands.  Which is exactly what Leslie did and it’s paying off.

Congrats again, Leslie!

I wouldn’t call myself a TV Junkie, but there are a few programs on television I don’t miss. True Blood on HBO, The Tudors on Showtime, Mad Men on AMC, and the new advertising focused program Trust Me on TNT.

While I don’t have much in common with vampires, King Arthur, or the 60’s (believe it or not I wasn’t born yet), I connect with Trust Me because it strikes a chord with me on two levels - as a former Chicagoan working long hours in the Loop, and as former advertising agency Account Director.

For anyone who hasn’t been watching, Trust Me stars Eric McCormack and Tom Cavanagh as creative cohorts working at ficticious ad agency Rothman Green & Mohr. While their agency is fictitious, their client roster is anything but.  I couldn’t help but notice that RGM’s client drama - as realistic as I’ve seen in agency land - was building quite a bit of awareness around their “client” brands like Effen Vodka, Bertolli, and most visibly tied to the creative chaos - Dove Hair Care.

What’s interesting about Dove is that it’s not just a brand reference in Trust Me - it has almost become a character in and of itself in the program.  Sarah (played by Monica Potter) is a bitter creative professional who begrudgingly takes on the Dove campaign, only to get immersed in the brand over several episodes.  The viewing audience of Trust Me begins to get more engaged with Dove by watching the program, as well as being exposed to advertising (Unilever is a sponsor of Trust Me).

While Brand Integration isn’t a new phenomenon, Dove and TNT have taken it to the next level by integrating the brand into the program content, creating a storyline around it, surrounding it with program sponsorship and advertising, and creating a social media campaign called “Be The Creative Director”.

In tandem with the program storyline, TNT is promoting bethecreativedirector.com where viewers can be a part of RGM to help produce a new Dove ad. Embedded into the episode was also a “briefing” on Dove by the brand’s very own marketing manager Judy Pomerantz, who emphasized the objectives of the campaign.

So why is all this interesting to me?

As I watched the fictitious RGM brainstorm on “that innovative, online stuff” and chuckled at its reference to social media, I thought about the reality of 360 degree brand awareness… and while the reference seemed a bit off on the program, I do like what I’m seeing with Dove - a great example of weaving the company’s message in content, around content, and in the online communities where their audience lives.

In recent days, we’ve been discussing Twitter authority and tracking people in the public eye such as Diddy (@iamdiddy) and John Mayer (@johncmayer) reaching out to the masses via Twitter.

Many celebrities have established their Twitter Persona and actively engage, as we see on blogs such as Celebrity Tweet which give a real time feed on celebs like Solange Knowles (@solangeknowles), Ryan Seacrest (@ryanseacrest), Britney Spears (@britneyspears) and Greg Grunberg (@greggrunberg), who all have jumped on the Twitter bandwagon.

While many of these people in the public eye have already embraced their inner geek, many are just getting started with establishing their profiles.  And then there are those celebrities who are using their voice and influence to promote others’ — the Twitter Influencers.  As word of mouth marketers, we’re obsessed with the power of the shout out and its influence on the Twitter population we like to call Tweeps.

Take the recent Jimmy Fallon experiment as an example.  A few nights ago, Jimmy’s guest was Bryan Brinkman (@bryanbrinkman), who had 7 total followers on Twitter. After the shout out from Jimmy (and the founders of Digg also appearing on the show), Bryan now has almost 35,000 followers, and growing by the hour.  The shout out was then featured, written about and syndicated on blogs and sites (like this very one) which continues the shout out momentum.

Another great example is Ellen DeGeneres who talked about Twitter on her show very recently. The day her show’s Twitter profile @theellenshow was launched, there were just a little over 9,000 followers.  She now has over 200,000, growing rapidly.

While most of us aren’t able to appear on television to get the official shout out to spread the word about our Twitter presence, the power of influential bloggers is not to be underestimated as a way to grow your Twitter audience.  Mashable, a highly influential blog in the social media space regularly features people to follow in several verticals, ranging from Professors to Brands and the People Behind Them.  It’s safe to say that this blog drove a few followers to those profiles.  Ok, maybe more than a few.

We’ll be keeping our eye on the Twitter Influencers and paying attention to the power of the shout out.

E!'s Answer B!tch, Leslie Gornstein

The KARMA crew attended the book signing party for Leslie Gornstein, best known as the E! Answer B!tch on eonline.com. We helped her celebrate the launch of her new book, The A List Playbook, which got us super excited (as we tend to be obsessed with behind the scenes Hollywood gossip).

Over snacks, wine and great conversation with supporters of Leslie and her book, we asked ourselves: What is happening in the world of literary marketing? With all the hard work that goes into writing and publishing one’s work, how does an author connect with their target reading audience and promote their book? Is it supported by the publisher? Is it up to the author? What is the secret to book marketing?

The publishing market is more competitive than ever with 180,000 new titles released every year and over 2.5 million titles available on sites like Amazon.com and BN.com. It’s a little known fact that of all the books published each year, fewer than 1% sell more than 2,000 copies.

As we have had more conversations with authors on a quest to market a successful book, we began to realize that this is a real challenge, but even bigger opportunity to leverage social media to promote the book, showcase content, reach target fans and elevate the profile of the author. We think now is the time for word of mouth marketing - it’s engaging, it’s impactful, and it’s cost effective.

Leslie is well on her way to embracing social media and is a great example of not only showcasing the book and connecting with fans, but also extending the experience online through her blog www.alistplaybook.com.  So with that quick shoutout to the one and only Answer B!tch, we thank her for giving us the wisdom and insight (and especially thank her for the juicy gossip in her book). Thanks Leslie!