HBO's 'Entourage' to Give Away Cars in MySpace Page Promotion

This MySpace page, set to launch Wednesday, created by Deep Focus and promoting the news season of HBO's Entourage is about the most tweaked out MySpace page we've ever seen. In fact, except for the MySpace URL, you wouldn't know you were on a MySpace page. While other companies have co-opted MySpace for commercial gain, this is, by far, the most elaborate we've seen. The page is still in the test stage with many non-working links but there's a contest that calls for entrants to create a MySpace page featuring the member's own "entourage" and then publicize it through the member's network of friends. Not a bad way to get HBO's Entourage message in front of a ton of MySpace members. The motivation to create a page comes in the form of a chance to win a car four each of the four people in the member's entourage. Other prizes include trips to LA with $1,000, Xbox 360's, Samsung cell phones and Entourage DVDs.

While some might say this is one of the many recent shark-jumping moments for MySpace in it's transformation from the largest undiscovered place for people to hang out to the largest discovered place for marketers to milk the 60-75 million community before it disbands and heads over to facebook, TagWorld, Gather, Multiply or something yet to be discovered, others might say this is brilliant social marketing. While it's certainly the right crowd to be targeting for Entourage, time will tell whether the move was a successful and acceptable use of MySpace.