1. Advertising Case Study
Sofia Nizharadze/ Facebook Executive Summary
Eurovision Client:
Company Background
Sofia Nizharadze is a Georgian singer, actress
and songwriter who represented Georgia in the
Eurovision Song Contest 2010 in Oslo with the
song Shine. Started in 1956, the contest is an
annual competition held among active member
countries of the European Broadcasting Union. Sofia Nizharadze
Members of the public from these countries are facebook.com/nizharadzesofia
able to cast votes for their favorite song, making
Agency:
it one of the most-watch non-sporting events
Gülseren Arslan
in the world. Gülseren Arslan is the co-founder
of adnboost, a digital media agency based in Objective:
To raise awareness of a singer from
Istanbul.
Georgia competing in the Eurovision
Song Contest and to drive people to
Objective
vote for her
When Sofia approached Gülseren in early
Solution:
2010 about running a campaign on Facebook A Facebook Ads campaign launched
to promote her bid to win the Eurovision in 32 countries and 18 languages
Song Contest, she had several key objectives. driving to videos of the singer
performing her Eurovision song
The main goal involved encouraging people
on Facebook to become fans of the Sofia Key Lessons:
Nizharadze Facebook Page and to watch the • Facebook can provide an effective
video of the artist performing her song. By and cost-efficient platform to
launch a global campaign to raise
advertising in 32 countries through Facebook,
awareness
the hope was ultimately to drive people to vote
for Sofia’s Shine as their favorite song in the • Facebook fans can be valuable to
a brand as they are more likely
contest.
to take actions than people who
have not already like a brand
“There was something magical about this campaign. I’ve
worked with many different ad platforms. But this one
enabled me to achieve big success globally on a small
budget. I was really impressed.”
Gülseren Arslan, Co-Founder, adnboost
2. Advertising Case Study
Approach
rather broad reflecting Eurovision’s broad
Given Facebook’s global reach, Gülseren ran
viewership. “We really wanted to reach everybody,
Marketplace Ads in some 32 key countries where
not just people who listed Eurovision in their Likes
people could vote on their favorite song for the
and Interests,” she says. She modified the targeting
Eurovision Contest. She created ads in some 18
parameters in each country to reach the right
different languages, including Georgian, Russian,
audience.
English, German and Norwegian.
The first phase, which began a month before the Results
contest final on May 29, 2010, was focused on
building awareness of the artist and gaining fans • Sofia made it into the semifinals (some 25
for her Page. There, people could discover content out of a total of 39 contestants and finished
about the singer, including a link to her performing the contest in a highly respectable 9th place.
Shine. The Like Ads featured a picture of Sofia and “Georgia is a small country,” Gülseren says.
encouraged people to “Get to know her better” by “Nobody was expecting results like that”
clicking on it.
• Over the course of the month-long campaign,
The second phase, some three weeks before the the number of fans increased from 200 to more
final, featured another ad with new text asking than 80,000. The Page now has more than
people to listen to “one of the most powerful voices 103,000 fans, giving the artist a substantial
in Eurovision.” It drove directly to the Shine video, so base of people with whom to engage and share
people could watch it and share it with their friends. feedback from
“We wanted the content to be fun and for people to
• The video of Sofia’s song Shine was viewed
watch the video,” says Gülseren.
more than 580,000 times
• The ads were viewed more than 428 million
times
• People clicked on the ads more than 379,000
times
“There was something magical about this
campaign,” says Gülseren. “I’ve worked with many
different ad platforms. But this one enabled me to
achieve big success globally on a small budget. I
was really impressed.”
The Future
The final phase ran on the eve of the final and was Gülseren plans to continue using Facebook
focused on driving action: getting people to vote for advertising with her clients and plans to make
Sofia. It featured an ad stating the number to use Facebook the main advertising platform for her
to vote for Sophia and sought to motivate people media agency. As for Sofia, she continues to use her
by suggesting “let’s SHINE together.” Throughout Facebook Page to engage with her fans and keep
the campaign, Gülseren deliberately kept targeting them posted on her career.