Levi "Dockers"
Dockers ‘Pants Dance’ campaign (Jones & Ryan, 2011, p.25-32) a casual clothing brand owned by iconic US company Levi designed an innovative, precarious campaign that proved to be one of the most successful marketing campaigns in the world. In early 2009, they launched a campaign designed purely to enhance brand recognition and awareness among their target demographic. It was the first iPhone App ‘Shakeable ad’ that essentially used the iPhone ‘accelerometer,’ a function that allows the device to measure and react to movement. Levi was one of the very first companies to employ the accelerometer into their ad or App. In doing so Levi took an incredible risk, not knowing whether it would be successful or not. The accelerometer was used to make a model (wearing the product of course), dance when shaken. In this way the ad engaged with the user in a fun and interactive way, that made the advertising seem subtle and almost irrelevant, which in turn actually made the ad more effective. The real success in this campaign was seen in the average 42 seconds users engaged with the iPhone App versus the average 12 seconds for online rich media advertising (the click method). |
This campaign was extremely successful due to the specific research and design these marketers engineered for their target audience. Through constructing marketing and advertising strategies for their customers in an interactive way and injecting subtle product placement, the result was phenomenal. |
Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz’s digital campaign (Jones & Ryan, 2011, p.33-36) smart for two compact small car wasn’t hitting target sales, as there was a mass misconception about the cars comfort, safety, fuel economy and features. After narrowing down the specific purpose of the campaign the Mercedes-Benz’s marketers created a friendly, honest website (contrary to most flashy automotive sites), and provided a multiple-choice quiz for users about the car then highlighted the misconceptions. After completing the voluntary test customers were surprised by the answers that proved incorrect, thus proving misconceptions wrong. |
The success of the ad lies in the re-education of consumers in a positive and engaging way. Furthermore; the thorough research attained allowed the marketers to design an effective campaign; both in its design appealing to the target audience, and in its specific marketing goal to irradiate these misconceptions. |
Lynx In 2009, Lynx designed a campaign (Jones & Ryan, 2011, p.45-52) to launch their new ‘Instinct’ product in Australia. Once again, these marketers successfully researched and narrowed their campaign goals down to specific social media numbers they wished to gain, and of course, to exceed sales figures of previous products. In these early research stages of the campaign, Lynx interestingly discovered in their market research of Australian males aged between 14 and 21, that almost 100% used a social network platform daily. The campaign was designed to “bring out the caveman,” (Jones & Ryan, 2011, p.46), in young Australian males. From this idea Lynx decided to use all social media platforms (their natural habitats) and broadcast media advertisements to lead back to a game designed for the campaign. Lynx engineered a campaign which had a unique theme across all platforms, platforms which involved interactive, social, mobile, gaming and commercial functions appropriate for the target audience. |
689,436 game visits. 22,000 game registrations. 24,515 unique visitors on Myspace. 11,000,000 takeovers, roadblocks and other interactive ad placements. (Jones & Ryan, 2011, p.48). But the real success in this particular campaign was the dedicated social content manager monitored the online conversations, general social media activity and sentiment surrounding the campaign. Employing a personto respond to customer feedback was absolutely invaluable. |
Pizza Hut The Pizza Hut iPhone App campaign (Jones & Ryan, 2011, p.59-64) utilizing the immediacy factor of mobile applications, Pizza Hut created an interactive App that allowed customers to have a virtual experience; they could create their very own cyber pizza and order it via the App. Through harnessing the right digital channels to engage their audience, and designing an interactive, exciting and unique experience for their customers, Pizza Hut achieve phenomenal success. |
1,200,000 downloads in eight months. 100,000 downloads within the first two weeks of release. $1,000,000 US generated in three months. (Jones & Ryan, 2011, p.61). The real success in this marketing campaign was in the appeal of actualizing the digital or fantasy into the physical. There is something futuristic, personal and customized about this experience. |
The Obama campaign The Obama campaign in 2009 (Jones & Ryan, 2011, p.181-186) was one of the most successful and innovative presidential campaigns ever. The campaign was unique in its need to spread across as many different platforms as possible, because the target audience was incredibly expansive and diverse. This is a unique campaign in this way however, there are many platform specific tips and tricks from which marketers can take guidance in. For example; the campaign deployed a range of CPL ad units including interactive banners that allowed them to collect contact information from within the ads themselves. This meant there was no need for users to click through to a landing page to submit their information resulting in vastly improved conversation rates and increased returns on ad spend-age. |
Another successful element to the marketing strategy lies in the interactive, social platforms that were employed; “Increasing conversation is the most effective way of boosting return on your online investment.” (Jones & Ryan, 2011, p.183). Keeping things as simple as possible for the user was also essential in the campaign’s design: “Because users weren’t forced to leave the page they were interested in to sign up, they were much more inclined to submit their information…” (Jones & Ryan, 2011, p.183). By utilizing information deriving systems that were subtle and didn’t interfere with the user’s desired digital experience, Obama’s marketing team were able to analyse this information to adapt or modify the campaign’s design, and of course, to measure its success. 3,000,000 Facebook supporters. 100,000 Twitter followers. 30,000 messages on Obama’s App. (Jones & Ryan, 2011, p.185). |
What do these case studies tell us?
All the case studies very much supported the notion that companies need to take risks in terms of using an alternative perspective or approach to grab consumers’ attention. If they market strategically and are able to adapt based on consumer feedback via social medias, then they are not at a loss. One of the elements that made Obama’s Presidential campaign so successful was the use of interactive banners to collect information within the ads themselves. This allowed for that adaption to consumer response to become an essential element to the success of the social media marketing campaign. As seen in many of these case studies, the more linking there is the stronger the geographical foothold a campaign will have within the Internet sphere. Combining these elements with a pre-existing popular broadcast media community or fan base gives a campaign the initial boost and online recognition it needs to be successful.
Ensuring the consumer doesn’t feel like they’re being sucked in to purchasing something they haven’t navigated towards themselves is an important tip derived from many of these case studies. Another is in the eradication of the click/double-click link method as it makes the user feel out of control. As seen in the Dockers ‘Pants Dance’ campaign, designing the media so that product or advertising as subtle as possible is the best method of approach. Fundamentally one needs to generate somewhat of a distraction from the advertising that appeals to the consumer demographic; something entertaining or interactive.
As seen in the Lynx ‘Primal Instinct’ campaign, investing in a dedicated social media content manager(s) who can create feedback and statistics on the successful areas in the campaign is invaluable. Similarly, as seen with the Pizza Hut App, creating a product for your campaign that makes a consumer’s online or real life easier generates a huge response, particularly if it is innovative in its design.The Pizza Hut App case study also had attraction of actualizing a virtual model into the physical world has a fantastic, futuristic appeal.
Overall, all of these case studies have common themes: be innovative, interactive, entertaining, target-audience appropriate, humanized, flexible, adaptive, whilst maintaining a sense of subtlety.