Best Teen Web Site
“Boycrazy.com” The Team
Cindy Thornburg, president; Monica Jones, marketing director; Ashley Hubert, art director; Stephanie Kirby, PR/Marketing coordinator; Stacy Dworkin, event manager; Lisa Larson, PR manager; Trisha Martinez, guerilla marketer; Dana Cobarr, sales; Susan Harrell, sales; Nikki Tallmadge, webmaster; Gabrielle Lasting, web coordinator.
Contact: Cindy Thornburg, 757/664-1119
The Case
When Decipher launched its Boy Crazy trading card game for girls last January, it simultaneously created an online component called http://www.boycrazy.com. “We were thinking about the Web site as a support function for the cards,” says President Cindy Thornburg. Little did she or her staff know that the site would soon become a viable stand-alone property. With a $444,000 budget, the team set out to promote the cards and boycrazy.com.
The Strategy
The trading cards provided pictures and factoids about boys while boycrazy.com gave girls a place to go and talk about boys and relationships. Three thousand girls attended Boy Crazy’s launch party at Minnesota’s Mall of America where they met the stars on the cards and were introduced to the Boy Crazy Web site. A 14-city mall tour followed this event, complete with more computer kiosks.
In February, the team sent 15,000 middle school girls valentines with a trading card and info about boycrazy.com. The campaign embraced a grassroots strategy, distributing promo materials to skating rinks, movie theaters and concert venues.
On the Web site, Boy Crazy card collectors elected their favorite card star as Boy of the Week. Last November, girls voted for a Boy of the Year from the pool of previous winners. The contest effectively provided a news hook for the Boy Crazy trading card phenomena.
The Results
Boycrazy.com has registered 340,000 members since last February and recently started to accept advertising.
The initial print run of 10 million trading cards sold within the first six months.
More than 700 articles have been published about Boy Crazy, resulting in an estimated 68 million media impressions.
“We thought our target would be 10- to 14-year-olds because we were thinking about it as a trading card game,” says Thornburg. But the Web site’s audience skews a bit older. Most users are between 14 and 17. “The brand has incredible elasticity that we didn’t initially count on,” she says.
COPYRIGHT 2001 Phillips Publishing International, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group
