Social Media How To / Case Study: Escape Studios #CGWhiz Campaign

Social Media How To / Case Study: Escape Studios #CGWhiz Campaign - Presentation Transcript

Escape Studios #CGWhiz Report Social Media Campaign October 2009 http://twitter.com/contentmotion http://www.contentandmotion.co.uk

CGWhiz in Bullets… • Social Media Campaign devised by us and delivered in tandem with Escape Studiosʼ very excellent PR agency, Brands2Life - who handled media relations, video production, the competition draw and day- to-day aspects of Twitter and Facebook (...we all pitched together for blogging and other areas of Social Networking to make the whole thing ﬂy). • Competition for graduates/post-graduates to win a VFX classroom course at Escape Studios (January 2010), plus a work placement at The Mill • x2 runner-up winners get free online Maya course, plus magazine subscriptions and a tour of The Mill • We ask them to submit their animation or graphic illustration portfolio to YouTube, via the ‘Post a Video Response’ method • A judging panel selects winners, to be announced via the Escape Studios blog and other Social Media channels. Engage with entrants and winners, have them blog about the experience and what they intend to do with their learning prize • Benefits: • Generating buzz/awareness • Traffic acquisition • Generating backlinks/other SEO benefits • Lots of user generated content Don’t Panic! 2

Goals Overall Aim • To establish awareness, coverage and participation in the competition and to stimulate a ‘viral’ distribution of content by publishing and seeding campaign content End-of-Campaign TARGETS • Submissions: 100 • YouTube Video views: 3000 • Twitter Following: 450 (from 298) • Facebook Page fans: 150 (from 23) • Website Visitors: +15% • Website Registrations: +10% Don’t Panic! 3

Achievements 7000 Actual End-of-Campaign Stats 5250 • Submissions: 136 (+36%) • 3500 YouTube video views: 6,777 (+126%) • Twitter Following: 439 (-0.4%) 1750 • Facebook Page fans: 319 (+112%) 0 Submissions YouTube views Twitter followers Facebook fans Target Result Note: these figures are a reflection of the competition stats on 30th October - current figures can be seen in more detail within this report Don’t Panic! 4

Other Highlights Website outcomes • Overall traffic has increased by 7.45% • Direct traffic increased by 18.69% • Overall goal conversions increased by 63.36% • Backlinks have increased by 13% • We have an established page that can be used for future competitions of this type: a page that is ranking for some searched-for terms and has acquired Google Authority Don’t Panic! 5

Campaign Highlights “Have all of you #CG & #VFX artists heard about the #CGWhiz competition? Sounds good and you could win a course: http:// is.gd/4rhyR” http://careers.guardian.co.uk/in-the-week-12-10-09 http://twitter.com/rschu Don’t Panic! 6

Measurement Principles… Don’t Panic! 7

Tools We used the following tools in order to spread and monitor the campaign message: • Social Media bulletins • Twitter profile • Facebook Page • Dashboard • Blog target list Don’t Panic! 8

Dashboard… Don’t Panic! 9

Social Content Principles… Don’t Panic! 10

SocMed Assets… • YouTube • Run submissions via YouTube • Ask entrants to post ‘Video Response’ to a competition promo video that we produce/post to YouTube • Plug in the promo video to competition web page • Plug in submissions feed selection to web page • Twitter • Tweet competition to followers and engage in related #Hashtags • Plug Hashtag tweets into web page as a feed • Blog • Constant stream of posts on our blog and partner blogs Don’t Panic! 11

Engagement Map…  Social Media bulletins  Competition  #CGWhiz page  Twitter  ...etc  Forums  Our video  Social Networks (Facebook,  UGC videos etc.)  Twitter  Blogs  Posts  …etc  Banner  …etc Don’t Panic! 12

Competition Page… http://www.escapestudios.com/cgwhiz/ Banner for comp Body copy explaining comp Embed Esc promo vid (YouTube) Embed entries (YouTube) Twitter feed for @escape_studios PLUS ‘follow us on Twitter’ call to action… Don’t Panic! 13

Site Profile

Site Measurement Principles • The following slides look at how the campaign has influenced backlinks and traffic to the Escape Studios site and how the Social Media engagement influenced revenue • Traffic: how the campaign has affected Escape Studios’ overall traffic levels Don’t Panic! 15

Traffic • The graph below shows the overall traffic to the site during the campaign period 1st-31th October • Site usage compared with previous month: • Visits up by 7.45% / Direct traffic up by 18.69% • Page views up by 36.44% • Pages/visit up by 26.98% • Bounce rate down by 9.27% • Average time on site up by 18.48% • Usage data shows that during the campaign, visitors to the site were viewing more pages and exploring more of the site during their visits, therefore spending more time on-site Don’t Panic! 16

