Tag: Jay-Z

Sponsorship: Giving Brands a Story to Tell 9th May, 2013

I recently attended the ESA Summit: a gathering to discuss the state of the sponsorship industry against the backdrop of the ever-changing digital landscape. A number of the Slingshot team made it down to the British Film Institute for the proceedings. An action packed day ensued, full of great keynote speakers and some incredibly insightful panelists, discussing everything from how technology is blurring the traditional sponsorship model, to the future for sponsorship agencies.

While a number of attendees have already summed up the major take-homes from the day (Ben Wells’ blog for example) there was one comment in particular that, to me, illustrated why sponsorship is such a unique marketing tool. When asked to respond to the nth brand manager’s call to tell the consumer <insert brand name here>’s story, one panelist piped up with ‘no-one cares about your brand story’.

Now while, I must admit, it did get slightly tedious hearing the nth brand manager (from Coca Cola, Virgin Media, Monster, Diageo etc) talk about the importance of storytelling, it struck me just how integral sponsorship is in giving brands something to talk about.

The vast majority of products or services that a company offers often blur into the wider competitive market, leaving them indistinguishable and in many cases lacking the essence through which a story can be created. This is where sponsorship comes in. Sponsorship gives brands the chance to align themselves with a personality, a movement or a cause that they can weave their brand into and construct a narrative that allows their target audience to directly engage with.

In order to illustrate how effective story-telling can be in granting personality to a brand, I’ve outlined three campaigns, which I think do it well.

1. Bing & Jay Z – The Decoded Campaign

With Jay-Z’s autobiography ‘Decoded’ due to be launched, Microsoft saw an opportunity to increase the relevance of its search engine, Bing, and showcase its new mapping software.

Each of Decoded’s 320 pages were printed and placed in a different position across 13 major cities. Locations were selected based on the contents of each page – for example, a reference to Jay Z’s youth in Brooklyn could be placed on a Cadillac on Montgomery Street; with other pages being imprinted onto a restaurant plate, a basketball backboard and even on the bottom of a swimming pool!

Utilising multiple online social platforms, clues were released, revealing the location of the secret pages in a draw to compete to be the first to unlock each one of the 320 pages. Users were driven to Bing.com/Jay Z where they were directed to specific locations, while the first people on the scene texted a code to reveal the page to the whole community. Within a month of the campaign going live, users had unlocked every single page of the book before it was even available for sale.

Bing received an 11.7% increase of visitors while the campaign was live with an average player engagement of 11 minutes. Jay Z’s Facebook page received 1 million ‘likes’ in under a month and his autobiography reached 3^rd in the New York Times Best Seller list.

All sections of media were used giving the individual a rich and unique understanding of Jay Z’s life, while educating the brand about Bing and its capabilities. If that isn’t a brand telling a story, I don’t know what is.

2. Converse & Patrick Downey – The 5k Run

Converse’s sponsorship of the Patrick Downey 5k Run is a great example of how brand’s can weave themselves into someone else’s story and become part of the overall narrative.

Patrick Downey was the embodiment of the Converse brand. He was an artist who had developed his own unique, personal style — the crown jewel of which was his uniform of dark pants, flannel tops and Chuck Taylors (Converse’s flagship shoe design). He tragically died in 2007 from a rare form esophageal cancer, which prompted his sister (Shannon Downey) to set-up a 5km run to raise awareness for this rare disease. Runners were encouraged to run in Chuck Taylors, while the race logo (as seen on the left) featured a trainer reminiscent of a Chuck Taylor shoe also.

Converse found out about the race and the affection with which Patrick Downey held their brand, and decided to sponsor the event. They now provide:

– All of the prize-winning money for the race

– Converse marshalls situated along the route to help runners get to the finish line

– Supply of Chucks to racers and attendees alike

– Additional consultation alongside Shannon to discuss how they can contribute long-term to her important work of educating people about esophageal cancer.

Patrick and Shannon’s initially personal story moved a brand to act. Converse have now become a part of that story and will continue to help write the remaining pages.

3. P&G and The Olympic – ‘Mums’ Campaign

Undoubtedly my favourite Olympic sponsorship and a great example of how storytelling can give personality to a brand that many people previously have never held any real affection towards.

P&G’s “Thank You Mum” Olympic marketing program harnessed a universal human emotion to create a program that spanned brands, countries and consumer alike. It showcased its commitment to their core audience, mums, through a range of different media formats via a compelling and touching narrative.

One of the central themes to the campaign was a P&G created video series called ‘Raising an Olympian’. It celebrated the role of Olympic mums in supporting their children to reach the pinnacle of their sporting lives.

The individual series generated over 25 million views online, with more than 10 million views on the Yahoo! network alone. To date, the global campaign has generated more than 65 billion impressions from broadcast and print coverage (650% over target), 72.5 million views of P&G videos, an 45% increase in Facebook fans for P&G brands, and 370 million Twitter engagements.

