It’s the story of a man. A delicate subject. And the tape they never wanted you to see….

September 2009. Discover Dennis.

It’s hot outside, we’re all broke and the only addictions we can afford are the ones that involve clicking on tags from Andrew’s party last Friday. So, the magic question is: How can brands get us out of our bedrooms and onto the High St? And how can they get us to loosen the purse strings in these tough times? Well, they should offer us real value, in places where we will see it, at prices we can all afford. And they should make our lives a little more enjoyable, even if only for a fleeting moment.

Starbucks in the US have come up with an idea that does just that and one that should get people engaged, dressed and down to their stores faster then you can say Skinny Frappucino: from the 6th of July they have been giving away free ice cream on their Facebook fan page. You can’t run from it, you’re on Facebook, you’re hot and the little luxuries that you had to sacrifice for bills, like premium ice cream, might just provide that little piece of escapism that you’ve been craving.

The campaign to promote the product is simple: Facebook as the vehicle, ice cream as the incentive and summer for its time of delivery. All of which encourage sharing.

The choice of Facebook as the sole vehicle, as opposed to multiple platforms (which is tempting but often unsuitable), is perfect given the sharable nature of the site and it’s ability to cater for rich media, such as glorious pictures of said product. The offer is limited to 20,000 pints of ice cream and although this sounds like a lot there are a lot more hot people on Facebook than that.

All it requires is the user to log on, sign up, suggest a mate and at the top of the hour grab the coupons on offer, but remember, it’s all about sharing so bring out your generous side.

Here’s the link if you’re interested…US residents only might I add! Sorry.

http://apps.facebook.com/starbucksicecream/

“The easiest thing to do in branding and in advertising is to tell the story the market wants to hear. The hard road—the one that leads to the greatest reward—is to tell the story that’s real and make it matter. That means knowing what your company is at its core, and using your genuine, authentic story to power the creative.”

This article by William Faust and Leigh Householder is a great read if you have a spare ten minutes. The authors stress the need for authenticity when it comes to brands dipping their toe in the social media pond- while “engagement” is essential, this engagement needs to be connect with consumers in a way that is relevant and true to their brand.

From office supply stores to the always-cool BMW Mini, the authors of this article bring their arguments to life by using some great comparative case studies of brands that have done this successfully (and others that have not been so successful).

You can find the full article here

Brand: Comparethemarket.com
Campaign: Comparethemeerkat.com
Date: January 2009
Market: United Kingdom

Background
Launched in 2006 Comparethemarket.com is a trading name of BISL Limited. The property is an insurance comparison site where customers can compare quotes from over 400 insurance providers.

The Challenge
Comparethemarket.com had to create a campaign that would increase the number of prospects searching for the site by name. To get onto the shortlist in this highly competitive market, you have to be amongst the top three search results.

The Approach
Forget about buying general keywords like ‘compare’, ‘market’ or ‘car insurance’ – all they needed was a bold new asset whose influential presence offline would drive users to search for the company online through relevant keywords.

The Idea
Through playing with words and a touch of genius, the Russian meerkat Aleksandr was born. After realizing the keyword ‘meerkat’ could bring a funny character to life and would cost a fraction of the cost of buying ‘compare’ or ‘market’ on Google, the idea of creating an integrated campaign around this character came to life.

Through a powerful TV ad, the character is launching an appeal to people to stop visiting his site when looking for cheap car insurance as he only compares meerkats.
With a clear call to action, if users want the best deals on car insurance the newly born character invite users to go to comparethemarket.com instead.

The surprise was not only the development of a fully functional website to compare meerkats but an integrated media approach using a Facebook profile page, a YouTube channel and a Twitter account for Aleksandr to entertain his fans

The Results
The campaign has been an incredible success for Comparethemarket.com through ensuring the brand would became front of mind in a very competitive market.

These are some significant figures:

• The number of quotes on the website is up by 90% on the same period last year.
• Within only two months, Facebook fans have increased from 5,800 to an astonishing 290,000
• From an average of 400 followers in a month, as of today Aleksandr has 8,088 people following his updates on Twitter
• The commercial on YouTube has received a total amount of nearly 220,000 views spread across different accounts
• The campaign has been so successful that no paid search is now required for the company to be on top of Google ranks. Also, as a consequence, competitors are actually now bidding on ‘meerkat’ as a keyword to be visible on sponsored results
• Because of Aleksandr receiving a lot of attention, he was chosen as one of the 14 most famous characters in advertising for the latest Red Nose TV campaign

