To create buzz for Gwen Stefani’s new fragrance line, “Harajuku Lovers,” Matchstick — a Canadian-based word of mouth agency — reached out to 50 influential female fashion, beauty, and lifestyle bloggers in Canada and sent each of them a Harajuku Lovers Fragrance Kit filled with samples and giveaways.
The bloggers responded with a bunch of posts, in-depth reviews, and video postings. It all resulted in a bunch of online and offline word of mouth, and helped make the fragrance the top seller at area retailers.
The Lesson: You don’t have to hit 1,000 influential bloggers to create word of mouth. Rather, a targeted, relevant outreach inviting select key talkers to review and share your product can lead to some great conversations about you.
Why would a fast food restaurant release a fragrance?
Burger King's new meat-scented "Flame" answers: Because it's fun and people love talking about stuff like this.
While it's unlikely that many folks want to smell like a burger, the idea is so outrageous that bottles of the stuff are going to be bought as jokes or given away as gag gifts. And even though the fragrance may not be used much, it'll start conversations for quite a while as the bottle sits in medicine cabinets and atop bedroom dressers. File this one under the adage, "If it's worth doing, it's worth doing weird."
The Lesson: If a giant fast food chain can be this goofy, so can you. Creating a fun, irrelevant product can be a great way to show your personality and get people talking.
