♔ SOCIAL MEDIA CASE STUDIES [GB_V34.0]

The big picture?  Agencies are increasingly incorporating tech talent into the creative process and building tech expertise inside and outside client relationships in order to produce integrated campaigns that effectively use social media, apps, mobile and viral video.


Hasbro, the board game maker, developed an app that turns your social network into one big Facebook-powered game of 'Guess Who?' - Video 

Miracle Whip – ‘Haters Gonna Hate’ Campaign embraces peoples polarizing reactions to generate buzz and pique interest taking the unusual route of offering an online forum to consumers who both love and hate the product - Video 

Organic brands Stonyfield Farm and Honest Tea are teaming up for a contest that encourages fans to submit videos about why organics are important to them - JustDrinkOrganic.com

Nissan's Accidental Test Drive - Car dealers have to get extremely creative these days to get people to take the all-important test-drive - even if that means accidentally blocking them in – Video

Search for places nearby using Google Maps, monitor your driving efficiency or even update your Facebook and Twitter status. MINI USA demonstrate their advanced integration between physical and digital worlds with ‘Connected’ - making it one with the MINI's hi-res cockpit display – Video


Absolut Vodka's campaign, "The Stoop Life Movement," has been honored with PRWeek's "Consumer Launch Campaign of the Year Award."  The campaign featured Brooklyn blogger outreach, fans' personal stoop stories, and local partnerships to drive engagement - PRWeek 

Test-drive a BMW X3 smashing across your favourite (and least favourite) websites. Browser-based game developed by (MDC's) Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal + Partners and Dotglu - Website 

Starbucks and MTV are using ‘Instagram’ (a photo sharing mobile application) to offer fans exclusive behind-the-scene views (that can be easily shared across the social space) - 360 Digital Influence 

Volkswagen (Australia's) 'Boot Tetris' Campaign took over shopping centers and 71 VW dealerships across Australia engaging more then 17,000 people (and exceeding sales targets by 25%) – Video 

Tipp-Ex's video (highly viral and interactive with 16,014,627 views) video plays off of your expectations of YouTube's functionality – Video 

EA SPORTS is using a new Facebook app that gives fans an exclusive view of the Augusta National golf course to promote their new video game - Facebook 

H&R Block, Comcast, Southwest Airlines, Zappos, and Whole Foods Market were among the top ten companies named in Time Magazine's  ‘140 Best Twitter Feeds’ - TIME 

The successful PEDIGREE Adoption Drive for Dogs features Facebook Ads and PR activities and has led to the donation of more than 1.2 million bowls of food to shelters across the U.S. Read the Case Study 

In the spirit of April Fools, Molson Coors announced the sophomoric ‘tongue koozie’ by partnering with a Canadian lifestyle blogger - Casie Stewart 

Major League Baseball has named Mike O'Hara as their official Social Media Ambassador to run the new MLB ‘Fan Cave’ and manage all of the league's social media correspondence - MLB.com 

MATTEL goes guerrilla and wows with disruptive creative billboards – More

Winners and runner-ups from BtoB Magazine's second annual Social Media Marketing Awards are open to public voting for the "People's Choice Award." The finalists include EMC, Cisco Systems, Microsoft, Firehouse.com, LexisNexis, and Omni Hotels & Resorts - BtoB Magazine 

InterContinental Hotels Group shares how IHG used online communities to jumpstart its global social media programs - Vimeo 

Many companies offer discounts and deals on Facebook, but Expedia is giving away $1 million in prizes (including five trips that cost more than $100,000) - More 

Getting an extreme “social” makeover, the SKITTLES home page has been converted to a twitter search - targeted to the word #skittles from any twitter post – Website 

Ford, CBS, PepsiCo, Best Buy, and Procter & Gamble are all using social media to keep fans interested and engaged in their brand - Fast Company Design 

3LiveShop (by B-Reel) allows you and the sales person to see and talk to each other while the sales person demonstrates products and services to you (just like on a video conference – only better.) – Video

TOYOTA Prius turns its hand to real-time record breaking. Over two days - March 30th and 31^st, 2011 - Toyota Prius attempted to break 200 World Records - Video

Director Chris Milk's Interview at the Creativity and Technology Conference CaT (London 2010) talks about the evolution of Storytelling using digital tools - Video 

