Degree: THE ADRENALIST

Credits & Description:

Category: Consumer Goods, including FMCG and Household Products

Advertiser: UNILEVER

Product/Service: DEGREE FOR MEN

Agency: WEBER SHANDWICK

Brand Building Manager of Degree: Aaron Calloway (Unilever)

Associate Brand Building Manager of Degree: Lauren Passaro (Unilever)

Brand Development of Unilever: Neil Brading (Unilever)

Media placement: Digital PR - Mashable - 14 September 2011

Media placement: Digital PR - Buzz Feed - 14 September 2011

Media placement: Digital PR - Newsweek - 14 September 2011

Media placement: Consumer PR - Jimmy Kimmel - 15 September 2011

Media placement: Consumer PR - Content Marketer - 4 March 2012

Media placement: Consumer PR - The Nerve Rush - 21 February 2012



Summary of the Campaign

Degree Men launched its own platform in August of 2011: The Adrenalist. Its mission was to associate adventure, extreme sports and racing with the Degree Adrenaline product series.



To capitalise on the 'always-on' community, Degree Men launched The Adrenalist as a content-engine to share unbranded adventure, extreme sports and racing content with those who most wanted it. The Adrenalist was created as a platform to feature adrenaline-fueled content relevant to guys.



The Situation

Prior to The Adrenalist, Degree Men® had an inconsistent online presence with dramatic peaks and valleys around campaigns. When we were active, we had positive bursts but they were never sustained between campaigns; and we knew that our target was always online. The Adrenalist was created as a platform to feature adrenaline-fueled content relevant to guys.



The Goal

Degree for Men created The Adrenalist because digital content engages the reader; shapes brand image; becomes part of the target’s world; and drives relevant purchase consideration.



• The brand needed to build a relationship with the target in a context that matters to him with a defined brand-voice; orchestrate paid, earned and owned efforts across all properties, to establish a consistent presence that relevantly engages the target; continuously calibrate the approach for expanding issues and community insights; integrate Degree Men social channels to syndicate site-content and interact directly with the audience to capitalise on fan acquisition.



The Strategy

Research into market-presence revealed insightful specificity into the ethnography of the target-consumer and their behavior, as well as online consumption of content.

• The adventurer is constantly expanding his horizons;

• He has a restless spirit of self-improvement;

• Sees life through a lens of problem solving;

• Is motivated by his peers;

• And his work ethic is driven by personal fulfillment.



Overall brand-awareness and presence remained low among the target:

• The target did not know the brand, or what it stood for;

• Most conversations online about the brand were driven by couponing;

• Competitors were more active, and voice brand-share was inconsistent, experiencing peaks and valleys.



The team developed a content-calendar and publication cadence. We hired experienced, relevant writers, who speak with an authoritative point-of-view within our very specific lens, to write for The Adrenalist.



Execution

The team syndicated the content across Degree for Men’s social channels, including submission to social-bookmarking sites like StumbleUpon and Digg, to reach as large an audience as possible for The Adrenliast.



Community-management provides a crucial stewardship of the voice as the content is pushed out, and makes up the front lines for communicating the brand’s editorial voice. It also becomes an integral feedback-loop for the editorial calendar, directly influencing the assignment of future stories, based on how the community has responded to previous posts.



Documented Results

1. A fully-functioning lifestyle-platform launched on July 29th, 2011 at theadrenalist.com:

a. Currently employing 8 professional freelance writers to produce relevant journalism;

b. Through traditional media tactics and publishing calendars, is procuring 15 pieces of unique content per week.



2. Organic content currently responsible for more traffic than a concurrent ad-campaign:

a. Over 1,100,000 unique visitors since August 1st, and over 1,900,000 page views;

b. 00:01:18 average time spent on the page;

c. Nearly 24,500 hours of engagement.



3. Massive success with a Q&A content-initiative on the popular social site, Reddit.com, with the Degree for Men spokesman, Bear Grylls.

a. Bear answered real time questions from the large Reddit community in text and video format;

b. Videos were hosted on the Adrenalist, and readers were directed from Reddit to the Adrenalist to view them;

c. Currently over 1.5m YouTube videos views have been attributed to the Reddit content.