2. What is a successful integrated campaign? One thing is for sure. It’s NOT about amplifying the same
message across all outbound and inbound platforms. It’s NOT about seeing how many times you can
hit your audience with messages they have no interest in seeing. It is NOT a bolt-on afterthought to
complement a TV campaign. It is NOT a way to answer “So what are we doing on Facebook?”
Now a few words about what a successful integrated campaign IS. It IS content in one form or
another that feels organic to the situation. It IS something that piques an audience’s interest, if only
for a moment. It IS something the audience finds useful, entertaining or informational. It IS a way of
adding a chapter to a brand’s story. It IS something the audience would like to share.
Following are a few examples of Integrated Campaigns I have been involved with over the past few
years that have met this criteria. Oh, and they happened to contribute to increased sales.
3. Litehouse Dressings: “30 Salads in 30 Days”
For salad dressing manufacturer Litehouse Foods, we created an interactive program in
2009 called “30 Salads In 30 Days.” A recipe-sharing microsite not only featured more than 60 salad options
(which could be sorted by ingredients, calorie count or dressing type) and allowed visitors
to rate, comment and favorite recipes, it also served as the gateway to a “30 Salads/30 Days”
email program, which allowed visitors to subscribe to receive a salad recipe a day for a month,
delivered either daily or weekly, depending on their preferences.
CTR as high as 6% on banner ads helped grow enrollment to 1500 users/week at its peak,
with an opt-out rate of only 3%. A “Litehouse Lunch Club” component was later added
that provided the tools to create and administer a “salad group” of co-workers.
A companion 30 Salads Facebook page let fans share their own recipes and compete in a
monthly “Salad of the Month” contest, where winners were awarded a $50 grocery card.
Most impressively, the program helped sell more dressing: tracking sales
of types of dressings to the corresponding recipes showed sales increases of between
2 and 15%. In 2012, a “Living Litehouse” blog was also created,
featuring contributions from up-and-coming food bloggers.
7. WSU Athletics: “Wave the Flag”
We created “Wave the Flag” for Washington State University Athletics as a way
to reconnect with and engage alumni and lapsed fans, and give them “permission” to
support Cougar Nation through attendance, donations and social conversations.
Our fan-centric “Wave the Flag” microsite allowed fans of all types, from die-hards to casual,
to share why they “wave the flag” for WSU Athletics. We included short videos on the site to start
the conversation. Traffic was driven to the site via print ads with QR codes and the
department’s social pages. We invited visitors to share videos and photos. The first month
after launch, the site received over 5,100 visits and more than 300 fans shared their photos or videos.
In Social, Facebook postings routinely garner an engagement rate of up to 6%,
and in ESPN’s competition to “Bring College Gameday to Your Campus,” Facebook helped WSU fans
propel the university to #3 in the nation, well ahead of every other west coast school. This helped
WSU achieve record spring game attendance and the first Opening Game sell-out in 60 years.
10. Rizzuto’s Foods: “Family Pizza Night”
Rizzuto’s is a pizza crust manufacturer focusing primarily on the food service side of the industry.
In 2011, we helped them launch “Family Pizza Night” by creating do-it-yourself pizza kits with par-baked crusts,
pizza sauce and shelf-stable toppings shipped directly to your door.
We created an e-commerce website optimized for long-tail search. We also created a “Family
Pizza Night” Facebook page, powered by Rizzuto’s, which shared pizza tips, trivia and
games and activities for eating-in nights with the family.
Within just six months, Family Pizza Night represented more than 15% of Rizzuto’s business.
11. Comcast: “Housemates” Acquisition
As part of our 2007 “Housemates” serial TV acquisition campaign for Comcast, we used
online tools to engage younger potential customers. A microsite featured bio information, a photo gallery,
TV outtakes and unaired spots, in addition to sign up opportunities. The Housemates themselves
also became some of the earliest “social media stars” (this was 2007) with fan-centric pages
for each Housemates member. Fans themselves got into the act by starting Facebook pages, Wikipedia
pages, Urban Dictionary listings and even send-up parody fan-created videos.
The results? The campaign not only delivered the most new subscribers in ANY quarter
for Comcast Northwest, it also helped cut churn by nearly 1/3.
12. Coeur d’Alene Casino/Resort: “Escape Now”
To give people permission to take a trip to the Coeur d’Alene Casino/Resort, we created an integrated
campaign themed “Escape Now.” Humorous TV spots showed real people stuck in the daily routine of their
lives daydreaming about escaping to the Casino/Resort. Outdoor boards featured
“sign poster” mannequins rushing to escape.
This campaign was brought to the streets via a variety of environmental guerrilla tactics visualizing the idea
of escaping the ordinary. We suspended knotted giant “bedsheets” from three tall buildings in downtown Spokane
and Coeur d’Alene. We also created window clings that made it look like someone “escaped”
from their office (small pieces of acrylic on the sidewalks next to the cling added to the effect).
These tactics helped generate an estimated $50,000 worth of free media.
During the first month after launch, the Coeur d’Alene Casino/Resort had its highest drop ever,
with record-breaking days every weekend during the month. The increase continues as revenue is up 5% year-to-year.
