Advertising student uses viral marketing, stomach to promote local contest

Inspired by his advertising 325 "Introduction to Creativity" class Advertising Senior David Lee, recently conducted a viral marketing campaign that involved eating from a minimal list of food including eggs, noodles and bread in hopes of raising awareness of a contest organized by his client University Federal Credit Union (UFCU).

An intern with Austin-based interactive marketing firm FG squared, Lee proposed that he eat on a budget of $20.09 for 20 days and blog about it in hopes of creating viral buzz about UFCU's "What Can You Do with $20.09" video contest.

"Online social spaces are saturated with status updates and new forms of advertisements."It's hard to penetrate that unless you have a message that resonates," said Lee. "'Made to stick,' a book I recently finished, inspired me to deliver the message in compelling story telling form."

Lee blogged everyday throughout his experiment to keep online audiences updated on how he was doing, what he was eating and how he spent his budget. He also established rules for himself such as how to handle offers of free food.

“The worst part of the campaign was not getting to eat with friends and family, but the best part was receiving recognition on a couple of Web sites, including www.angryasianman.com.”

He received a lot of feedback, both positive and negative, regarding his experiment.

“My peers, especially friends in advertising classes, thought this was a creative guerilla marketing move in a social media space, so they were very encouraging,” said Lee.

However, he also received some negative feedback about hunger issues among the poor.

Lee is enrolled in the Department of Advertising’s highly competitive Texas Creative program.

To view David’s 20-day blog diary and twitter updates you can visit. http://twentydays.wordpress.com/who-and-why/. The UFCU Contest concluded Sept. 30 and winners will be announced Oct. 8.

— Samantha Ruiz