Adidas approached the World Cup in 2010 as a genuine opportunity to create a strong public image in the minds of football fans around the world, so they decided to launch a Facebook campaign that would feature their F50 adiZero football boot before the matches actually started.
Although their overall goal was to establish themselves as the premiere sporting goods dealer for anything football relate, it was also very important to connect with South African fans on a personal level.
Target audience was worldwide, but specifically South Africans
Campaign raised funds for Nelson Mandela’s AIDS awareness program
Served as a link to original World Cup videos and editorials
Highlighted the product launch of the F50 adiZero football boot
Several 24 hour blocks were used to reach Facebook members
Throughout the campaign, over 2.3 million unique viewers had visited Adidas’s Facebook page, with 863,000 connections occurring over the first month alone. The average daily visits reached a half a million viewers, indicating that their campaign created genuine interest for return visitors. Brand awareness rose between 8-23% in different regions of the world. To view the actual study, click here.
Here’s a good lesson that the goal of Twitter efforts should not be to simply increase the number of Twitter followers (or Facebook Fans, or…). As noted by social-media-optimization.com, the objective of the Celtics online efforts is to drive people to their web site.
Celtics.com features GameTime Live, an application that features real time scores, tweets, and blogging with supporters throughout the world. The team beta-tested GameTime Live during the 2009 postseason, and more than 50,000 unique visitors checked it out during the triple-overtime loss to the Chicago Bulls in Game 6 of the first round.
It’s remarkable how many marketers, though, fall into that trap of trying to boost numbers for the sake of numbers.This is why setting an ROI goal is so critical. Are you trying to sell e-books (like me <grin>)? Then which specific page on your web site are you plugging?
Back to the Celtics:
YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/user/bostonceltics)
With less than 700 subscribers, the Celtics YouTube channel is not attracting a lot of attention at the moment. Most videos get around 1,000 views. However, the team recently began distributing exclusive locker room footage on YouTube which will drive more people to this channel and increase subscribers. This is a great example of providing different content for separate digital channels in order to make them more valuable in users eyes.
Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/bostonceltics)
With over 450,000 fans in its Facebook page, the Celtics are the second most popular NBA team on Facebook. Similar to the exclusive locker room video for YouTube subscribers, last week the Celtics launched 3-Point Play, an interactive stats prediction game for fans on its Facebook page.
Twitter (http://twitter.com/celtics)
With almost 22,000 Twitter followers, the Celtics have built up a good following. In addition to Tweeting quotes from press conferences and team events, the Celtics are also using Twitter to offer seating upgrades at games. The picture below was from earlier today.
I really like the stuff on Social-Media-Optimization.com. It’s worth adding their feed to your reader.
Can you use social media to sell a $140,000 product? Apparently, you can.
Piper Aircraft has sold one of its entry-level light sport aircraft, just days after launching a social media campaign that included a YouTube channel, a Facebook page, and a feed on Twitter. Piper hired a firm to create original content for all three channels.
The video strategy, as you’ll see in the embedded video below, was less about graphics but would focus on authenticity, featuring interviews with Pipers’ chief engineer and the chief pilot.
The site launched in early February and the company’s YouTube videos have been watched more than 30,000. The 7,500 Facebook fans are engaged (sending in photos, chatting with Piper reps on the page), and Piper says it’s already sold a plane online because of the campaign.
Total budget for the campaign was less than under $40,000.
Below, SearchEngineWatch.com correspondent Greg Jarboe interviews Michael Kolowich about the campaign, an in particular, the careful optimization of tags, key phrases, and descriptions used.
Do you know of any examples where a social media campaign paid for itself in a single sale?
Champion with the aim to provide its brand a distinct personality amongst young males, came up with a very creative and distinctive marketing strategy. It promoted the often ignored backyard athletes with incredible skills. Champion accumulated huge numbers of sports clips created by users on sites like YouTube which included videos ranging from trick basketball shots to mattress surfing. They sorted these video clippings and asked the most impressive to become part of a show. The entire exercise resulted in “Homestyle Sports,” a series of 12 episodes stitching together the best moments from these user videos. The impact of this program was far reaching then expected. Apart from creating a bond with everyday sports heroes; it achieved nearly 1.3 Mn views. Case study
Sports Media Challenge decided to popularize football among youth by launching the football blog called Every Game Counts (EGC). It carries posts by famous bloggers, most of whom are new to the online world. It is extensively linked to other blogs and message boards and carries details about hot subjects. Since its launch in August, the blog has attracted 25,000 unique hits and succeeded in building brand awareness online. Case study
Tod Maffin, COO and Senior Strategist at tMedia Strategies, is a digital marketing strategist, specializing in social media, mobile marketing, and viral marketing. [keynote speeches | bio]
Piper Aircraft has sold one of its entry-level light sport aircraft, just days after launching a social media campaign that included 
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Tod Maffin, COO and Senior Strategist at