One of the largest airlines in the world, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, is also considered one of the best in converting “Likes” into paying customers. Part of their marketing success is their willingness to take bold yet calculated risks. They are able to do this because they understand the customer buying journey. The touch points along the journey a lead or existing customer takes as they experience the KLM brand and then, how KLM works to improve each touch point along the path.
They began in social media the summer of 2009. Since then, they had a few failures along with great successes. One of their more controversial and successful campaigns is their Meet and Seat initiative. See below video. It’s a way for you to see who you may be sitting next to days before you board the plane.
Seven Social Media Campaigns Documented
To read the case studies of each campaign, go to their Facebook Page and click our social journey. They provide details about each campaign and insight into what made each one successful. They also did a 4 part series about their social media strategy. Part 3 of the series talks about some of the campaigns. Skip 1, 2, and 4. Weak on substance and depth. Not worth your time to read unless you are new to social media.
Cisco decided to use a social media campaign to promote the launch of it’s upcoming ASR 1000 Router Series. Cisco created a fun micro site to spread the word and grab public attention. Videos were cross posted to YouTube to extend reach. Cisco also created a Facebook group, an interactive 3D game and a custom widget to promote the ASR 1000 series. It featured the ASR 1000 series on it’s blog and sent a two paragraph teaser to press to fuel buzz. The product was launched online and launch videos posted on Facebook and YouTube. Cisco received a lot of sales inquiries through this campaign. Case Study
In order to spread awareness and enhance sales of 1/3 Less Fat Philadelphia Cream Cheese by Kraft, the company came up with innovative idea. The word-of-mouth campaign targeted audiences through a series of authentic blog articles and videos of Adam and Tyler’s interactions. Additional online buzz for the campaign was created by seeding the videos, as well as Bloopers, to YouTube in order to raise traffic to www.AdamAndTyler.com. The campaign generated over 535,088 direct online conversations, 7,000 video views and 50,000 blog views. Case study
Procter & Gamble (P&G), marketers of heartburn medication Prilosec OTC, utilized social medium to give away eight Super Bowl tickets on behalf of the medication. As a cost-effective, creative means popularize the campaign, the company developed an online instant-win sweepstakes. P&G also assembled a strong database of 200 influential blogs, message boards and Web sites in the area of sports, parenting and contests. To further reach the consumers it created a rich media widget for consumers to upload to their blog or social networking page and also developed Facebook profile. The results were outstanding since the campaign was able to reach 1,225,000 unique visitors on blogs and nearly39% of registered entrants qualified for a Prilosec OTC sample. Case study
JCPenney lingerie line with a goal to know more about Ambrielle customer and her fit concerns launched an exclusive strategy through online social mediums. It launched Ambrielle Team, a private online community dedicated to its lingerie line consumers, where the team became more aware of her fit and quality issues through a series of online discussions within the community. Participating members were invited to voice their opinions through discussion board, online activity and live online chats with the product team of JCPenney. The results have been very optimistic since the company has been able to foster extensively with their customers. Case study
Yahoo launched a new community designed to exploit the world’s knowledge. To popularize its Q&A site Yahoo Answers, the company planned a marketing campaign that bought real users to the center stage of it. Users were challenged to solve some of the world’s most important issues, through a month of high profile questions from celebrities. Offline, the idea was showcased through a big event in a famous location. Since its launch, in December 2005 the site has achieved tremendous success and turned out to be the most popular site with 60 million users and 120 million answers worldwide. Case study
ACDSee utilized social media to generate awareness regarding its powerful organizing capabilities to digital scrapbookers. The marketing tactics proved to be successful in establishing the software brand. The entire campaign began with a post in a forum outlining how ACDSee Photo Manager met organizing needs. People went on to ask questions and the company responded with technical support. The interest of people and the resources of the company grew significantly. As a resultant, ACDSee conversations were visible at over 50 sites. Case study
To generate awareness regarding its new Compass, a powerful stereo system, the company Jeep intelligently utilized social mediums like MySpace and Facebook. The social networking campaign involved organizing a series of live musical concerts throughout the country and information about each of these shows was only available through MySpace and Facebook pages. The result of the campaign is visible from the fact that MySpace profile of jeep gathered over 12,000 friends, 258 comments and over 1.3M clicks. Case study
American Skiing Company wanted to explore marketing opportunities within the social media that could blend societal nature of skiing and improve the consumer’s experience. They came up with an exclusive and innovative All for One multi-resort season pass and launched a website MyA41which provided an opportunity to all multi-resort passholders to connect through social media. The program was a huge success and witnessed a participation of 3,900 All for One season passholders with an average member age of 42. Case study
Nokia one of the brand leaders in mobile industry to compete with new contenders came up with a strategy to build a network of ambassadors to spread buzz about Nokia software and services through both on and offline channels. The company, in collaboration with Finnish Agency Satama, built a website/landing page, at which Nokia fans could register to become product ambassadors. The participants were also provided incentives to sign up. Within 4 months over 5500 consumers had signed up for ambassador program and helped the company to spread information regarding its software and services to over 134,000 consumers. Case study
One of the largest airlines in the world, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, is also considered one of the best in converting “Likes” into paying customers. Part of their marketing success is their willingness to take bold yet calculated risks. They are able to do this because they understand the customer buying journey. The touch points along the journey a lead or existing customer takes as they experience the KLM brand and then, how KLM works to improve each touch point along the path.