Roses Only 2005

Viral Campaign Supplementary Plan 

Current Situation

Roses Only is in the process of embarking on a “no media” viral marketing campaign. The main aim for the viral campaign is to act as a sales extension via the web.

Expanding on the already established character, Tony the Gardener, Roses Only have commissioned a web advertisement, featuring Tony asking “have you ever been in love?” This advertisement will only be viewed online and can be found via direct access to the website http://www.haveyoueverbeeninlove.com, via links from www.rosesonly.com and via e-mail links.

By commissioning a web ad Roses Only is stepping into fairly unchartered waters for an Australian campaign, however this type of campaign has proved successful elsewhere.

The web campaign will be launched on Monday 26^th September 2005, at which point the website will be live.

Operating Environment

American Express’s Jerry Seinfeld and Superman web ads are a classic example and the campaign created as much publicity for AMEX as for the campaign strategies itself. One advantage this campaign had that we do not is the strength of established characters in Seinfeld and Superman, both off the radar for some time, interest in these ads was relatively easy to produce. Again these ads were on a dedicated site and access was via direct link and e-mail prompter.

More recently we have seen the success of Carlton Draughts Big Ad which essentially was an orchestrated web leak campaign, showing a preview of the ad before it hit broader media channels. This campaign was always intended to be a teaser to create attention before the actual ad campaign began.

Today with reliance on the web and e-mail so ingrained, we can assume that curiosity will get the better of our audience and with the right prompting they will follow our links.

Currently we can see on the web several sites that specialize in web ads as well as websites showcasing the best ads globally at any given moment. Importantly for us, our audience has become more accustomed to receiving e-mails linking to web-links.

Audience

Roses Only target audience consist mainly of white-collar workers, commuters and professionals who have access to the web. The higher percentage of the current audience is female.

For the campaign to be successful, we require viewers to log onto the websites and/or follow the links from the web or received e-mail, and in turn forward e-mails/links to other potential viewers.

The challenge is therefore two-fold. Firstly we must make the audience react. We want their curiosity to be sparked enough that they will investigate by logging on to the websites or following e-mail links. Secondly we need to motivate the audience to talk about what they have seen, generating word-of-mouth; this can be achieved at the water cooler, by forwarding e-mail/links or creating e-mails with link attachments.

The advantages at present relate to audience and access, if these people are white-collar workers, we are able to contain promotional activity to CBD areas, most workers are indeed commuters, the vast majority traveling via buses, trains and ferries from home up to 60 minutes away to work and back again. Traditionally mornings are a better time to gain interest, our audience will be more alert to eccentric occurrences as long as they don’t delay their travel.

One disadvantage is timing; the campaign launch is a Monday morning. This is often a difficult time for commuters who are often reluctant to be heading to work, are possibly running late or are tired from weekend activity.  We need to turn an obstacle into an advantage, showing respect for commuters who may be unenthusiastic on a Monday morning. We need to delicately attract their curiosity without causing them undue delay, annoyance or concern, this will just alienate our target.

Campaign Objectives

• To gain awareness for the campaign
• To drive people to the campaign website
• To create hype and curiosity about the campaign
• To increase sales for Roses Only

Strategy – How MDM will achieve objectives specifically

Publicity

MDM will conduct an extensive publicity campaign across several media channels, to generate story coverage and general interest pieces. This will lead to campaign awareness and help create hype and curiosity about the campaign.

Print – Story Generation – campaign awareness

1. Broadsheets – concentrating on the Australian Financial Review and The Australian. The benefit of these publications is reach and audience; both publications have a national circulation and target audiences similar to our audience for this campaign. This will provide a direct feed to the website.
2. Trade publications – concentrating on Ad News, B&T and Professional Marketing. This will be a benefit for two reasons; firstly, being trade publications, inclusion in these magazines will lend credibility to the campaign. Secondly, the circulation of these publications will land in the hands of some of our audience giving us another avenue to lead them to the website.
3. Specific Columns – concentrating on metropolitan broadsheets, we can tailor specific releases, tip-offs and leaks to the press. Columns such as Column 8, Spike and Sydney Confidential.

Radio and Television – General Interest

1. Breakfast Magazine and Evening Talk Shows – the idea here is to generate enough story in the press to prompt magazine and talk shows to generate more publicity. Shows to be targeted include Sunrise and Rove Live. Both programs test well within our target audience, and offer multi-channel exposure, channels 7 and 10 and two extreme time slots. The hosts of both programs suit our demographic and we can anticipate the response to the more quirky side of the campaign.
2. Radio – we need to get as many people on air as possible, asking to request songs throughout the workday, or send e-mails requesting songs on popular workplace stations, such as Mix, Today FM and MMM. These listeners will also be aware of Tony the Gardener, callers need to request a song and ask the question “have you ever been in love”. Viral e-mails sent to announcers can also be incorporated and will generate additional talk.

Promotion

MDM will conduct an extensive promotion campaign to generate curiosity about the campaign and drive people to the website.

Cafes and Bars – There are several ways we can generate curiosity in this environment, from altering the props around customers, placing curious customers amongst our audience and explicit signage.