Rankings • The CG Whiz page is beginning to rank for search queries • It’s now on the first page for the term ‘CG Competition’ • This term is searched for 260 times per month • The campaign was not SEO focused, but the search authority gained should be used to increase the profile of future campaigns Don’t Panic! 17

Conclusions • Traffic to the site increased during the campaign period, with repeat visits rising significantly • The amount of time site visitors were spending on the site increased dramatically during the campaign as they viewed more pages within the site • We now have an established web page which has developed some Google authority. This page can be reused for promotions in the future: it has become a platform for further activity Don’t Panic! 18

Message Profile & Interactions

Message Measurement • The following slides look at how successful the campaign was in generating awareness (i.e. coverage). We will look at basic units of measurement such as blog coverage volumes, quality of coverage, and how the content was compiled • Volume: a straight numerical view of the number of blog posts/ articles • Quality: an analysis of the relative merits of this coverage (e.g. did it come from a high PageRank site with a wide audience?) • Content: an analysis of whether our content tactics helped to increase the quantity and quality of the coverage Don’t Panic! 20

Interaction Measurements • We will also look at how successful we were in generating new interactions around the campaign. We will look at Twitter interactions (and highlights), comment activity on blogs and communities, and social ‘sentiment’ • Twitter: an analysis of how well our Twitter activity was distributed by others and also how engaging the Twitter work was in generating real reactions • Blog comments and interactions: an analysis of how well the campaign was received in terms of public reactions on key blogs and communities • Sentiment: a view of how positive and/or negative this Social Media activity was Don’t Panic! 21

Coverage Campaign coverage 20 15 10 5 0 9 Oct 2009 16 Oct 2009 23 Oct 2009 30 Oct 2009 Retweets Blog mentions • Blog coverage was high in the initial week of the campaign but flattened out in the following weeks. Twitter coverage via re-tweets was positive and continued to grow throughout the month • It is important to continue building on the success of the Twitter profile by re-tweeting and @replying influential twitterers who are interacting, so that they remain followers and spread our future tweets, building out the platform for the next campaign. If we listen and talk to people, they’ll be more likely to do the same for us when we have something new to say. Don’t Panic! 22

Twitter Highlights • Tweets, re-tweets, and uses of the #CGWhiz Hashtag from high-profile twitterers boosted our standing in the Twitter community and raised the profile of the @Escape_Studios account • Examples of high-profile, established Twitter users who mentioned the competition positively can be seen above: 933 and 385 dedicated followers • The reach of the campaign was increased via the Twitter ‘network effect’ within the CG community Don’t Panic! 23

Forum Coverage Highlights PageRank: 5 Monthly Visitors: 20,040 Backlinks: 109,514 PageRank: 6 Monthly Visitors: 5,862 Backlinks: 77, 432 • Posts on the CG Society and VFX Talk forums referred a large amount of highly relevant traffic to the site during the campaign period - 185 and 80 visits • These sites were featured as key social hubs in our platform report • The users of industry forums are highly engaged and interested in the subject area and therefore gaining attention within these areas is very useful Don’t Panic! 24

YouTube YouTube Video Views 9000 6750 4500 2250 0 Before campaign 9 Oct 2009 16 Oct 2009 23 Oct 2009 30 Oct 2009 Current • The YouTube video has been viewed over 8000 times (and rising) since the campaign began, which is an excellent level of interaction • The video was used and embedded by bloggers to make their own content more compelling. For blogs, video is an essential hook to gain coverage and grab attention Don’t Panic! 25

YouTube Comments Hey there, This competition is brilliant, I have uploaded my entry and have been getting some really encouraging feedback. I think that even if I'm not one of the lucky ones, the competition has allowed me to view other work by artists that otherwise I would never of had the chance to see. Good luck to everybody, some of these entries put me to shame...;) Cheers Samuel. Hiiii • The user comments in response hey i want to thank all of you at escape studios and The Mill who have organized this facinating competition....it to the YouTube video were very has really given a big hand for people like us who are in positive countries like SRI LANKA and who loves animations.this has also given me the oppertunity to look at different types of projects.and its great to see that the competition is hotting up.and i wish all the contestents good luck for • The video also gained a high their progress in the competition. rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars Pubudu Dahanayaka Don’t Panic! 26

