For the second year running, the folks at MCN threw down the challenge to Toby Keith fanatics to showcase their creativity, determination and personalized guerilla marketing skills by promoting the Big Dog himself.
And once again the T.K. faithful delivered, making Operation: Big Dog the most successful MCN fan contest to date. Since the release of Toby's brand new Big Dog Daddy disc, the response has been overwhelming - and that's been due in no small part to all the Toby Keith Warriors who put boots on the ground to spread the word about Big Dog Daddy's June 12 debut.
As each participating Warrior racked up points during the contest, sharing ideas with others in the forums and conferring with the MCN mods for help along the way, several fans went the extra mile to "get their promo on."
Many of the fans' unique Toby tactics fit nicely with the onset of another good old fashioned American summer. Warrior "altimasport" and her kids organized a car wash on a beautiful May day, blasting Toby's music in the background and handing out Big Dog Daddy flyers. Meanwhile, "Tootie" set up a lemonade and popcorn stand in her neighborhood and offering a "Toby buck," special promo button, popcorn and lemonade for a nickel. In another seasonal move, "Ladyhawk804" distributed small American flags to mailboxes in her neighborhood, just in time for Memorial Day. Each flag had a Toby flyer attached, of course.
Zeroing in on the "big dog" theme was "CoolCntryGal," who started an online competition of her own to recruit even more Toby Warriors. Her personal "My Dog Wants To Be A Show Dog Top Dog Contest" was open to those who first either joined Operation: Big Dog, ordered a Toby fan club membership package or pre-ordered the new Toby CD. Once folks had done one of these things (or all three) they could then submit photos of their lovable canine pets, which were then voted on by each of the entrants until a "Top Rated Dog" could be chosen based on the highest rating. The owner of the Top Rated Dog then received a special Toby Prize package. As she explained in the forums: "I wanted to do something that tied in Toby and his new album - hence the 'show dog part' - and the 'top dog,' which can also be interpreted as 'the Big Dog.'"
Also going the extra mile(s) was Warrior Roxane Depew, who responded quite literally to a mod's offhand suggestion that contest participants might try and get on the Today Show in New York to sing Toby's praises.
"I said to myself, 'I can do this! I live one and a half hours from the city!" Roxane recalled. Two white lies to her husband later about where should would be ("I did not want to tell him if I could not make this happen!" she explained) and one very late night making Big Dog Daddy posters, Roxane headed to New York at 5:30 a.m. one Sunday morning, with a helpful friend at the wheel. The pair made it just in time to get right up to the front of the barricades outside the NBC studio by the start of the 8 a.m. taping. "Everyone wanted to know what I was doing, and all about Toby...and everyone was so excited!"
After befriending a Today Show cameraman - who also happened to be a big T.K. fan himself - Roxane managed to get plenty of face time whenever the camera would pan the crowd. All of this translated to face time for Toby, too. "I really did everything I could to stand out," said Roxane. "When I came to work the next day everybody said, 'We saw you on TV!'"
For her efforts, Roxane won that week's "Personal Displays of Affection" sub-contest, receiving two meet and greet passes for an upcoming Toby show and an iPod. "Around noon I logged on to tobykeith.com and saw that I won and started screaming! Everyone was so happy for me because they knew how hard I was working to promote Toby and the new CD and to have a chance to win the Operation: Big Dog contest. Even the CEO of our company was so happy for me! I will never forget that day. I was so happy that I did something really special to promote Toby!"
Another popular approach during Operation: Big Dog was to purchase CD's in large numbers to send to military members overseas. As Teresa Alcorn explained, "Warriors are as big on the military as Toby and we have a number of family members serving in Iraq or Afghanistan."
Taking that sentiment to the furthest degree was Operation: Big Dog Grand Prize winner, Teresa Owens. Owens and her husband Gary organized "Missions 911 by 9/11," a campaign dedicated to delivering 911 Big Dog Daddy CDs to frontline U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan by September 11, 2007. Owens approached local businesses and asked them for a tax deductible donation of $140 to help send 10 CDs. In return, those businesses would be recognized in a special September 11 ad in the local newspaper, arranged by Owens with the paper's editor.
Additionally, Owens raffled off gift baskets, set up a two-night Big Dog Daddy release party at a local club, distributed a "High Maintenance Woman" gift basket ("with all girly things in it," Teresa explained) at the local gym, and set up a Big Dog Daddy listening booth next to two local snowball stands with the slogan: "This CD's so hot it'll melt your snowball."
"At all of the events we did, we allowed people to either purchase a CD for themselves or donate one to a U.S. service member," said Owens, who placed in the top 5 in last year's Operation: New Recruit contest to promote Toby. "By far, the Mission 911 by 9/11 pushed over the top," said Owens. "The whole concept was well received by the community, and we received a House Resolution by the state of Maryland for our efforts in supporting the troops. But to be honest, we had a blast with all of it!"
Owens' Operation: Big Dog Grand Prize package included: Round-trip airfare for two to Denver, hotel accommodations for two nights, tickets and meet and greet passes to Toby Keith's tour stop at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado and the opportunity to conduct a five-minute interview with Toby (on camera!) for the fan club section of TobyKeith.com.
As with prior contests, participants were quick to praise the people at MCN for making the rules crystal clear, for running a smooth operation, and for assisting many Warriors as the competition progressed. "Chelsea and Kortney were always just a PM or email away when we needed help," Teresa Alcorn recalled. "They were so responsive and very friendly," added Roxane Depew. "I don't how they did what they did. I was also very impressed with how some forum members are like a family and are the kindest most supportive group of people you could meet!"
Labels: big dog daddy, MCN, presale, street team, Toby Keith
