To mark June as Turkey Lovers’ Month®, the National Turkey Federation is giving Facebook users a chance to “talk turkey.”

The federation chose to focus the concept on Facebook, to reach a younger audience that is talking with their peers through this social networking community. Campaign participants will add a “turkey voki” – a small, talking cartoon turkey – to their profile areas and share it with their friends across Facebook.

The talking turkey voki has the right elements to spread the National Turkey Federation’s message virally. The talking turkey delivers a humorous, customizable message. It wears a t-shirt that says “Shake Your Tail Feather” and includes the www.eatturkey.com URL. The voki also says, “Do I make you hungry? Happy Turkey Month!” Users can customize the talking turkey’s clothes and choose to load up their own voice to the turkey voki with their phone or computer. The voki platform allows users to send the talking turkey to friends, or post it on a social network profile area or a blog.

The campaign aims to raise awareness among younger consumers that June is Turkey Lovers’ Month®. The talking turkey character will also inform them about www.eatturkey.com, a Web site where they can learn more about the benefits of eating turkey and turkey products.

“Our goal is to get Facebook and voki users thinking and talking turkey, by placing the talking turkey on their profile page,” said Sherrie Rosenblatt, NTF’s vice president of marketing and communications, “We believe this culturally relevant message will resonate with the target audience and inspire them to pass the ‘turkey voki’ along to their friends.”

The tested message, “Shake Your Tail Feather,” was an almost-unanimous choice among the younger audience. Participants said they chose the phrase because it made them want to get up and dance.

Facebook users can find the talking turkey in the Voki Voice Avatars application. The turkey voki is also available at www.voki.com and on www.eatturkey.com for download.

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