Category: Best non-fiction program, series or film where a client has successfully created a reality, documentary or light entertainment show around a product(s) or brand(s)
Advertiser: SIEMENS
Product/Service: SIEMENS
Agency: OGILVY NEW YORK
Group Creative Director: Witold Riedel (Ogilvy New York)
Creative Director/Copywriter: Robert Balog (Ogilvy New York)
Creative Director/Art Director: Jeff Leaf (Ogilvy New York)
Executive Producer: Melanie Baublis (Ogilvy New York)
Senior Producer: Cindy Leibowitz (Ogilvy New York)
Content Producer - Art: Jessica Fiore (Ogilvy New York)
Media placement: Film - CNBC.com - March 29, 2011
Media placement: Film - ECONOMIST.com - September 26, 2011
Media placement: FILM - HUFFINGTONPOST.com - November 2, 2011
Campaign Description
There are no specific restrictions in North America on branded entertainment or the placement of branded content. There are broadcasting restrictions related to the marketing of certain types of brands/products (eg. tobacco, alcohol) to children.
Effectiveness
3 years of recession, and the US was looking for answers. Siemens had them already at work throughout the country. However, who knew? The key would be to make the right people aware.
Targeting policy-makers, we set out to thrust Siemens into the national policy conversation. We believed that more Americans would know about Siemens if a few key Americans would tell our story.
To show how Siemens could help address the specific challenges of the Great Recession, we showed places where it was already happening – 'Somewhere in America'. Hutchinson, Kansas, where a new wind turbine factory was giving a heartland town new jobs and a new life. Los Angeles, California, where 75% of hospitals use Siemens technology to sustain residents’ health. And Charlotte, North Carolina, where Siemens provides trains, job-training and a new turbine factory with 2,000 jobs.
These stories surrounded policy-makers. On TV spots during Sunday news shows; radio spots as they sat in traffic on the Beltway and OOH as they flew in and out of Reagan airport. They were used as conversation starters by Siemens representatives with mayors, congressmen, and administration officials eager to lend pragmatic solutions to their policy positions.
The results were dramatic. We moved the needle among policy-makers 169%. And got 1 very important person to become a Siemens evangelist on the biggest stage possible - the State of the Union address.
As a result of our efforts, President Barack Obama promoted Siemens to 100 Senators, 435 Congressmen and 38m Americans on live TV.
Implementation
We leveraged Siemens partnerships with major digital media properties like CNBC, FastCompany, and Time. Stories were paired with editorial content by topic (eg. energy, healthcare, transportation). Rich media banners allowed people to watch and then share the documentaries. 15-second pre-rolls on the Huffington Post led to the full video experience. And a thought-leadership piece for the Economist featured our long-form videos.
Outcome
The PR effort produced a 169% increase in awareness of Siemens among policy-makers.
Yet the most compelling evidence is anecdotal. On a tour of the Siemens rail facility, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said of Siemens, 'This can be a model for the rest of the country of a company that’s putting Americans to work'. The US Export-Import Bank Chairman Fred Hochberg declared in the press, “As far as I’m concerned, Siemens is an American company”.
And President Obama put the Siemens turbine plant in Charlotte, North Carolina at the heart of his State of the Union address, using it as an example of what should be happening across America. And 100 Senators, 435 Congressmen and 38m Americans heard the President of the United States telling our story on live TV.