Summer is coming, and Johnsonville Sausage has broken an integrated campaign aimed at making sure they’re part of your grill mix when the time comes to cook out.

The new Johnsonville contest promotion, “Create Your Own ___Ville,” basically asks users to figure out what makes them happy and relaxed and then to upload an image that illustrates that concept. Visitors to a microsite, http://www.createyourownville.com, can then view the submissions and vote for the ones they like best. Both entrants and voters must register at the site to take actions there.

Where’s the sausage link, as it were? Those user-generated pictures will run as the left half of the creative. The right half will be their choice of one of five pictures of Johnsonville products on the grill, including bratwurst, sweet Italian sausage and breakfast links. The suggestion is that Johnsonville products integrate as easily into everyday life in summer as they do on the Web page.

In synch with that theme, entrants can place their entries into five different categories: “Big Game,”, “Grillmeister,” “Vacation,” “Top of the Morning” and a catchall “Get Crazy” category.

Round about August 10, a panel of judges will select the first-, second- and third-place winners in each of the five categories, weighing the creativity of their titles and captions, the photo’s aptness to the category, the entry’s integration of Johnsonville fun and personality, and the number of votes it received from site visitors. Each category will also have a first-, second- and third-place Viewer’s Choice award winner.

The judges will also choose an overall grand prize winner from among all five of the categories plus the viewer’s choice ranking, and award that winner a prize package of outdoor grilling equipment, propane gas coupons, coolers and outdoor recreation gift cards worth $7,500. First place winners in all the categories will get a prize package worth about $2,500.

The “Create Your Own ___ Ville” contest was specifically designed to be easy for the average person to enter, says Van Vandegrift, executive producer with Matrixx, the branded entertainment production company that designed the microsite and is administering the Johnsonville competition.

“The –Ville ad campaign [from Johnsonville agency of record Cramer-Kasselt] was already afoot when we came in and said, “let’s bring a user-generated content element to it,’” Vandegrift says. “We wanted to make it accessible to consumers of all ages, not some fancy contest to make a TV commercial with a lot of cameras. Those are great contest, but not for this demographic. You want to go broad here. Everybody’s got their pictures, so make it real easy, take them through a couple of steps, and let them show us their own custom –ville.”

It’s not only the –Ville builders who can win prizes. On top of the contest, Matrixx has layered a sweepstakes with both 10 instant winners and 13 weekly awards given out between the May 1 launch and July 31. Site visitors become eligible for these random-draw prizes when they register, whether or not they submit a contest entry; and they can earn bonus entries into the sweepstakes by returning and logging into the account they’ve created.

The game also extends into mobile marketing. Johnsonville, which spends heavily on media, will incorporate a short code into its print and outdoor marketing, including special “-Ville” billboards that will go up outside many major league ballparks later this season. Entrants can text a message with a designated password to the short code in the advertising and get one entry into the sweepstakes.

To put social media to work, Matrixx has designed the Web site so that visitors can mouse over an entry they like and click a button to link it to their accounts on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, Digg or any of a number of other social media sites.

Matrixx was also tasked with building out Johnsonville’s profiles on some of those networks. “All these foundations serve as platforms to both attract fans of the brand, and also will serve as bases of operations for future campaigns,” Vandegrift says. “We’re basically helping the brand have a voice.”

Foundations of that kind in social media are important but are not sufficient in themselves, he points out. “Once you have those established, you have to have something to talk about. If you’re just saying, ‘Hi, we’re here, and our product is great,’ then you’re just part of the noise.

“We’re saying instead, ‘Hi, we’re here, we value you, and we’re a lot of fun. Come see what that fun’s about and you might win some great grilling stuff for your summer.’ It’s a natural fit for what people are already interested in.”

Social communities are also a natural fit for the product, Vandegrift points out. “Nobody grills out alone. They always have a few friends over when they do it. It’s a very social product.”

The social-network pages aren’t ends in themselves; they’re designed to attract people who are already thinking about grilling choices and to get them to come to the CreatYourOwnVille.com site and engage with Johnsonville products.

“You set up a fan page to have a base from which to communicate new information,” Vandegrift says. “But then you need to build out from that to reach out to groups of people that love tail-gating or summer grilling. If they want to join our fan club or sign up for our e-mail newsletter, great. But we’re not trying to drive that action necessarily. We’re really trying to get them to feel positive about the brand, give them a way to talk to us, and to really give the brand a voice.”

Finding a voice in the social media space was Johnsonville’s real aim with this interactive campaign, he says. “We know there’s a passionate set of fans out there. That’s one thing that’s so effective about social media; you’re spending your marketing dollar on people who are already interested and inducing them to buy more.”

In a little over its first week, the “Create your Own __Ville” has already drawn more than 500 entries—an impressive turnout, since many UGC contests hover around the 100-200 total entry range over their life span.

But beyond that core group of already-fans, the campaign is designed to appeal too to those explorers who might be in the mood to do something a little different at their backyard barbecues. “A lot of people that grill burgers, steaks and chicken don’t do brats because it’s just not part of their grilling rotation,” Vandegrift says. “We can speak to them and get them to drop that barrier of unfamiliarity.”

