• by Tameka Kee , June 17, 2008

When the LA Clippers want to reach single Facebook users between the ages of 24 and 28 with a special "Single's Night" promotion, they turn to Watercooler. When MGM wanted to find the most rabid, social media-savvy fans of the classic "American Gladiators" TV show (and drum up devotees for the new version), the studio ran a campaign on Watercooler. And in the coming months, Intel will tap Watercooler to launch a promotion surrounding a new line of mid-level computers.

Mountain View, Calif.-based Watercooler is a year-and-a-half-old startup that targets the sports and media fans within five social networks, including Hi5, MySpace, Facebook, Friendster and AOL's Bebo. The Watercooler application includes a customizable profile widget, as well as over 700 microsites tailored to various sports teams, TV shows and other media properties. Users grab the widget from the third-party app sections within each social network.

For example, fans of the Cartoon Network late-night show Aqua Teen Hunger Force (ATHF) can interact with other fans via forums and discussion boards, take quizzes, watch video clips and download art--without ever leaving the social network itself. The Watercooler application populates the microsites with trivia questions, blog posts and of course, relevant ads.

Ad units include CPM-based rich media and video clips, with custom options like CPC buys and microsite sponsorship also available. According to Kevin Chou, Watercooler's co-founder and CEO, the potential to reach more than 8 million unique users who spend an average of 12 minutes per session with the application has already enticed more than a dozen sports teams (including the Houston Rockets and Chicago Bulls) and brands like Panasonic.

"We help sports teams solve problems like how to sell more tickets and how to engage with fans year-round," Chou said. "And for brands, we help them leverage social media without having to choose between one particular social network. They can run branding ads, or performance-based ads to sell things like DVD box sets." Chou said that the company would be launching a campaign for Intel in the coming weeks that focused on shilling mid-level computers to Facebook and MySpace users.

For the LA Clippers, Watercooler has become like an "extension of our email marketing program," said the team's Special Events Coordinator Sanja Komljenovic. "They'll send out an email blast to all of our Facebook fans that say things like 'if you get 12 or more people to come to a game, your party will get free T-shirts and posters,'" Komljenovic said. "And they also can slice it demographically, so that if we wanted to reach females under 35 on Facebook only, we can do that."