Contact Moonlight's sponsors:
Our lists of advertisers can be found at either of these sites:        moonlightarmy  ;  moonlightline    
ADVICE: this is a very long list (about 50 companies). You can write to them all quickly and easily by using these really
cool tools. Once you have your letter ready, it should take you 1-2 hours to be ready-to-post to all of these (time for
following these steps, printing, sticking labels on envelops, filling up the envelops, putting the stamps on).

What to say:
ALWAYS be polite. NEVER threatening. Remember that they are in no way responsible for
Moonlight's cancellation! This situation is not their fault.
Whatever point you want to get across, bold it in your letter: there is no way they can read everything!

A classic is the following:
Tell them that you are the person in your household that makes the buying decisions, that you love their products,
but that since CBS has cancelled Moonlight, you will no longer be buying their product. HOWEVER, if they'll pledge
to advertise on whatever network picks up Moonlight, that you'll begin buying their product again.

I suggest that you also tell them that you pledge to work on any project that they might propose for their
benefit if they sponsor the show directly. For more about this idea, have a look at the following document
that some of us have been sending. Click here for a word version of it.
Feel free to use it too, and don't hesitate to e-mail your suggestions/criticisms: diane31diane@gmail.com.
And if you have ideas regarding how to get this through to someone both open-minded and influential
enough to make it happen... go for it and let us know!
                                                                                                                                                                                    [address of sender]
                                                                                                                                                                                    [date]

[address of recipient]


Dear ---,

I would like to bring to your attention the existence of a group of people whose enthusiasm and skills I hope can be used in a way
beneficial to your company. This group consists in an online community of thousands of individuals, very highly motivated, and with
a wide variety of skills that they would offer for promotional purposes. It is our hope that you would be willing to take advantage of
this opportunity in a way mutually beneficial to your company and this community.


Background:

As you might have heard, the show was recently cancelled by CBS – mainly for financial reasons we believe.  Warner Bros is currently in
negotiation with several networks (notably, at the moment, Sci Fi Channel) regarding a possible pick up of the show.  The media have reported
that as things stand at present, chances of a deal are slim, because even Sci Fi Channel is unlikely to be in a position to afford the show.
Furthermore, it is unclear how long these negotiations might last (anything between two weeks to several months we expect). Our online
community is currently campaigning by the usual methods (mostly, mass mailing the networks interested, and have also begun approaching
DIRECTV in this traditional way).

Proposal:

Under these circumstances, members of our community came up with the following proposal:

An online "fanbase" like this one is usually of interest mainly for promotion, as a "buzz factor" that draws media attention. Would it be possible
for such a community to become more than that, notably by entering into a partnership with one or several sponsors for the show?
We believe that this online group could easily be turned into a more legitimate entity by means of registration through a website provided for this
purpose, and from there, its energy channelled onto one, or several constructive projects by your company, in exchange for its sponsorship of the
show.
The motivation behind this suggestion is the following: as we browse the Internet everyday throughout this community, we are amazed at the level
of energy and enthusiasm displayed by its members. They have now been campaigning for several months (essentially since the writers' strike
began, and even more actively since it ended, as CBS then failed to announce the show as being part of its fall line-up). Right now, despite the
pessimism recently expressed in the media regarding the chances of the show being renewed by another network, there are thousands of
individuals who live on the Internet and would eagerly do just about anything that would save "their" show. They often describe themselves in
military terms, as an army at the command of the show's creator, producer or lead. If you may forgive me for being so crude: most of these people
would literally cut off their little finger if the lead told them that it will bring back Moonlight.
I invite you to browse through the online portfolio indicated below under "additional materials" if you would like to get a better idea of the
community's current state of mind.
I cannot help thinking that in this day and age, such people with Internet savvy could be used for something constructive and profitable (building a
large number of web-sites on various themes of interest to your target demographic, and advertising your products on these, giving feedback on
them, conducting some form of online marketing research, mailing… or whatever project you might think worthwhile).
We do believe that the unique nature of such a partnership will constitute an additional appeal for potential sponsors: we believe that some of the
services that we are offering, no other social entity is in a position to perform. Also, beyond the immediate advantage for your company,
with proper media coverage, a project like this one could be further beneficial to both parties from the publicity that it would
generate due to its original and innovative character.
Furthermore, we are convinced that if such a project is organised, the number of participants could be grown even considerably more once the
show airs again, with a little help from the network to promote the project, which would clearly be in its best interest.

