Oct. 28, 2009 (Marketwire) --

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL -- (Marketwire) -- 10/28/09 -- When brainstorming a Halloween campaign for client Party City, the brains at Zimmerman Advertising weren't about to rely solely upon traditional media initiatives. Instead, the team decided to utilize social media and its ubiquity in the daily lives of Party City's target consumer to help reinforce the campaign's central message, "Nobody has More Halloween for Less."

Putting together a multi-level program to attract new fans and social networking members, creating different ways to engage them, and making sure they could activate a retail purchase, were key objectives of the social strategy. In order to create a multi-tier plan that would embrace the agency's Brandtailing(TM) methodology, the Interactive Division at Zimmerman came up with two Facebook "apps" that were a huge success from the start.

"'Brew Your Costume' and 'House of Halloweenies' used a series of very targeted Facebook and in-line buys to gain awareness and followers," says Zimmerman's Scott Thaler, Executive Vice President, Chief Interaction Officer. "Both apps have yielded tremendous results so far -- we are averaging a pass-along rate of approximately four times for every consumer captured."

The Facebook apps were developed to be exciting and keep consumers engaged, as well as help with incremental retail costume sales, both online and at the Party City retail stores. "Brew Your Costume" answers the reoccurring question, "What am I going to be for Halloween this year?" Using Facebook Connect, the application gives consumers the option of either connecting directly with their Facebook accounts or manually inputting their information. In the first case, the app pulls profile information to develop costume recommendations; in the second, it asks the consumer a series of questions that result in recommendations. Once recommendations are made, the Facebookers can post their brewed costumes to their status updates and/or purchase selected costumes online.

"'Brew Your Costume' is definitely fun and unexpected -- you can never tell what it's going to spit out. For example, it selected Iron Man for Jordan Zimmerman and Hugh Hefner for me," notes Thaler.

For "House of Halloweenies," the goal was to keep the consumer engaged in the process. In order to navigate their way through a virtual house, users must find a series of tricks and treats, which include singing and dancing Halloweenies, a custom closet and coupons.