DDB° Paris created a billboard for TROPICANA completely powered by oranges.  Electricity is generated by attaching 2,500 oranges to wood fitted with zinc and copper spikes - Video 

PLAYTEX Sport’s ‘Unstoppable Moves’ (UGC) Campaign (by Social Control) encourages users to upload their best moves, make a video mash-up and view submissions on their YouTube Channel. For this effort they donate $5 to the Women’s Sports Foundation – More 

The Customer Service Happiness Manifesto by John O’Nolan – Article 

Coca-Cola brand Fanta's Chase 3D Projection Mapping (by Ogilvy) stunt at Dubai Mall definitely gets your attention – Video 

♔ Nissan's Accidental Test Drive

Perhaps more than any other brand category, the consumer purchase route in the automotive industry relies on pre-purchase trials. While this is understandable as the test drive is a lengthy process, and with so many marquees on offer, this presents another layer of competition for motor companies.  Although the Nissan Patrol had undergone several developments leading to a more sophisticated and luxurious design, the basic outside design had remained largely unchanged. Nissan needed to get potential drivers to experience the interior changes for themselves.

Recognising that drivers often prefer specific types of vehicle, Arabian Automobiles (the exclusive Nissan distributor in Dubai) chose to target drivers of competitor SUV models. But instead of wasting time trying to persuade otherwise loyal drivers to book a test drive with a different brand, Arabian Automobiles chose to take the test drive to the drivers - and force them to take part.

On different days at different car parks, Nissan Patrols blocked other SUVs in their bays by parking behind them. When drivers returned to their vehicles, they discovered a note on their windscreen encouraging them to move the Nissan Patrol behind them.

Once they were inside the Patrol and had started the vehicle, a CD automatically played a special message that apologised for the inconvenience, explained the new features of the Patrol and encouraged the driver to sign up for a real test drive. At the end of the message, drivers were invited to collect a CD from the central console that contained brochures and videos of the Patrol in action.  Since this took place in car parks, Arabian Automobiles needed police permissions, a filming permit, and of a new Patrol vehicle for the participant to use.

Results

After the mini test drive, Nissan invited drivers to sign up for a longer test experience. On average, 7 out of 10 respondents opted for a full test drive, including drivers of Toyotas, Jeeps and Range Rovers.  Two drivers failed to "get" the stunt. One woman who called the police and one angry man beeped the horn for 10 red-faced minutes.  Nissan plan to repeat the stunt over more weekends, and Arabian Automobiles have adopted this technique as part of the 2011 Patrol marketing plan.  The campaign was by TBWA/RAAD.

The New Capitalist Manifesto: Building a Disruptively Better Business

The New Capitalist Manifesto: Building a Disruptively Better Business - by Umair Haque  - 256 pages.  Publication date: Jan 04, 2011. Prod. #: 12794-HBK-ENG

Welcome to the worst decade since the Great Depression. Trillions of dollars of financial assets destroyed; trillions in shareholder value vanished; worldwide GDP stalled. But this isn't a financial crisis, or even an economic one, says Umair Haque. It's a crisis of institutions--ideals inherited from the industrial age. These ideals include rampant exploitation of resources, top-down command of resource allocations, withholding of information from stakeholders to control them, and a single-minded pursuit of profit for its own sake. 

All this has produced "thin value"--short-term economic gains that accrue to some people far more than others, and that don't make us happier or healthier. It has left resources depleted and has spawned conflict, organizational rigidity, economic stagnation, and nihilism. In The New Capitalist Manifesto, Haque advocates a new set of ideals: 

(1)Renewal: Use resources sustainably to maximize efficiencies, 

(2) Democracy: Allocate resources democratically to foster organizational agility,

(3) Peace: Practice economic non-violence in business,

(4) Equity: Create industries that make the least well off better off, and 

(5) Meaning: Generate payoffs that tangibly improve quality of life. 

Yes, adopting these ideals requires bold and sustained changes. But some companies--Google, Walmart, Nike--are rising to the challenge. In this bold manifesto, Haque makes an irresistible business case for following their lead.

Forward:

♔ Volkswagen (Australia's) 'Boot Tetris' Campaign

Volkswagen launched the Golf Wagon in a tough climate. After the worst of the global financial crisis appeared to be over, most car manufacturers were still suffering from sluggish sales. 

