The Challenge
FOX 50 was looking for a promotion to tie in with the FOX musical television series Glee. As a local TV station, it was crucial that our promotion engaged the local community of potential TV watchers. The community-nature of the contest would also give the station an opportunity to pull in local sponsors that could help generate revenue for the station.
We decided on a lip dub contest for local high schools, anticipating that each school would generate local buzz as they urged their town to vote for their entry. (See this silly reenactment of the development of the idea.) With a great contest idea in the works, we needed a creative way to promote the contest so that the “too-cool-for-school” students would be excited and inspired to take part.
Creating Lip Dub Music Video Promos
We decided to produce our promos as lip dub music videos themselves, and run them during the commercial breaks of shows that had a musical theme or a large audience. In fact, in year one we launched during the Super Bowl!
I wrote and produced original music for each of our lip dub promos and choreographed and directed camera and talent movements with co-directors Marc Derro and Karin Fullington, and cameraman Scott Reid. We shot over 20 takes for each video before we finally got the “keeper.”
Engaging Teens and Schools on Social Media
As the head of social media, I ran geo-targeted listening and engagement campaigns on Twitter to interact directly with local students and administrators. Monitoring the contest hashtag #FOX50LipDub, I could see posted media from schools who had begun working on their videos and could use the playful FOX 50 brand voice to encourage them or spark friendly rivalry.
My colleagues and I also brainstormed a short social media video series called “Lip Dub Lessons” which featured comedic tips on how to make better Lip Dub videos.
Impact
In its first year, the FOX 50 Lip Dub Project increased website views by 400% in under four weeks. In year three, the contest received 2.2 million votes and generated more than $200,000 in revenue. The contest also was honored by FOX Affiliate Relations for the best 2012 Sales Success Story in the Country in the Social Media division. The various FOX 50 Lip Dub promotions went on to win four Midsouth Emmys and nine PromaxBDA awards.
Most importantly, the FOX 50 Lip Dub Project helped bring together the local community of high school students, teachers and parents through friendly competition, creativity and collaboration. At the end of the contest, we visited winning schools to present them with giant checks and heard firsthand the positive impact the contest had on school spirit.
The FOX 50 Lip Dub Project
The FOX 50 Lip Dub Project was a community contest for local high school students, inviting them to shoot lip dub music videos in order to win prize money for their schools. Lip dubs are a popular style of music video that combine lip synching and audio dubbing and are shot in a single, unedited take. Each year, we promoted the contest by producing our own :30 lip dub music videos for TV, as well as by running social media campaigns targeted to our teenage audience.
Project details
Client
FOX 50
Date
2011-2015