Spooking up some digital buzz on Friday the 13th

The following post is by Esther Rawlings from our Cohn & Wolfe Los Angeles office.

To the superstitious, Friday the 13^th is infamous for bringing bad luck.  But to a savvy brand, that bad luck can be flipped on its head to present only the best of luck or – in PR speak – the best “buzz.”

Mattel, one of Cohn & Wolfe’s clients, aptly chose Friday the 13^th to launch timely brand content through its social media channels for its popular multi-faceted franchise Monster High, which chronicles the lives of teenage descendants of the world’s most famous monsters as they brave the trials of high school together.

Last Friday, the brand celebrated the 13^th Monster High-style by embracing what makes everyone unique with a “Monsterfy Yourself” Facebook application, revealing the missing chapter 13 from New York Times bestselling author, Lisi Harrison’s, hit Monster High novel, announcing the names and “freaky flaws” of two new ghouls at Monster High and launching a Friday the 13^th-themed animated webisode on its Facebook page.  Because of this proactive content-driven campaign driven by Mattel’s marketing and communications team, the Monster High Facebook page joined the coveted ranks of the top 10 fastest-growing pages on Facebook this week, growing 8,571 fans per day.

Cohn & Wolfe and Mattel’s PR team leveraged the brand moment to secure coverage in top teen/tween and kid’s outlets including Seventeen.com, Girls’ Life Online , Yahoo! Kids and Kidzworld.com and giveaways on KIIS-FM “On Air with Ryan Seacrest” and Hot 92.3FM “Rick Dees in the Morning.”

The next time you are brainstorming ideas for your client, think about pop culture holidays that organically align with your brand and ways you can leverage social media channels.  Who knows?  With your next campaign, you may just get “lucky.”