Case Study 2 Condomi Size Him Up
Background: Condomi is a German company which, from 2002 to 2003, was trying to get established in the UK. It was way behind market leaders Durex and number two brand Mates, and didn't have the marketing bucks of Trojan, which was also trying to grab a slice of the market at the time. Prior to the start of the PR campaign, a third of condoms were bought by women, a fact that gave the PR company a directional steer.
Campaign: The campaign revolved around 'size', and central to it was an online tool that would 'guesstimate' the size of a person's manhood. In the case of a female, it might well be her prospective partner's, and in the case of a man, more often than not, it would be to see how accurate it was in predicting the size of his own.
A fun website called Size Him Up (www.frankpr.it/sizehimup) was built, which asked the visitor to input hand, feet and nose size. It then took a few seconds to calculate an answer and came back with a likely size. Alongside the guesstimate was a suggestion as to the most appropriate condom from the Condomi range.
Links were seeded to the campaign website on a range of online viral sources, which attracted significant initial site traffic. But the real breakthrough came when news of the online tool reached the media. Instead of merely publicizing the website on a press release, the tool was used to guesstimate the size of a number of celebrities and a fun league table was formed.
The pick-up was tremendous: each story about Size Him Up created a large influx of people to the site with obvious spikes in unique visitor numbers following every article that was published.
In turn, the new traffic brought its own viral effect with it as new visitors recommended the site to their contacts (a recommend-a-friend link was built into the site). The story was then adapted and it succeeded in penetrating what were traditionally out-of-bound areas for a condom brand. Most memorably, it was picked up by Atticus, the political diary section of The Sunday Times, which used the site to guesstimate the size of politicians' manhoods.
Within the first month, over one million individuals used the online tool, all of them interacting with and talking about the brand at a much deeper level than they had with any other condom product range.
Case Study 3: HP Sauce - 'Official sauce of Great Britain'
Background: The HP Sauce condiment brand, ultimately owned by Danone, wanted to get people talking about it. The brand was about to embark on a new ad campaign that set about positioning it as the 'Official sauce of Great Britain'. HP Sauce is one of the few iconic British brands that could pull off this invented status, and the creative material for the advertising was looking to bring that positioning to life in typical situations associated with everyday life.
Campaign: A PR campaign was formulated in order to stimulate the media coverage that would make people aware of the desired step-change in perception and get people talking about the brand in the language of today. True to its principles, the brand allowed the campaign to be a bit cheeky, slightly naughty and lots of fun.
When looking at things that were happening at or around the time of the mainstream campaign launch in February 2005, snooker cropped up on the radar screen. It was a sport that was typically British, everyone knew about it and it got a lot of television broadcast hours. The next trick was to think disconnectedly about the sport.
'Balls', was shouted out in frustration during one of the PR think tanks - and the nugget of an idea was born.
With a bit of persuasion, a deal was struck with the organizers of the Masters snooker tournament, taking place during relaunch, whereby HP Sauce became the official sponsor of the brown ball at the event. These days in sport usually everything has been sponsored. No one had ever sponsored the balls in snooker, let alone just one ball.
The second part of the deal was even trickier, but it was the trigger that brought the whole campaign to life. Jimmy White, one of snooker's most well-known faces, a people's favourite and - a bit like HP - an icon in his own right, joined in the fun. He agreed to change his name, officially and legally via deed poll, to Jimmy Brown to commemorate the HP sponsorship of the brown ball. He actually preferred the new moniker of James Brown, so the new strapline of 'the godfather of snooker' was fittingly used for the campaign in keeping with his soul music namesake!
At the official announcement of the Masters tournament, the 'double deal' of the HP Sauce sponsorship of the brown ball and Jimmy White's new persona was announced. The media went wild. The press release fell on the day when the Palestinians and Israelis sat down for the first peace talks in more than a decade, but all that was trumped by the colour brown.
Over the next few days radio talk shows, columnists and feature writers, even the cartoonists, all developed the story further, on and off the sports pages and shows. The media practically door-stepped the new Mr Brown as the tournament approached, and he, to his credit, enjoyed the fun and milked the story further.
There were lots of levels for buzz to occur on, because of the fun nature of the whole campaign. The UK Press headline writers had a field day, which helped the word of mouth factor. 'Jimmy's a sauce pot' exclaimed the Daily Star. 'Brown is the new White in saucy promotion' reported the Guardian. 'Change of name may be sauce of inspiration for White' said The Times pithily. 'White adds sauce to a spicy image' echoed the Evening Standard, with Metro getting attention with 'Jimmy drops White and pockets Brown.' The Observer provided a rather succinct analysis of the events of the week under the headline (borrowed from another coloured brand) of 'The future's Brown'.
There was also a more serious side to the whole initiative that played out in the media. Snooker as a sport has been struggling over the past few years as the tobacco companies, the traditional sponsors of the tournaments, had been forced to withdraw their involvement. HP's involvement, in its own unique way, signalled a way back from the brink for the game. Maybe other brands would follow suit? The equally legendary UK snooker player Steve Davis in particular went on the record saying this deal was a great fillip for the game. It was more words for mouths to talk about.
