Virgin Mobile launches Facebook Dooblebook

What value can Facebook provide to brands? What can brands do with Facebook? I’m sure a lot of questions like these have been buzzing in your mind in the last couple of months. I must say that until now I’ve been paying attention to Facebook only as a user, not even asking myself the marketing potential of the hottest social network of the moment. My fault, of course… so now it’s time to “wake-up” and start thinking about ideas and applications to get the most out of it as a brand…

A good starting point is the application recently launched in France by Virgin Mobile to promote its “parlez dooble” offer. It’s called Dooblebook (if the direct link doesn’t work look for it using the Facebook internal search engine), and it’s nothing else than a branded match making quiz.

I realize the expression “nothing else than” might sound negative, but this is not my intention, I simply would like to point out how simple (and yes, not very original) the idea of the application is. However, despite its simplicity, the quiz is quite consistent with the campaign message “pay for 1 hour, speak for 2 hours” and with the TV spot starring Jean Claude Van Damme, so I would take it as a good example of Facebook integration in a campaign. What do you think?