The Learnings

• Integration between Creativity and SEM – As mentioned within the case study, the winning formula was adapting a creative idea based on a simple search engine insight.
• Continue Building The Brand Online – They saw the opportunity of enriching the brand experience online rather then driving traffic straight to their comparison service
• Embracing Social Media when Relevant – There are so many brands using Social Media spaces inappropriately just to be visible to their consumers. However, using a Twitter account for Aleksandr to bring the character’s sense of humour to life was appropriate to the campaign rather than just using the platform because you can
• Be Different – Through the launch of a memorable character and breaking the rules from what is standard comparing sites’ advertising, the brand will be remembered to have taken the risk and turned a boring category into something fun and different.
• A Funny Accent Works Everytime…

Ernesto in Profero Madrid has created this great new way of commenting on offline poster advertising and any offline content and, in some ways, has taken a bold step to merging non-digital and digital. By printing up stickers from the Offline Commenting website and attaching them to posters in the street, Ernesto is encouraging people to comment on what they think of the ads. People write their comments on the stickers, take a photo and then post their pics back up on the website

It’s an innovative and simple way of bringing off- and on-line together and creating a debate around what people think about content and ads they pass in the streets, on trains and all around towns and cities. The site has already been picked up and is hosted on the homepage of Designslices, the “platform for designers and design geeks” so go and check it out!

Brand: Walkers
Initiative: Do Us A Flavour
Markets: United Kingdom
Dates: July 08 – May 09

Background
Part of the PepsiCo family, Walkers is one of the UK leading brands in the Snack Food industry primarily producing potato crisps. In the past few years, because of their limited product selection and more competitors entering the market with new different flavours, they had to try and expand their product range to defend a strong market share.

Challenge
How can Walkers Crisps retain their market share when rival brands are producing competitive flavours and offering new and original options for a highly demanded FMCG product?

Approach
The brand decided to differentiate themselves from their competitors with the choice of introducing new flavours to their ‘main offering’ without producing another premium range (ie. Sensations), therefore not compromising their retail price.
However, because with product development it’s extremely important for any brand to listen to their consumers and obtain insights into their trends, who would know best which flavour to introduce into the market if not your own customers?

The Idea
In July 2008 Walkers launched their biggest, boldest and most innovative multimedia campaign to date called ‘Do us a Flavour‘. The idea was to give power back to the consumers and ‘capture the heart of the nation’ inviting the public to create the next great flavour of Walkers Crisps.

The campaign was structured on 3 stages:

• Submit your flavour (July 08 – Nov 08) / Users were invited to submit ideas for a unique flavour together with a picture of what inspired them to do so.  They could enter the competition either through the web, by mobile or by post. To enter via the Walkers website, consumers simply had to enter their flavour idea, contact details and upload the image of what inspired them. The process was the same to enter via mobile; consumers were provided with a number to send an MMS to (picture message) with exactly the same details. Every entry was then provided with a link (e-mail or WAP link) giving the opportunity to forward this to a friend and for others to vote on their flavour.

• Choose 6 final flavours and test them (Nov 08 – Jan 09 ) / Although a voting system was implemented within the website, 5 celebrity judges were chosen to select the 6 final flavours to test into the market. The finalists were:

• Choose the Winner (Jan 09 – May 09)/ At this stage it is totally in the hands of the nation to vote for their favourite new official Walkers flavour. The flavour which receives the most votes from the public via Walker’s website by 1st May will remain on sale, while the other five will be discontinued.

The Outcomes

• As of January 2009 the 6 new flavours have been introduced into the market for consumers to decide which one ‘tickles their taste buds’ the most. All 6 finalists have received £10,000 with the final winner to receive £50,000 plus 1% from sales’ profit.
• At the launch of the campaign, Walkers was expecting a maximum of 250,000 entries to the competition. As of October 2008, the website had received an astonishing 1.2 million flavours’ ideas
• In June 2008, Walkers.co.uk received 20,000 Unique Visitors. Not surprisingly, between August and October 2008 unique visitors went up to 440,000
• The campaign was so successful that every single ATL creative activity (Press, TV and Radio) was inspired by the online initiative and driving traffic to the competition online.

The Learnings

• Digital at the core of the Integrated approach / Digital interactivity is and has played a key part in all three stages of the nine month campaign. To be voted, users could share their links with their peers; packaging and offline campaigns were driving traffic to the website and inviting users to vote through TXTs and IVR (Interactive Voice Response) phone service. Let’s give an end to the era where digital was simply the last thought!

• It’s all about MY experience / The integrated approach to their communication was totally aimed at providing the user with a ‘Unique Walkers Experience’. From submitting the ideas to voting and buying the new product – it’s all about the interaction between the consu’ME’r and the brand

• ‘Win their hearts, win their minds’ / The aim of the campaign was to ‘touch the heart of a nation’ giving power back to the consumers. What it’s generally defined as ‘emotional marketing’ is often one of the best ways to impeccably reach your consumers

• Involve your consumer with NPD / New Product Development becomes particularly effective when in the hands of your consumer. With Walkers this was done live with thousands and millions of customers continuously interacting with the brand.