The mums campaign is the perfect illustration that the consumer does care about your brand story; as long as it’s a story that means something to them.

Checking-In to Sponsorship with Maps & Social Media 4th July, 2012

With branding and exposure only being part of the modern day sponsorship picture, the focus for brands now lies on new and innovative ways to interact and engage with consumers. Via the use of social media and mapping applications, brands are increasing audience engagement by tapping into their key interests whilst providing the opportunity to play a role and effect change within a campaign.

How are maps and social media being utilised?

Competitions and promotions offer a return for the audience with consumers being tasked with finding clues and unlocking codes in order to be in with a chance to win a reward. The key reason for engagement here, along with the resulting success of the campaign is that this is much more than being entered into a prize draw and getting lucky. Here, consumers are given a platform to compete and earn prizes, rather than simply win them.

Alternatively, games and applications are being used to task the key demographic with using a campaign in order to gain access to exclusive content. Different forms of digital entertainment are generally the ‘bait’ with consumers having the chance to unlock content including videos, music and games.

Example: Competitions

Consumers are now constantly being encouraged to compete with one another in order to win prizes; a great example of this being Evian’s recent campaign surrounding their 2012 Wimbledon Championships sponsorship. The public were given the opportunity to win tickets to this year’s tournament via hunting down a Wimbledon ball boy at large and checking-in via their social media accounts once finding him and receiving a numbered tennis ball.

Clues were posted on Evian’s Facebook and Twitter pages as to the ball boy’s whereabouts with a number being announced as the winner of VIP tickets at the end of each day.

Example: Social Gaming

Thanks to social media, marketers are simply able to launch a campaign and communicate the idea to those closest to the brand, with consumers then doing the leg-work to increase both exposure and engagement.

A perfect example of this would be a campaign mentioned before on the Slingshot blog but a perfect case study all the same: “Decode Jay-Z (Powered by Bing)”.

With Microsoft’s Bing search engine looking to increase their relevance with a younger audience, this campaign consisted of taking pages and scenarios from Jay-Z’s soon-to-be-released autobiography and bringing them to life at the range of locations documented in the book. This included a page printed on the bottom of a Miami swimming pool, plates from Jay-Z’s favourite restaurants and even custom-made Gucci jackets.

With clues being released daily via Facebook, Twitter and Radio, users were then encouraged to find real-life images of each page in each location using Bing’s Search and Maps tools and piece together the story on a dedicated micro-site for the campaign.

By using a relevant subject relating to the target demographic (Jay-Z), Bing were able to truly engage the audience with play time averaging eleven minutes. With Jay-Z’s Facebook ‘Likes’ increasing by over one million and his Decoded autobiography featuring on the Best Sellers List for nineteen straight weeks, Bing witnessed a visit increase of 11.7% in one month.

Why are such campaigns so successful?

Social media and maps are allowing for a whole new category of marketing in which communication of brand messaging is delegated to key brand fans. The most loyal consumers are now working on behalf of the brand in order to spread the word and pull others into the campaign, whilst encouraging these new ‘recruits’ to go out and do the same.

Unbeknown to the consumer, both brand awareness and credibility are being increased and improved via the use of location tagging, posts and tweets, reviews, image and video uploads and more. This in turn creates a buzz among the target demographic, initiating a mass shift in both brand perception and buying behaviour.

By using a relevant point of interest and in turn heavily engaging the audience, a consumer feels that a brand understands their preferences and will therefore cater to these needs and wants upon using their product or service. Trust, and in turn loyalty, are therefore instilled as the brand builds a reputation for giving the people what they want.

Given the effectiveness of digital marketing campaigns and their increasing role within today’s sponsorship model, consumers can be sure to look forward to more engaging competitions, rewards and exclusive content from their favourite brands in campaigns to come.

My Top 5 Sponsorship Campaigns 4th January, 2012

In the ever-busy world of brand marketing, using the strength of brand partnerships to forge new channels and platforms is essential to generating sales, showcasing the brand and in some cases uniting millions. Here are just five of my favourites:

1. Jay-Z & Bing – ‘Decoded’

With Jay-Z’s autobiography ‘Decoded’ due to be launched in November 2010, the rap mogul teamed up with Microsoft search-engine Bing to stir up some little needed hype.

Each of the book’s 320 pages was printed and placed in a different position across 13 major cities. Locations were selected based on the contents of each page – for example, a reference to Jay Z’s youth in Brooklyn could be placed on a Cadillac, a restaurant plate, a basketball net or even on the bottom of a swimming pool!

Utilising social media, clues were released via Facebook & Twitter revealing the location of the secret pages in a draw to compete to be the first to unlock each one of the 320 pages. Users were driven to Bing.com/Jay Z where they were directed to specific locations, while the first people on the scene texted a code to reveal the page to the whole community. Within a month of the campaign going live, users had unlocked every single page of the book before it was even available for sale.