 The challenge facing VW was that it core audience regarded sport utility vehicles (or SUVs) as the car of choice for growing families in need of space. VW wanted to establish the Golf Wagon as a viable, fuel-efficient alternative to the SUV that had just as much space inside. A target of 10,000 customer interactions was set as a suitable number from which to generate meaningful sales leads.

VW required a communications strategy that broke the established rules of car advertising. Rather than focus solely on the functional benefits by listing features in traditional one-way broadcast media VW wanted to capture the interest and imagination of its audience enabling them to experience the car and benefits first hand. 

Three insights shaped the communications strategy for the Golf Wagon: Category, brand and consumer. 

 The category insight revealed that the car industry had in the past focused on the communication of a car's functional benefits in traditional advertising. VW strategy had to defy category conventions by entertaining in non-traditional channels. 

The Volkswagen brand has an irreverent and playful image (See VW fun theory). Research indicated that people were more willing to interact with Volkswagen than many competitor brands. VW strategy had to leverage this untapped opportunity by creating a one-to-one brand experience.

target consumer

VW's target consumers possess a strongly entrenched belief that SUVs offer more space than other cars, so VW had to convincingly prove that the Golf Wagon was just a spacious, This idea not only had to engage the potential buyer, but also for the kids they were likely to have accompanying them.

One of the most popular games the target consumer (aged 35-45 years) played when they were young was Tetris. This shape tessellation game was made world famous when it was distributed free with Nintendo's Game Boy handheld gaming system.

VW chose to adapt the famous game and use it to showcase the size of the Golf Wagon boot: Boot Tetris was born, as consumers tackled the challenge of packing the Golf Wagon boot with giant sized Tetris pieces in the quickest time possible.

Once VW brokered a licensing agreement with the creator of Tetris in the United States and secured his approval for the creation of Boot Tetris, Boot Tetris took over VW dealerships and shopping centers. It ran in 71 Volkswagen dealerships across Australia as well as a number of shopping centers that were selected on the basis of their index against the target audience. 

A bespoke Boot Tetris installation accommodating a Golf Wagon was created at each location. Each installation had a timing clock installed which recorded the time it took for players to place all 22 pieces into the boot. 



The installation included large screen LED TVs that displayed bespoke digital creative and a number of promotional staff that acted as game referees and captured leads from interested consumers. There was also a leaderboard at each location that displayed the ten quickest recorded times from that day. 

The Boot Tetris campaign was extended online with the creation of a microsite that informed consumers of where the tournament would take place.  This site also hosted a regularly updated leaderboard with the fastest times at each location and overall. The idea was also supported on Volkswagen's central website. 

At the end of the tournament consumers with the fastest time won prizes, which included an all expenses paid family weekend away in a Golf Wagon.

The resultS

The campaign overtook its engagement objectives by 61%, engaging with 17,477 people. 

The microsite attracted 32,433 unique visitors. 

The activation delivered 155 brochure requests, 430% more than the digital component. 
Volkswagen exceeded its sales targets for the Golf Wagon by 25%.  The activity was shortlisted in the Festival of Media Awards 2011 in the following categories:  "Best Communication and Entertainment Platform" and "Best Use of Creative Media".


Don't forget, you can get many more Case Studies, Campaigns, and Innovation daily by following Goodbuzz on Twitter and Facebook.  Content is unique to each channel and we try not to overlap and keep it fresh.  If you have campaigns or examples you'd like posted or discussed, please feel free to post or send it to us directly. 

♔ SOCIAL MEDIA CASE STUDIES [GB_V33.0]

This socially activated Foursquare campaign installation (for GranataPet, Germany) is so clever even Pavlov would be proud. The pet food brand positioned a socially activated installation to capture the target group while they walked their dogs - Video 

Guy Kawasaki and Brian Solis discuss brands, vision, inspiration, and Guy’s upcoming book the 'Art of Enchantment' – Video 

Jim Beam's Live Music Series is connecting fans and musicians with live concerts, exclusive live tracks, artist interviews, concert videos, and more - Jim Beam 

Get the Insider’s Experience and watch the Louis Vuitton fashion show from the front row via their highly interactive microsite 

This clever Skittles 'Touch' video is funny, viral, interactive and definitely disruptive – Video 

EA's guerilla teams secretly invaded the streets of London and Paris with 3D Projection Mapping - letting bystanders be the first to play the Crysis 2 game – Video 