Brand: FIAT
Campaign: Fiat 500 re-launch
Markets: Italy and UK focus (Europe)
Dates: July 2007 – January 2008

Background
Fiat 500 is one of the most iconic cars in the world whose last production series was during 1975. In 2007, on the steps of the new BMW MINI and the VW New Beetle, FIAT decided to re-introduce the small city-car into the market. Because the 500 belongs to the Italian cultural heritage, the car deserved and needed a bold and memorable come back – not only in the Italian automotive industry but on a global level

Challenge
How does Fiat re-introduce an iconic city-car into the market, in a really innovative way, into a highly competitive market category (MINI, NewBeetle, Smart…)

Approach
The product is mainly targeted to young-at-heart professionals and city-car drivers with a spirit of fun and adventure. Taking into consideration that this audience is very active online, the brand wanted to create something where both online and offline media techniques would play an important role together, involving the target audience right from the start.

The Idea
Months before the car launch, FIAT introduced the slogan ‘Fiat 500 wants you’ where everyone was directly invited to be part of this ‘new iconic movement’.
To try and nurture a meaningful relationship with potential consumers the whole product launch was in people’s hands.
The audience was asked to

• Help with the design / 500 days before the launch (yup that’s more than a year) FIAT invited potential buyers to submit ideas to a website on what accessories they would have liked to see in the new Fiat 500
• Submit ideas for the advertising launch campaign / Art Students and the general public were asked to submit ideas online for the advertising campaign with two final ideas to be chosen as the official billboards for the product launch.
• Create the official Fiat500 mascot and Logo / They could download an online brief where FIAT was asking to submit designs for an official Mascot to truly represent the new Fiat500

Also,

• During the UK launch party at the BA London Eye, visitors were asked to jump into a Fiat 500 and customize their own models for the chance to win the new car and other prizes – sponsored by MSN. The entries were showcased online and the head of exhibitions at the London Design Museum got to choose the final winners

• During the Italian launch, the audience was using touch screen technologies to create their own models to then have a chance to see it displayed in 3D using a new high-tech holographic innovation. Customers were also able to print their customized models and buy the car straight away at the party.

• Last but not least, to attract new families they launched a competition in Italy aimed at pregnant mums. To win the new car, mums had to enter the competition if they thought their babies would be born on the same day of the Fiat 500 launch

The Outcome

• 70,000 cars sold in Italy in the first month with Fiat500 awarded ‘Car of the Year 2008’
• 8,000 were the accessories’ ideas submitted by the general public. More than 100 accessories are now available to choose from and 500,000 ways to customise your Fiat 500!

• 3,300 advertising ideas were submitted to the website but only 2 were the winners – One chosen from a professional panel, the other voted by the 500 online community. Both ideas have been succesfully used for ATL and BTL campaigns

• More than 600 Mascot and 1,000 logos were submitted. The winner was Dante.

• Nearly 4,000 mums applied from all over the world for the chance to win the Fiat500 – Only one was the lucky mum to receive the Fiat500 Baby Boom edition giving birth exactly on September 15th. However 50 other mums from all over the world were selected to receive a tailored FIAT mum-gown .
• In Italy the launch of the 500 was huge, so huge that this iconic Italian car grabbed the headlines of every newspaper and dominated TV motoring shows for so long that conventional advertising buying simply wasn’t needed. More was spent in online media in markets outside the core market than would have ever been considered at home.

The Learnings

• Keep your audience involved from the start / By creating tangible involvement, you’ll generate real participation and as result strong PR and WOM around a campaign.
• Stand Out / Be experiential with your creative ideas and don’t be scared by risky PR stunts. Using innovating technology will only get people talking about your brand!
• Spot the difference! / Adjust your marketing mix to fit the market needs. Even if the offer, the demographic and the brand positioning are consistent across your markets (in this case Europe), look out for the differences in market structures and audience expectations – These can demand totally different approaches.
• Have something for everyone / Sometimes your target audience may have different clusters. You may find a single proposition which is appealing to each one of them but you may retain a bigger chunk of the pie tailoring your marketing initiatives to different audiences.
• Keep your communication alive / The official Fiat500 website (500 wants you) is a place where users are always invited to do more and be engaged with the brand. Every so often a new initiative is launched (locally or globally) to always keep the communication fresh with the different clusters of their audience (youngsters, artists, mums, young-professionals…).