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Module 4: Social mediacase studies

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Case study 1: HP’s 31-Day Dragon Campaign

• HP provided its flagship notebook HDX Dragon systems to 31 selected influencers to give away to lucky readers on their sites over 31 days (one per blogger)

• Worth US$5,500: 500GB HDD, Blu Ray player, games, movies, software.

• Each blogger was able to create

their own unique contest • 31 days of ongoing discussions as

bloggers also created and shared

custom marketing materials,

graphics, logos, videos,

RSS feeds and then cross-promoted these items.

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ResultsMonth over month data from HPshopping.com 84% increase in sales on the HDX Dragon system14% increase in traffic 10% increase in overall consumer PC salesSales figures for the month of the program set several

records. Usually a softer month and does not include channel

salesThe sales gains continued even 2 months after the

programCosts• Total cost for systems, shipping, software and paying to

offset taxes $250K (costs shared by HP and partners)• $0 media spend

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Google reports well over 380,000 links discussing the 31 sites and giveaways.

Virtually no negative comments about HP or the promotion associated with the giveaway

Linkbait

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Enthusiastic reaction• 31 participating sites/blogs saw an average 150%

increase in traffic, with some increasing as much as 5,000%

• Estimated reach for the programme is well over 50 million impressions (Alexa data)

• Coverage reached 123 countries and was translated into 40+ languages

• Readers/entrants created more than 10,000 videos on sites such as YouTube.com and Blip.tv

• In excess of 25,000 entries received by participating sites

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Why it worked1. HP and Buzz Corps built up real relationships with

the influencers: “We really know them at a personal level – we consider each other friends, not just cards in a rolodex. We spent over a year demonstrating that we were willing to do the right things for, with and by them and therefore earned their trust.”

2. Provided the tools, then gave them control: They helped design the rules and helped manage and organize each other.

3. Not just for big boys: Mix of small and large blogs/sites to vary the coverage

4. Social media marketing is about conversation, not news: The HDX Dragon had been shipping for 10 months when the giveaways began

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“Word of mouth is so effective

because of the natural credibility

that comes from real people with no

profit or agenda tied to theirrecommendations,”

Andy Sernovitz, Word of Mouth Marketing

mouse

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Case study 2: Blendtec

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Blendtec’s viral videoshttp://www.willitblend.com

• 6 million views in 5 days

• Was 3rd most viewed video on YouTube

• 2006 revenue up 43%

• Blendtec, little-known blender company spends US$50 to make unusual video

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Case study 3: Dove “Real Beauty”• Unilever's “Campaign for Real Beauty”

marketing campaign sought to challenge stereotypes.

• Featured non-models that did not fit in with the idealized images of super-models.

• Videos went viral online and raised debates in countries it was launched. Mothers were encourages to talk to daughters about self-esteem.

• Some critics felt the campaign was contradictory because it aimed to convince women to buy Dove's Firming range, a product for reducing cellulite.

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Dove: Reinventing advertising

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“Viral” Marketing

One of the most effective new marketing strategies uses “viral” techniques that spreads through “word-of-mouse” among members

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Power of Viral Marketing

• Builds awareness through low-key product/message placement

• Lets word-of-mouse spread your message

• Gets people talking about your product, service or campaign

• Inexpensive: Others do the distribution

• No hard sell or interruption: It spreads from peer to peer. Audience chooses to view it and engage in conversation.

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Viral Marketing: Cons

• Control – You don’t control the distribution – Randomness to who gets the message

• Context– The context of the message can be distorted

since others are distributing it– Audience may mash it up and change intent

• ROI– May be difficult to show how it translates into

sales

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GM “Chevy Tahoe” campaign• General Motors invited

Internet users to create or remix their own “advertisement” for the SUV truck “Chevy Tahoe”

• A website was created with various elements of video that the user could use to arrange the commercial

• The user could also add their own “text” over the video

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Viral Marketing Campaign Misfires

The goal was to let users interact with the product in a fun, unique way. They would then distribute their creation and the message to friends and via their blogs. GM hoped to build brand awareness of the new truck.

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Success? Or Not?• Some Internet users decided to create negative

commercials that complained about the environmental impact of the gas-hungry truck.

• 21,000 user-created ads were submitted• 2.4 million page views• 80% of the ads were positive• However, 20% of ads were critical

– The media coverage focused on the negative

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Fail: J & J Camp Baby blogstorm

• Johnson and Johnson invites mommy bloggers a 2-day all-expenses paid event in early April, 2008 at their HQ.

