How To Amplify Consumer Engagement By Combining Social & Digital OOH

January 20, 2014 by guest author, Paul Vincent

ciroc

GUEST POST

Although the rationale for leveraging social media in a cross channel strategy is obvious to some, it remains less obvious to many in the Out Of Home industry. So it’s worthwhile both explaining that rationale, and then demonstrating its measurable impact.

The “old way” of advertising was one way, akin to monologue, where the advertiser told the audience that their product washed whiter and a percentage of the audience accepted that as fact. John Wanamaker (an innovator in retail who pioneered full page newspaper advertising in the late 1800’s) famously stated that “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.

The “new way” of advertising, when it works, is two-way, i.e. closer to a dialogue where the advertiser encourages the audience to talk favorable about their product to their peers. We are more likely to watch Breaking Bad if a friend tells us about it rather than believing the network’s statement that it’s the most compelling TV ever.

Furthermore, to Mr Wanamaker’s point,  the impact of conversations on the Internet IS measurable, via Number of Tweets, Number of Followers, Number of Likes, Number or Retweets, Number of Clicks, Number of Links, Number of Messages, Number of Photos, and so on.

So, the advertiser can determine “the half that works” AND get more bang for buck, too.

I have previously posted on my own blog – www.theweboutside.com – that from Dec. 9th to New Year’s Day last year, Ciroc vodka and Uber taxis used Monster Social (the platform formally known as LocaModa) to aggregate, filter and curate Tweets and Instagram messages on a prominent Times Square digital billboard at 1568 Broadway at 47th Street.

The brand used Twitter’s own ad platform of Promoted Tweets to ensure maximum visibility of their campaign. In addition, Ciroc, which is a P.Diddy-fronted product, actively uses celebrities to tweet on its behalf.

I’ve talked before about interactive campaigns success being related to leveraging “The 3 Fs” – Fun, Fame Fortune. This campaign took those elements to heart.

Every tweet or Instagram sent with the hashtag #CirocTheNewYear not only rewarded the sender with a memento of themselves on the Times Square screen, but also unlocked a $100 pledge for four $25 coupon code for new Uber users to redeem for a safe ride home.

The goal? Unlock $1,000,000 for safe rides.

The result? The Out-Of-Home campaign generated over 14,500 Twitter and Instagram messages, blowing past the pledge target to reach $1.57 million in pledges.

Tweets from celebrities included @ParisHilton (12,444,210 followers) @iamdiddy (9,442,078 followers) @JordinSparks (3,941,774 followers) @KrisJenner (3,600,458 followers) @iamjamiefoxx (3,481,396 followers).

CirocTheNewYear Engagement

We can see from the graph that as each element of the strategy unfolded, engagement spiked. Specifically:

1. Kris Jenner was one of the first celebrities to tweet and caused an early spike in engagement.

2. Paris Hilton Tweeted on Dec 15. Her tweet was retweeted 66 times and favorited 110 times. Engagement starts to ramp.

3. Paris Hilton’s tweet on the Times Squre screen.

4. Sponsored tweets kick in on 31st December.

5. Pledges grew from $500k on 28th Dec, to $750k on 30th Dec to $1.4m on New Years Day.

This is another great example of how the combination of social media and Out-Of-Home media amplify engagement. It was an innovative campaign on a few levels:

Interested in guest posting on Sixteen:Nine? Contact dave.haynes@presetgroup.com

Leave a comment