Case studies targetting young people online: part one

These case studies showcase a variety of success stories highlighting how to use online and mobile to effectively engage young people to build your brand, drive sales, raise awareness and educate.

Activision uses an integrated Google advertising solution to drive awareness of the new Tony Hawk’s video game

Target audience 12-17

• Activision wanted to create a substantial online buzz around the Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground video game among its target audience to the launch of a major TV advertising campaign

• MediaVest, Activision’s media agency, recognised that the new strategy had to move away from traditional TV to support the launch of the ninth iteration of this title. Only by engaging with exciting content from the new game was sufficient buzz going to be created

• Activision built a Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground website featuring videos, games, soundtracks, downloads, and a community section. Yet, given the amount of advertising this new audience of 12 to 17 year-olds is exposed to every day, running a stream of online ads linking to the site wasn’t going to drive enough traffic

• The Google AdWords search campaign used groups of relevant keywords such as ‘Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground’, ‘skateboarding games’, ‘video games’ and ‘computer games’ to drive traffic to the Proving Ground website

• The Google Content Network campaign took a more conceptual approach. They were themed groups based on brand equities such as the game’s soundtrack artists, its brand sponsors, as well as comparable extreme sports such as snowboarding and surfing

• Some 52,000 viewers visited the Tony Hawk’s brand channel on YouTube, where the channel’s video was viewed 73,000 times. In addition, the brand channel attracted 280 subscribers and featured compelling skateboarding video generated by consumers

• The display campaign, which ran across the Content Network, gained more than 67 million views and drove 22,500 users to the game’s website. The display videos achieved 73,000 playbacks, more than 23 million impressions and 6,000 click-throughs

• Key metrics showed more than 116,000 visits as a result of search with a high click-through rate and low cost-per-click. The conceptually-themed ad groups also proved a major success. Delivering a high percentage of the 25,000 visits to the website from the content network and significantly broadening the reach of the content campaign

Sega targets football gamers in partnership with InSkin Media branded player skins

Target audience 16-24 male

• Sega, in conjunction with its media agency Target Media, wanted to find accurate ways of targeting football/gaming fans while highlighting and educating users about the new live, online aspect of its latest title in the Football Manager series

• A key aim was to drive sales from the Football Manager website. Targeted sites included telegraph.co.uk, givemefootball.com and mousebreaker.com

• The campaign lasted 6 weeks with success judged on brand awareness, direct sales figures and interaction rates

• Impressive headline results included 533,485 total impressions; 226,727 unique users; an average CTR of 3.27%; and an average internal micro site interaction rate of 20.75%

Incentivated and Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) use mobile to raise sexual wellbeing awareness

Target audience 16-24 female/male

• In an attempt to engage elusive teenagers and raise awareness of sexual wellbeing, the DCSF launched the world’s first interactive mobile soap opera

• The solution included Web and WAP banner ads, plus posters distributed at schools, directing viewers to register at www.thmbnls.mobi to receive 22 weekly episodes, exclusively on mobile, at 7pm on Fridays

• The ‘Mobisodes’ were personalised: viewers’ names appeared in characters’ mobile phone books and were also spoken. The weekly reminders came from the characters and viewers could change the storyline by replying by text

• A ‘vCalendar’ could be downloaded to activate the handset’s alarm function. Data charges were zero-rated so all video downloads were totally free to viewers

The Terminator: A killer campaign using mobile location from 20:20 London and Incentivated

• To create a viral campaign with wow factor would generate excitement around the launch of the new Terminator TV show

• From a campaign microsite, potential viewers can “Terminate-a-mate” by submitting their friend’s details. Friends would then receive a personalised mobile telling them that the Terminators are hijacking their phone and are in the immediate vicinity

• The video was custom generated each time. First of all, the friend’s actual physical location was determined by the mobile operator network. Using this information, a segment of the video was generated which showed their current location on a map. The video was also customised to include the person’s own name and mobile number

• This campaign was very popular with the fan base, and generated thousands of video messages during the weeks it ran. When the show itself launched, it had the largest audience of any show ever on Virgin1, some 400% higher than any previous show

• Robert Thurner, commercial director of Incentivated, said: “It takes brave brands like Virgin to push the boundaries and exploit mobile’s immense potential to extend campaign reach by going viral. Personalised videos and mobile maps reinforced the Terminators message, and succeeded in capturing viewers’ imagination”

How CKIN2U drove engagement through a sample SMS campaign with Blyk

Target audience 16-24 female/male

Objectives

• Blyk was asked by CK to drive awareness and trial of Coty’s ckIN2U fragrances amongst young men and women

• Distribute samples ‘for him’ and ‘for her’ with no wastage

• Drive traffic store for purchase

Solution

• The audience were sent an SMS to drive response and requests for the ckIN2U sample

• Blyk staggered activity to generate the desired number of samples with no wastage and no disappointment

Results and insights

• Simple SMS with a relevant, valuable offer generated 39% response rate

• Address and gender details of interested respondents were sent to the fulfillment house

• Staggered roll-out enabled accurate prediction of uptake, managing sample request numbers

How Cadburys went ‘Goo’ online to improve sales of Creme Eggs with Starcom

Target audience 16-24 female/male

Aim

• To engage a fun loving audience, looking to be entertained through media-the result had to focus on providing bite size chunks of entertainment in multiple environments

• Advertising needed to be relevant, interesting and immersed in environments that they own and are involved in

• To improve on last year’s sales results within a shorter sales period

Method

• Stage 1; the eggs are back-raising awareness, homepage takeovers drove awareness through high frequency and reach

• Stage 2; seeding communications into exclusively young environments to encourage interaction and involvement

Creativity innovation

• To replace the campaign ‘how do you eat yours’. Critical to success was using the digital environment and its self selecting audiences to fully engage with and understand the new brand story

• The microsite became ‘The Institute of Goo-ology’, a place to explore, watch TV ads, play games and enter competitions with the aim of delivering brand engagement, driving traffic and building an understanding of the brand personality and new creative direction

Results

• Year-on-year tracking among the target audience of 16-24 yr olds showed an increase of 33% in those buying Creme Eggs, 43% in those buying Creme Eggs in the previous 7days and 133% considering Creme Eggs in the next 4 weeks

• Display ad generated seven hundred and twenty nine thousand at a click-through rate of 0.99% (where the FMCG average is 0.53%)

• 3.5m visits to the microsite in just 12 weeks

• WAP banners had a high click-through rate of 3.36%, leading to 120,000+ mobile/WAP site visits 105,000+ mobile game downloads

• 90,000 new customer records were created via opt-ins with nearly 10,000 SMS op-ins

• Sales up by 1.8% year on year-180 million eggs sold in total

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