• Mommy bloggers looked forward to seeing their friends, making new ones, lots of conversation ensues in the blogosphere.

• Then two well-read moms, Julie Marsh and Stefania Pomponi Butler, were “disinvited”.

• Apparently, it was an adults-only event with no child care!

http://getgood.typepad.com/getgood_strategic_marketi/2008/03/camp-baby-blogs.html

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Faking it: Online Street Teams

• Boston-based Alt Terrain arranges “alternative media” marketing campaigns

• “Online street teams” infiltrate chat rooms and blogs to post positive information on clients

• They pose as fans expressing spontaneous opinions, but they are really paid promoters

• The web community hates fakes!

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Astro-turfing

• Avoid such techniques like the plague

• If outted, there will be a backlash.

• Online community will be skeptical of future campaigns.

Astro-turfing refers to a brand of artificial grass. In marketing, is an artificial attempt at gaining “grassroots” support covertly for a political or commercial entity.

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Case study: Post-it

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From prank to marketing campaign?

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What not to do• Dec 2006, pranksters covered a co-worker’s beloved

Jaguar with 14,000 Post-it Notes. • Scott Ableman posts photos of prank on Flickr. Idea

goes viral online. • A year passes before marketing geniuses at 3M Corp’s

Post-it Note thinks to capitalize on the viral success.• In spring 2008, they contact Scott photographer to ask

about using the photos in a marketing campaign. He quoted an amount for a typical licensing fee.

• Their response: They tell him they’d rather not pay when they can just recreate the photograph themselves.

http://www.all-about-content.com/2008/09/3m-carjacks-postit-note-jaguar.html

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3M Carjacks Idea

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Mentos-Diet Coke geysers

EepyBird’s Experiment #4 video of geyser fountain goes viral.

Mentos site links to video, then supports record-breaking events around the world.

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Contrasting reactions• Mentos: “We are tickled pink by it,” says Pete

Healy, vp of marketing for company's U.S. division. “When they appeared on Late Night with David Letterman and The Today Show, we were there.” The company spends less than US$20 million on U.S. advertising annually and estimates the value of online buzz to be “over US$10 million.”

• Coke: “We would hope people want to drink (Diet Coke) more than try experiments with it,” says Coke spokeswoman Susan McDermott. She adds that the “craziness with Mentos ... doesn't fit with the brand personality”.

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“In the world of the Internet, you don't own your brand. Your customers and your users own your brand,”David Sifry, founder Technorati

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Idea 1: Using Flickr.com

Memories come alive in photos • The Star and Federal Hotel KL organises “1957

Photo Album” project in June 2007.

• Readers submit old photos with creative captions.

• Received close to 150 photographs.  

• Held for over 12 weeks. 

• The photo album was available for viewing at the hotel and online at Flickr at visiting www.flickr.com/photos/the1957album

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Idea 2: Reaching out to fanshttp://www.chevroncarsblog.com/

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Idea 3: Adopt-A-Pilothttp://adoptapilot.blogs.com

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Idea 4: Southwest Airlines viral video contest

1. US airlines Southwest asked people to post a 20-second clip of something embarrassing or humiliating happening to them, with the winning video to be used in Southwest's official "Wanna Get Away" campaign.

2. Contestants signed up and posted video at http://www.youtube.com/group/Southwestcontest

3. Winning videos and honourable mentions were cross-posted at www.southwestwannagetaway.com.

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Idea 5: Doritos chips contest• Doritos’ “Crash the Super Bowl” contest

encouraged wanna directors to produce an ad that would be aired during Super Bowl 2007.

• More than 1,000 submissions were uploaded to Yahoo! Video and Jumpcut, and voted on by consumers at CrashTheSuperBowl.com

• Two winners were aired: ‘Live The Flavor’ and ‘Check Out Girl’.

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Dale Backus, 21, and Wes Phillips, 22, shot the 30-second spot, featuring Dale’s wife Cori, with borrowed equipment, a skateboard

and total expenditure of 12 dollars. They were awarded a prize of $10,000 and a trip to the Super Bowl in Miami, where the winning entry was announced and aired during the game for est. US$1.25m.http://www.crashthesuperbowl.com/

Production cost: US$12