The Campaign

Closeup wants to be the preferred toothpaste brand of the young, Filipino adults. But with a target market that is indifferent to the brand of toothpaste they use, Closeup has taken up the challenge to differentiate themselves from other toothpaste brands and reintroduce themselves as more than just a toothpaste brand but one that enables them to get closer with longer lasting fresh breath. Throughout the past years, Closeup has mounted iconic consumer experiences which they have been well known: Closeup Loveapalooza and Closeup Summer Solstice. But in 2014, Closeup wanted to further drive preference among young adults and make more distinct their mission: to be a 'catalyst for closeness.' They saw an opportunity in the Filipino young adults' growing interest in music festivals and electronic dance music and utilized this as a way to directly engage their fans—thus came about Closeup Forever Summer. Closeup Forever Summer is a music festival but with an added twist: it is completely crowd-sourced. Everything from the choice of music, artists, down to the activities during the event, were all left to the choices of their target market. Crowd-sourcing was primarily done on social media and amplified through a specially-designed PR Network that reaches deeper into grassroots level of the target market. The Network is composed of student ambassadors, celebrity influencers and bloggers who were the primary initiators of conversations online, enabling the young adults to voice out their choices online which in turn created Closeup Forever Summer.

The Brief

Closeup aims to be perceived as a cool, young brand preferred by the young Filipino adults. The Closeup Forever Summer music festival is the way through which we aim to connect to the target market by giving them an unforgettable summer experience—one that will develop in them an affinity to the brand and making Closeup their #1 choice in toothpaste. We'd like for them to extend their affinity to Closeup online by sharing their experiences with the brand and actually becoming “brand ambassadors” themselves.

Results

Within the five months, Closeup was able to make itself more present to the young adult target market while also maintaining its brand cool. Through Closeup Forever Summer, it reached about 18 million or 60% of the online population--1 million of which generated 5 million in total votes which successfully co-created the event. It was attended 15,000 people and generated Php20Million (US$455,000) in ticket sales. Additionally, Closeup Forever Summer became the most talked about music festival in the country earning a total of 8 Billion total online impressions and Php226million (US$5.1 Million) in earned media values on TV, print and radio. It trended 38 times on Twitter, earning a total of 8 million likes, comments and shares on Facebook as well as 1 million tweets from over 105,000 unique individuals. About 99.9% of media pick-ups about the event were positive.

Execution

Phase 1: Creating the Party Within three months prior to event day, we urged people to help build Closeup Forever Summer by telling us how they want it to happen: their choice artists, venue, activities, etc. Supported by our Influencer Network and Partners, we initiated conversations on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram. Phase 2: The Party Building the party didn’t stop even until event day. We urged people to continuously tweet about #CloseupForeverSummer to unlock certain event milestones like pyromusical and confetti. Together with our influencers, we continued to engage the target market through tweets, Instagram and Facebook posts, bringing the experience even to those not physically present in the event. Phase 3: Reliving the #CloseupMoment We sustained people's interest in Closeup Forever Summer by allowing them to relive the experience via school tours, digital amplification (After Movie, promos, etc) as well as sponsorships on other hip music events.

The Situation

Young adults are generally indifferent to the brand of toothpaste they use. Though that is the case, Closeup wanted to set itself apart from other toothpaste brands and be known as more than just a toothpaste but a brand that enables them to get closer to others. To do this, Closeup needed to engage their target market right where their interests lie. They saw an opportunity in the young people’s growing interest in music festivals, particularly those of the electronic dance music genre and thus used this as a way to do so.

The Strategy

To fulfill our objective, we needed to get people talking about our brand and create buzz across all channels. We needed to get the right people to jumpstart conversations among their peers/social networks. To do so, we developed a communication strategy that adapts effective components from previous Closeup campaigns such as radio, brand partnerships, promos and celebrity ambassadors to name a few. Then we added into the mix, an influencer network model composed of university ambassadors (the campus personalities from top Philippine universities), bloggers and social media influencers that enabled us to tap our target market at a closer/grassroot level.