Tag Archives: ThumbsUp

Profero Thumbs/Up – Radiohead Nude/Remix

By Enzo Annunziata | Published: 2009/02/23

Brand: Radiohead
Initiative: Nude Re-Mix
Markets: Global
Dates: April 2008

Background
Radiohead are an English alternative rock band from Oxfordshire whose international fame didn’t arrive until the launch of their third album in 1997, ‘OK Computer’, which has been acclaimed as a landmark record of the 1990s. After a major fall-out with one of the biggest record labels worldwide, EMI, in 2007 Radiohead independently released their seventh album, In Rainbows, originally as a digital download for which each customer could set their own price, later in stores, to critical and chart success. Radiohead have sold approximately 30 million albums as of 2008.

Challenge
After a groundbreaking marketing initiative with the ‘pay-as-much-as-you-want’ album launch, what could Radiohead do to once again connect with their fans but at the same time promote their music in a new creative way

Approach
To promote the new single NUDE far from any promotion involving their already acclaimed album, Radiohead decided to give their fans a platform to re-mix the new song and create a new ‘entertainment-movement’ around sharing and creation of original music content

The Idea

  • Users could download from iTunes all the stems from the single NUDE, including bass, voice, guitar, strings/fx and drums for $5.99
  • Once downloaded, you could mix them in any way you liked, either by adding your own beats and instrumentation, or just remixing the original parts.
  • Although the Apple Garageband software was not required to remix the songs, if you purchased all five ’stems’ from iTunes during the first week they were available, you’d be sent an access code to a GarageBand file ready to open in GarageBand or Logic. (Smart partnership here to demo the programs)
  • Once mixes were completed, they could be uploaded within the new RadioheadRemix website dedicated to the initiative – where the public could listen and vote for their favourite remix
  • Also, users could create a widget allowing votes from their own website, Facebook or MySpace page to be counted as ‘mix votes’ back on radioheadremix.com.

The Results

  • Overall the website received 6,193,776 unique visitors
  • 2,252 was the number of mixes submitted
  • 461,090 votes were casted
  • 1,745,304 was the final number of track listened by the end of the campaign
  • The single was sold incredibly well that “Nude” was Radiohead’s first entry in the Billboard Hot 100 in twelve years.
  • The initiative was so well received that the English band is ‘doing it again’. With only $0.99 cents to buy all 6 of the stems, they have started a second remix contest, this time for their song “Reckoner”


The Learnings

  • Cut down the barriers  / Initiatives like this where content creation is solely up to the consumer, barriers to entry must be particularly low. Make it as simple, appealing and rewarding as possible and your consumers will give it a go.
  • Don’t leave me out! / Establishing a solid relationship with your core audience is always a must and your initiatives may sometimes only include this group. However, when barriers to entry are pretty low and the campaign is talking to a broader audience you may potentially reach new acquisitions from users who may have never been interested in your service or product (in this case your music)
  • Stay truthful to your objectives / If we analyze the results, ‘only’ 0.04% entered remixes and 28% listened to the song. Although this may sound low 0.04% isn’t so insignificant when it’s 2,252 mixes. Because the ultimate objective was to solely bring attention to their single outside of the context of their already previously promoted album ‘In Rainbows’, the success is in the 6 million people who engaged with the song in any way, and that enough people interacted with the site in some way to influence their networks and generate a viral growth for the site.
  • Create timelines and ‘Virability’ / You should always structure your campaign/competition so that you give a set time for usership to build and grow – set deadlines, sharable tools  and different phases to a concept are going to give enough time for people to bond with the idea and for words to spread ‘virally’

Posted in ...Marketing, ...Music, Branded Experience | Also tagged , , , , , , , | Comments closed

Profero Thumbs/UP – Walkers ‘Do Us A Flavour’

By Enzo Annunziata | Published: 2009/02/13

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.
Posted in ...Marketing, Branded Experience, Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments closed

Profero Thumbs/UP: METROTWIN

By Enzo Annunziata | Published: 2009/01/26

Brand: BA
Initiative: METROTWIN
Markets: Global (UK & US centric)
Dates: Ongoing

Background
London-New York is the most frequent daily flight within British Airway’s transatlantic offering and as such it is a very important route for the company. BA have to work hard to defend market share for this route in a very competitive and aggressively price driven market.

Challenge
How can BA connect with the core audience, urban professionals who are frequent flyers between the two cities, in order to maintain brand loyalty amongst exciting customers and attract new ones.

Approach
As their target audience are the sorts of people who are always looking for new and interesting things to do, whether at home or away, on work or on business, BA developed a solution that would meet this need.

They also understood that their audience like to share this sort of information with like-minded people, and had high propensity to do so online.

They used these key insights to come up with an innovative marketing solution.

The Idea

  • METROTWIN was launched with a clear strategy which aimed at giving their target audience something back, allowing them contribute to the collective knowledge of the two cities.  The idea was to create a central-hub for people to seek advice on what’s hot and what’s not between London and New York.
  • The website is now managed and moderated by a few BA agency-staff members, however the majority of the content comes from the general audience and selected contributors who get to gain BA Miles based on the level of participation.
  • The website includes a list of categories where people can add content, from Arts & Entertainment to Bars, Pubs and Clubs. Here, people are invited to leave comments, rate venues and events and add these to
  • The website also has a blog to keep people up-to-date including key partnerships in both cities (i.e. famous mum bloggers, professional event organisers etc…), local events definitely not to miss and digital news on ‘cool stuff’
  • The site also provides free media space for BA advertising, highlighting flight offers, driving sales of the back of the core brand experience.


The Outcome

  • METROTWIN is now one of the few key destination sites for people to find out what’s happening in the two cities of the world (the BA name behind it has definitely helped)
  • During December 08, the website was visited from 46.000 unique visitors per day – which is pretty impressive if we compare it to a similar website like TIPPED (which had 60.000 UV.) or MySpace (which received 90.000 U.V.) …And this is solely UK results after only being launched for 2 months!
  • Each user has spent on average 10min. and 52sec. on the site which is astonishing for any website (Facebook users spend on average 17min. per visit)
  • BA is receiving a lot of free publicity from the site, of course free advertising space, and it has become an excellent benchmark for any brand’s use of social media (especially for the competitors).
  • While we don’t have the data, it would be safe to assume, based on our experience with working on J&J and our understanding of babycentre,  that METROTWIN has had a positive effect on brand loyalty, while also helping to drive sales.

The Learnings

  • Produce something your consumers will benefit from
  • Open a two-way conversation and get people involved in creating the content within your branded space, they will feel more considered
  • Crowd-sourcing and knowledge-sharing are strong communication techniques if used in the right way. You should offer a place where like-minded users can communicate and share information relevant to them, and somehow reflecting the values of the brand.
  • Give something back: you don’t gain loyalty only with incentives. Think outside the box – You don’t have to offer money-off vouchers to retain your consumers, but you could easily connect at an emotional level.
  • Just because you are marketing a specific audience, it doesn’t mean you have to limit the website’s usability to this niche audience. In fact, METROTWIN is not only visited by BA frequent flyers but also from anyone interested in the two cities

Posted in ...Networks, Branded Experience, Public Spaces | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments closed
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