Summer is coming, and Johnsonville Sausage has broken an integrated campaign aimed at making sure they’re part of your grill mix when the time comes to cook out.

The new Johnsonville contest promotion, “Create Your Own ___Ville,” basically asks users to figure out what makes them happy and relaxed and then to upload an image that illustrates that concept. Visitors to a microsite, http://www.createyourownville.com, can then view the submissions and vote for the ones they like best. Both entrants and voters must register at the site to take actions there.

Where’s the sausage link, as it were? Those user-generated pictures will run as the left half of the creative. The right half will be their choice of one of five pictures of Johnsonville products on the grill, including bratwurst, sweet Italian sausage and breakfast links. The suggestion is that Johnsonville products integrate as easily into everyday life in summer as they do on the Web page.

In synch with that theme, entrants can place their entries into five different categories: “Big Game,”, “Grillmeister,” “Vacation,” “Top of the Morning” and a catchall “Get Crazy” category.

Round about August 10, a panel of judges will select the first-, second- and third-place winners in each of the five categories, weighing the creativity of their titles and captions, the photo’s aptness to the category, the entry’s integration of Johnsonville fun and personality, and the number of votes it received from site visitors. Each category will also have a first-, second- and third-place Viewer’s Choice award winner.

The judges will also choose an overall grand prize winner from among all five of the categories plus the viewer’s choice ranking, and award that winner a prize package of outdoor grilling equipment, propane gas coupons, coolers and outdoor recreation gift cards worth $7,500. First place winners in all the categories will get a prize package worth about $2,500.

The “Create Your Own ___ Ville” contest was specifically designed to be easy for the average person to enter, says Van Vandegrift, executive producer with Matrixx, the branded entertainment production company that designed the microsite and is administering the Johnsonville competition.

“The –Ville ad campaign [from Johnsonville agency of record Cramer-Kasselt] was already afoot when we came in and said, “let’s bring a user-generated content element to it,’” Vandegrift says. “We wanted to make it accessible to consumers of all ages, not some fancy contest to make a TV commercial with a lot of cameras. Those are great contest, but not for this demographic. You want to go broad here. Everybody’s got their pictures, so make it real easy, take them through a couple of steps, and let them show us their own custom –ville.”

It’s not only the –Ville builders who can win prizes. On top of the contest, Matrixx has layered a sweepstakes with both 10 instant winners and 13 weekly awards given out between the May 1 launch and July 31. Site visitors become eligible for these random-draw prizes when they register, whether or not they submit a contest entry; and they can earn bonus entries into the sweepstakes by returning and logging into the account they’ve created.

The game also extends into mobile marketing. Johnsonville, which spends heavily on media, will incorporate a short code into its print and outdoor marketing, including special “-Ville” billboards that will go up outside many major league ballparks later this season. Entrants can text a message with a designated password to the short code in the advertising and get one entry into the sweepstakes.

To put social media to work, Matrixx has designed the Web site so that visitors can mouse over an entry they like and click a button to link it to their accounts on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, Digg or any of a number of other social media sites.

Matrixx was also tasked with building out Johnsonville’s profiles on some of those networks. “All these foundations serve as platforms to both attract fans of the brand, and also will serve as bases of operations for future campaigns,” Vandegrift says. “We’re basically helping the brand have a voice.”

Foundations of that kind in social media are important but are not sufficient in themselves, he points out. “Once you have those established, you have to have something to talk about. If you’re just saying, ‘Hi, we’re here, and our product is great,’ then you’re just part of the noise.

“We’re saying instead, ‘Hi, we’re here, we value you, and we’re a lot of fun. Come see what that fun’s about and you might win some great grilling stuff for your summer.’ It’s a natural fit for what people are already interested in.”

Social communities are also a natural fit for the product, Vandegrift points out. “Nobody grills out alone. They always have a few friends over when they do it. It’s a very social product.”

The social-network pages aren’t ends in themselves; they’re designed to attract people who are already thinking about grilling choices and to get them to come to the CreatYourOwnVille.com site and engage with Johnsonville products.

“You set up a fan page to have a base from which to communicate new information,” Vandegrift says. “But then you need to build out from that to reach out to groups of people that love tail-gating or summer grilling. If they want to join our fan club or sign up for our e-mail newsletter, great. But we’re not trying to drive that action necessarily. We’re really trying to get them to feel positive about the brand, give them a way to talk to us, and to really give the brand a voice.”

Finding a voice in the social media space was Johnsonville’s real aim with this interactive campaign, he says. “We know there’s a passionate set of fans out there. That’s one thing that’s so effective about social media; you’re spending your marketing dollar on people who are already interested and inducing them to buy more.”

In a little over its first week, the “Create your Own __Ville” has already drawn more than 500 entries—an impressive turnout, since many UGC contests hover around the 100-200 total entry range over their life span.

But beyond that core group of already-fans, the campaign is designed to appeal too to those explorers who might be in the mood to do something a little different at their backyard barbecues. “A lot of people that grill burgers, steaks and chicken don’t do brats because it’s just not part of their grilling rotation,” Vandegrift says. “We can speak to them and get them to drop that barrier of unfamiliarity.”