Facilitating Creative Engagement in Online and Social Media Campaigns

The best companies who use social media to promote their products are the ones that understand why social media was created in the first place. It wasn’t created to spam everyone you could or to track down the people that owe you money. The world is a harsh enough place without companies trying to trick us into buying their products and services. The Internet is one of those rare mediums that gives power to a user which has never been given before. Consumers can now create new products, influence the company’s direction, and voice their opinion, all from their own computers which have access to thousands of people via their connected contacts.

Companies that recognize that today’s Internet users are smart and want to be entertained also must know that users like to feel like they are part of something. This makes them share with their friends, so they can be a part of something too. The following are key strategies from successful creative engagement campaigns which have made consumers feel like they have as much influence the CEO.

Let Opinions Be Shared

Starbucks sought out to revamp their brand image after complaints came out a few years ago about the lack of benefits and wage increases by employees. That, combined with falling revenue, led Starbucks to close hundreds of stores across the United States during the recession that has taken place in the last few years. They have now come back more determined to take into consideration what their employees and customers have to say. They began by offering free WiFi to all Starbucks customers and launched My Starbucks Idea, a place where anyone can post comments, complaints, or suggestions and Starbucks promises to listen. The site appears to not be filtered and is separated into three categories: product ideas, experience ideas, and involvement ideas. Users can vote and discuss on others’ ideas and so far it seems to have caught on – tens of thousands of ideas are currently posted on the site.

Another great example of giving users the ability to share their opinions is Change.org: Ideas for Change in America, which is described as “a crowd-sourcing competition that empowers citizens to identify and build momentum around a diverse range of ideas for addressing the challenges our country faces.” There were over 2500 ideas submitted and over 209,000 votes cast for the top 10 most important ideas, which included the legalization of marijuana and protecting chimpanzees for medical experiments.

What today’s two examples have in common? The fact that they were a listening ear. When people want to create change they look for an online community that will help them facilitate it. If a company wants to know what they need to do differently in order to increase consumer engagement or profits, all they need to do is give the consumer the power to speak. People who feel heard are people who also feel empowered.

Give Users Power

Along with letting people voice their opinions, several creative engagement campaigns have given users actual power, which in many cases has led to a resounding positive response. Some of these include Man VS Bear, which is an interactive video campaign posted on YouTube by Tipp-Ex, which is a White-Out like substance that can be rolled over paper like a marker. Initially, users to Tipp-Ex’s YouTube page begin to view a video of a man who’s about to shoot a bear at a campsite. He suddenly proclaims that he cannot shoot the bear and reaches out of the video to erase the word “shoot” from the video’s title. He then tells the user to fill in the blank with whatever they want, giving them power to finish the scene on a positive note. Words like “hug” and “kiss” lead to amusing short scenes between the bear and the hunter. Hunter VS Bear currently has over 21,000 fans on Facebook and has won awards for online advertising.

Users enjoy having power that influences the final outcome of the video or other multimedia experience. Taking the personal experience of camping and hunting, which many Americans have experienced themselves, sometimes on a regular basis, it unites the user in the campaign, giving them reason to interact and therefore experience the product itself in an online environment.

Take a Journey Together

Coca-Cola used an urban myth about their product to shape an extraordinary, multi-platform customer engagement campaign. The story goes something like this: when Coke was created, it included the secret ingredient that only two people knew in the entire company at any given time. Coca-Cola embraced this rumor and created a commercial about the “two guys” and also shaped a YouTube interactive video about their secret ingredient.

Once users click on the secret Coke icon that appears throughout the video, they are taken to different websites which give them clues to the secret ingredient and “restricted access” to confidential company files. Some icons also take users to Doc Pemberton’s twitter profile (the inventor of Coca-Cola into now has over 25,000 followers) and other engaging websites where users can record their laugh with the Smilizer’ and vote on others’ recorded laughs.

By giving users something to do besides watching YouTube video, Coke introduced users to all the engaging websites they have to offer and added to the mystery of their “secret ingredient” which they still haven’t explained. Their personifying of Doc Pemberton also plays into the history of their brand. Besides taking users on a multi-platform journey, other companies have also led online scavenger hunts and welcomes user submissions which are used as the actual advertising campaigns itself (e.g. Dunkin Donuts Coolatta Campaign).

Be Hilarious

Sometimes all it takes to get people to pay attention is to create a campaign that is solely focused on making the user laugh. Aleksandr Orlov is a digitally animated Russian meerkat created by the UK auto insurance website comparethemarket.com. Meerkats obviously have nothing to do with auto insurance, but Aleksandr’s undeniable appeal has given him almost 760,000 fans on Facebook and over 42,000 Twitter followers. On his website comparethemeerkat.com, he seeks to educate users on the difference between comparethemeerkat.com and comparethemarket.com.  On comparethemeerkat.com, you can read more about Aleksandr and his new book, or you can compare meerkats to find the right one for you. At the bottom of Aleksandr’s site, comparethemarket.com ties itself in by stating things like “maybe you are instead looking for cheap car insurance?” with a link to their website.

Aleksandr’s charm and accent has made his overall commercial, website, and social media campaign a huge success in the United Kingdom and around the world. According to ad agency VCCP that created the concept of comparethemeerkat.com, “The campaign has been a phenomenal success, transforming the business of comparethemarket.com. In the first 9 weeks quotes increased 80% and cost per acquisition was reduced by 73%. Spontaneous awareness has almost tripled from 20% to 59%.” His catch phrase of “Simples!” is a pop culture idiom and he’s sometimes compared to the Gecko in the Geico commercials here in the United States.

Creating a multi-platform creative engagement campaign that gives users power, let them voice their opinions, and also keeps them entertained can in the most successful of circumstances create viral buzz and word-of-mouth that never would have occurred had the company gone on a traditional advertising route with typical slogans and generic phrases. Above all else, people use the Internet to connect and as a way to pass the time, and when a company’s campaign embraces this, they are more likely to be successful. Users feel respected  when a company rises to their intelligence. With so many possibilities and options in web design and online multimedia, why not create a challenging concept that surprises and engages your current and potential consumer base?

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