Levi's new Watertank application on Facebook is encouraging fans to participate in saving water by registering to play the online game and help Water.org distribute water to those in need - Facebook 

72andSunny make the mobile check-in coupon experience a bit more interesting with their Happy Star Rewards™ App for Carl's Jr. and Hardee's - App 

Buick's March Madness campaign includes sponsored content on NCAA official Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Foursquare apps, as well as a series of mini films featuring former student athletes doing good works  - Advertising Age 

In an increasingly fabricated world of spun messages and concocted experiences it's tough to demonstrate a brand's authenticity--even for a 200 year-old brand like Altoids - Goodbuzz 

The new Facebook Questions feature allows you to easily create any number of different poll types to solicit feedback and recommendations from your fans – More. What FB Questions means for Marketers? - More.

TLC's new blog, Parentables, is creating a space for parents to learn and share everything from owning and decorating a home to raising a family and staying healthy - Twitter 

Ralph Lauren’s 4D Projection Mapping made buildings seem to suddenly opened up like a dollhouse to unleash a 3D parade of four-story tall models, a gigantic virtual polo match, and larger-than-life products - Video 

Silk is encouraging fans to participate in their "Silk for Milk 10-Day Challenge" on Facebook through Twitter, YouTube videos, and a new micro site following their sampling road tour  - KOLD 

Carlsberg's (Sweden) “Unbottle Yourself” engaging website and iPhone app (by Åkestam Holst) extends 500 challenges and instant rewards - Video 

State Farm is launching a Facebook sweepstakes that requires fans to tag themselves in pictures of Ford automobiles for a chance to win a Ford Fusion hybrid - DMNews 

How Toyota leverages Social Media to Build Brand Advocacy (and doubled FB followers in two months) - Video 

After their huge success with a virtual snowball fight on Twitter last month, Rayovac is expanding their social media outreach with content for their "Indestructible Tour" spanning across Tumblr, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and blogs  - ragan.com 

To ensure you can be just as annoying as that jackass sitting next to you at the last sporting event you attended, Pereira & O'Dell have developed a Pocket Vuvuzela iPhone App – Video 

For their new "Mac & Cheese TV" initiative, Kraft Foods is selecting five tweets from fans about macaroni and cheese to air on several cable TV late nightspots - ClickZ 

The Cleveland Indians are revamping their social media strategy for the 2011 season to include the Indians Social Suite -- an entire suite at Progressive Field catering to social media users - MLB.com 

Soccer team Manchester United boasts the team with the most Facebook fans (with more than 10 million). Check out the Case Study 

Dell's shares how they are harnessing the power of social media to connect with customers, build relationships, and be perceived as a valued partner - Vimeo 

How do you create a brand for a country like Kenya that reinforces and resonates with how the citizens feel about themselves?  Hyper Island and iAD, Mikael Näslund came up with this clever campaign - Video 

Adidas France - 3D Mapping Projection is all about creativity, and establishing an emotional connection with the brand – Video 

Neuroscience, Primary Research, and Empathy - Jeremy Rifkin investigates the evolution of empathy, communication, and the profound ways it shapes our development and our society - Video 

A web interface for Microsoft's Halo franchise (by AKQA and Autofuss) lets gamers manipulate a Kuka industrial robot to create a virtual monument to Spartan warriors in Halo: Reach - Video 

Nike Football's ‘Write the Future’ Campaign uses Facebook to reach and connect with global football fans - Video 

Ford’s ‘Edge of Progress Tour’ has a GOOD writer cross the country in a Ford Edge to meet innovators and develop branded content – More 

The 'Escape Machine' (for Voyages) experience developed by DDB (Paris) surprises (and coincidentally offers the best way to explain post-coital bliss to the uninitiated we’ve ever seen) - Video 

Graphic Design legend David Carson on doing work you really love (and surfing as much as possible) – Video 

Nearly two decades after changing the face of typography with his magazine Ray Gun, David Carson is back with a new glossy—in print, of course—titled simply, CARSON – More 

Branding 101- Exploring the fragile link between authenticity and branding - More.

Don't forget, you can get many more Case Studies, Campaigns, and Innovation daily by following Goodbuzz on Twitter and Facebook.  Content is unique to each channel and we try not to overlap and keep it fresh.


If you have campaigns or examples you'd like posted or discussed, please feel free to post or send it to us directly.