How To: Leverage content as social currency

L’Oréal and Federated Media relaunched branded beauty blog, Makeup.com, empowering expert bloggers to create dialogue around L’Oréal. A high-impact “conversationalist” ad unit aggregated and syndicated this content while driving traffic back to the brand site. Combining social sharing, branded content, and display media in this way led to engagement which far exceeded previous benchmarks.

Neil Chase, Senior Vice President, Editorial, Federated Media
Farrah Linden, Media Director, L’Oréal

How To: Go beyond traditional messaging avenues to put your brand in the stream of consumers’ conversations

Schick engaged Edelman Digital and BuzzFeed to create a culturally relevant social media campaign. “Shave the World” and “Razorbombing” encouraged consumers to engage with the brand in a way that tied into major memes of the moment such as planking. By tapping into what consumers were already talking about, Schick leveraged that buzz and positioned the brand campaign for optimal pass along and shareablity.

How To: Engage consumers via social channels and leverage those connections for promotional and sales activation

Smirnoff partnered with Profero to engage its massive global community from Facebook and YouTube. Fans worldwide co-curated events incorporating the brand with the best of local nightlife, culminating in a one-of-a-kind “Nightlife Exchange” party held on the same night all over the world. In addition to mobilizing the world’s largest online spirits community, Smirnoff hosted live, branded events in over 50 countries and served over 100,000 cocktails.

Wayne Arnold, Co-Founder and Global Chief Executive Officer, Profero
Michelle Klein, Vice President, Content, Digital and Communications, Diageo

How To: Minimize wasted media and ensure maximum value using localized video advertising

Team Mazda partnered with personalized video technology provider Eyeview to leverage their national broadcast video for regional campaigns in multiple markets. The ads were designed to provide a personalized, localized ad experience for each user that would present unique offers and calls to action in each market. As a result, Mazda was able to deliver personalized pre-roll ads across 14 DMAs with 97 percent of the media delivering personalized ads to viewers.

Ryan Gerber, Digital Media Planner, The Garage Team Mazda
Tal Riesenfeld, Vice President, Sales, and Co-Founder, Eyeview Digital

How To: Combine video with paid and earned media to reach and engage a target audience

To help deliver a “just like homemade” message to a female-skewed audience, Aunt Jemima Frozen Breakfast launched “Live from the Lines,” a series of videos shot at the brand’s factory starring real employees, sharing their stories. The videos were syndicated via paid social and mobile channels, generating unprecedented opt-in viewing on Facebook and YouTube.

Adam Keats, Senior Vice President, Weber Shandwick
Mitchell Reichgut, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Jun Group

How To: Measure true ROI generated from display and video advertising

Industry standard measures like click-through-rate (CTR) and post-impression attribution can be misleading, guiding marketers to optimize away from their target audiences and allocate budget to the wrong media partners. Powered by Collective, Causal Attribution allows brands and direct marketers to accurately measure how their display advertising affects the behavior of specific audiences and quantify the true incremental value generated from their display advertising spend as part of their overall media mix.

How To: Drive sales via advertising exclusively on mobile channels

Microsoft partnered with Amazon to leverage the e-commerce site’s valuable traffic consisting of in-market shoppers. Due to heavy demand and limited online inventory on Black Friday, Amazon was only able to serve advertising of Xbox products on its mobile applications and WAP site. The Xbox products sold-out within hours proving it’s viable to advertise and drive purchase of high-ticket items via mobile platforms.

Gustavo Alvarado, Senior Media Manager, Xbox Americas
Dan Wright, Director, Product Specialists, Amazon

How To: Develop a content strategy that organically highlights a brand’s key attributes

Intel engaged Katalyst and Google to partner on a content play that connected the brand with real world examples of its key attributes—innovation and inspiration. The result was “IdeaJam,” a series of brainstorm sessions bringing together the brightest minds in an array of creative fields to promote dialogue around the theme of “What Inspires You?” Intel products and technologies were incorporated into these sessions which were live streamed. Consumer participation was encouraged via social channels, ultimately creating a platform that put Intel at the center of a conversation and community focused on innovation.

Laurie Koehler, Consumer Campaigns Manager, the Americas, Intel
Kris Ordaz, Director, Client Services, Katalyst
Frank Thom, Head, Industry, Google

How To: Create high-impact product integrations within social games

Procter and Gamble’s Bounty partnered with Electronic Arts to develop a social gaming experience that built affinity with its line of products, integrating the “Bounty Clean Challenge” into the game “Restaurant City.” By encouraging gamers to clean virtual “spills” with Bounty product and earn rewards, the brand added value to the gaming experience. The result was over 3 million impressions and significant lifts for all key brand metrics.

Amy Elisei, Director, Communications Planning, Bounty
Aaron Lassila, National Director, Global Media Solutions, Electronic Arts
Ihsan Leggett, Assistant Brand Manager, Bounty, North America
John Wolff, Senior Digital Strategist, Family Care, Procter and Gamble

How To: Align a brand with young affluent consumers by leveraging content and platforms that resonate most with the demographic

Buick partnered with Time Inc. to create an integrated media program, connecting the brand with Fortune’s “40 Under 40” franchise. Custom editorial with a focus on digital and social integration, along with broadcast and live events, allowed Buick to reach its target with demographically relevant methods and messages, ultimately increasing brand awareness and sales.