Content Value • Our supporting video was used within news articles and blog posts to enhance, add depth and additional value to articles about the event • Collateral such as this is particularly useful as it can be used across a variety of different environments, such as forums, blog comments and Social Media platforms http://fdadigitalmediaproduction.com/2009/10/29/are-you-a-cg-whiz-show-us-your-skills-and-we%E2%80%99ll-make-you-a-star/ http://area.autodesk.com/blogs/cory/cg_whiz_competition Don’t Panic! 27

Conclusions • Our collateral has been embedded within blog posts in order to enhance third party content • The YouTube video has attracted a lot of positive attention. This is highly valuable coverage and has massively exceeded our targets • Re-tweets of our Twitter updates grew throughout the campaign due to our follower-building activities and regular updates about the competition • Mentions of the campaign by high profile twitterers greatly extended our message reach • Posts on influential, industry-specific forums identified in the platform report referred highly relevant traffic to the site and raised awareness Don’t Panic! 28

Acquisitions

Acquisition Measurement • The following slides look at how successful the campaign was in generating new acquisitions • Registrations: Number of registrations on the Escape Studios website • Twitter: Increase of the Twitter following over time • Facebook: Increase of Facebook Page fans • Goals: Amount of goals gained through social media referrals during the campaign period Don’t Panic! 30

Competition Entries Submissions 130.0 97.5 65.0 32.5 0 9 Oct 2009 16 Oct 2009 23 Oct 2009 30 Oct 2009 • The number of submissions increased steeply in the first and last weeks of the competition when the initial engagement began and ‘last chance to enter’ message occurred • This final surge of entries ensured that we exceeded our target number of submissions by the closing date Don’t Panic! 31

Twitter Following Twitter Followers 700 525 350 175 0 Before campaign 9 Oct 2009 16 Oct 2009 23 Oct 2009 30 Oct 2009 Current • The @Escape_Studios Twitter following increased steadily throughout the campaign period and is continuing to rise, with a current following of 663 • The increase in followers was beneficial as it increased the potential audience of our message • The accrued following can be utilised for any future campaigns, and will help Escape Studios broader online profile and future messages Don’t Panic! 32

Facebook Fans Facebook Fans 500 375 250 125 0 Before campaign 9 Oct 2009 16 Oct 2009 23 Oct 2009 30 Oct 2009 Current • Facebook fans increased dramatically from the first week of the campaign • They increased by 112% during the campaign period - the end-of-campaign figure of 319 was far above our goal of 150 fans • The number of fans is continuing to rise, with a current fan base of 469, making the Facebook Fan Page a valuable asset to any future Escape Studios activity Don’t Panic! 33

Acquisition Goals • Acquisition goal completions have increased significantly since the start of the campaign • Overall goals have increased by 63.36% since the previous month Don’t Panic! 34

Goal Breakdown • Goal conversions increased significantly during October • Contact requests increased by 35.16% • Purchases increased by 209.09% • Newsletter sign-ups increased by 2.06% • E-Learning subscriptions increased by 107.62% NB: Figures are a percentage difference on previous month Don’t Panic! 35

Conclusions Target End-of-Campaign Stats • Submissions: 100 • YouTube Video views: 3000 9000 • Twitter Following: 450 • Facebook Page fans: 150 6750 4500 End-of-Campaign Stats • Submissions: 136 (+36%) 2250 • YouTube video views: 6,777 (+126%) • Twitter Following: 439 (-0.4%) 0 • Facebook Page fans: 319 (+112%) Submissions YouTube views Twitter followers Facebook fans Target End-of-Campaign Current Current Stats • Submissions: 136 (+36%) • YouTube Video views: 8,226 (+174%) • Twitter Following: 663 (+47%) • Facebook Page fans: 469 (+212%) Don’t Panic! 36

Campaign Conclusions

Conclusions Summary • Traffic to the site increased during the campaign period, with repeat visits rising significantly. The amount of time site visitors were spending on the site also increased dramatically during the campaign as they explored the site in more depth • The campaign has allowed us to establish a web page which has developed some Google authority. This page can be reused for promotions in the future: it has become a platform for further activity • The YouTube video has attracted a lot of positive attention. This is highly valuable coverage and has massively exceeded our targets. The video was also used within blog coverage to enhance the copy • Re-tweets of our Twitter updates grew throughout the campaign due to our follower-building activities and regular updates about the competition. Mentions of the campaign by high profile twitterers greatly extended our message reach • Posts on influential, industry-specific forums identified in the platform report referred highly relevant traffic to the site and raised awareness • The Twitter followers and Facebook fans gained during the competition can be utilised as a valuable asset in any future campaign • Revenue driven from Google search and direct traffic grew significantly over the campaign period. Twitter drove the highest amount of referred revenue Don’t Panic! 38