The Campaign

Thanks to fast growing SNS platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, branded entertainment is becoming more diverse and directly communicated to audiences across Japan. Experiences through branded entertainment are often shared among friends via SNS platforms and in most cases, any comments or recommendations made on a particular content, are perceived as reliable sources of information that are worth checking. TVCM in general has the power to spread a message across the country in a fast manner, however TV stations in Japan usually only provide TVCM spots that are 15 seconds or 30 seconds in length. Due to this limitation, we found that executing branded communication online is much more flexible and creative than conventional TV spots.

Results

Despite being a well-known brand in most markets around the world and selling products in Japan for many years, Electrolux remained virtually unknown in Japan. Coinciding with a significant reorganization of the local distribution system, our challenge was to use an existing product, the Ergorapido stick vacuum, to generate significant product sales. The second challenge was to build brand awareness for Electrolux, in order to pave the way for further new product launches. However, only a minimal budget existed and we could not afford a significant ATL campaign. Unknown and outspent, we needed to create an engaging communication strategy and 'platform vehicle' that would help us build brand awareness and generate product sales simultaneously. The strategy was based on research that indicated Scandinavian design, products and lifestyle was held in high regard by the target audience, which led to our positioning strategy of 'Scandinavian Thoughtfulness'. We executed the strategy by creating a budding love story that took place in a virtual café. Café Scandinavia, the virtual café, was created as the online hub for marketing activities. We convinced the audience to repeatedly return to the site by filming the growing relationship of the main characters via parallel sets of films, each showing the same story but from the two protagonist’s separate perspectives: Sato - a young woman whose fascination with Scandinavian culture inspired her to open her own Scandinavian style café in Tokyo, and her admirer Tanaka, a shy home appliance engineer who visited her café. Through the eyes of the two characters, the audience explores the two ideals of Scandinavian Thoughtfulness (the brand essence) - the blending of functional and emotional values that Electrolux products possess. Twitter accounts were created for each character, allowing their thoughts and comments transmitted in real time, blurring the line between reality and fiction. A Facebook page for Café Scandinavia provided content and information that would deepen understanding of the Scandinavian Thoughtfulness concept.

The campaign used a combination of banner ads and text-based listing ads to initially drive the audience to the campaign microsite. From there, it was up to word of mouth to generate large-scale target audience awareness.

The Café Scandinavia microsite achieved 100,000 users after just four weeks from launch and continued to grow substantially throughout the campaign. Within 4 months, Electrolux brand awareness had increased from 0% to 18%, and Ergorapido became the market leader of its product category. The microsite garnered more visitors than all other Electrolux sites in Europe combined for the same period of time. While the brand awareness for Electrolux continues to grow, the audience enjoyed the parallel films. Within 6 months, 306,600 users in total visited the microsite spending an average of 2.27 minutes per visit. The fans we acquired through Facebook and Twitter total 4,162 (with 1,632 shares) and 157 respectively. Facebook fans particularly enjoyed viewing the films, resulting in an average time longer than 7 minutes per visit. The success of the campaign in 2011 paved the way for the story’s continuation into a second season, allowing for a new product to be introduced and continued growth in brand awareness.