Holiday Inn :::Stay smart, presidential style

BRAND OWNER :InterContinental Hotels Group
CATEGORY :Travel/Airlines
REGION :USA
DATE :Feb 2008 - Apr 2008


The Holiday Inn Express frequent business traveller spends a lot of time on the road and they know what they like: practical amenities, without all kinds of extra fluff (and cost).
This is the premise for Holiday Inn Express’ “Stay Smart” brand promise: you’ll feel smarter for having stayed with HI Express instead of “fancier” full service hotels.
Holiday Inn capitalised on the unprecedented level of media interest in the 2008 US Presidential race by creating a media conversation around the Holiday Inn Express brand positioning.
In the midst of the most expensive campaign in history, the Stay Smart, America website exposed how fiscally responsible- and irresponsible- the Presidential candidates were.
The success of the website hinged on a risky but hugely successful communications strategy that relied solely on PR to push the website and its message. No paid media was purchased, online or offline, to tout Stay Smart America. This was an unconventional strategy that paid off huge for the brand.
Leveraging the candidate’s public FEC filings, the website analysed and published the candidate’s campaign lodging expenditures and determined how much they would have saved if they stayed with Holiday Inn Express.
The story was first offered up to respected journalist and blogger Chris Elliott of The New York Times for inclusion on his blog. Once Elliott ran the exclusive, the release was then strategically distributed right before Super to the Top 100 daily newspapers, national television and relevant Web sites, blogs, social networks and message boards.
In the first 2 weeks the website generated over 85m media impressions and secured online and offline, national and international coverage on Fox News, CBS, The London Times, The New York Times, The Washington Post, LA Times, and USA Today, among dozens of political and news blogs. The Stay Smart, America website, developed for $100K, set off a storm of press activity that returned over $2.5MM+ in free media coverage.

Obama :::Rock the vote in-game

BRAND OWNER:Obama
CATEGORY:Government/Public Sector
REGION:USA
DATE:Oct 2008 - Nov 2008

For Barack Obama to win the 2008 election, he needed to secure a majority of young voters in key battleground states. The Rock the Vote campaign sought to engage and incite young Americans under 30 to register and vote.
In-game advertising has become an effective way for brands to reach coveted young audiences. Among the hard to reach 18-34 male audience, console and PC gaming is strongly preferred as their favorite leisure activity.
While playing videogames, engagement is extremely high and multitasking is almost non-existent compared to watching TV or surfing the internet.
Brand Obama partnered with Microsoft in-game advertising specialist Massive to reach the Xbox Live community.
Rock the Vote was able to successfully call this social community to action through relevant political issues that they care about. Gamers could get voter registration forms sent to their email, vote in an online presidential poll, download themes and gamer pics to show their allegiance for favored candidates.
Obama ran his “Rock the Vote” campaign in 11 Xbox 360 titles across 10 battleground states using geo targeting, time date targeting and content targeting. Gamers who were online in those states saw key messages in realistic settings while playing the video game titles running the campaign. ‘Early Voting has begun’ and ‘Vote Early’ were on billboards, stadiums and outdoor locations.
Additionally, the Xbox LIVE community was polled on their candidate of choice. Nearly 100,000 participants cast their votes, with Obama trending 12 percentage points ahead, providing a unique insight into young voters minds and served as one of the largest unofficial polls in the nation.
The campaign was a first for a political party and succeeded in targeting a hard to reach audience that spends more time gaming than on other media. Some 80,000 voter registration forms were downloaded through Xbox LIVE and Xbox.com and 100,000 Xbox LIVE member were polled voting preference and often acted as the bellwether of national polls.

Know better::: I Cant Believe Its Not Butter

BRAND OWNER :Unilever
CATEGORY :Food
REGION :USA
DATE :Jan 2008 - Mar 2008

I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter!(ICBINB) was under a new threat. The growing health trend towards all-natural products reinforced many women’s long-held belief that butter is healthy because it is natural.

ICBINB had been communicating that it was the healthier alternative to butter for years, but consumers were confused about which health messages to believe.

ICBINB had to reinforce its health credentials and dispel some incorrect beliefs held by the target audience of women aged 45-54.
The brand worked with MSN Games to develop Now You Know Better, a custom online trivia game with an opportunity to win $1 million. In the game, players answered a variety of trivia questions dating back to the '50s on topics ranging from U.S. history to health to movies.

The questions focused on ‘then vs. now’ and took a tongue-in-cheek look at the naiveté of the past, while educating on the present and on ICBINB.

