Disney Studios is known for their massive marketing budget when it comes to promoting new films, which often runs their return on investment (ROI) much lower than it needs to be in many cases. Other production companies had claimed that a high ROI could not be achieved through social marketing, and Step Up 2 the Streets was essentially Disney’s test product on MySpace to determine if such a campaign would be cost-effective.
- Disney released numerous advertisements on MySpace to spark interest
- Advertisements were not aimed for a hard sell; merely to communicate the brand
- Fans were allowed to communicate to the director and the stars through MySpace
- Over 49% of opening weekend attendees remembered the MySpace ads
By the time that Step Up 2 the Streets launched, Disney had over 156,000 friends on MySpace and several million hits over the course of the campaign. Almost half of the opening weekend respondents remembered seeing the MySpace ads and cited that it was one of the reasons they saw the movie, which was exactly the type of online image Disney had hoped for. More about this study can be found here.
With an operating budget of just under $10,000, Paramount Studios was not expecting tremendous numbers from the release of Paranormal Activity in theaters. To their surprise, however, the movie theaters across the country did not want anything to do with the low budget title; regardless of how good it was. Since there was absolutely no advertising budget available, a viral campaign on Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter was the sole forms of advertising.
- Celebrity premiere parties were held around 13 college campuses to raise interest
- Horror fans were taped watching the film to show their reactions
- Promo clips and fan reactions were posted on many social networking sites
- The Twitter campaign released new info during Twitter’s slowest hours- 2-6 AM
By creating one of the biggest viral movie campaigns of all time, hundreds of thousands of fans literally demanded that the film be brought to their local theaters. In fact, over 150 fans were listed within the credits simply for making the most noise around the net, which is a big reason why a $10,000 film grossed over $107,000,000 at the box office and an additional $16,000,000 on DVD. More about this study can be found here.
JetBlue executives realized that many of their travelers were experiencing numerous problems with the airlines and most of the time it stemmed from a lack of communication. Busy commuters did not have time to stop and read detailed information when they were rushing to catch a flight at the airport or lost at a baggage terminal, so Twitter seemed to be worth a closer look. This campaign focused on answering consumer questions in a laid back, friendly format…which was very different from the standard press releases that the company was used to.
- Customer service agents answered customer questions in real time
- Answers were conversational and designed to connect on a personal level
- Several formats were tried as the JetBlue Twitter account gained followers
JetBlue quickly realized that while standard company memos received almost no response at all, consumers were easily captivated with real time interactions from friendly staff members. Since their Twitter account had almost no followers at the launch of the campaign, it was relatively easy to try several different messaging formats until the right combination was found. The company considers this campaign a massive success in connecting with consumers on a personal level and they have plans to expand the program. You can read more about this case study here.
Best Buy was seeking a way to give added value to their customers outside of their physical store locations, so they decided to develop a running promotion on Twitter to answer an array of electronic and computer related questions. They expected that by finding a service that their competitors could not provide and essentially giving it away for free, it would vault them into a much higher overall market share within their industry.
- Qualified employees were asked to volunteer to answer questions on Twitter
- Each response was catalogued so that other users could find information faster
- Over 2,900 employees have answered 40,000 questions since the program launch
While it is tough to gauge the productivity of a free service, Best Buy has seen their @twelpforce account skyrocket with followers over the past twelve months. It also had an unexpected side-effect of boosting employee morale by making average workers the voice of the company; all on an extremely limited budget. You can read more about this case study here.
Very funny little “case study” video, subtlety mocking the marketing industry’s obsession with metrics. Definitely worth a watch.
Have a look at Pink Ponies.
Activia launched a Facebook campaign targeting women aged between 20 and 50 in April 2010. The main goal was to bring the brand closer to the consumers and develop brand awareness, focusing on the product Activia drink. This was possible by asking consumers to compete in five different challenges through different stages. The campaign was mostly online, while one final challenge extended to a small offline event. Promotions were supported by television and POS terminals and created a big buzz around.
Users posted pictures with Activia products and spread the word. The main winner went to an organized trekking trip to Indonesia climbing a volcano 3726 m high. She reported back by writing blog posts every few days, so others could follow and see the whole great experience. With the right engagement the brand become more searched, more sheared, developing a 52 % increase in branded search and a 620 % increase in referring page views, not to mention the mouth-to-mouth communication. The campaign was one of 20 of the most innovative Facebook campaigns.
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Tod Maffin, COO and Senior Strategist at