Wednesday 30 May 2012

VISA's 'Social-by-Design' Campaign


After 25 years as a sponsor of the Olympics, coming up with a first can be difficult.  But longtime advertiser Visa is going for that gold in these games with its first "social-by-design" marketing campaign. It's a fitting strategy, given the London games have already been dubbed by many as the first social-media Olympics.

Many brainstorming sessions and briefings later, the central idea of "Cheer" emerged. As in everyone cheers for Olympic athletes. This summer many fans will likely be cheering through social-media channels, the thinking went, so why not organize the cheering and own it? But, as Mr. Burke conceded, initially "it was a very young idea."

The challenge Visa faced was that the emerging platform needed to be about more than just cheering for a favorite athlete. Visa needed to give people a reason and an incentive to cheer. So it turned to its own Olympic focus group, the 60 Olympic athletes who make up Team Visa, including such notables as swimmer Michael Phelps, runner Lopez Lomong and tennis player Li Na. The athletes told Visa that cheers, in fact, do make a difference.

Kerri Walsh, a 2004 and 2008 gold medalist in beach volleyball, told Visa marketing executives that when she's having a particularly tough training day, she turns to her social network for "inspiration and energy."

And so the cheer platform -- with the call to action that fans can make a difference -- was born. "It's the simple filter that all the work had to pass through," Mr. Burke said. Indeed the theme cuts across all media in the campaign, which will be Visa's largest Olympic effort to date, running in 70 countries.

The first TV ad narrated by actor Morgan Freeman, made its debut earlier this month. Called "The Difference," it features triumphant moments in Olympic history -- from Russian pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva's record-breaking jump to gymnast Nadia Comaneci's perfect 10. It ends with video of Mr. Phelps' 100-meter butterfly win for his seventh gold medal in Beijing. As Mr. Phelps touches the wall just fingertips ahead of his competitor, Mr. Freeman intones: "When we come together to cheer, as one [Mr. Freeman chuckles], we know what happens. ... Join our global cheer."

The Olympic campaign flies under Visa's "Go World" Olympic theme, maintaining the same visual style with sepia and gold tones, as well as retaining Mr. Freeman as narrator. "Go World," launched just before the Beijing Olympics in 2008, has performed well, resulting in double-digit growth in consumer perception and return on investment when compared with non-Olympic campaigns, Mr. Burke said.

As part of the online cheer effort, fans have been asked to upload a text, photo or video cheer they've created for the athletes. Visa's Facebook page will serve as the global hub of the collection of consumer-submitted cheers and athletes' responses, as well as behind-the-scenes videos of the athletes' stories and training. Fans can also submit "one-click cheers" online or via mobile on social media including YouTube or through partner sites such as Yahoo and Sports Illustrated. Over the next several months, Team Visa athletes will also reach out to their social networks as de facto Visa cheer ambassadors with stories of how encouragement from fans helps them.

The online cheers, submitted by fans during a promotion that runs through June 15, will be used for at least one, and possibly several, congratulatory ads to be run during the Olympics in Late July and August, Mr. Burke said.

Visa's "social at its core" approach is prudent, given social media is expected to play a much bigger part in the London games than it did four years ago. Although Facebook and Twitter were used at the Beijing games, with just 100 million and 6 million users, respectively, they were not as mainstream as today. Today, Facebook counts some 900 million users, while there are more than 100 million users on Twitter. The two social-media services have also been officially sanctioned and integrated for the first time by the IOC at the online Olympic Athletes' Hub where fans can "like" or "follow" a myriad of global athletes.

Visa isn't the first to tout the continuing shift to an engagement strategy that emphasizes digital and social media, rather than traditional media outlets.

"Fewer and fewer advertisers will start their strategic marketing planning with a television advertisement in mind," PepsiCo's global head of digital, Shiv Singh, recently wrote in the Harvard Business Review.

This year's Super Bowl also put that strategy on display. Coca-Cola's polar bears spanned TV, online and social media, while Audi let social-media fans "unlock" its TV ad by completing a puzzle on Facebook days before the big game. 

"It's not necessarily easy to pull this off unless you're a gigantic brand and you're building around something big like the Olympics," said Marty Weintraub, CEO of integrated social agency AimClear.

"For years we've seen consumer brands testing to consumers on places like Facebook and LinkedIn," Mr. Weintraub added. "The concept of crowdsourcing is not new. YouTube is littered with half-ass commercials and promotions created by consumers where the commercial was going to be an ad at the center of a campaign."

While building out the campaign from a social strategy is a first for Visa, it's not an experiment but a sign of things to come. Mr. Burke said, "Will every campaign be social by design? There's a very good chance of that. But definitely every program will incorporate a social strategy and that's always a question we'll ask." 

Visa will measure the success of the campaign using several traditional gauges like business metrics such as transactions, card activations and usage; brand-equity measures such as awareness and perception; as well as the satisfaction of clients such as its merchants and banks. Social engagement is the fourth measure, and particularly important in this campaign. Visa will measure likes, video views, uploads of cheers and shares to gauge success.

