At OMMA Global yesterday Marty Collins told us Windows 7 social media story.
Her team wanted to build an impactful social media plan around Windows 7 launch. The team has started small. And smart, I might add. They audited existing online communities where Windows 7 conversations were happening, then they reached out to several of these communities and asked for permission to co-drive the conversation (similar to what Coke did with their Facebook presence).
They focused on strategic growth and took a “one network at a time” approach. They picked Facebook and YouTube as their 2 key social networks for this launch. Facebook – because there was already big buzz happening on Facebook around Windows 7 – ~30 communities already created by customers. So Marty and her team picked one community of 30,000 fans created by an die-hard fan from Germany and joined forces with him. YouTube – because the team knew that there will be abundance of videos created. Twitter handle was added right at the time of launch. Team was very thoughtful and systematic with what was launched, why, when and where.
“This wasn’t a regular campaign,” Marty said. “Campaign mentality is: we engage during the day, go dark at night. We, on the other hand, have committed resources 24/7. There was always someone who was there to addressed customers questions and participate in conversations real time.” Agreed, this is somewhat a revolutionary concept for us marketers, shifting from campaign mentality to real-time and long-term engagement mentality.
Another thing the team did is they reached out to partners and leveraged everyone’s networks to deliver their message. “We are so much stronger and more impactful when we work together,” Marty said.
Team paid attention to volume of conversations online and here is the growth they observed (# of customer posts a week):
- July 08: 300-400
- Sep 09: 1,500
- Jan 09: 3,000 and sentiment shifted to green (positive)
- Oct 09: 16,000
The next thing the team did is create a Social Media “hub” – aggregated site of all social conversations about the product (it pulled from YouTube, Facebook, Flickr, Twitter). Team also used communities’ skills to produce great videos that they can use… and for a great price – free. They came up with Twitter giveaway ideas that included pizzas and sodas – the giveaway that, Marty says, was unbelievable force for community motivation. They also utilized House Parties to spread the word. I know a college of mine had one of those at her house and she loved it – as a host she got Windows 7 for free and a number of other fun goodies.
So, well thought-through campaign. What were the results? Over 16 months, social media activities garnered the Window 7 launch:
- 200 million earned brand impressions in the first 2 weeks of launch with estimated CPM of $0.02
- CTR 2.5% on the “hub”
- YouTube channel was a #1 sponsored channel on YouTube for 3 days during the first week
- 3rd most talked about on Twitter for 2 days during the first week
- Doubled the fans on Windows Facebook page
- In the first 2 weeks the Hub had over 300,000 visits, 50% of which came from Facebook
Where are they today?
- 9th most viewed channel on YouTube
- 320,000 fans on Facebook
- 71,000 followers on Twitter
Trends that Marty says she sees shaping up in 2010:
- Earned and paid media will collide. All car manufacturing companies are closing their air cover ads with a call to action that drives to their Facebook pages. Are you?
- Mobility will evolve digital advertising. Location-based networks provide rich customer data.
- Social media will not be a standalone asset but rather will integrate into mainstream digital marketing.
- Video advertising for web will only increase.
- Social CRM will be required for enterprise companies.
Do you agree?