Yours sincerely,



[signature]

Practical aspects of the proposal:

Feasibility, incentive and control

With the right kind of incentive, which would come at no cost to your company, our community can very easily be organised into a
stable source of volunteers for your benefit, working possibly on different projects.
Such projects could easily be run from a website created for this purpose, and where membership registration would take place. Data would be
gathered concerning the members by completion of a form upon registration, which would then be regularly updated. Such information would
include not only demographics data that could be of use to the network itself, but especially information of practical interest for the project: contact
details (especially e-mail), special skills (i.e. graphic design, etc…), availability (average number of hours the member would dedicate to his or her
tasks), etc…
If several projects or tasks were to run concurrently, members would sign up separately for those they would participate in. They could then be
allotted a task and a deadline to complete it, and various checks could be put into place in order to ensure the efficiency of the service to your
clients. These checks would be specific to the type of task required (see examples below) and access to privileges and even membership of the
project would hinge upon the tasks being performed in a timely manner.
For instance a system of privileged access to material such as video interviews of the cast, especially on set and specifically addressed to the
volunteers would be extremely attractive to members of the fanbase. Privileged access could serve both as an incentive for people to join the
project, and as a reward for services rendered. Such material could be made very cheaply: videos taken on set by someone from the crew with a
simple digital camera, that could then be e-mailed to the administrators of the website that would serve as interface between fanbase and sponsor
(s). Such a scheme would be quite cheap to say the least, yet very efficient. This could be complemented by a variety of additional incentives
related to the show and cast. Discussion of such material on existing fan forums would provide strong incentive for people to join the project.

Nature of the community

- diversity

This community is socially very diverse, albeit predominantly female (by no means exclusively so however). It spans all age and income groups.
With this diversity is associated a great variety of skills and resources: the fanbase includes notably graphic artists, psychologists, scientists,
teachers etc… Most have demonstrated their eagerness to learn new skills for the sake of their cause. Many of the Moonlight websites have been
created by individuals who never had any experience in this before (including retirees).  

- current size

Although it is difficult for us to evaluate the exact size of our community, the following facts constitute indirect evidence:
- Moonlight won the People's Choice Award for "Best New TV-Drama" this year. Voting took place on the PCA's web-site, which allowed only one
vote per person per day, and lasted only a few weeks. The reported number of votes received by Moonlight was 10 million. Since Moonlight's
viewers number about 8 million and most viewers presumably do not take the trouble of voting in such a contest, a large proportion of those votes
clearly came from multiple voting by members of the fanbase itself.
- The Blooddrive for Moonlight have collected so far almost 3200 pints of blood (and a donation is about 1 pint), while the total number of people
who have pledged so far on the website dedicated to this purpose (http://www.youchoose.net/campaign/moonlight_season_2) is currently almost
5750 (many people give money donations because they cannot give blood for one reason or another, like myself).
- One of the most active forums, www.moonlightline.com, currently counts at present 2200 members, with about 1000 of these having joined since
the cancellation.
- The MoonlightCon that took place on May 24th-May 25th gathered 200 people, while the vast majority of fanbase members were not able to
attend due to professional or familial commitments. To give a concrete example, none of the individuals regularly posting in the Moonlighter TV-
guide blog (about 20 people) were able to attend the event. Yet they are all active members of the fanbase (blogging regularly, sending letters to
networks, and generally speaking answering the calls for duty expressed by the large forums).

- potential for further growth

Note that with the encouragement of the network that would host the show, and the right kind of incentive, once Moonlight gets back on the air, this
community could easily be grown well beyond its present size, by actively tapping into the larger viewership. The conjunction of media coverage of
such a project, marketing it perhaps using the angle of privileged access by the active members to otherwise inaccessible material related to the
show (such as discussed under "incentive") would likely result in considerable growth of the resource that this fanbase constitutes, and therefore
in its ability to serve your company.

