Yahoo! Personals Live Billboard Dating Campaign



Objectives

• PR - Create a unique & powerful media-worthy story that also resonates with consumers for the announcement of Project: Real People to maximize media coverage
• Brand Perception- Reinforce commitment to brand attributes (authenticity, fun, innovation, trustworthiness), while demonstrating that quality singles use Yahoo! Personals
• Awareness- Generate awareness and drive traffic to Yahoo! Personals
• Trial- Engage singles to interact with the campaign, create profiles and subscribe
• Optimization- Maximize reach and impact with a small budget and short timeframe

Description
Take online dating to new heights (literally) and bring it to life by featuring Julie, one of Yahoo! Personals' Project: Real People finalists, on her very own billboard, living and dating for 3 days. A living area was built out from the base of the billboard with all the comforts of home, including a wireless Internet connection and a great space for entertaining. It was here that she ate, exercised, got coiffed by the pros, charmed the media, searched for interesting men on Yahoo! Personals, and ultimately invited a few up to the billboard for a date. She invited a total of eight men up for dates and then selected her favorite to return for a grand finale date.

Her every move was broadcast live over the Internet, bringing her Yahoo! Personals dating adventures into living rooms and offices all over the world. The event took the reality TV dating phenomenon to the next level. Live Julie TV was broadcast for 12-hours a day, uncut, and hundreds of thousands of people all over the world tuned in to share in her dating journey. They got to experience first-hand what it's like to use Yahoo! Personals to meet and connect with quality individuals. And they sat on the edge of their seats wondering who Julie was going to select to come back for the final date.

Key Elements to Success:
Billboard- The billboard on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood was ideal (warm weather climate in January, within top-tier market, high vehicular and foot traffic, high visibility, low to the ground with ample gathering room for on-lookers and the media). Julie's face and the claim that she wasn't coming down until she had a good date, was the perfect enticement. The built-out living area created an ideal setting for her dating adventures, while also capturing the attention of all who walked or drove by.

Julie- A bright, witty, professional, 39-year old California girl was the perfect attraction for both men and women. Men wanted to date her and women could relate to her. Both men and women hung on her every move and she (along with her dates,) sent the message loud and clear that great, quality people use Yahoo! Personals. Women thought, "If it's good enough for her, it's good enough for me." She was the perfect, charming draw for the media too.

Live TV- The live web cast brought this campaign to life and into the homes/offices of people worldwide. It was unedited and uncut so that people really felt like they were behind the scenes, experiencing the journey with Julie. Julie's schedule was also packed with interesting material: lots of dates and visits from celebrities, famous Hollywood stylists, reporters, radio DJs, magicians, musicians, fitness instructors and other Project: Real People finalists. Her friends even joined her to help select her billboard dates on Yahoo! Personals. Additionally those watching from home would email and instant message her in hopes of an on-air greeting. The live broadcast was instrumental in allowing everyone to experience what it's like to use Yahoo! Personals to meet and connect with quality singles.

Communication- Integrated online/offline consumer and media communication tactics were critical to ensure success of this 3-day event. Efforts included:

• National and local print/broadcast outreach including B-Roll footage.
• Banners on Yahoo! Personals: Demographically targeted ads to men in LA, recruiting potential billboard dates for Julie and national ads promoting Live Julie TV.
• Banner on front page of Yahoo! that updated with Julie's changing status (looking for dates, on a date, announcing her final pick, on her grand finale date). This type of real time updating in such a highly visible location was instrumental in creating the voyeuristic following and addictiveness behind Julie TV.
• Local LA radio promotion to secure three of the eight dates from local listeners and Initiate an incredible amount of live and pre-recorded coverage of the event.

Results
PR-

• 347 television and radio stories in 100 markets across the country
• Print and broadcast coverage reached 126 million consumers around the world
• Live interviews on CNN Headline News, Good Morning America, ESPN2's Cold Pizza, Good Day Live and ABC News Live.
• Charlie Gibson of Good Morning America called the campaign 'Ingenious'.

Awareness-

• Unique visitors to Yahoo! Personals were up 44% year over year and 19% from the two weeks prior to the campaign.
• Yahoo! Personals saw sustained growth in traffic, edging out the industry leader for the three months that followed. Q1 2004 average monthly unique visitors were 6.4MM compared to Match.com's 5.2MM.
• The Julie website received 680,000 page views in 3 days and fueled traffic to the Project: Real People landing page, which received 591,000 hits during the same period.

Trial-

• Live Julie TV was turned on over a half a million times in 3 days.
• Yahoo! Personals profile creation rose 250% year over year and 14% from the 2 weeks prior.
• Subscriptions increased 199% from the previous year and 27% from the 2 weeks prior.
• Julie received over 1,000 emails and online messages in 3 days.

Optimization-
3 months and a $140,000 promotional investment kicked off the launch of Yahoo! Personals' most successful marketing initiative yet (Project: Real People) as evidenced by an unprecedented Q1.

True Love-
Julie and Clark are still together! And that's what Yahoo! Personals is really all about anyway.