The level of detail that went into turning every single page of Jay Z’s book into a real life installation was staggering, completely integrating and engaging the content of the book with readers. Unlike most interactive campaigns where the user’s interaction ends at the computer screen, ‘Decode’ actively encouraged the consumer to venture out into the world and sample Jay Z’s life in person. All sections of media were used, giving the individual a rich and unique understanding of Jay Z’s life that a purely internet-based campaign couldn’t have done. Through Jay Z, Bing created the biggest online game the world has even seen.

2. Ralph Lauren & The New York Times

In September 2011, Ralph Lauren bought out a one-month, solo sponsorship of the New York Times iPad application. The app takeover included online shopping, videos, a letter from Ralph Lauren, Ralph Lauren’s car collection, poems, details of how Ralph Lauren jewellery is made and the principles of the brand’s craftsmanship. An online shopping bag, built directly into the app’s adverts, allowed consumers to shop straight away, rather than having to click through to a website – essentially making it easier than ever to buy Ralph Lauren.

This partnership highlights the failure of countless companies to fully utilise what’s available to them when they form a brand relationship. Amongst the online shopping the reader is drawn to the beautiful imagery, the highly detailed information about the production of the clothes, and interesting little known facts about Ralph Lauren himself. At no stage do you ever feel as though you are being led down the path to purchase. It is always a gentle stroll, past a wonderfully crafted tweed suit, before you reach the checkout.

3. McDonald’s & 2008 Beijing Olympics – ‘Cheer For China’

With large sections of the Chinese population finding the Games remote and out-of-reach McDonald’s developed united sponsorship initiatives under the slogan “Cheer for China”, which allowed the nation to become part of the Chinese Olympic dream. In-store cheering stations, viral videos, interactive/click through banners and celebrity blog partnerships were just some of the ways that the ‘everyman’ was encouraged to participate in this episode of people power.

Through the cheering stations and online entries, the 10 best cheerers were chosen to take part in ‘The Cheer For China Online Reality Show’ that attracted over 7 million unique visitors to its website. To conclude the show, the 10 best cheerers were whittled down to 5 winners who led 1,200 people at the Olympic Stadium to set a new Guinness World Record. Throughout the campaign the Cheer For China website had over 25 million unique visitors and 1.2 million cheering entries.

This campaign illustrates how a well-thought out and flawlessly executed brand partnership can quite literally change a nation. Faced with Olympic indifference millions of people, from Guangzhou to Changchun, were instilled with the Olympic spirit – no mean feat for an American fast-food chain.

The multi-pronged approach of the campaign also ensured that it didn’t fizzle out – once all the cheering entries were in, a fly on the wall documentary emerged, which preceded winners dancing in the Olympic stadium setting a new world record. Continuity was key and ensured that the entire nation not only cheered for China, but continued to do so long after the Games were finished.

4. The National Theatre & Phillips ‘Sense and Simplicity’

In 2007 The National Theatre teamed up with Phillips to help reduce the amount of electricity that the Southbank location used. This partnership saw Phillips replace and enhance the National Theatre’s internal lighting system with state of the art, energy-efficient design costing approximately £500,000. In addition to the immediate visual improvements in the theatre, the long term aims were to reduce the amount of energy of lighting up the iconic ‘fly towers’ by 70%, which in turn will save £100,000 a year.

While this campaign may not have everyone marvelling at its ingenuity, the simplicity allowed consumers to fully engage with the campaign and helped both organisations achieve more together. The National Theatre was able to produce more productions and Phillips utilised a highly targeted audience platform to showcase their exceptionally high-quality lighting. In addition, a substantial amount of energy will have been saved by the end of the 5 year deal, paving the way for other heavily lit buildings in the city to focus on their own energy consumption.

5. Emirates Airline & Transport For London

With Transport for London’s state-of-the-art cable car more than doubling its budget in a year (from £25 – £60 million), Fly Emirates intervened in what was one of the shrewdest sponsorship moves of 2011.

The 10-year deal costing Emirates £36 million provides the Dubai based airline naming rights on what is bound to be one of the focal points for the London Olympics. It will be the first urban cable car of its kind in the UK, connecting Greenwich Peninsular over the river with the Royal Docks. The new system could provide a crossing every 30 seconds carrying up to 2,500 passengers per hour in each direction, equivalent to the capacity of 50 buses. Users will be able to pay with oyster cards, as they travel at a minimum height of 52m over the Thames.

With the travel concerns high amongst visitors as well as residents, the Emirates Cable Car will not only be highly publicised, but also one of the few central transportation links. In addition, it will remain a prominent part of the capital’s skyline for decades. Greenwich has a constant stream of tourists, throughout the year, who will all want to take a ride and witness the panoramic views that the cable car offers. As a result, Emirates’ brand will be directly showcased to a large portion of the 30 million international visitors the capital attracts annually long after the London Olympics have left.