With the rise and rise of social networking, many live campaigns are effectively linking face to face activity with a digital platform to develop a longer lasting relationship with consumers. Often the live activity is now seen merely as a way of getting consumers on to that first step of the communication ladder. It's now understood that online gives brands the chance to build long term loyalty that live activity simply cannot.
One example of this was Sony Ericsson's launch of their new Satio handset towards the end of 2009. In order to drive excitement around the launch the campaign concept was to create the world’s biggest online flashmob using digital Space Hoppers that 'invaded' Yahoo.com on a particular date under the title of “Hopper Invasion!”. They leveraged the power of the facebook community and created a group to get people creating and customising their hoppers ready for the big invasion. To drive traffic to the group, Sony used Hopper teams in nightclubs to get consumers engaged with the concept and going online.
Targeting Hed Kandi club nights and University Balls across the UK, teams of Hopper girls took photographs of groups of friends on real Space Hoppers. Every punter was given a Hopper Invasion business card which gave them the web address for the Hopper facebook page. Over 20,000 young consumers were reached in a 3 week period and as a result traffic to the sites increased ten fold as consumers tagged their photos and forwarded them to their friends.
Online is now a crucial element of most live campaigns, and often the driver behind the activity itself. Digital agencies are now regularly the lead in many integrated campaigns. Experiential agencies without their own in house digital arms need to have a greater understanding of this new balance of power... or take a look at our own digital offering Say Cheese!
Thanks,
Mark Dunn
Senior Account Director
iD Experiential & Say Cheese UK
markd@idinfo.com
0207 428 1480