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In November of 2009, Cheerios began a Facebook campaign that primarily targeted mothers with young children. In order to entice this demographic to become a fan, they offered a free children’s book to charity for each new member that made contact through Facebook. The campaign launch was scheduled in a 24 hour block format where all Facebook members meeting the criteria would see the ad. The overall goal was to increase the company’s image as a responsible, caring business that relates to their customers.
- Facebook campaign aimed at mothers with small children
- Free book donated to organization First Book for each fan
- Goal was to enhance company image with mothers
On November 5th, 2009, Cheerios has 133,129 visitors to their Facebook page, which is a 1500% increase from the previous day. The overall engagement rate (.19 percent) was a record for the company and Cheerios eventually had over 84.5 million total impressions. Over 200,000 people have become fans of the page since the campaign launch with 124,000 books given away. You can view the actual case study here.
During the early part of 2010, Mars Corporation launched a massive media campaign to advertise a new product; M&M pretzels. While this promotion was featured on television, radio commercials, and in various forms of print, Mars Corporation began their campaign on Facebook to increase initial awareness. To entice customers to become a fan of the site, 40,000 coupons for a free pack of M&M pretzels were given away.
- Facebook campaign began one month before product launch
- All demographics and income levels targeted
- First 40,000 users to become a fan of M&M’s USA received a free sample
- Samples shipped within 48 hours of enrolment
The free sample campaign was so successful that Mars Corporation eventually gave away 120,000 packs of M&M’s pretzel candy instead of the original 40,000. A total fan increase of 9% was experienced during the one month promotion and it continued to receive hits long after the campaign ended. Mars found customers to be much more knowledgeable about the product at launch because of Facebook. You can view the actual case study here.
image source: Wikipedia
With a name like Sullivan, count on me to kick things off with a case study from the Emerald Isle.
Founded in the 1950s, Tayto (a division of Largo Foods) is a top Irish crisp manufacturer (that’s potato chip to you, mate!) with the lovable Mr. Tayto as brand mascot. A veritable cultural icon, Mr. Tayto has his own autobiography and even made an appearance as a fake candidate in the 2007 Irish elections with a number of write in votes to his credit, no less. Needless to say, after more than 60 years on the market, it was time to spruce up Mr. Tayto’s image. Cue Ray Swan and the good people at McCann Erickson Dublin, Mindshare and Boondoggle, who came together to create a multichannel marketing and PR campaign that made mouths water:
Objectives:
- Develop a campaign that allows the audience to engage with the brand
- Make Mr. Tayto relevant again
Results:
- An increase in sales of nearly 1 million extra packets of Tayto crisps
- 90 000 hits on Bebo and Facebook
- Tayto regained the title of Number 1 crisp in Ireland
How did they do it? Check out this entertaining case study video posted by McCann on YouTube, as well as the campaign website and “Mr. Tayto – Guess who’s looking for love?” and “Mr Tayto – Clothes make the man” videos. You can also get campaign partner Mindshare’s take on the Tayto triumph through their own online case study.
For the curious among you, know that Tayto crisps come in the following mouth watering flavours: Cheese & Onion, Salt & Vinegar, Smokey Bacon, Ready Salted, Prawn Cocktail (!), and Tex Mex.
After you’ve … dare I say it … digested this case of Taytos, have fun watching this stand-up routine by Irish comedian Dara O’Briain and get a bit of a sense of what a cultural phenomenon the Tayto really is on the “udder” side of the pond.
Enjoy!
Michelle
Houlihan’s Restaurants, a chain that competes with the Appleby’s of the world, has taken a unique approach to marketing themselves online. Eschewing common advice to “go where the eyeballs are,” Houligan’s created a closed online community, letting it promote exclusive invitations to tasting events and other member-only events.
Backed by a 200,000-person email address list, the chain started by identifying its most active customers (those who participated in surveys, RSVPed to offers, etc.)
The chain’s community runs on the private-label Ning service. About 15 to 20 per cent are active members. “We gauge that by hits to the HQ site (when an e-mail is sent asking for feedback, to do a survey, etc),” Houligan’s digital marketing manager said.
Youch. And you thought your Facebook fan page management was tough.
Whole Foods, a grocery chain that positions itself as a large-scale local-food outlet, realized it couldn’t really maintain the image of a series of community-based stores by having a single Facebook fan page. So, it created more than 200 — one for each store, and assigned a local person at each store to manage the content for that outlet.
In this featured case study from Virology:
A page that truly stands out for Whole Foods is its Facebook Central Hub. From this page, a visitor is able to view and interact with the following:
1. Become a Fan
2. Easily locate the main FB Fan Page and view the latest postings
3. Find a local Whole Foods location and link out to the FB Fan Page (right sidebar)
When I google “Whole Foods Facebook,” you’ll notice that the Central Hub is the fourth link above the fold, giving Whole Foods the opportunity to rank well in the SERPs and get people on their main site when searching for their FB Fan Page.
Read the whole case study…
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