HP provided 31 “HDX Dragon” computer systems to 31 carefully selected bloggers/influencers to give away to lucky readers on their own sites over 31 days (one per blogger). A key success factor, HP/Buzz Corps really took the time to to know the bloggers. Each blogger was allowed to set their own contest/giveaway rules that were customized to the respective audience and goals.

The bloggers created their own custom marketing materials (microsites, graphics, logos, videos, RSS feeds) and shared/cross promoted with each other. The net relationship was more of a partnership with each other and HP vs. a traditional product giveaway program.

Impressive Takeaways
During the promotion, the 31 bloggers heavily promoted the contest, HP, the HDX Dragon and each other, demonstrating the collective power of the community banding together. Each participating blog site not only saw a 150% – 5,000% increase in traffic, but also sustained traffic levels for several months after campaign was finished.

Impossible to achieve with with traditional media, here are the results based HPShopping.com, month over month data:

• 84% increase in sales on the HDX Dragon System
• 14% increase in overall traffic
• 10% increase in overall consumer PC sales
• 50 million impressions (Alexa data)
• Treasure trove of consumer feedback and traffic stats to be used in future planning and development
• 10,000 reader/entrant videos on YouTube.com and Blip.tv
• 380,000 links discussing the giveaways (per Google)
• 25,000 entries received by the 31 participating blogs

Costs
$250,000 for the 31 computer systems given away including shipping, software, etc. Zero dollars spent on media. While the costs for Buzz Corps aren’t available, they’re likely to be in the $75,000-100,000 range (my guess). Even if they were higher, they were worth every penny for the amount of exposure and good will created for HP. Mucho props to them for pulling off such a successful social media campaign.

Sidenote: An API stands for “application programming interface” which is basically a way for one website to automatically talk to another (exhange/pull info) behind the scenes.

Imagine this scenario:  Say you run a kickass social network site that appeals to home theater buffs.  You talk about new equipment such as HDTV’s, HDMI connectors, surround sound speakers, etc.  Via this new open API, you can actually display & sell Best Buy products directly into your site by pulling all the official product information, including photos and pricing.  You don’t have to merely provide hotlinks which lead people off your site.  And of course when people purchase these products through your site, you make money.

This is similar to the Amazon affiliate program, but is (to the best of my knowledge) a first for a traditional big box retailer.

Best Buy is in effect “colonizing” the web by allowing their products to be sold by any website that works with their open API.  The website provides the user community &  Best Buy provides the products.  Pretty ingenious.  Could be a little worrisome for Best Buy brand keepers since their products/name are not being associated with 3rd party sites, but I suppose time will time.

Will definitely be keeping an eye on this…

Over 250 people were in attendance — on a FRIDAY NIGHT — during FOOTBALL season.

Speakers included:

• Reid Hoffman – Founder of LinkedIn
• Judy Estrin – CEO of JLABS, former Cisco CTO, and author of Closing the Innovation Gap: Reigniting the Spark of Creativity in a Global Economy
• Michael R. Nelson – Adviser to the Obama campaign on technology issues, Professor, Internet Studies, Georgetown University

The event was reported live by several bloggers with full coverage located at:

• Tweetstream
• Blogger Coverage

The event concluded with a celebrity cameo by Craig Newmark (founder of CraigsList.com) who asked the panelists how Ohioans can “use social networking to improve Midwestern states like Ohio and Michigan.”

A private reception was held for about 30 people who were lucky enough to share drinks with the panelists and ask follow-up questions.  The featured speaker of the reception was Newmark with his discussion points listed follow:

• Graduate of CWRU (Cleveland, Ohio) — lived in Detroit 10 years

• Spoke of the importance of alternative energy technologies; recently on research trip to Israel where he “experienced his first rocket attack.”  Yikes!

• CraigsList.com was a “simple thing I started 13 years ago, after I saw so many people give back to others back in 1995.”

• Craig is committed to doing customer service himself — “as long as I’m alive.”  Imagine calling in and reaching THE MAN himself — very cool!

• Everything on CraigsList.com is based on community feedback.  His motto (reflected in part by the site’s design) has always been “to keep it simple.”

• He considers himself a community organizer, just doing it online.  Says Newmark, “Speaking as a nerd, this is very attractive as I don’t have to get out of my chair as much.”

• Craig is very involved with Irag/Afghanistan veterans and is aggressively standing up for their benefits.  Has stood up for these people “who need a break” and has met with both McCain and Obama camps.  He continues to “identify small grass roots groups that help veterans and their families.”

• He is “genuinely driven by community” and has “done well by doing good.  Do what feels right.  Build a culture of trust by following through with the basics.  Do the golden rule.  It’s a platitude, but we need to seriously follow through on it.”

• Involved in voter registration, especially focused on geting the word out (college students) on a non-partisan basis.

The Internet allows us to create networked grassroots movements for not thousands but 10’s of milions of people involved in grassroots democracy.  We’re implementing the dream of direct democracy.  I’m counting on the new “civic generation” to make this a reality (but stay off my lawn!) as I get increasingly cranking.  (crowd laugh)  This is an expression of genuine American democratic values.

Finally, I had casual, one-on-one conversations with each of the main speakers.  Here are a few takeaways:

Judy Estrin

Leadership is like parenting – you need to change your style depending on what phase/age your child/company is in.  You nurture and manage your 5-year old much differently than your 10/15-year old.  Same thing goes for a start up vs. growth phase vs. established business organization.

Reid Hoffman

I asked Reid about good examples of State government using social media.  He assured me that he knows some, but couldn’t recall off hand.  He gave me his personal email address to remind him to send me his recommendations.  I also asked him how he schedules his work life (dude’s involved in about 30 companies directly or as an angel investor).  Not surprisingly, he said he works 8am – 11pm Monday through Friday and most of the day on the weekend.

Mike Nelson

When Mike speaks, people listen.  Mike is an unassuming college professor who stole the show (in my mind) with razor sharp insights based on decades of hands-on expertise and experience in Washington D.C.  To me, his best line of the night was “First rate people surround themselves with first rate people.  Second rate people surround themselves with second and third rate people.”