Moosejaw vs. Batman Bill Siwicki What does a picture of a man wearing a long T-shirt, shoes and homemade plastic bat wings spanning about 10 feet have to do with Internet retailing? The answer is, to say the least, elusive. But it’s a highlight of “The We Couldn’t Think of What to Call This” section in Moosejaw Mountaineering’s MySpace space, which includes content ranging from the unusual to the bizarre. What the space does not contain, though, is anything for sale. “We’re not selling products, we’re fostering brand loyalty,” says Moosejaw Mountaineering founder Robert Wolfe. “It’s more genuine to have a space where you are not selling, especially when driving promotions to that space.” And that, in addition to creating brand loyalty, is another reason for Moosejaw’s social networking presence. Last week the retailer, No. 347 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide, ran a promotion with watchmaker Nixon Inc. Each company ran promotional copy in the other’s MySpace space designed to drive watch buyers from MySpace to Moosejaw’s e-commerce site. Moosejaw and Nixon staffers then sent the watch giveaway promotion to their numerous MySpace friends. “That drove a ton of traffic to our site,” says Wolfe, who declines to provide the total. “The promotion lasted a week, and a spike in traffic lasted a few days.” Moosejaw Mountaineering, which has three more promotions with other manufacturers slated for the near future, launched its MySpace space in the third quarter of 2006. The retailer did so because of customer demand, Wolfe explains. “Not having a social networking space today,” he adds, “is like not having a business card 20 years ago.”

Back