Well, it would seem that Verizon has been reading the Verdino Canon and taking notes. OK, allow me to delude myself -- but when former crayonistas C.C. Chapman (the cuddly bear of social media) and Steve Coulson (the Huggy Bear of Second Life) alerted me to a VZ marketing program they're involved with, I thought, "hey, wait a minute..."
I'll explain in a moment, but first, let me tell you what Verizon is doing with My Home 2.0, a program that hawks their FiOS IPTV and broadband services. If you are a luddite living in Pennsylvania -- or even if you just know one -- listen up: Verizon is offering technologically challenged PA families an opportunity to get a complete home technology makeover, which in turn serves as the source material for episodes of a home makeover-style reality show that will air on tv and the web. Anyone can submit an audition video -- or show up at a Verizon sponsored event to plead their case. Think you're worthy of a technology makeover? Go here...
But for the rest of us, let's see how Verizon is kicking it Ver(izon)dino style.
At its core, My Home 2.0 is a branded entertainment play -- a small handful of families will get their home network pimped but thousands and thousands can watch the process and see the results in a reality TV show that will run on spot television, FiOS VOD and online. This last bit means that the program is (at least to a degree) platform neutral and ripe for web-based distribution (clips are already seeded into YouTube and embedded into the show's Facebook group.) See "Be The Content."
And My Home 2.0 is also about community, but despite its social media trappings, Verizon is putting an old school spin on community and taking it back to the streets. The internet didn't invent people connecting with people and what better way to activate a community than by giving people that actually live near one another a way to come together. Case in point, every technology makeover is capped by a killer block party to celebrate the completion of the project and show off the new gear. How interesting... in my Age of Conversation chapter I wrote about how real world connections with living-breathing people trump digital 'connections' any day.
Plus, by literally turning each made-over home into a Verizon two-screen showplace they are (1) turning every selected household into a bunch of brand advocates and (2) creating a tryvertising experience for their friends, family and neighbors.
And then finally, they've wrapped it with what seems to be the de facto social media outreach program -- just like crayon has done for Firebrand, Coke and other clients -- to get geeks like me talking about it. There's outreach, a social media press release, their Facebook group, the YouTube channel, a del.icio.us linkroll and Flickr photostreams. So they're tapping into the power of influencers to help spread the word. And according to C.C., they're even giving bloggers and podcasters ways to play with new Verizon gear and create content right at those block parties (mind you, I haven't gotten my offer for an all-expenses-paid trip to Pittsburgh yet, but I'm sure it's on it's way.)
Now, I'd be really impressed if the folks at Verizon could figure out how to deliver broadband and IPTV to my house but maybe that's asking too much. Well, at least they've got some new marketing mojo going on.
