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Fun is a serious factor in successful social media campaign

Ace in Wonderland

Holiday Fire Safety Campaign

Changing attitudes by confronting sensitive topics head-on

RED caps a big year with a big night

Marketing Magazine: Alberta gives 3-minute fire warning

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    • Fun is a serious factor in successful social media campaign

    Social media may be the latest marketing buzzword, but that doesn’t mean many companies are finding success in their efforts. In fact, most campaigns that seek to use sites like Facebook as their primary point of contact fail to employ its crucial element: fun.

    In partnership with RED client, OK Tire, the Ultimate Road Trip scavenger hunt was launched on June 25, 2010. The popular contest, accessed through a specially designed website, asks participants to collect photos from a list of items and upload them on the site. After they’ve finished hunting down the (sometimes silly) items and submitting their photos, they can share their photo on Facebook for an extra entry.

    While typical methods of online advertising were employed in the marketing of this contest – paid media like banner ads and Google ad words – it was RED’s ability to harness the power of Facebook that has proven the most fruitful. Over 65% of traffic to the contest site has come directly from the social networking site. But it’s not just the quantity of referrals that proved interesting. Users directed to the site from friend referrals spent over three times as long on the site.

    The popularity of the contest and the high rate of site traffic is directly related to the success of this campaign. Our goal was to position the Pirelli P5 touring tire as a great option for summer driving this year. Users have equated the excitement – and success – they feel from participating in the scavenger hunt with the OK Tire brand in general and the Pirelli P5 specifically.

    Social media is not just about finding the right audience and throwing your message into their space. Users want to engage with content. They want to create and control it. Rather than proclaiming to your customers that your brand is fun, social media encourages them to discover the fun for themselves and to participate in a community that they have a hand in building – and that your brand is a big part of.

    Visit roadtrip.oktire.com and try out the Ultimate Road Trip scavenger hunt today.

    And to see what the right social media strategy can do for you, contact RED.

    “Thank you so much for the contest. My family and I are having a blast going through old photos and going out looking for new ones. Some of these pictures have not been looked at in years and it’s great researching together for new places to go. This contest made me dust off the old camera and revive an old hobby I used to absolutely love. It got put aside as life took over but now it’s back, look out.”

    -Email from Contestant

    Filed under: Campaigns, Ideas  

    Ace in Wonderland

    The theme for the 31st Annual ACE (Advertising Club of Edmonton) Awards was “ACE in Wonderland”. There were several unique ways that members were encouraged and reminded of entry and ticket deadlines. Each only hinted at the theme at first, from short online videos of well-known members peering ‘down the rabbit hole’ in the most unlikely of places, to this series of apothecary bottles that invited the audience to “Drink Me”. As the months progressed the theme became more and more obvious and the metaphors related back to the creative industry.

    The text on the back side of each label was legible through the blue liquid and pushed the reader to the website for additional information. Bottles were hand delivered to Ad Club members on the first Monday of the call for entries.

    Filed under: Ideas  

    Holiday Fire Safety Campaign

    Residential fires spike over the holiday season. Candles, unattended cooking and poorly maintained smoke alarms – it all adds up to a dangerous mix. As part of a larger campaign, we partnered with Christmas tree lots to hang fire safety-themed decorations on trees throughout the lot. The decorations made people aware that ‘Holiday Season is Fire Season’, and gave them a free 9V batter to refresh their smoke alarms.

    We also sent a traditional group of carolers into communities and malls around Edmonton and instead of singing the expected carols, we re-wrote a number of classics to reflect fire safety messaging. The carolers then presented surprised listeners with a postcard outlining simple holiday fire safety tips.

    Filed under: Campaigns, Ideas  

    Changing attitudes by confronting sensitive topics head-on

    To effectively change attitudes and raise awareness surrounding sensitive public issues, a direct, no nonsense approach is needed to cut through and affect hard-to-reach audiences in order to produce real, measureable results.

    The need to change behaviours facing child support in Alberta requires an even more direct approach. The Maintenance Enforcement Program team at Alberta Justice was fully onside when RED came to the table with a campaign that works hard at putting an end to the lame excuses of delinquent and late payers. The public awareness campaign seen below launched in March.

    Filed under: Campaigns, Ideas  

    Christmas as a brand - sorely in need of refreshing?

    A tongue-in-cheek brand book, X to the Mass, was the droll but dead-ringer result of the thinking at Edmonton’s RED Communications ad agency after they hit on the concept of rebranding Christmas and all its trappings. Targeting the MySpace Generation of youth 13-18, the pretend brand book has a proper logo, revised corporate colours and even updates for holiday attire.

     The RED team also gave the heave-ho to three leading elements of Christmas celebrations - turkey dinner, greeting cards and lawn displays. In their place - at least virtually on RED’s site - are a branded packaged meal served in front of webcams, text messaging and large logos. Having concocted all that, the agency elves went the obligatory final step these days by posting a spot on MySpace.

    Filed under: Ideas, Self Promotion