1. Props – In bars we can replace bar mats, coasters and even beer glasses with promotional signed substitutes. In Cafes we can replace sugar packets and serviettes under coffee cups with signed substitutes. We can have fortune cookies made with the web address inside instead of a fortune, which can be distributed with coffees or left as bar treats instead of peanuts.
2. Curious Customers – We can use people as product placement or curios by having customers dressed as gardeners or indeed normal patrons, they can be wearing a t-shirt or other printed clothing with the web address or simply the question “have you ever been in love?” They could carry roses as props or have a bunch sitting nearby.
3. Explicit Signage – Whilst quite transparent and possibly not viral enough, signage can be disguised as a poster for a drink, a band or upcoming events.

Street Art – This is a way we can creatively generate curiosity from mass numbers of our audience at any given time. All of these would be best carried out at lunch time in busy CBD lunching locations, In Sydney such places as Martin Place, Australia Square and Pitt Street Mall. There are several options and minimal costs apart from Council permits.

1. Chalk Artists – these artists would creatively and elaborately write the web address on street pavements in chalk around the CBD. This is a pastime that tends to draw crowds naturally and is naturally curious.
2. Unofficial Billboards – again we can create small two-tone billboard sized posters with a woodcut image of Tony the Gardener and web details, these can be pasted in the same areas as we see theatre and concert posters in pedestrian access ways around building sites and on boarded up buildings, again permits will allow this signage.
3. Buskers – arranging a coordinated sting of buskers to hit the streets at busy lunchtime in built up CBD locations, all singing the same love song, inside their music cases on donation hats would be the website address placed next to a stack of postcards bearing the image of Tony the Gardener and the web details.

Public Transport – As most of our audience are commuters they will travel via bus, train or ferry to work and home each day, there are several options we can use to draw attention and create curiosity.

1. Mornings at Train Station exits and Ferry Terminals – Posted at exit points at busy stations and Circular Quay we can place faux limo drivers, like at airports these drivers will be dressed as chauffeurs holding a simple placard with the web address.
2. Afternoon peak-hour – Each evening we place men similarly dressed as gardeners as in the curious café customers, boarding trains, buses and ferries, carrying bunches of roses.

Lunchtime – This is an important time of the day for busy workers and they are often more relaxed than at any other time of the day; we have direct access to them and their imaginations.

1. Rose Men – The idea here is simple and an extension of the curious café customer and the men on transport. Men walking along the street with roses at any time is a romantic gesture for most women, as it so rarely occurs. The benefit of this kind of promotion is that women will be prompted to talk to their friends and coworkers about this curiosity and it will inadvertently lead them to the website. Men will also notice this display and will prompt the thought “when did I last send flowers?” they will consider walking through the streets as too public a display and will look at traditional ways to send flowers such as Roses Only. These men should be en masse, 15-20 in any one area and should look like they are walking with purpose. As an added touch at the end of lunch they may present these roses to an unsuspecting stranger, creating more word-of-mouth in the vein of “you won’t believe what just happened while I was at lunch”. Apart from the signage on the Rose Man himself a swing tag hanging from the flowers will reinforce the message for the recipient and help with her word-of-mouth campaign.

Viral E-mail

1. Databases – Creating a simple e-mail with web links could be as effective as any other strategy. This e-mail will be sent out to various sources to add to existing databases, companies who send out bulk subscription e-mails and the informal databases of large companies, universities and media agencies.

Timing

The timing of all these publicity and promotional activities is obviously critical to the campaign’s success, and will need to be handled in two stages.

Stage 1: The ultimate aim of this stage is to promote the website and get our audience to go to http://www.haveyoueverbeeninlove.com. This stage will incorporate extensive publicity and promotion for the website in the first week 26^th September to the 1^st October.

Media releases will already be sent to broadsheets and trade publications, including stills.

Releases to specific columns will be sent during this week to hit the papers mid-week and the 2^nd October Sunday papers.

During this week we will hit the radio stations with love song requests and will devote time securing announcements on Sunrise and Rove Live with possible visits from Rose Men.

From a promotion perspective, Monday morning we will dispatch the chauffeurs to train and ferry terminals, change props in cafés and bars and get billboard posters up on construction walls around the CBD.

Tuesday through Friday we will introduce buskers and chalk artists to the streets in lunchtime and start to release the Rose Men, limited numbers on Tuesday, with a maximum of 20 in one place by Thursday lunchtime.

On Thursday evening trains, buses and ferries we will have the Rose Men appearing donning roses, giving up their seats and so on.

By the end of the week, on Friday lunchtime we dispatch the Rose Men to cafes to sit amongst the props and create a noticeable absence from the streets.

A viral email will also be distributed with the html link in this first stage.

Stage 2: The second stage of the campaign will take place approximately 3 weeks – 1 month later, if required. This stage will be less dramatic and much more reliant on web and media exposure.

Releases will be sent out as a follow-up to the broadsheets and trade publications expounding campaign successes, reminders of the promotional activities and statistics such as the number of hits in the first month and so on.

The viral e-mail campaign can be revisited at this time and catch any target we missed in Stage 1. This e-mail could contain an attachment of the clip instead of the link and help to reinforce the campaign and allow for brand recognition.

This plan was prepared by Samantha Weston (Sam Maher) following a brief from Maddog Marketing in 2005. Campaign review from B&T.