"It started with: How can we facilitate a global conversation and engage with consumers around the world in what is truly one of the most celebrated events?" Mr. Burke said. "We use what we call an "audience-first approach' to our planning and developing a plan that is social by design is a new direction for us. We certainly have a global social-media plan, but what the Olympics allows us to do is to have a global conversation and bring the world together to cheer as one, whereas often our initiatives are more local or specific to a geography."

[Reprinted from Creativity Online article.]








 
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Monday 28 May 2012

SOCIAL MEDIA CASE STUDIES [GB_V77.0]


Peugeot is finding success in growing their social media fanbase by connecting their new Pinterest activity to their already-established Facebook and Twitter accounts -  Brandflakes for Breakfast

Dunkin' Donuts is rewarding their most loyal fans by alerting them of a new product launch on Twitter with the chance to win samples and other prizes -  MediaPost

The New York Giants are rewarding that loyalty in impressive fashion — with an augmented reality app that lets fans virtually try on and snap photos with the team’s Super Bowl rings and trophy using GoldRunArticle

Apparently Russians aren't too adept at parking cars - so online Russian newspaper “The Village” developed a clever app designed to highlight the douchery in real-time. Intended to publicly shame drivers, the app allows users to take a photo of the car whereby image recognition technology identifies the owner via their license plates and shames them in real-time using ad banners and media placements on popular websites in Russia – Video

Red Bull's “Beat Suite Tweets” project is turning fans' tweets into mini soundclips that can be shared in social media. Earlier in the month the unique sounds were performed in a live concert in Melbourne, Australia -  Popsop

To support Nissan's LEAF (electric car) launch - this ambient installation urges viewers to wonder what life would be like without Gas? To do this they re-purposed nearly 40 unique, interactive gas-pumps ranging from a mini-putt to a piano – Video

Coca-Cola (Columbia) recently set out to promote their new online radio station 'Coke FM' using a popular local band they suspended over 50m above the stage. To get the band down to ground level, the crowd had to download songs from the band’s latest album on the Coke FM mobile site. Downloading the songs lowered the band to the stage. The results? Over 50,000 downloads in just one hour – Video
NASCAR is working with Twitter to turn the #Nascar hashtag into a virtual pit stop of current racing photos and tweets for fans to share - Adweek

With social media, you can tag your friends in pictures, and you can 'check in' to whatever spot you're visiting. And now, you can name check your clothes too, with new app TagBrand. The app, which originated Russia and is launching in English this week, lets users upload photos of their outfit, then add a visual tag of what brand each item is. These are known as 'brand-ins' (as opposed to 'check-ins'.) People can then comment or vote on the items their friends are wearing, and the site is also e-commerce enabled, with links to the retailer to buy the brand featured – Website

Chuck E. Cheese's is broadening their social media presence online to connect with their target parent audience -  Information Week

Golfers can improve, track and share their golf games with NG360 - a new app developed for Nike (by Blast Radius) that is designed to take Golf into the digital era. As well as a 'my game' feature which lets golfers track their statistics and motivates them by awarding trophies when they beat their personal bests, the app lets them upload and compare video of their golf swing with friends and Nike Golf athletes; get personal coaching from PGA Teaching Professional instructors and get into shape with a training system specifically tailored to golf. There are also product recommendations and links to all the latest golfing gear – Website

Beam share how they are adopting digital marketing and video content to connect with their social networking consumers in the spirits industry -  eMarketer

The Chicago Cubs and other MLB teams are hosting social media nights at the ballpark to connect with and reward their loyal Facebook and Twitter fans -  The NY Times

Johnson and Johnson released a Band-Aid Magic Vision Augmented Reality (AR) App (by JWT New York) designed to distract kids from their cuts and grazes by letting them interact with Kermit, Miss Piggy and Gonzo. As the demo says, good luck getting your iPhone back – Article

KLM's online seatmate-picking system has officially launched under the moniker 'Be My Guest'. The website lets you view the Facebook and LinkedIn profiles of your fellow passengers (and choose your seat accordingly.) Now you don't have to bribe the ticket agent to sit next to that the hot blonde – Website

Bar Aurora (and Ogilvy Brazil) return with another stunt to remind people they've had too much to drink - this time using the Karaoke machine. Performers at the bar sing into a special microphone hooked up to a breathalyzer - so the audience can not only hear their voices, but also how much the singers have had to drink. Previous exploits from the partnership include an effort involving a $73,000 bar tab and a drunk valet who tries to make off with customers' wheels – Video

Analog Devices is using their social media properties to promote their giveaway that's generating excitement and leads -  YouTube

Remember that craze for dancing babies a few years ago? Huggies latest app (by Ogilvy Chicago and Luxurious Animals) is letting you can create your very own. To promote its new line of Hawaiian-themed diapers, the brand has launched a Facebook app called 'Hula Baby'. Users upload photos of their baby, choose a diaper and create a shareable video - App

Volkswagen's most recent effort (by Ogilvy Beijing and Ogilvy Hong Kong,) attempts to educate the general public about how little energy is required for a VW Golf EV to run.  The promotion uses augmented reality to compare the electricity required by the VW car to that needed by everyday household appliances - Video

Microsoft has launched their new social network called So.cl for students to use as a research tool and to share information on a variety of topics -  CNET







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