The Voodoo Music Experience and Star Costumes Launch Brickfish(TM) Campaign to Dress up New Orleans Music Festival: UGC Contest Unmasks the Cooles

SAN DIEGO (BusinessWire EON) September 11, 2007 -- "Because Voodoo is the main event in New Orleans over Halloween weekend, a costume contest is the perfect way to get fans pumped for the event," said Mike Cairl of Star Costumes. "The festival prides itself in attracting a more progressive music enthusiast, so we knew we needed to take our campaign a step further than simply asking entrants to dress up. A User-Generated Content campaign helps us to do that by enabling fans to share their own original costumes or costume designs. We are excited to see what radical costumes the fans submit."

More than 100,000 music lovers will converge on New Orleans for the ninth annual Voodoo Music Experience, a three-day music festival featuring over 100 innovative musical acts. Participants in the "Star Costumes.com: How Would You Do Voodoo?" campaign will upload photos, designs or videos of their original costumes or costume ideas. Each entry will include a brief description as to why Star Costumes should choose their entry. The Grand Prize Winner, selected by Star Costumes from the top 50 entries, will win passes for the 2007 Voodoo Music Festival, funds for travel and a $100 Star Costumes gift card. In addition, the winning costume will be featured on the Star Costumes site. A second place winner based on vote-score, the most viral entry and a random sweeps winner will be awarded $100 gift cards to Star Costumes. Anyone can view the entries and vote for their favorites.

According to Cairl, the Brickfish platform creates the perfect venue to connect with potential consumers in tandem with the critical Halloween buying season. Getting fans actively involved by creating their own designs through User-Generated Content (UGC) raises brand engagement by getting consumers to take action. In addition, the campaign enables users to review and comment on entries and to share their favorites through email, Instant Messaging and hundreds of Internet sites, elevating the number of potential consumers reached.

"The Voodoo Music Experience in New Orleans has become synonymous with Halloween and collecting consumer costume creations heightens that natural tie-in in a very distinctive and engaging way," said Shahi Ghanem, CEO of Brickfish. "Uniqueness and character embody the vibe of the holiday and a UGC campaign will help identify creativity while generating significant viral distribution across the Web. We're anticipating a significant response to this entertaining campaign."

The "Star Costumes.com: How Would You Do Voodoo?" campaign ends October 4. For more information about Brickfish visit www.brickfish.com. For more information about Star Costumes visit www.starcostumes.com.

About the Voodoo Music Experience

Since its 1999 debut, the VOODOO MUSIC EXPERIENCE (www.voodoomusicfest.com) has called New Orleans home. Set in the city's legendary City Park, the wide-ranging line-up of talent each year reflects the multitude of cultures that define this historic and beloved American city. In its eight-year run, the VOODOO MUSIC EXPERIENCE has featured more than 350 performers and more than 600,000 fans. Some past performers have included Nine Inch Nails, Red Hot Chili Peppers, My Chemical Romance, Eminem, Green Day, Beastie Boys, Tool, Stone Temple Pilots, No Doubt, The Polyphonic Spree, Marilyn Manson, The Pixies, Cypress Hill, Steel Pulse and 50 Cent.

About StarCostumes.com

Offering costumes all year including Halloween, Easter, Christmas, Thanksgiving, school plays, parties, etc., Star Costumes has been providing their customers with the latest and greatest costume trends. With over 27 years in the costume business, 10 years being online, StarCostumes.com has become a leading costume retailer on the Internet.

Starting as a retail shop in Toledo, Ohio, Mike Cairl closed his shop in 1998 to open up an online store in hopes to reach a wider range of customers. They have had more success with their online store, mainly due to its convenience and wide variety of costumes available.

About Brickfish

Brickfish is an online marketing company that has created a new platform for driving consumer interaction and response through User Generated Content (UGC). Companies use the Brickfish platform to launch advertising and marketing campaigns that spark the creation of brand-relevant UGC, such as blogs, images, video and audio. Campaign content is shared in a peer-to-peer fashion via email, IM and thousands of sites across the Web and campaign participants are rewarded for creating, voting, reviewing and sharing campaign content. Brickfish tracks consumer interactions with this content and then provides customers with comprehensive analytics on campaign reach and performance. This approach provides better value than traditional online marketing approaches such as display-based advertising and key word buys. Many features of the Brickfish platform and its underlying technologies are patent-pending. Brickfish is headquartered in San Diego, Calif. with personnel in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles.