Coke Zero: ‘Tis the Season to get Ugly

With Christmas just a little over two weeks away, it’s difficult to ignore all the holiday-themed advertising around us. While consumers are bombarded with thousands of Christmas messages on a daily basis, advertisers are now being forced to think of unique and creative ways to break through the clutter and reach their target market. What better way to do this than reach them personally through social media?

A recent example of a company that created a successful holiday-themed social media campaign is Coca-Cola. With the help of ad agency, Droga5, the company launched the “Coke Zero Sweater Generator”, a website consumers could visit to create their own customized ugly Christmas sweater. After designing a sweater, it would then be posted in an online gallery where the public could vote for their favourite designs. To gain more votes, users were encouraged to post their designs on their Facebook and Twitter profiles. The company also encouraged fans to connect with each other using the hashtag, #sweatergenerator. The campaign began in mid-November and lasted for just two weeks. On December 1, the 100 sweaters with the most votes were actually created and sent to the designers. 

A screenshot from the "Coke Zero Sweater Generator" website.

While the final results of the campaign have not yet been released, it was recently announced that nearly 18,000 sweaters were created within the first 36 hours of the website launch. I can only assume that this number grew within the two-week campaign period. In fact, I saw multiple friends on my own Facebook account post photos and links to their ugly Christmas sweater designs.

The campaign is successful for multiple reasons, including the fact that it demonstrates that Coca-Cola understands their target market. After conducting research, they realized that ugly Christmas sweater parties have become a holiday tradition for millennials. They were able to tap into this insight and create an entertaining and memorable way for consumers to interact with their brand. In addition to this, because users had to share their designs to gather votes, the brand received additional exposure across social media. By actually producing the top 100 sweaters, the brand will continue to gain more attention, as they will very likely become a topic of conversation when consumers actually wear them to their ugly Christmas sweater parties. 

While the “Sweater Generator” may be forgotten about after people pack up their sweaters for the season, as Coca-Cola demonstrates, it’s important for advertisers to understand what’s relevant in their target market’s life all year round. Regardless of the length of the campaign, if advertisers can tap into a trend their target market follows, they will likely find success. 

Source: http://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/2308300/coke-zero-helps-millennials-design-the-perfect-ugly-holiday-sweater

Stanfield’s: A “Brief” Success

Nowadays, it’s unusual to find a company or brand that isn’t associated with a specific charity. Most companies see it as their social responsibility to raise money and awareness for charitable programs or organizations. Not only does this provide the company and it’s employees with a sense of fulfillment or pride as they support a good cause, but it also helps create a positive perception among consumers. With so many companies supporting different causes, how do brands stand out and generate consumer support? By engaging them on social media, of course.

A recent example of a company that used social media to support a charitable organization was Stanfield’s. Stanfield's is a small, Canadian company that sells undergarments to men. With the help of ad agency, John St., Stanfield’s created a social media campaign called “The Gitchhiker”. The campaign followed a testicular cancer survivor, Mark McIntyre, as he hitchhiked across Canada wearing nothing but Stanfield’s underwear. If he made it from coast to coast within 21 days, Stanfield’s promised to donate $20,000 to the Canadian Cancer Society. To create brand engagement, Stanfield's encouraged consumers to visit their Facebook page and website. Visitors could use these sites to donate money to the cause, as well as give Mark gifts, challenge him to dares, and offer him rides or a place to stay during his trip. All of this worked together to help raise money and awareness for cancer research.

A screenshot of Stanfield's Facebook page during "The Gitchhiker" campaign.

The campaign was a huge success, as it helped raise over $30,000 for the Canadian Cancer Society. In addition to this, it generated 47 million social media impressions, and Stanfield’s sales increased by 50%. The campaign also received attention from traditional media outlets as well, as many local news programs featured stories on Mark as he travelled through their towns.

There are multiple reasons why this campaign was successful. To begin with, it engaged and entertained consumers, as they were able to follow and participate in Mark’s journey every step of the way. Once consumers started following his story, they couldn’t help but want to see how his trip would end, thus creating brand loyalty. Although one of the campaign goals was to raise money and awareness for cancer research, Stanfield’s itself benefited from the campaign, as they were promoted the entire duration of Mark's trip. Any time consumers saw Mark in the news, watched his video blogs, or followed his updates on Facebook, they were being exposed to the underwear brand. This ultimately helped Stanfield’s generate a positive brand image among consumers across the country.

