Oakley and Rock Legends
Oakley wanted establish an emotional connection with its core audience of men 15 to 28, so MEA Digital, its interactive agency of record, went to Appssavvy for a campaign that was "more organic than an ad," says Tamara Bousquet, MEA media director. The resulting app, a product integration with the game Rock Legends, let people dress their avatars in Oakley gear.
In the Rock Legends game, Facebook users can form bands with friends and play gigs to earn virtual money, which they can use to buy equipment and clothing -- including 14 Oakley products. As they win battles of the bands, they move up in ranking until they get to compete against a "branded" band made up of Oakley's athlete spokespeople.
This is the third Facebook application for Oakley. "It's a different kind of media planning," Bousquet says. "They can actually touch and feel [a product], and get more excited about it, instead of saying 'Click here.'"
Appssavvy says Facebook marketers should identify key performance metrics based on the particular campaign. This campaign's goals were building awareness, preference, and purchase consideration. Although Oakley and MEA weren't as interested in hard metrics as in the user experience, 300,000 products were purchased within the game, and there were more than 3 million custom Oakley gigs.
Appssavvy's Chris Cunningham points out that an important element of Facebook apps is unpaid impressions: the mentions in news feeds and actions taken with the application. The Rock Legends Oakley campaign delivered 3.5 million paid and 129 million unpaid impressions.
Beyond impressions, paid or unpaid, MEA's Bousquet says the campaign's value lies in increased consideration and preference. "They think, 'I didn't know Oakley had those cool shades.' Then they go into an Oakley store and purchase the product," she says. That is, after having practiced the purchase in Rock Legends, of course.