Suggested services:

Here follow a few ideas suggested by members of our community regarding possible services that could be offered to interested sponsors. Note
that these are merely a few suggestions, and that any other proposal would be welcome.

Advertising on websites:

- In order to efficiently reach beyond the Moonlight fanbase community, our members could create websites on themes other than
Moonlight, that would appeal to both the individual members concerned (for greater appeal for both administrator and visitors), and the
sponsor's target audience. As administrators of these websites they would have great freedom to advertise the sponsor's products on these
outlets. Advertisements could take the form of those commonly used by your company, or if you so wish could also include banners and
animation created by artists from the fanbase community, which might be even more noticeable due to the originality of such an
approach.
The administrators of these sites would use whatever strategies your company would deem appropriate in order to increase the traffic on these
websites.
When finished completing a site, or a required change on their site, the volunteers would report this in the agreed manner on the central website
dedicated to the project, so that their work may be assessed by your employees as a check.
A service would be provided by members of the community experienced in these matters to assist the others. This would be an easy process for a
large proportion of our community: with no prior experience and without such help, several of our members were able to build the basic structure
and content of their websites within a few hours. Such a project would be enthusiastically welcome. Also, a given person could build and look
after several such sites, depending on the variability of their content required by their particular theme.
- On the forums of the websites relating to Moonlight and used by the community itself,  its members use banners relating to the show created by
fanartists (links to a small sample of those are provided below). Individual members could use these in order to promote your company and/or its
products.  For example, these banners could include at the bottom a statement to the effect that the company sponsors the show, or even mention
its products. On such forums, people are most likely to buy such products out of gratitude to the company, knowing that the show that they love
only continues to exist thanks to this sponsor.
Furthermore, fresh banners are made regularly when the show is broadcast, as members enjoy using them as references to the latest episodes.
For this reason banners tend to attract the attention even of those who frequently visit the sites.
Employees of your company would visit these websites at their convenience in order to verify the use of these banners as agreed.

Other online outlets:

The banners described above (or material of a similar nature but adapted to the said outlets) could perhaps also be used in the following ways in
order to reach beyond the fanbase community:
- as picture attachments in e-mails sent, to individuals who our members are directly in contact with, but also, if this does not violate the rules of
the entities concerned, to online groups (such as Yahoo groups) that our members belong to or would join. The content of these e-mails would
naturally have to relate to the interests of these groups, but the attachments would be visible (again, if this is regarded as acceptable in terms of
their rules).
As a means of verification, employees from your company could join the groups of interest to check that they do indeed receive these e-mails and
that the material of interest is presented in a satisfactory manner.
- on forums of other websites frequented by our members, whatever their theme, whose administrators would agree to this.
- On Facebook and MySpace, in whatever manner would not violate the rules of these entities.

Further suggestions:

- in addition, perhaps members could also be of use for market research projects, graphic design projects, etc…
- many would probably also be ready to do mailing
- they could wear T-shirts at large gatherings (rock shows, football games, the mall, at school, etc…), for instance advertising the show and stating
the name of its sponsor(s), putting up posters to this effect in public places (if they own a business for example), etc.... They could easily provide
evidence of this by taking the relevant pictures and e-mailing them to your employees.

Additional material:

- Link to the advertisement that appeared in Hollywood reporter 21st May and Variety 22nd May. It expresses our community's desire to enter into
an organised, mutually beneficial partnership with the network that will renew the show: http://www.renewmoonlight.com/fanbase-for-sale
- We invite you to visit the online portfolio where we have gathered a few of the products described above. They not only illustrate the skills of the
fanartists, but also demonstrate the energy, enthusiasm and determination of the community as a whole:
http://www.renewmoonlight.com/portfolio.
- We also provide a link to one of the many "fan videos" which have recently been produced to promote our campaign. This one was chosen
because it illustrates the size and spirit of our community, as well as the moral qualities of Moonlight itself which we believe hold
some appeal with advertisers. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hitzJZP5pI.
This energy eagerly awaits to be put at the service of your company.

SPONSORS