Benjamin Moore Banks on Big Social Networking Campaign

For its 2010 advertising campaign, Benjamin Moore is capitalizing on its consumers' enthusiastic preference for its brand. It has brought together eight top design and paint industry mavens who favor the company's products and posed them in a photo portrait inspired by Vanity Fair's Hollywood issue covers. The headline reads, "Paint With The Very Best" and is tagged with a double entendre final statement, "For Those Who Know More."

 

But the print advertising in magazine's such as Elle Decor, House Beautiful and Country Living, is just the starting point of this new $15-million campaign. Facebook is an integral component. In fact, according to Nick Harris, Benjamin Moore's senior manager Marketing Communications, "We're creating a Facebook on steroids program that potentially will stir consumer fans to meet up with paint and style experts and aficionados for an online cocktail party of conversation about decorating with paint and color."

 

Harris says that a whopping 76 percent of Benjamin Moore's total $15 million ad budget for 2010 is being dedicated to new media.A new Facebook application is expected to unite the community of experts "who know more" with consumers who are hungry to learn more about decorating, design, color selection and paint. At Experts Exchange, visitors will be able to connect not only with the ad's eight experts, including interior designer Jamie Drake, whose celebrity clientele includes Michael Bloomberg and Madonna, but also with dozens of other designers and hands-on painting contractors who Benjamin Moore will be regularly welcoming to join the site.

 

Currently, video conversations with the ad stars can be viewed, and there is an Ask the Experts tab, allowing a dialogue for advice and tips. On the flip side, the participating experts will have a forum for showing off their portfolio of work, a helpful promotional perk for their individual businesses. And, there will be occasional real-time live Ask the Expert sessions that will let visitors upload their own color/painting makeover projects to obtain suggestions and critiques from the professionals.Additionally, an Events tab will help direct consumers to local retailer programs, sales events and other in-store activities.

 

According to Harris, the Facebook component will be operational in mid-April to coincide with the break of the print ads. He conservatively estimates that the company's Facebook fans could quadruple by year's end. It currently numbers close to 5,000.

 

"With Facebook now rivaling Google for the most-trafficked site on the Web, consumers increasingly expect interactive experiences within the Facebook platform, because that's where they're spending their time," says Gabe Dorosz, vice president, Interactive for Cramer-Krasselt/New York, which helped to create the campaign. "Few brands are taking advantage of this opportunity to engage and grow a loyal customer base, and Benjamin Moore is way ahead of the competition. This application doesn't just support our campaign message that Benjamin Moore is the brand of choice among design experts, it allows consumers to interact directly with those experts to see Benjamin Moore as a key resource for design-related thinking."