Spies: SOLAR CHARGING DUMMIES

Credits & Description:

Type of entry: Sectors & Services
Category: Travel, Tourism & Leisure
Advertiser: SPIES TRAVELS
Product/Service: HOLIDAY
Agency: ROBERT/BOISEN & LIKE-MINDED Copenhagen, DENMARK
Editor: Martin Wehding (Postyr)
DOP: Jan Pallesen (Gobsmack)
Director: Laurits Munch-Petersen (Gobsmack)
Producer: Emilie Brandt (Gobsmack)
Producer: Christina Erritzøe (Gobsmack)
Digital Director: Mathias Birkvad (Robert/Boisen & Like-Minded)
Copy Writer: James Godfrey (Robert/Boisen & Like-Minded)
Art Director: Heinrich Vejlgaard (Robert/Boisen & Like-Minded)
Art Director: Anders Kure (Robert/Boisen & Like-Minded)
Account Director: Mette Ingemann (Robert/Boisen & Like-Minded)
Strategist: Søren Christensen (Robert/Boisen & Like-Minded)
Creative Director: Michael Robert (Robert/Boisen & Like-Minded)
Describe the campaign/entry
Challenge – getting the attention of earned media:
Promoting a campaign with a fairly commercial message to the leading media outlets in Denmark – in short making the solar campaign relevant for journalists across relevant media types.
The strategy – Using a real experiment to create buzz among journalists
In order to break though in the earned media the strategy was to combine the solar experiment with a national survey that investigated and mapped how the Danes mood was influenced by the dark and cold winter. The findings were afterwards linked directly to the solar experiment and the two elements combined created a very strong and effective messaging framework, which was supported by third party experts (academia), who acted as ambassadors for the Solar campaign , which could be targeted a wide range of different media types in order to support the overall campaign and create a buzz in the Danish media.
The goals:
Positioning
To position Spies Solar campaign and Spies as a industry thought leader in all relevant media types, such as national media, local and regional newspapers, travel media and other special media.
Support
To support Solar campaign as much as possible by creating a earned media buzz for the campaign to drive traffic into the campaign site and increase the number of views of the campaign video.
Momentum
To continuously respond to media agendas that arise during the campaign and use PR to make use the media opportunities that arise during the campaign.
Describe the brief from the client
The goals:
Positioning
To position Spies Solar campaign and Spies as a industry thought leader in all relevant media types, such as national media, local and regional newspapers, travel media and other special media.
Support
To support Solar campaign as much as possible by creating a earned media buzz for the campaign to drive traffic into the campaign site and increase the number of views of the campaign video.
Momentum
To continuously respond to media agendas that arise during the campaign and use PR to make use the media opportunities that arise during the campaign.

Results

The avg. view through rate reached 50.72% (90.8 sec) and the play to end reached 44%. This resulted in a total viewing time of 4,411.78 hours, reaching a target group reach of 86%.
Furthermore, the video achieved 2 YouTube honors on the Danish chart “Travel & events” during the campaign period:
#1 most viewed this month (nordic)
#2 most viewed this week (global)
Spies experienced a 332% increase in number of Likes at Spies Facebook and their Twitter activity rose by roughly 300%. The PR value was 5 times that of the actual PR budget.
Furthermore, 57% were more likely to choose Spies for their next holiday and there was a 36% increase in people choosing Spies as travel agency. And finally the number of bookings increased by 14% during the campaign period compared the same period last year.

Execution

The overall execution was divided into three phases:
1) Preparation: Here the focus was on planning, developing the message platform, preparation of press materials, completion of national survey with +1000 respondents and the development of media lists incl. identifying key journalists:
- Message Platform including Q & A, identification of ambassadors and message training of spokespersons.
- Press-kit: Including launch release incl. the main findings from national survey, fact sheets and journalist briefs to support media relations
- Development of survey design and completion of national survey where the Danes’ winter mood was investigated,
- Development of PR-plan based in survey results and plan/overview for the entire launch.
2) Execution: Focusing on the tactical and operational PR towards all relevant media types including pitching of stories, journalist liaison press office, and media monitoring
3) Evaluation: The evaluation marks the end of the PR effort including a full coverage and media

The Situation

Opportunity – using surveys to boost the experiment in earned media:
The Solar campaigns commercial messages are in the PR effort adjusted into knowledge-based and factual communication, partially based on research from Danish Technical University as well as on the national survey that investigated the Danish winter mood. This approach ensured that Spies and the key messages of the Solar campaign maximum exposure in relevant Danish media over a two month period - and thus securing that the PR efforts continuously support the campaign on other platforms.

The Strategy

The strategy – Using a real experiment to create buzz among journalists
In order to break though in the earned media the strategy was to combine the solar experiment with a national survey that investigated and mapped how the Danes mood was influenced by the dark and cold winter. The findings were afterwards linked directly to the solar experiment and the two elements combined created a very strong and effective messaging framework, which was supported by third party experts (academia), who acted as ambassadors for the Solar campaign , which could be targeted a wide range of different media types in order to support the overall campaign and create a buzz in the Danish media.