"The Gitchhiker" campaign is an excellent example of a small, Canadian company using social media to support a good cause. Although the campaign was time consuming and had to be constantly monitored, it was still relatively inexpensive to produce, as it relied on consumer participation to be successful. While this form of customer engagement can be risky, as Stanfield’s proved, by creating a unique social media campaign to support a charitable organization, it can help boost a brand's sales and public image. 

Source: http://vimeo.com/59412129

Drawing Followers to Your Personal Brand

In the past two and a half years, I’ve learned a lot about advertising. Arguably one of the most important lessons I’ve learned is how essential it is to create a personal brand. It’s an excellent way to stand out and get noticed when trying to break into the industry. But how can you use social media to build your personal brand? Well, if your freelance artist, Greg Burney, you develop your own social media campaign.

Greg Burney is a British artist that was looking for a way to create a memorable connection with new customers. With a limited budget, he knew social media would be an effective way to reach them. To encourage them to connect with him on Twitter, Greg created the #drawmyfollowers campaign. Through his Twitter account, Greg announced that he would draw portraits of the first 3,000 new followers he received. He then encouraged them to retweet their drawings and share them with friends. After famous typographer, Erik Spiekermann retweeted his announcement, Greg’s followers instantly grew. Within two days, he went from 70 to 700 followers, and after a couple weeks, he had over 5,000 new followers. Not bad for someone starting out.

Some of the drawings Greg Burney made for his followers.

So what made this campaign work? Well, Greg knew he didn’t have a lot of money and certainly couldn’t afford to hire an ad agency, so he used what he had to engage his followers. By creating a personalized experience, he was able to connect with them, while also promoting and showing them the work he can do. He was able to attract new customers and increase his fan base, as many of them wanted to see more of his work. He also received attention from multiple blogs and websites that used his story as an example of a successful social media campaign.

While this is a unique way to create a personalized experience with consumers, I question the overall longevity of the campaign. Of course people respond well to incentive; however, once the 3,000 followers received their portraits, there was no guarantee that they would continue to seek more work from the artist. In fact, his followers have decreased, and as of today, Greg has a little over 3,700 followers on Twitter. Unfortunately, it appears that the novelty wore off, as some of his followers were no longer engaged or interested in what Greg had to offer. Although affordable, the campaign would also be time consuming and take Greg away from any immediate work that had to be done. 

Regardless of his future success, Greg Burney’s #drawmyfollowers campaign is an excellent example of how an individual person can use social media to gain attention and promote their personal brand. It demonstrates that people (or brands) don’t have to have a huge budget, or even need to hire an ad agency, to create a unique and effective social media campaign.

Source: http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/artist-vows-draw-all-new-twitter-followers-136333

Oreo: Facebook’s Favourite Cookie

It’s one thing for a brand to create a social media campaign that temporary drives users to their Facebook page. It’s another to develop a social media presence that constantly leaves consumers wondering what the brand is going to do next. While companies often develop elaborate social media campaigns to engage consumers and make themselves memorable, sometimes all they need to do is keep it simple.

A recent example of a brand that used a simple social media strategy is Oreo. In 2012, with the help of ad agency, 360i, Oreo created the Daily Twist campaign for their Facebook page. Each day, from June 25^th to October 2^nd, the brand posted an image of the cookie redesigned to mark an occasion that occurred on that date. For instance, on September 19^th, they posted an image of an Oreo wearing an eye patch with the tagline, “Talk Like a Pirate Day”. They used various pop culture references to reach niche markets. To further involve their fans, consumers were invited to visit Oreo’s website and make suggestions for the different images that were going to be created. On the last day of the campaign, Oreo created a pop-up agency in Times Square where the final cookie was designed in real-time. They encouraged their fans to visit and experience the process of what went into designing each image.

 "Talk Like a Pirate Day" image from Oreo's Daily Twist campaign.

The campaign was successful, as it increased customer engagement by 110% and added five million more likes to their Facebook page. The campaign also gave Oreo exposure from other media outlets and groups. For instance, they began the Daily Twist by designing a cookie for Gay Pride Week. Not only did this spark discussion among people in the LGBT community, but it also helped the campaign go viral. By the end of the campaign, Oreo had nearly 32 million likes on their Facebook page, and were soon established as a brand leader on Facebook.

