The company, ForRent.com, was trying to increase brand by using magazine ads and billboards to drive college students online to participate in a video contest. Researchers found that the mix of online and offline worked after a bit of testing and public relations. They found that piggybacking the offline advertising campaign with a strong PR effort helped to get kids interested in the contest. Next they tested ads in relevant magazines and then tested digital and vinyl billboards and then went online. By running banner ads on social networks like MySpace, Facebook and Advertising.com and creating a branded social micro-site for the campaign, the company was able to engage many more students. "We received the most site visits from campuses where UMagazine (one of the magazines the contest was advertised in) was distributed," said Erica Campbell, Marketing Manager of ForRent.com. "I feel very confident about the success of the magazine ads and press release. In terms of the PR, we're still getting a lot of coverage for the contest." How did the campaign fare? The company saw a 57% traffic increase year over year, found 300 qualified sales lead and a 20% increase on college-age website traffic.

Tags: advertising campaign, banner ads, campuses, channel ads, facebook, marketing manager, offline ads, offline advertising, qualified sales, social networks, traffic increase, video contest