Mardi Gras & Tabasco are HOT...but also available in Mild

The attention on Social Media as a marketing and branding tool becomes even more relevant when you realize that New Orleans' upcoming festivities for Mardi Gras are being re-branded to show it's "softer side" as a result of frustrated New Orleans residents Live-Tweeting and Facebooking from 2009.

Long fed-up with the festival's reputation of debauchery and "Girls Gone Wild", Louisiana's own "Tabasco" is presenting "Mardi Gras Gone Mild".

Last year, New Orleans local, Tom Martin, live-Tweeted Mardi-Gras, showing the more PG-rated aspects of the festival.

He focused on food and family, parades and the cities' unique cuisine. His tweets were photos of kids perched atop ladders taking in the grandeur of it all and while he began with a relatively small audience, his efforts began to work.

A survey of 110 to 120 people during the first few days of the festival who followed his tweets showed that the percentage of people associating food with Mardi Gras jumped to 70% from 56%, while those who thought of "flashing for beads" declined to 36% from 57%.

So Martin tapped into 6 "power Tweeters" to help share a new message about the city to spread the word. Broadcaster, Belo Group (who owns 20 tv stations and related digital properties) got wind of the experiment and wanted to play along. They started a website called MyMardiGrasExperience.com.

This year, the site will host live streaming video and will feature live Twitter feeds from an "army of mommy, travel and food bloggers who will be in attendance". The army intends to mobilize and spread out into the family-friendly areas, one actually stationed on a float during one of the parades. The groups marching orders - to focus on the positive aspects of Mardi Gras, its cultural significance and culinary aspects - to tune out and tone down the wild reputation.

Tabasco is underwriting the entire project and will have exclusive branding on the website. Coordinators are eager to move its brand into social-media channels. "The online world is still a little new to us" says Tabasco's marketing director, Jan Carroll. "We see" what's happening in social media "and see it as an opportunity to expand the brand's reach with a subject that is near and dear to us."

Mr. Martin, too, is excited about proving out his experiment begun last year. "Everybody talks about social media," he says. "This is the chance to really prove we get it."

Social Media...not-so-mild anymore...with Tabasco behind it, is a HOT topic.

But I still want some beads.