Fashion retailer, The Limited, is using viral marketing to promote its new line of pet sweaters.

The program, called “Fabulous Pet Names,” asks people to submit photos of their pets and a short story about how the pet’s name came to be. Participants are then encouraged to share the content with others on their social networking sites.

People enter online where they can also post reviews and vote for their favorite pet name.

In conjunction with the launch of the program, powered by Brickfish, The Limited is making a $5,000 donation to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

(Source: Promo XTra, 11/17/09)

What’s In It For You:

Now here’s a classic and simple contest, the likes of which Radio has been executing flawlessly since Marconi.  Winners receive an on-location photo-shoot with their pet (highly relevant for a fashion retailer), an Apple iPOD Nano with video, an Apple iTunes gift card, a $500 gift card to The Limited, and more.  You can bet the house that they paid someone good money to create this promotional campaign.  Radio stations must be consistent in pricing promotional campaigns for clients, even when they are part of a multiple touchpoint program (including on-air elements), rather than including them as a “value-added” incentive.  Industry wide, we’ve spent too many years teaching our customers (and agencies) to demand them for free while they gladly pay others for the efforts.