Players could compete against up to four other players online and select an animated online personality and screen name. Celebrities like Gary Coleman and Dustin Diamond took part in the game through a series of public service announcement-style vignettes in which they confessed their "Know Better" moments. In addition to the $1,000,000 grand prize, there were more than $40,000 in prizes up for grabs during the Sweepstakes.

The Web site also featured recipes and instant print coupons for I Can't Believe It's Not Butter! Now You Know Better was the most popular trivia game on MSN Games ever, with 1.2 million unique players. Among its target 45–54 female audience, the campaign increased the perception that the brand “is healthier than butter” (21.4% increase) and “has the great butter taste” (11% increase). The campaign helped ICBINB to outperform the category during the first half of 2008 in terms of both volume and dollars.

McDonald’s::: Personalised coupons

BRAND OWNER:McDonald's
CATEGORY:Food
REGION:China
DATE:Feb 2008 - Mar 2008


Discount coupons are an important element in driving in-store traffic, but McDonald’s wanted to help lower cost of its coupon strategy while breaking through the cluttered coupon market and targeting 18-25 year olds.
McDonald’s came up of a way of putting the target audience in control of their coupon – allowing them to customize their personal coupon according to their preference.

McDonald’s partnered with China’s largest online network QQ, and created an advertising banner that was embedded within the QQ Member Instant Messaging screen to encourage click-thru.

After clicking on the banner, users are able to customize their meal according to their preference.

They could then either print or download their personalized coupon onto their mobile phone.

In just 4 weeks a total of almost 550,000 clicked through and some 800,000 coupons were created. 680,000 QQ members downloaded the coupon onto their mobile or printed them after having customized them.

This represented a 43% conversion for McDonald’s. Furthermore, 190,000 people redeemed their coupons at a McDonald’s store, giving the campaign a total response rate of 11.87% (compared to a traditional insertion coupon campaign that yielded a 0.62% response rate).

Sony Ericsson:::15 seconds of fame

BRAND OWNER:Sony Ericsson
CATEGORY:Telecoms/ Mobile
REGION:Netherlands
DATE:Nov 2008

For the launch of its C905 model, which boasts an 8.1 mega pixel camera, Sony Ericsson transformed a bus shelter at Rembrandtplein in Amsterdam into a photo studio.
The aim of this campaign was to demonstrate the camera’s capabilities, with a special focus on how the mobile imaging of this model is as good as any digital camera.

To illustrate this, the panel was fitted with a touchscreen, which passers-by could interact with. The panel was fitted with a C905 camera, and people could pose for a photo in the bus shelter and then have their image transferred to a large 87m2 screen opposite.

The campaign took seconds but gave everyone who wanted it their 15 seconds of fame.

MasterCard::: Priceless in Brazil

BRAND OWNER:MasterCard
CATEGORY:Financial
REGION:Brazil
DATE:Apr 2008 - Dec 2008


In Brazil, people have developed their own interpretations of what it means for an experience to be “Priceless" independent of MasterCard’s landmark campaign.

Many Brazilians' personal expressions of moments so special one cannot put a price tag on them were already online in video and blog-posting form. MasterCard could not ignore the opportunity to marry the pre-existing affinity for this concept to a whole new level of affection for the credit card brand.

Brazilians are the most active social networkers in the world: 76% percent have an online profile and 56% manage their profiles daily.

MasterCard’s goal was to move its “Priceless” concept forward using user-generated content (UGC) and social networking capabilities.

It launched a central site (http://www.naotempreco.com.br/) inviting Brazilians to share real events from their lives. The winning submissions were taken on as TV spots, with many others used on cable TV, magazines, newspapers and online.
MasterCard teamed with the SBT variety show “Domingo Legal”—the most popular Sunday TV program in Brazil—to feature viewers’ “Priceless” moments. One-minute “Priceless” segments were showcased on AXN and Sony cable channels, which offer the highest penetration for MasterCard’s upscale target audience. Viral networks, search engines and social networks were also engaged.

This was the first time any financial services company in Brazil had ever attempted to use UGC in a marketing initiative. Some 63,000 “Priceless” ideas were submitted via http://www.naotempreco.com.br/. The site had 36 million page views.

HP :::Serena Williams endorses HP

BRAND OWNER:Hewlett Packard
CATEGORY:Electronic Goods
REGION:India
DATE :Mar 2008 - Apr 2008


Hewlett Packard dominates the notebook market in India with its two brands - Compaq and HP Pavilion.

Due to its price premium, HP Pavilion is the more lucrative brand, so HP wanted to position this brand as amore fashionable laptop.

To make HP Pavilion a fashion brand, it needed to be seen by the right people in the right place.

HP Pavilion sponsored Indian Fashion Week in Delhi and, recognizing that celebrity endorsement is 62% more influential in India than elsewhere, decided to leverage the HP ambassador Serena Williams, who was visiting at the time to play the Bangalore Open.