Stage two of the campaign was to stir up a bit of a hornets' nest with the BBC, the broadcaster of the Masters tournament. All the producers and commentators working on the broadcast of the tournament were sent a copy of the signed and sealed deed poll certificate, along with a personal letter from Jimmy Brown asking them to please refer to him by his new name in all coverage of the tournament.
This letter was then 'mysteriously leaked' to the wider media whose next step was to call the BBC to see whether it was to be Brown or White in their coverage. The BBC's response was, on the back foot, that they weren't really sure what they were going to do, but they weren't happy with giving exposure to commercial sponsors such as HP. 'Browned off cried the Sun newspaper the next day, with Jimmy claiming that if they didn't call him by his new HP-inspired name then he wouldn't do any pre- or post-match interviews, and wouldn't come to the table if his former name was used. Cue more radio show debate, news stories, columnist comment.. . and buzz.
The campaign achieved millions of pounds worth of free publicity for HP Sauce, and it all came out as the new TV advertising campaign was airing, working alongside it to communicate the new positioning. A one-off piece of market research showed that 49% of all adults were aware of the story, and of those 49%, 47% had discussed the whole thing in a conversation with a friend, colleague, or member of their family. A concrete measurement of how this story spread through word of mouth.
The campaign also proved a success for Jimmy in terms of image and performance. A 66/1 outsider at the start of the Masters tournament, he made it all the way to the semi-final. In the final frame that sealed his fate, he missed a fairly straightforward pot and his opponent went on to clinch victory. How ironic that the ball he missed was the brown.
Case Study 4: Slendertone - 'Does my bum look big on this?'
Background: Slendertone was launching its latest innovation, the Bottom and Thigh Toner. Using technology that had driven sales of tens of thousands of Abdominal Training Systems, the Toner was a natural product extension.
But the problem with Slendertone had always been two-fold: credibility and public apathy. The most common objection that Slendertone got from customers was 'too good to be true'. Perhaps because the Abdominal Training System had been positioned for years as a magical solution, though the technology behind it works. This lack of belief was coupled with a feeling that people had heard it all before, with the brand having been around for over 25 years.
The new product needed someone who could vouch for it and who could be believed. Getting a buzz about that belief was everything. Slendertone had tried unsuccessfully to use celebrities to front their marketing campaigns in the past. This wasn't necessarily a problem, however, because celebrities can taint a product with a lack of credibility since people know that they are being paid for what they say. More effective is to front a campaign with someone who is persuasive and believable, and who has an ability to get people talking about the brand. This person could then become a celebrity.
Campaign: Anita Hart, 'the world's leading bum double', was signed up to endorse and be the face of the new Bottom and Thigh Toner. Her list of credits included being body (and stunt) double for Cindy Crawford, Liz Hurley and Pamela Anderson. More often than not she was either their bottom or thighs. Indeed, for Hurley she had been both in one of the Austin Powers movies. She wasn't really a bottom double but a stunt-woman, but as a piece of spin that was the pièce de résistance.
Anita was flown over to the UK to shoot a one-off ad. A mega poster site had been booked next to the Dominion Theatre at the junction of Oxford Street and Tottenham Court Road (this location reportedly has the highest amount of footfall anywhere in London). The aim was to create the world's largest poster of a bottom. Anita's bottom was body painted with an evening dress, and the tagline used on the poster was 'Does my bum look big on this?'
The next step was to make Anita a star. To coincide with the mega billboard being erected, the Sunday Times Style Magazine did a cover story on 24 June 2001 about Anita and her career as bottom double to the stars. 'How does she keep her bum in such good shape?' was the question they just had to ask, and the readers would want to know (and in turn tell their friends). The answer was, of course, by using the new Slendertone Bottom and Thigh Toner. The product was given instant credibility.
It didn't stop there: the unveiling of the poster site became national news headlines and Anita came back to the UK to spend time on chat shows, revealing her rear and demonstrating the product. A celebrity had been created and in the end media requests had to be fended off. Every time she appeared in a newspaper or magazine, she was accompanied by the giant poster, along with her advice on keeping the perfect bum in shape using Slendertone.
Through the Sunday Times Style Magazine feature, the US media picked up on the fact that this previously unknown person had suddenly become flavour of the month in the UK. Interview and appearance requests from her native country then started to come in.
Slendertone still hadn't launched its product range in the US and were awaiting FDA approval. The US media were told to hang fire and as soon as the approval had come through, Anita was unleashed on media channels across the US - media channels that previously hadn't been the slightest bit interested in her 12-year career. She was billed as 'the butt that is sending the Brits crazy'. Again, the billboard ad visual was used and the product rationale communicated with every appearance. Slendertone USA's sales activities were off to a flying start, and in the UK the new product started rivalling sales of the Abdominal Training System in a very short space of time.
Continue reading here: A brief history of viral marketing
Was this article helpful?