Firefox and Opera compatible

Client: Travelocity

Travelocity's Roaming Gnome MySpace page not only allows users to interact with the brand image, but also provides a micro-community in which users are entertained (with funny videos and downloads) as well as informed (did you know the Gnome TiVo's Super Nanny?).

Beyond offering the usual downloads for your desktop and MySpace pages, the Travelocity site incorporates two important calls to action on its page. You can search for flights and hotel deals directly on the MySpace page and visit the Travelocity store to purchase fun Gnome artifacts. Did I mention you can also read his blog?

(click to view)Its successful consumer-to-consumer encouragement mimics what recent studies in social network marketing call the "momentum effect." By creating a community within MySpace, the Gnome interacts with friends and keeps the brand image in their minds; one comment from a user thanked him for leaving a Happy Birthday message on her own page, another friend told the Gnome he wanted to buy him a drink the next time he was in town. The Gnome encourages people to add him as a friend. You can't view his images without adding him because they are set to private, and friends receive discounts and special deals on the Travelocity site. With over 11,000 friends leaving 600 plus comments, the Gnome has become a "brand advocate," rather than just a marketing tool.

Many marketers are asking how valuable marketing in a social networking environment can be, and what "friending" on these pages can bring in terms of ROI. Travelocity's site proves that maintaining brand presence within a social networking environment such as MySpace can be rewarding as long as it remains interactive and fosters a relationship with users.
--Krisserin Canary, associate editor, iMedia Communications

The benefits of Travelocity having a presence on MySpace are undeniable. Among many reasons, it's a means to connect to the target demographics on their turf, a social network where messages are typically accepted far more than via traditional corporate marketing. Here, Travelocity takes advantage of the fascinating opportunity to not only engage users, but to let the voluntary members of this online community themselves serve as brand ambassadors to their networks of friends.

This MySpace page perfectly communicates the personality of the brand icon, the roaming spokesgnome: fun, quirky, adventurous, up-for-anything. The witty personality is even carried out in the smallest of details, like the Gnome’s Education: Topiary Arts; and Body Type: Athletic. I’m intrigued that Martha Stewart is the top friend, but I’m sure her gardens are top-rate. 

The three videos of the Gnome battling the Substitute Gnome are hilarious and held my interest. I love the free downloads, but I really love that there are several options the user can choose from for his/her MySpace page skin: desktop wallpaper, IM icon and ringtone. Beautifully extending the brand, this page even lets MySpacers shop the Gnome Store and start a search for flights, hotels, cruises and cars right from MySpace.

(click to view)It’s important to note that this particular community is truly dynamic, with the Gnome actively blogging and sending bulletins, special deals and announcements, and friends joining literally every day. This is a strong example of cultivating a community via MySpace and not leaving it static. To remain relevant and authentic in a social network, you must constantly engage and validate your audience. 

Excellent execution and brand extension. Cheerio!
-- Natalie DiPasquale, online relations manager, Ripple Effects Interactive

As the age-old saying goes, "everyone needs a MySpace page," and as MySpace pages go, this one is packed (and ready to travel) with tons of great advertorial features.

The page exhibits the quirky, irreverent vibe the Gnome is known for. The multiple videos of a fat man competing against the inanimate Gnome are entertaining, as is the “listen in” feature with audio gnome quotes. The blogs fall a little flat, but the pictures, games, ringtones and gnome store appeal to the overall brand of Travelocity.

Beside the humor of it all, this is an advertisement planted in the heart of the social networking movement, so while many of the roaming Gnomes’ 11,700 friends are certainly there for the kitsch of befriending a famous gnome, others have attached themselves to the Gnome because of a deep interest in travel and the perks, deals and discounts the page promises.

(click to view)I love that the Gnome’s page has the ability to find flights, hotels, cruises and rental cars directly from it. Also, all the accessible blogs that users can contribute to as they’re standing in the dock at Southampton, trying to get to Holland or France are great. Casual visitors might not care, but die-hard travelers love hearing about how others drove from Paris to the Amsterdam Hilton, etc.

Also, as a nod to the users, I like that Travelocity offers subtly branded skins for users to download to their own MySpace profiles. What a great way to help the Gnome traverse the internet!

Buying into the fact that it's not what you know, but who you know…in the case of this creative, it appears that it pays to be friends with the roaming Gnome.
-- Bradley Werner, director of marketing, The Fifth Network