While she was a tennis icon, she was not immediately associated with fashion. HP discovered that Williams adored hip designer duo Nikhil & Shantanu – the toast of Indian fashion. So the designers were commissioned to create a collection based on the skins of the limited imprint edition HP Pavilion for Williams to wear.

HP created 12 fashion-themed road shows in regions near Delhi as well as an online campaign and TV campaign on Fashion TV. HP also held a press conference with Serena Williams following the Bangalore Open, held as part of Fashion Week. It was staged as a fashion show, with Serena walking the catwalk with models wearing the Nikhil-Shantanu collection.
The entire cost only around $200k USD. The Limited Edition version of the HP Pavilion was out of stock in within two months.

The Nintendo Game Boy Timeline

Contest replaces ad campaign for Nissan launch

If contests can be used to fill a job or promote a region of the world, why couldn't they launch a car?
That's apparently the thinking at Nissan Canada, which recently kicked off a competition to select 50 people to win a free 2009 Nissan Cube.

Nissan Canada's hypercube contest is a unique social media campaign to promote the company's new Cube vehicle, which launches in May. Rather than embark on yet another mass-media advertising campaign, Nissan and Capital C—its creative partner in the effort—have chosen to tap the creativity of Canadian consumers.

Back in March they invited up to 1,000 Canadian musicians, DJs, dancers, programmers, designers, bloggers, podcasters, poets, writers, storytellers and artists—"anyone who considers themselves creative, hip, interesting or unique"—to explain via survey and Twitter why they should be selected to audition for one of the winning 50 spots.
From that initial group the top-scoring 500 individuals were selected to audition via Facebook, Twitter and the hypercube site using photos, videos, illustrations or other media to demonstrate how they personify the Cube brand. (Current examples can be found here.)
Due to wrap up in mid-May, auditions will be evaluated by a panel of independent judges based on uniqueness, creativity, personality, enthusiasm, survey responses and peer voting. Consumers can register to vote on the hypercube site, and the 50 winners of the brand-new Cube will be announced in mid-June.
With advertising clutter and consumer skepticism at the heights they are, it's no wonder clever marketers are turning to alternative methods to break through the din.
The contests will continue to come fast and furious, we expect—why not try one out for your net-savvy brand? (Related: Scion drives into Second Life.)
Website: www.hypercube.ca
Contact: joncube@hypercube.ca

Lyntoto:::Betting on women

BRAND OWNER:Norsk Rikstoto
CATEGORY:Sport/Leisure
REGION:Norway
DATE :Apr 2008 - Aug 2008


Norsk Rikstoto is an independent foundation established by the Norwegian Trotting Association and the Norwegian Jockey Club.

Betting on horses is big business in Norway, but the foundation was seeing its consumer base of men over the age of 40 dwindle.






Lyntoto is a gambling product aimed at those who don’t really understand horse racing and trotting. An automated system uses form and rankings to pick the horses the customer bets on in seven different races that take place every Saturday.
Norsk Rikstoto isolated women aged 25-55 as a key untapped target audience for Lyntoto. The women they wanted to attract were“fortune gamblers”, i.e. attracted by big prizes but with little understanding of the sport. The campaign revolved around a humorous gambling kiosk owner called Tor who explains to younger customers how to bet on the horses with Lyntoto. This was launched on TV, online, radio and in print.
By targeting such an different audience, Lyntoto increased its sales by 16.5% and continues to run into 2009.

Whiskas::: Let's purr together

BRAND OWNER:Mars
CATEGORY:Pet Care
REGION:Hungary
DATE:Jan 2008 - Mar 2008


Whiskas is market leader in Hungary, but it was under threat from competitors including own-label products. It needed to push the emotional brand connection it had started to establish with its regional them of “let’s purr together”, especially in the more competitive dry food sector.

Whiskas’ target audience was women aged 35-55 who don’t just look for functional features in cat food, they look for the product that will most satisfy their feline friends.
A cat’s purr is the universal sign of feline satisfaction, so Whiskas strategy had to exploit it via audio and audio-visual channels.

Whiskas created an owner-purring contest which ran on Hungary’s most popular national morning radio show.

Participants applied by SMS to purr on air and prizes were given out to the best purring owners. In-store there were displays triggered by motion-sensors.

When someone passed the displays, the movement triggered the message: “Meoww, purr, irresistibly tasty Whiskas dry food with pocket kibbles”. This was supported by a microsite and a TV and radio campaign.

The in-store programme was particularly successful, delivering a 16% sales volume uplift for the Whiskas dry portfolio.