Social Media and Marketing Case Studies - Bazooka Joe

Self-expression, creativity and playfulness – Bazooka Joe

Bazooka Joe bubble gum drew inspiration from their customers’ own creativity and encouraged it via a range of social networking sites to launch a campaign in August 2006 that is still continuing as of April 2007. They took the lead for the campaign from their own customers, who were dancing to a song about the gum at summer camp. This led to a competition, with a television commercial and an invitation to customers to upload videos of themselves doing the dance. The main site for the campaign provided inspiration – how to do the dance – and linked over to videos of people dancing on YouTube and MySpace. A blog picked out the best videos and photos from the making of the commercial were featured on Flickr and the blog. Providing an opportunity for people to be playful has underpinned a campaign with a long lifespan.

Screenshot: Bazooka Joe home page - music video shows dance (top left), how-to help with lyrics (middle) and links to MySpace, YouTube and BJ blog (lower right)

Screenshot: YouTubers doing the dance

Screenshot: One of the top BJ videos on YouTube

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