Morellato has chosen IAKI to develop the Project Heroes 2012, an unconventional marketing, Social Media Marketing and tour planning initiative. Nicoletta Caluzzi, President of IAKI, tells us how it went.
What’s Sector Heroes?
It is an initiative by Sector, brand of the Morellato group, which tests the skills and the spirit of adventure of ordinary people, adventurers and brave. An unconventional territorial tour with the aim of enhancing the values of the Sector watches: indestructibility, Italian Design, Sport, precision and performance, not just the brand values, but also the communication objectives of the brief that was given to us.
Were there any pillars to stick to?
Yes, of course, we had to think of a single path that took into account certain requirements:
- the concept of challenge with themselves and with the nature on the Italian territory.
- The design of a journey that touched the four elements of nature that are also the brand values: water, earth, rock and asphalt.
- The drive to continue sharing through social networks.
How did you tackle this brief?
IAKI has designed a unique path in true Italian style that was a competition, but also a cultural journey. IAKI came up with the idea of a survival race of fifteen days, four teams of heroes with only 15 euro in their pocket every day. A competition started in Milan on June 19 and ended on July 3 at the Jazz Cafe in Milan. A survival kit branded Lotto Sport Italy & Intersport, a clock Sector per person, medical insurance Europ Assistance, and a smartphone Nokia Lumia 710 with which the team have spread steadily videos, photos and goodies to keep the public up to date, were some of the background elements. IAKI has so designed an unconventional marketing project with a territorial tour in Italy that involved four special challenges organized entirely by the agency:
- Claviere tibetan bridge for the Rock challenge.
- The BMX challenge in Ceva with Alex Barbero for the Earth challenge.
- A sailing course in Savona for the Water challenge.
- A Gokart race in Ottobiano for the Asphalt challenge
In addition to the special challenges the heroes also had the opportunity to visit monuments, cultural sites and unforgettable landscapes during the intermediate stages, stages that did raise the score of the team in the final standings. Heroes Sector 2012 has been a challenge out of the ordinary for ordinary people, where the only goal was to challenge themselves. This is the solution of customer engagement online / offline that IAKI has designed for Sector.
Unconventional Marketing that involved also the online, how?
Some time before the official start of the competition, IAKI had already designed a Facebook Marketing strategy with a Sector Heroes Tab housed in the official page of the brand, and then a Facebook application. A study of Web Design aimed to create strong engagement and impactful creativity. Initially, the Tab was designed as a space teaser, then hosted the Facebook application containing a map where you could constantly monitor in real time the locations and actions of the four teams on the road. In real time because it was linked to Google Latitude, a geolocation service installed on Nokia smartphones given to the heroes. The component of Social Media Marketing of the project was first started with the production of a strongly ironic viral video, then went on with the online recruitment of participants, and then maintained with the results of the regional tour and online advertising. IAKI has managed and continues to manage on-going the business of Social Media Marketing Sector of Heroes on its social channels.
You were talking about the production of a viral unconventional video…
Yes. IAKI has created a storyboard out of the ordinary that was fitting the brand, which chit-chatted immediately with the brand and with the public, and that was a strong component of customer engagement. A mid thirties who fights with his daily challenges: this is the plot in a few lines. You can peek at the video, it is still on the YouTube channel of Heroes Sector.
And what were the results of this unconventional marketing project?
On July 3, IAKI with the client waited for the arrival of the first team of Heroes Sector, which was presented, with others to follow, at the Jazz Café in London, the place chosen for the closing event of the tour planning. On this occasion IAKI organized a Happy Hour with awards at the local level. The winning team was awarded a Smartbox Relais & Chateaux and a gift. The other team a Smartbox wellbeing as well as lots of photos, interviews and visibility on social networks. Well, the results have been very positive. The Tab has allowed the interaction between users and teams through the comment box, the map online in Facebook has displayed on a daily basis their positions and their path, the media and their emotions, getting more than 14,000 views page during the competition, more than 1,000 “people who speak of” a day, and more than 34,000 individual users viewing the board. For a total of more than 1,000 fans in two weeks and acquired 1,246,045 total interactions. A challenge with numbers, as well as whiskered!