Almost immediately, Bear vs. Colt was picked up by several prominent sports blogs and a handful of traditional media outlets, including newspapers in Indianapolis and Miami (it's amazing what a couple of emails can do). The blogs would prove to be some of the most important referral sites throughout the length of the series. Each posting in a blog in Deadspin.com would prove to generate 50 times more traffic than an article in a major newspaper, such as the Indianapolis Star (based upon referral statistics).
On Tuesday, MediaSauce posted a Bear vs. Colt banner ad on Inside Indiana Business daily e-newsletter in place of its typical banner. The ad generated the highest number of click-throughs ever generated, generating more traffic on its first day than most of their ads create in a year (as described by Inside Indiana Business advertising director).
On Wednesday, Yahoo’s daily vodcast of their most recommended destinations on the web, The 9, unveiled Bear vs. Colt as their #1 site of the day. Later in the week, they would place it at #2 on a list of “Best Super Bowl Sites”, behind only the official site of the big game.
The rest of the week saw the trends continue. DeadSpin continued to post and redirected thousands of visitors to view the latest episodes. Even Fox Sports named Bear vs. Colt as one of its “Heroes” of the week. Publicity continued to increase—each posting led to several others, as well as open discussion from all who viewed it.
By kickoff, Bear and Colt had each sent out a flurry of eleventh hour requests to their “Friends”, swaying voting back and forth throughout the day. Ultimately, it was Colt who erased a late 1600 vote deficit to win the fan vote, the big game, and ultimately (in the final episode), the girl.
In the end, this campaign provided a rallying point and a release of nervous energy for thousands of fans across the world. In less than a week:
- More than 92,000 votes were cast by people who were actively engaged and participating with the site.
- Bear vs. Colt saw well over 1 million hits in just 7 days.
- The average visit was more than 2:20.
- The videos were watched via YouTube an additional 50,000 times.
- Each character had gained more than 1,000 “Friends” via MySpace.
- The Bear vs. Colt group on Facebook gained more than 1000 members.
MediaSauce:
- Received prominent discussion about its innovative voting widget on technology and trade blogs such as Mashable.
- Made an appearance/plug on an episode of CNBC’s nationally broadcasted Fast Money.
- Appeared on the front page of the business section of The Indianapolis Star.
- Earned two appearances on local CBS affiliate WISH-TV 8.
- Increased traffic to its site by several thousand unique visitors per day.
- Increased in-bound leads by 100%.
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