In order to gain attention from consumers and media, Oreo participated in newsjacking, an approach in which a company integrates their message into current news stories. They were able to integrate topical subjects in a playful way to promote their brand, while also creating discussions about the specific occasion or event the cookie was representing. In addition to this, the execution of the campaign was nearly flawless. They used simple visuals to spread their message and make each one memorable. Oreo’s campaign also offered an element of surprise and delight, as fans continued to come back everyday to see a new image. In addition to this, it shows that Oreo truly understands what their brand represents. They played into their brand personality of being young, playful, and fun by having their cookie represent unusual or untraditional events. Their simple ideas, combined with the use of pop culture references enabled them to create an emotional connection for consumers.

Although the campaign was inexpensive to execute, it was very time consuming and would have required constant monitoring online. While the campaign only lasted 100 days, it would have been interesting to see if Oreo would still be successful if they had continued to post new images for a longer period of time.

Regardless of what it could have turned into, Oreo’s social media campaign is an excellent example for small companies or brands looking for inexpensive ways to develop their online presence. While most brands believe they need to develop elaborate campaigns that personally involve consumers, as this case study suggests, taking a simple approach can be just as effective.

Source: http://www.shopify.com/blog/7589919-the-secret-behind-oreos-social-media-marketing#ixzz2kwVXcY90

Kotex: A "Pin"spiring Campaign

As I’ve already established in my previous blog posts, many brands find success by developing social media campaigns that personally target consumers. Personalized campaigns allow brands to engage users and create a memorable experience for them. But how far should companies go to create these personalized messages? Well, that depends on the social media site being used and who the brand is trying to reach.

Pinterest is a fairly new social media site that’s been steadily growing in the past couple of years. For those that may not be familiar with it, the site allows users to collect images from around the web and “pin” them to boards. Users can follow each other to see what they’re posting and get ideas or inspiration for recipes, gifts, or other projects. Since it’s still relatively new, not many brands have explored or implemented Pinterest in their advertising campaigns. Except for Kotex, of course.

With the help of Israeli ad agency, Smoyz, Kotex developed a creative campaign called “Women’s Inspiration Day”. The company searched Pinterest to find 50 “inspiring” women that were active, influential users with large followings. After selecting these 50 women, the company then sent virtual gifts to all of them. If they pinned the gift, the company promised to send them a real gift based on something they had already pinned in the past. These gifts were original, handcrafted, and designed to appeal to each woman’s individual style. The gift box was beautifully presented and also featured a box of Kotex feminine products.

A closer look at Kotex's "Women's Inspiration Day" Campaign.

Much like anyone would react to a present, these women responded with surprise and delight. The women then posted photos of their real gifts to their Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram profiles. Almost all of the 50 women posted photos of their gifts. In addition to this, they had 2,284 interactions and 694,853 total impressions. Not too bad for only reaching out to 50 women.

So why did this campaign work? Well, because it was one of the first Pinterest campaigns ever, the brand was able to reach out to users in a place that wasn’t already saturated with contests and promotions. The campaign also demonstrated that Kotex understood their target market. Because the majority of Pinterest users are female, it was logical to use the site to promote a feminine product. Although they only reached out to 50 women, they conducted enough research on each of them to ensure they all had a strong social media presence and a large following. This guaranteed that more than just each individual woman was exposed to the Kotex brand after they posted photos of it online. By giving these women personalized gifts, it was also a way of acting as a brand reminder. In the future, anytime they see these handmade gifts in their home, they will instantly be reminded of Kotex. While the campaign was costly and fairly labour intensive, it was well thought out, as the brand was able to create a memorable and personalized campaign that gained exposure across multiple social media platforms.  

While creating personalized messages on social media is an effective way for brands to become memorable, as Kotex proved, sending personalized gifts might be even better. The brand was able to take advantage of a platform that most companies have ignored and use it to reach their target market in a creative way. Due to the cost and effort put into each gift, I assume this will be a one-time campaign; however, the results demonstrated that Pinterest can be an equally effective social media site brands can use to run unique and inspiring campaigns.

Source: http://www.creativeguerrillamarketing.com/guerrilla-marketing/kotexs-womens-inspiration-day-pinterest-campaign/