The Search For Ms. Carter: Social Media Marketing Fail?

by Liz

November 14, 2008

The Search For Ms. Carter: Social Media Marketing Fail?

What do you get when you mix an urban men’s magazine, the best rapper alive and YouTube? A social media-infused contest for the bleeding edge female hip hop fan. It looks as though King Magazine and Lil Wayne have teamed up to create an internet contest: The Search For Miss Carter.

The contest instructions, posted on YouTube, are as follows:

Ladies, 18 years old and over, upload and submit a 30 second video to Lil Wayne explaining why YOU should be his Ms. Carter. The top misses will be featured on King-Mag.com and one lucky winner will receive a Lil Wayne prize pack.

The Lil Wayne prize pack includes a trip around NYC via a Maserti and a dinner at Mr. Chow. The only problem, it seems, is hardly anybody knows about it. Taking a trip to the contest’s YouTube Channel, and performing a few searches on YouTube yields one contestant entry:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9oJSQ58vjM

These paltry numbers just mean I have a higher probability of winning this contest.

Seriously, I am amazed that there aren’t more entries, or that the contest hasn’t generated any buzz. Lil Wayne is fairly popular on the Black gossip blogs, did anyone bother giving them a heads up? What about a more involved partnership with YouTube? How about a link or widget embed on Lil Wayne’s website versus some random site that hosts the widget (http://www.hyfntrak.com/lilwayne/fromafriend/)? Not optimal for going viral. Granted, a ride around NYC in a Maserati and dinner at Mr. Chow is a dime a dozen for some of us, but who could resist being featured on King-Mag.com?!? Anyway, check the widget below if you’re interested in becoming MissCarter:

Category: Celeb 2.0, web 2.0 | Tags: king magazine, lil wayne, The Search for Miss Carter

Fredric Mitchell

Lol. Why did I read what you wrote, but all I could digest was 'Young girls, if you want to show your ass on the internet, and I like it, then upload it, and I may prove that shaking your ass and putting yourself out there means getting a nice whip and meal out.'

Maybe I'm just an old head at heart, but.....but.....ah, nevermind.

tiffany

"Granted, a ride around NYC in a Maserati and dinner at Mr. Chow is a dime a dozen for some of us, but who could resist being featured on King-Mag.com?!?"

So wrong, and yet so right for this snark. But maybe that's the problem? King Mag is a *men's* magazine. This kind of promotion might work with Vibe or Essence, since both magazines have a larger readership among the kinds of folks who'd want to ride around with Lil Wayne (read: not the hetero men that King targets).

They've just missed the contest target in so many ways.