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| Featured Article |
5/26/08 Technique Feature: The why, where and how of widgets
It seems like widgets are everywhere — on Web sites, on blogs, on Facebook — but how can you turn these portable applications into powerful marketing tools? Four experts weigh in. |
 Chase McMichael
Founder and chairman, UnBound Technologies
Facebook currently features more than 24,000 mini applications, or widgets, that focus on everything from sharing political views to dating tips. Widgets have a unique capacity to reach people in a highly personal way. Smart marketers are learning that widgets are the Holy Grail for igniting viral one-to-one marketing campaigns. Unlike broad-based database marketing campaigns, next-generation “data-driven” widgets let marketers get much more granular — reaching, for example, not only affluent African-American males 25-50 years of age, but also honing in on those with an affinity for hip hop music and even a particular artist.
There are plenty of ways to build widgets and push them out, ranging from geek-friendly tools to intuitive drag-and-drop widget creators. The challenge for brand marketers is two-fold: to identify the content that will cause people to grab the widget and share it with their friends and to determine who to send the widget to.
Successful widget campaigns make it easy for the user to do something — register for an event, get tips on playing a game or create a video, for example. They also encourage people to share, creating a viral element. For example, voting-style widget campaigns, such as a brand-sponsored “best rap artist” contest, encourage viral sharing as contestants ask friends to vote for them.
Once widgets go viral, they become a two-way communication mechanism that can be used to gather more information about the consumers who grabbed them and to distribute targeted content to them (making them “sticky”).
Technologies used to engage consumers through viral marketing campaigns are improving daily. Success lies in understanding what target audiences are into, so that the associated widget content and offering are stimulating and then identifying those connected individuals most likely to share the widget and become a new set of brand ambassadors.
THE TAKEAWAY
Widgets let marketers “go granular” to target just the right audience
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