Magical Christmas

If there’s one experiential marketing that deservedly went viral last year in the holiday season, it’s Christmas Miracle  by WestJet, Canada’s second largest airline.

In it, Santa Claus appears on life-size screens at boarding gates in Toronto and Hamilton, Ontario and asks actual passengers what they want for Christmas, while WestJet employees take notes behind the scenes. Once the planes take off, the employees go on a mad dash of shopping, wrapping and labeling those very gifts for the passengers. When the planes land in Calgary a few hours later, the gifts make a grand entrance on the baggage carousel – from socks and underwear to a big-screen TV – amid laughter, shouts of “No way!” and even a few tears.

If the unbridled emotion of 250 unsuspecting passengers receiving their Christmas wishes doesn’t warm your heart, you may want to consider a Scrooge-ectomy.

It’s the airline, though, that may have received the biggest Christmas surprise. Richard Bartrem, WestJet’s vice president of communications and community relations, told me that the company had expected perhaps 800,000 views from the video. But in the few short days since Christmas Miracle went live, it had topped 13 million views, been seen in more than 200 countries and made the news in the U.K., Australia, Japan, Poland and Malaysia. “We’re pretty thrilled,” he said, with typically Canadian understatement.

Don’t be so modest, Richard. Christmas Miracle was a huge undertaking. In the works since August and filmed in November, it involved some 150 WestJet employees who did everything from coordinating logistics at the airport to high-speed shopping and wrapping, clearing gifts through airport security and serving hot cocoa at baggage claim.

The real payoff: good will that advertising can’t buy, for a cost that Bartrem calls “nowhere near as much as you would have expected.”

“For a traditional commercial, you could spend well into the mid-six figures for the production alone,” he says. While WestJet won’t disclose how much it spent on the video, Bartrem calls it “a mere fraction” of that. And that’s before the ad buys, which, he says, could normally run well into the millions.

With Christmas Miracle, “the community is doing the sharing,” Bartrem says. “It’s something they want to talk about.”That makes Christmas Miracle not just YouTube’s feel-good holiday sensation of 2013, but the kind of branding that normally only Santa can deliver.

Watch the glimpse of this successful brandstunt on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIEIvi2MuEk

A powerful creative brief

While defining what a creative brief is and what kind of brief is an effective one I personally love how it is defined by Ireland’s Marketing Monthly, “Briefing is not just a matter of putting together a detailed list of facts, figures and instructions. Creative briefing should set out to inspire the people who create the magic – the creative teams.”

Following  features helps make a creative brief most effective and useful tool in planning for a brand activation campaign:

•       There should always be a written creative brief

•       The most essential element in creating strong, effective direct marketing communications. It should be motivational, not rushed

•       A comprehensive document which helps you strategize and crystallize thoughts before writing copy, formulating a creative strategy or starting design work

•       Contains the "specifications" to which both creative services and copywriting should adhere

•       All stakeholders in the campaign should be present at the briefing session – creative, account management, media, production

•       Too often the home of long and lazy. Boring creative = horrible campaign

According to the  guru of marketing and my ideal David Ogilvy, you have all the freedom in the world in creating your brief as long as it is relevant and to the point.

“Give me the freedom of a tight briefing.”David Ogilvy

13 elements that make up a Powerful Brief - The Right Elements:

Background

•       Characteristics of brand; why job is being briefed; market considerations, overall marketing strategy

•       It should begin to whet the appetite of the creative team

Task

•       What is being asked of the agency/creative team?

•       What services do you want provided: creative, production, media?

•       What is the consumer problem/need that the creative must solve? 

Objectives

•           What do you want to achieve, by when and with what measurable results?

Target Audience

•       Prospects and/or customers

•       Geographic, demographic and psychographic elements

•       Current perception, attitude & usage of the product by the target audience now

•       Create as insightful a picture as possible

Position

•       The one key message you want to deliver in terms of the prospect’s own needs that sets you apart from all other competitors

•       The heart of the creative process

•       It distills all the compiled information into one or two sentences (beware of the word “and”!)

Support

•            Reason to believe the benefit will be received

•           Who/what else uses/thinks this is a great product/service?

•          Desired Response 

What do you want the target to think/feel/do?

Offer

•          Induces target market to respond to your solicitation.

Media

•          What media do you intend/propose to use? Direct mail? Print or press? Web?

Tone and Manner

•       Descriptors for copy style (e.g. Emotional, conservative; fun; dynamic; serious, 

fear, etc.)

Tone

•       The way the reader should ‘hear’ the message in the context of the brand, 

product or service 

•       Should not be off-side with the brand’s personality and should match the 

product message and you are delivering

•       Examples : friendly/ authoritative/ professional/ gentle/ empathetic/ newsy/ exciting/ sad/ sarcastic/ comedic

Manner

•       The method in which the communication should be delivered and is less emotional in nature

•       Examples : direct/ educational/ collegial/ inquisitive/ professional / newsy(manner can overlap with tone).

Mandatories

Any logos, slogans, terms and conditions to be included or legal requirements

Budget

Agency budget for creative, production, media

Timelines

Deadlines: for initial “rough” concepts, for completed  concepts, copy and layout, presentation to the client, launch.

If this article was of interested to you and you found it useful or have any feedback you contact on: brandstunts@gmail.com

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10 elements of successful Brand Activation

10 elements of successful Brand Activation

When planning and developing an effective brand activation, the main objective is to engage with consumers and giving them a brand experience that they will never forget. The stunts done by various brands around the world to grab attention of their target audience has led to viral marketing campaigns that ultimately lead to massive brand loyalty and awareness. This is the best way to acquire new customers and retain the current ones by building strong one to one relationships with them that may last forever.

After you have reviewed the list, check out the brand activation examples posted on our facebook fanpage,twitter or linkdin group and see how effective each brand activation really is and which areas they still need to work on. This exercise will help you think deeper and help you strategise your next brand activation plan.

 10 elements of successful Brand Activation:

1.    Is it Exclusive? Do you have exclusivity vs. your competitors?

2.    Brand Relevance Is it relevant to your Brand?

3.    Reach Does it have city-wide/ province-wide/national/international (your reach priority) reach amongst your target groups?

4.    Return on Investment What is the potential return on investment? Can you measure success? This is not always a financial return. Can you collect data (e-mails, business leads, opportunities, Facebook followers, tweets, engagement etc. etc)

5.    Expertise Does it leverage your company’s expertise or their unique selling point?

6.    Integration Is it integrated with the overall creative platform and does it work in multiple channels?

7.    Long-term potential-Does it have long-term potential and can it build equity from year to year?

8.    Amplification Can we amplify the program and get earned media?

9.    Uniqueness Is it unique and will it get people talking and participating?

10. World Class Is it a program that everyone would consider “World Class”?

Every factor doesn’t have to be checked but this list will help guide you in determining the activation’s potential for success and it’s alignment with your corporate strategy.

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