brand-e

By Simon Fuller. Virtual laughter. Could the next big thing on Facebook be… tickling? Maybe, if Fisher-Price has anything to do with it.
The toymaker is rolling out a virtual gifting campaign on the social networking site to promote its new Elmo Tickle Hands product, together with partner AdNectar, a specialist in integrating brands into social apps and virtual networks.
Users can send each other ‘ticklegrams’ featuring the iconic Sesame Street character. On receiving the gift, Facebook buddies get a handy snapshot of the real toy, while the message is also accompanied by a blast of Elmo laughter.
It’s Fisher-Price’s first branded gift on the social network, but as the virtual sector continues to expand, it might not be the last. “The growth of Facebook has certainly helped take virtual goods into the mainstream,” says AdNectar CEO Nir Eyal. “As people see their friends sending items back and forth, they participate and become comfortable with it.”
And because of Facebook’s age restrictions, it’ll probably be the parents that get in on the Elmo act, most likely getting some Christmas gift ideas in the process.
“Moms with children are inherently drawn to the Elmo products, and then forward them to their fellow mom-friends,” says Eyal.
It’s all about generating earned media through Elmo going viral.
“Since marketers typically pay a fixed price for a campaign, all the viral referrals that occur are essentially free and contribute to lowering the overall cost [per impression] of the campaign,” says Eyal. “Every time a gift is sent, the following impressions automatically occur – the recipient’s wall displays a message about the gift, [then] the recipient’s news feed shows they were sent the gift, [and finally] the game or application shows a message in its feed.”
Of course, it’s all fine and dandy as long as Facebook stays hip. But what if it declines in popularity? Is AdNectar worried about future virtual-goods campaigns?
“[We’ve] developed a platform that publishers can use to monetize their social applications throughout the web,” says Eyal. “It serves branded virtual goods on a number of other social networks, like MySpace, and others, so is not dependent on the popularity of any one network.”