Lady Gaga has teamed up with MAC Cosmetics to create awareness for a line of lip products that benefit HIV and AIDS-related charities, as reported by Mashable. This “digital, interactive movement” is based on a website, www.vivaglam.com, that allows users to upload photos of themselves to the site, and then share the message via social media. Each user photo becomes a ‘sequin,’ is then added into a matrix of all user photos (sequins), and will eventually be incorporated into a “unique garment” that the star will wear at Fashion Week in Paris.
The really innovative part: users are asked to spread awareness via email, Facebook and Twitter – and the more they share, the bigger and more prominent their sequin becomes in the matrix. How badly do you want to have your likeness – however miniature – on Lady Gaga’s dress?
The results, one month after launch:
- the site has 10,667 members
- 4,489 tweets have been sent to raise awareness
While this seems impressive, Lady Gaga alone has more than 10 million Twitter followers and 38 million Facebook fans. Why is this campaign is failing to draw them in large numbers?
Mashable suggests several reasons why fans are slow to join:
- users have to fill out a sign-up form – as opposed to simply authenticating via Facebook or Twitter – before submitting their photo (a social campaign without a social log-in?)
- users aren’t prompted to share the site on their networks until after they fill out the sign-up form
- users can post messages to their Facebook walls, but can’t target particular friends
- messaging is generic, and has no info about Viva Glam or the HIV and AIDS charities involved
- users can’t easily see how they are performing relative to each other on the site, making it hard to stir up competition
Despite these drawbacks, will Lady Gaga be able to spur more of her “little monsters” into action via social media as Fashion Week draws nearer? Is the campaign innovative enough to continue building momentum?
