Thursday, August 12, 2010

“LG Transform To Something Better” Consumer Sweeps


Agency: Alcone Marketing Group
Client: LG


LG introduced the Versa in 2009. While the Versa offered an immersive user experience, it was not technically a smart phone. This presented a marketing challenge, given that the young male target audience viewed themselves as early adopters of technology.

Since the Versa could not compete head-to-head with smart phones in functionality, launching it would rely less on specs and more on building unique engagement opportunities around consumer passion points.

Research uncovered that the target audience wanted to be both a technology and entertainment insider. To achieve both goals, LG leveraged a partnership with Paramount Studios for the release of “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” during the summer season. Like the transformers themselves, LG felt its Versa packed features that couldn’t be appreciated on first glance but needed a deeper look.

To capture the target’s attention, they used the voice of character Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen) for a viral mobile engagement experience entitled “Transform To Something Better.” The promotion gave consumers an opportunity to send customized voice greetings to their friends and family from Optimus Prime. The mobile engagement also served as an entry point into a sweepstakes with prizes that included a rare Transformers Edition LG Versa phone.

Touch points included in-store, voice, mobile sweeps, an online microsite, banner ads on vzw.com and a trade incentive program for Verizon employees on ThinkLG.com. Larger-than-life 3D standees of Optimus Prime at retail instructed consumers to “Command The Call To Win It All!”

Tying into the movie brand, LG gave customers the opportunity to “transform” themselves. The unique engagement resulted in securing POS placement in 6,500 Verizon stores, exceeding sales at Verizon by 23 percent during the promotion period and generating 50,000 unique participants and 93,466 unique engagements, outdoing goal by 86 percent. 


World's Largest Cell Phone


Agency: Neverstop
Client: Cricket Wireless
 

Cricket Communications was introducing a new brand and service and wanted to enter the market without getting lost in the clutter. At the time, Cricket was also opening a series of new stores and wanted the promotion to run simultaneously with the store openings. 

Neverstop was charged with driving awareness, trial, new customer registrations and increased store traffic. They also wanted to improve the brand’s image. The company had a reputation as a third-tier, lower-income service provider, known for bad service, outdated handsets and low market share.

Neverstop turned a replica of the Samsung Messager into the world’s largest cell phone, had it certified by Guinness, and attached it to an interactive pop-up store in the middle of downtown Chicago – considered one of the bigger launch markets. The giant phone was fully functional and open to the public. With the whole city watching, people lined up around the block to make calls and send text messages using the world’s largest cell phone. The phone was featured in the St. Patrick’s Day parade, with call-ins to popular morning radio shows and audience sing-alongs over the phone to get the crowd on its feet.

They also immersed the target audience in branded environments online and off to bring them into direct contact with Cricket products and services in fun and surprising ways. Other tactics included attention-grabbing stunts like “newspaper on a train” – placing people on subways reading branded newspapers – and wallet drops, featuring Cricket-branded wallets filled with prizes. Every aspect of the campaign drove traffic to the agency-created campaign microsite, www.getsomerespekt.com.

The gimmick worked. Cricket received widespread coverage from sources like CNN, NBC News, technology and culture blogs like Engadget and Gizmodo and made the front page of Yahoo! News. The company signed up tens of thousands of new customers, directed 40,000 people to the microsite and generated 35.6 million media impressions. TV coverage of the event reached nearly 4.3 million consumers, while 63 stories about the event ran in print and online. 

2009 Monopoly at McDonald's


Agency: The Marketing Store
Client: McDonald's


McDonald’s planned to rerun its successful Monopoly promotion in 2009 targeting moms and young adults. The Marketing Store was charged with attracting more players and growing the number of mobile codes entered over the previous year. And it had to be done with 10 percent fewer product labels, leading to 10 percent fewer game pieces, in market. 

With purchases of McDonald’s food, consumers received a peel-off game stamp which held an access code underneath. Participants texted the access code to a mobile short code; then, if they replied to a text message with their birth year, they got another message, with a five-digit PIN and the randomly generated “dice roll” results of their play. 

When users registered at playatmcd.com, they could use the mobile PIN to link their holdings in the online game to the properties they’d collected via text play. Once text users registered online, they could submit up to 10 text codes a day. The core of the game remained collection of codes, which could only be done through in-store purchases.
The game achieved a 48 percent leap in mobile product codes entered, from just under 1.5 million in 2008 to nearly 2.1 million in 2009. On average, mobile players entered 28 percent more codes in 2009 compared to 2008. 

Ultimately, mobile code entry contributed to 6 percent more product codes entered online in 2009 over 2008, 5 percent more unique players --  breaking the 4 million online players mark – and 13 percent more site visits. 

SCOTT "Pasa el Buen Rollo de Costa a Costa"


Agency: MASS Hispanic
Client: Kimberly-Clark, SCOTT® Brand


To increase loyalty and drive cross-category purchase, SCOTT created the “Pasa el Buen Rollo de Costa a Costa” (Let the Good Vibes Roll from Coast to Coast) to encourage consumers to share their positive feelings in a “chain reaction” of good vibes across the nation. 

Leveraging its “dichos” (common-sense Spanish proverbs collected in a previous campaign), SCOTT asked consumers to pass along simple ways of how they apply them to everyday aspects of their lives.  
The campaign centered around a tour of community-center-hosted events in Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago and New York. Sampling, coupons, premiums, music, games and food were provided while consumers shared their good times in Buen Rollo (“good vibe”) teams. 

The program launched via a PR event during which a 12-foot SCOTT roll piƱata was broken to release Buen Rollo fortune cookies. Spokesperson Dra. Isabel partnered with local radio talent to deliver key messages and engage fans. Following each event, the Buen Rollo traveled on-air to the next market, with a symbolic, formal handoff from the radio host in current market to the host in the next. 

Storefront events drove shoppers to share their Buen Rollo for premiums, gifts-with-purchase, samples and coupons. On-package coupon stickers announced that $0.20 of each purchase went to a local community center educational benefit. Family Dollar used radio and TV to encourage people to call a toll-free number to spread their Buen Rollo for a chance to win a televised Pantry Check at home, plus $500 in Family Dollar gift certificates. Family Dollar also hosted Share Your Buen Rollo sweepstakes to win six months of home payments and launched the retailer’s first ever Spanish online microsite. 

To continue the “chain” in cyberspace, a minisite encouraged consumers to share their Buen Rollo to win $100, plus $100 for the person they shared with. Ten Spanish newspapers featured vignettes by seven local celebrities, chained across the U.S., sharing how they applied
sensible ideas to their everyday lives. Consumers were invited to comment and share. The program was backed by banners, e-blasts and print ads. 

The chain held. In addition to more than 101.3 million PR impressions, 19,000 consumers shared their Buen Rollos; select accounts accepted mixed tissue/ towel pallets for the first time, and sold out, and measured markets that received dedicated retailer support saw 2-9 percent growth over the previous 13 weeks.