What was your favorite campaign of the year? Why?
Chas Edwards, Federated Media: Ask.com's sponsorship of Ask A Ninja, in which the ninja invited his viewers to search for made-up ninja words at Ask.com. Not only did the campaign bring Ask.com's campaign to an influential audience of young, influential heavy-internet users in a compelling way, it also drove more than 8 percent of the Ask A Ninja audience to Ask.com for a trial.
Schumacher: The Diesel "We Hijacked Diesel" campaign. The most homepage real estate campaigns can usually snag is a module letting the visitor know that "yes, we did run that ad." Homepage space is allocated very conservatively, for the most part. So what better way to fuel (couldn't help it) its progressive, unconventional image than for one of its campaigns to completely take over their own site? It's also the single place on the web where a brand is most likely to be addressing its most avid customers, so it makes sense as the right place to stage such perceived risky business. And the content they put on the site was exceptional. Funny, sexy, irreverent. Overall, a smart strategy executed extremely well.
What campaign had the best use of mobile?
Tom Deierlein, Dynamic Logic: Hampton Inn partnered with Weather Channel Interactive.
Schumacher: It's a campaign by an entire industry. I'm amazed at the music industry's ability to get people to pay $2.50 for ringtones. They're a snippet of a song selling for less than half of that, and with a higher bit rate.
What campaign had the best use of email?
Barry Stamos, Responsys: Philosophy is a premium, boutique beauty brand. To avoid the mailbox clutter that can be associated with birthday offers, my company designed an email to be delivered one week prior to the recipient's actual birthday. Automation of the email trigger assured that no additional resources would be necessary for deployment. Integration between email and a web analytics provider not only automated the campaign but also the reports, including revenue generation, clickthrough and open rates.
Not only has the birthday campaign provided increased overall email revenue by presenting a positive brand message and appealing gift offer, but it also continues to contribute to the elevation of consumer-based devotion to Philosophy itself. Given that the return on initial investment was recouped within the first 30 days of the email deployment, this has proven to be an extremely profitable and worthwhile investment for Philosophy.
What campaign featured the best use of viral?
Stamos: Virgin America is a new player in the domestic airline business. While it waited for final approval from the Department of Transportation earlier this year, it needed a way to keep its potential customers interested and engaged and to expand its marketing contact database. Email offered an affordable, viral, interactive way to promote the brand and stay on the radar screen. The company launched a campaign with my company, Responsys, called "Name Our Planes," a viral contest that engaged potential customers and grew its permission email list. Virgin America used an email design and message that complemented the contest, which utilized personalization and references to the sender in several places throughout the copy. The email was a user-generated trigger. Sending the email to a friend was optional after a user entered the online contest. The user was also given an option to include a personal note to their friend, which was then passed along in the trigger email.
What campaign featured the best use of user-generated content?
Cheyney: TurboTax's Tap Rap; Heinz.
Edwards: HP iPaq 510's sponsorship of "voice posts" on blog sites such as Boing Boing, Searchblog and OhGizmo. It sponsored technology to allow leading blog authors to add audio content to their sites -- editorial content, not influenced by HP. One, it was highly relevant to the iPaq 510's brand proposition: smart phones that specialize in voice-to-text and text-to-voice functionality. Two, it left content to the experts in content-making, which resulted in a high audience engagement level. Three, it added value to blog publishers and their readers, and HP got the credit for it.
Which campaign garnered attention but shouldn't have?
Edwards: Bud.tv. Big investment in branded entertainment that scored with the industry press but missed with Bud's audience.