The Campaign

In view of the low adoption rates of LED lighting in Singapore, Philips aimed to drive conversion to LED technology by raising public awareness about the various benefits of LED technology, focusing in particular on how it promotes environmental sustainability. The campaign was carried out via the Philips Lighting Singapore Facebook page and targeted at middle-class, social media-savvy consumers seeking affordable, high-quality lighting solutions for their homes. Harnessing the potential of social media, Philips educated its target audience about LED technology and ignited discussions about the environmental sustainability benefits of LED technology. It did so via the use of informative text posts and attractive photos, together with the launch of innovative initiatives such as the Earth Hour contest and the May Mega Meme LED contest. These initiatives featured attractive Philips prizes. In leveraging upon significant events like Earth Hour and in appealing to the wider trend of memes, Philips was able to actively engage the target audience and spark their interest in LED lighting. As of June 2013, the Philips page has attracted more than 17,000 likes and has achieved consistently high engagement rates, ranking it among the top-performing Philips-owned social media properties globally. More crucially, the Philips Facebook page has managed to bring together a community of individuals passionate about environmental sustainability and has also enhanced the brand’s relationships with local online influencers, designer and home décor forums.

The Brief

The objective of the Philips Singapore Lighting Facebook page is to generate viable discussions about the environmental sustainability benefits of LED technology, and in so doing, drive the adoption of LED lighting solutions locally. Additionally, the Facebook page seeks to deepen and enhance Philips’ relationship with consumers. The Facebook page targets middle-class consumers, aged 21 and above, who are savvy in social media and who are seeking affordable and high-quality lighting solutions. It also hopes to unite individuals with a passion for environmental sustainability issues by providing them with a platform for advocacy.

Results

Despite its modest start, the Facebook page has over 17,664 fans as of June 2013. This is an over ten-fold increase from the 1,600 fans the page had when it was started in June 2012. The total engagement rate also increased significantly from 13.2% in June 2012 when it was launched, to 21.3% in June 2013. On average, the page’s engagement metric is within the global average of 5-10%, and has reached highs of over 40% during campaign period. The community remains continually engaged due to a combination of organic content and increasing fan acquisition through targeted ads and sponsored stories. The Facebook page has been labeled as one of the top performing Philips-owned social media properties globally. It has contributed greatly to building the brand’s relationships with local online influencers, designer and home décor forums as many of them have indicated interest in partnering with Philips on sponsorship opportunities.

Execution

The Facebook page used a thematic content approach and creative engagement efforts to continuously engage its fans. Such efforts consisted of small-scale contests, crowdsourcing activities, opinion polls and promotions, where content throughout were kept relevant and resonating to the fans. A mini contest held in line with Earth Hour was launched in April and urged fans to submit responses to the page on how they think an LED bulb will change their lives. Another Facebook contest called May Mega Meme LED Contest was conducted over the months of May and June. In each month, an image was released on the page and fans who wished to join the contest would have to ‘meme’ the image in the best way they could by adding interesting captions. These engagement efforts helped to meet the objectives of growing the Philips Lighting Singapore Facebook community, raising fan engagement and creating hype for Philips products.

The Situation

Local businesses and industries, cognizant of the benefits of LED technology, are slowly beginning to switch to LED as a greener and more cost-effective lighting source. However, the adoption of LED lighting in Singaporean homes remains low, especially in comparison to other developed Asian markets such as Taiwan and South Korea. One fundamental reason for this is the lack of information about the numerous advantages of LED technology. In particular, the target audience remains unaware about how the use of LED lighting promotes environmental sustainability without compromising on quality, function or aesthetics.

The Strategy

Philips sought to champion the conversion to LED lighting by underscoring the relevance of LED lighting to everyday life. Via Facebook status updates, accompanied by appropriate, eye-catching visuals, Philips informed the target audience about how LED lighting could enrich their lifestyles in a myriad of ways, from protecting their vision and enhancing their wellbeing, to accentuating the aesthetics of their homes. More significantly, the Philips Facebook page actively engaged the attention of the target audience, through regular contests. With this, Philips ignited discussions on the environmental sustainability of LED lighting and emphasized how switching to LED technology allowed the target audience to give back to society and lead greener lifestyles. By adopting Facebook as its primary platform, Philips harnessed the viral potential of social media and reached out to not just existing users of Philips products, but to its intended target audience.