In an in-depth case study Selina Sykes, Marketing Manager for Lynx UK & Ireland talks us through the brand’s Fallen Angel campaign
“Our idea was to tap into things our audience were already interested in,” says Selina Sykes, Marketing Manager at Lynx. “The key for us was to be relevant to people’s lives. That was a really important lesson, and we have to listen to our consumers to be able to do that.”
That insight into the relationship between brand and consumer, explains Sykes, was key in the development of the Lynx Excite Fallen Angel campaign, a project designed to get guys engaged with the brand’s new range.
Heaven scent
Launched in March 2011, agency Tullo Marshall Warren created the social media campaign. The production company was Mind’s Eye and Mindshare were responsible for media planning. Hosted on Facebook, model Kelly Brook was the winged angel trapped in heaven. Operating under the tagline ‘Will Kelly fall for you?’ an interactive, personalised video chronicled her search for the Lynx fan who’d tempt her down to earth. Using Facebook Connect, Brook addressed viewers by name and, once she’d descended from heaven, appeared in AR form outside users’ houses. But, explains Sykes, this was only one element of a campaign that operated across viral, social, mobile and gaming. So what were the brand’s objectives and how were they able to achieve them?
“The whole campaign was based round the idea that Lynx Excite is so tempting it can make angels fall,” says Sykes. “And the thought behind that was that even the nicest girls can be tempted. That was the global idea. But what was important, and what we had to do, was give that idea a local execution and make it something guys in the UK and Ireland could be excited by.”
Building buzz
Regular audience recruitment, says Sykes, is vital for a brand like Lynx Excite. With that in mind, three key objectives were identified. “First, we wanted to get guys talking. What would get them to do that? The second objective was to make our angels ‘famous’. The bigger or more ubiquitous things feel, the more people are engaged with them and the greater the cultural impact. The third objective was audience participation, because if you get people participating in your campaign, they’re going to be far more involved and have a greater affinity with your brand.”
The first step was to generate some unbranded buzz among street art fans. In a literal instance of spray and pray, graffiti artists Can’t Copyright and Miss Led were commissioned to create their own take on the angelic theme at skate parks across the UK. Can’t Copyright posted a film on YouTube and the video began to resonate in the blogosphere and across social media.
“This wasn’t just content we were trying to ram down people’s throats,” says Sykes. “We’d tapped into something people cared about so it entered the eco-system, if you like, of that tribe.”
From there the campaign targeted Lynx’s Facebook followers, 170,000 at that time. The interactive video was supported by banner ads, teaser videos and behind-the-scenes video footage. By August 2011 the personalised video had resulted in 80,000 new Facebook fans, 25,000 ‘likes’, comments and posts, 95,000 app views and 100,000 You Tube teaser views.
Crossing the lines
Underpinning all this digital activity was a further insight into attitudes among Lynx’s target market towards the net itself.
“Kids between 16 and 24 haven’t lived in a world without the internet. Someone recently made the point that Generation-Z will never need to use a map. They’ll never have to arrange to meet a friend at an exact time or place because they’ve grown up with mobiles. Digital isn’t something they need to adapt to. It’s part of their life. Whether kids are playing FIFA on their Xbox Live or kicking a ball round in the park, they don’t think, ‘right, now I’m in the digital world, and now I’m in the real world.’ They’re just having fun with their friends. As marketers, it’s important not to treat those spheres differently. It’s just that online you can do more fun stuff and get closer to your key market.”
The campaign certainly made use of some of the most advanced social media technology. But how did the execution enable Lynx to meet their objectives?
“In terms of tapping into things our audience were already involved in,” says Sykes, “our strategy was to reach every touchpoint within our target market’s life. Looking at mobile, for example, we invested in iAds and Google AdMob to make sure we had a strong presence there. We made sure our out-of-home was really impressive and linked that to mobile with short codes so people could get extra content. We wanted it to feel like the angel was on every screen everywhere. That was why it was important that we had such a strong idea to start with, because it could work across all these different platforms and still feel like one, single campaign rather than something fragmented or diluted.”
Data tracking
Facebook, naturally, was a vital hub in the campaign. But was the inability to capture user data there an issue during the course of the campaign?
“No,” says Sykes. “I used to do a lot of work with direct mail and that’s a channel where you’re very interested in data and redemptions. But with digital there’s so much data available already that it’s a question of deciding what’s important for your objective. Our main objective was to build love for our brand – to get guys interacting with Lynx and to feel it’s relevant, fun and something they want to be part of. We don’t feel like we need to capture all their data to do that. Rather than tracking them down, if you like, we want to be where they are anyway. It comes back to the point about street art. If we know what they’re interested in we can create something that’s adding value to their lives and their experience, but we don’t need to use their data for that.”
That’s a point echoed by Tullo Marshall Warren. “Our experience of working with the brand convinced us of the suitability of social media as the best form of engagement for its target audience,” say the agency. “We advised Lynx that all recruitment, communication and management of their programme should be conducted via Facebook. This meant letting go of ownership of consumer data in the belief that the quality of interaction through social media would far outweigh the benefits that owning data confers, and engaging with their target audience on their terms.”
ROI, nevertheless, is the final arbiter of success. So how did Sykes calculate the campaign’s performance?
“Ultimately,” she says, “through sales. In the local market we’re right on the frontline and the question is always: does the campaign deliver market share? At the end of the experience, do people actually go out and buy the product? From that point of view, the campaign was really successful. We beat all our targets and achieved a 3.8 per cent market share in the whole category, which was phenomenal for one variant.
“In terms of softer measures, one of the things I’m most proud of is that the campaign almost became part of the zeitgeist. It’s something young people really talked about. One guy went to his university ball dressed up as a can of Lynx Excite and all his girlfriends dressed as angels. That shows Lynx has really become part of their lives. And a lot of that is down to the fantastic idea that the global team came up with in the first place. We were able to capture the imaginations of our target market.
“The thing I would say about this campaign is we started a lot of small fires. The AR, for example – that was just one part of the campaign. It wasn’t the centre. By creating those small fires you can see the ones that are really taking hold, you can tap into different areas and then create a bigger impact. Whatever your brand there’s a way to do that if you just focus on what your consumers need.”
Article by Jon Fortgang