When it comes to brands doing digital marketing, I’m a big fan of trying to incorporate your online presence into the audience’s life on an ongoing basis instead of trying to get a bunch of their attention for a brief moment before they move on forever. MSN definitely took the latter approach when creating the “MSN Unleash the Enchantment of Brazil with Caress” promo site.

Not only did MSN and Caress take the opposite approach but they threw everything they could at it including making your own videos, a contest, and a free download of one of the Pussycat Dolls covering Duran Duran’s Rio. And while it’s not the style of site that we would have created, I have to give it credit for one thing – the free music download. Unlike the bulk of promo mini-sites I felt like the track was real value. I am sure there are plenty of people who would love the song. And given that I saw the site promoted during American Idol I am sure that MSN and Caress connected with exactly the right audience to download it.

The only thing I wonder about is why the site appears to try and limit how many times you can download the track. It’s the soundtrack to their ad campaign. Why put any restrictions on it at all?

We’ll continue to focus on building sites that try for usefulness and longevity. But giving away free stuff is good too.