CorpComms Magazine

Winner: Best use of digital media as part of a communications strategy

Virgin Mobile (now Virgin Media) - It's amazing what you can do with 30peas

Agency: onlinefire

Online campaigns need to entertain and inform and this potentially dry tariff announcement highlights the balance beautifully.

Tariff announcements are essential for mobile phone providers as they are one of the major factors that drive consumer purchases, but it is a highly cluttered marketplace with new offers emerging almost daily.

When Virgin Mobile (now Virgin Media) unveiled unlimited mobile Internet access for 30p per day, it wanted to cut through the clutter and stand out from the crowd. It had very specific objectives - to engage existing and potential customers and key online influencers, increase inbound links to the tariff's homepage, secure at least 60 pieces of coverage (either online, in blogs or mainstream press) in three weeks and increase average monthly new customer acquisitions.

It was essential that any campaign captured the essence of Virgin - fun, funky and vibrant - and positioned it as the 'challenger brand' within its competitor set. As the tariff had been announced to existing customers by direct mail, PR was the only communication channel open to non-customers, prospective clients and influencers.

'30peas' was the first ever online PR and social media campaign for the launch of a mobile phone tariff. Agency onlinefire played on the 30p aspect of the tariff, by creating a digital campaign with a stop motion animation film of 30 frozen peas dancing in black holes, climbing mountains and playing Pong.

With the slogan If you can get all of the Internet for 30p a day, just imagine what 30 peas could do, the film premiered at London's first ever interactive blogger event for the launch of a viral video which was created especially to promote the new tariff.

Direct engagement

The Voscars (Virgin Mobile Oscars) premiered at the Curzon Theatre in Mayfair, to which 30 influential bloggers were invited to showcase their favourite viral videos. (Again, the number reflected the 30p tariff.)

When the screenings had completed, each blogger was asked to vote on their favourites and the winner was packaged as a story and sold in as 'Virgin Mobile's 30p per day mobile Internet tariff ' premiere.

The Voscars presented an opportunity for Virgin Mobile to engage directly with online customers, and members of their communications team attended to chat about the campaign, data tariff and future plans

The event attracted national news coverage, while each of the bloggers in attendance also wrote about the Voscars, 30peas and the mobile data tariff plan, totalling 99 pieces. Three out of four articles linked to or embedded the 30peas video, while more than 95 per cent mentioned Virgin Mobile and 80 per cent of sites linked to virginmobilepeople.com/30p.

The campaign also generated online chatter on websites that did not normally cover mobile news, with more than 20 million 'opportunities to see'.

Within ten days, the video had been viewed 10,000 times and customer acquisition had increased 5.5 per cent. For every £1 spent, it was estimated that 952 people were reached.

It was clear that this campaign had more than exceeded its target objectives, while its quirky approach to a dry subject captured the imagination of social media aficionados and ensured coverage for the '30peas' initiative.

Mobile Measurement

Liam Kelly, head of evaluation, Cision UK

Social media engagement is often seen as one of the more tricky tasks for a communicator. Over the years, we have all seen examples of brilliant social media communication activities and we've all learnt from our fair share of mistakes. We're improving, but it can sometimes still feel just a little confusing. After all, how do you know if you got it right? There are plenty of tools to help you answer that question, but first take the lead from Virgin Mobile and you'll be well on your way to measuring your success.

Virgin Mobile's 30peas viral campaign was undoubtedly creative, and helped to further a young, fun and edgy brand image. It was also successful. The team closely targeted its campaign to 30 of London's most influential bloggers. The group came together to vote on their favourite viral videos at the Voscars, an event that gave Virgin Mobile the chance to showcase its own video. A good day out, however, is not a measure of success. Virgin Mobile's clearly defined objectives and measurement criteria ensured that regardless of the outcome of the event, the comms team would have a clear understanding of success.

Regardless of the stakeholder group you are trying to reach, be it online or of fline, Virgin Mobile's approach of creating objective-focused campaigns is a lesson for us all. Understanding what you need to achieve before starting work will help to keep you on track. Also, if you are trying something innovative where you are not certain of the outcome, tying your objectives to a commercial goal will help you to prove return on investment. So, measurement of social media is much like any other media type: start with clear goals that can be measured and you will soon understand if you got it right.

Five reasons for winning

• Originality
• Creativity
• Entertaining
• Informative
• Clearly defined objectives

Cision UK

0870 736 0010

www.cision.com

www.corpcommsmagazine.co.uk/awards

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