Multicultural Traditional Media Usage (TV, Print, Radio) Sample Entry

Transcription

1 Multicultural Traditional Media Usage (TV, Print, Radio) Sample Entry Campaign Name State Farm I m Connected Campaign Client Name State Farm Agency Name intertrend Communications Campaign Partners N/A Executive Summary The goal for State Farm s 2011 I m Connected campaign was to move away from the traditional older, more traditional audience that had been the mainstay of State Farm customers, and engage a younger Asian American audience to build awareness and generate greater consideration for the brand. While State Farm has done well with the older audience resulting in a #1 position in the market, research has shown that the brand has been steadily losing market share to upstarts like Geico and Progressive resulting in a shift in strategy. In determining how to best make this strategic shift to a younger audience, qualitative research played a critical role and contrary to expectations, and to competitive positioning, we found Asian American young adults DO see the value in connecting with and having an agent. This insight that we uncovered around the importance of personal connections became central to our campaign. It was clear that to leverage this strength for State Farm, we needed to position the agents as super connectors within one s network. Not only understanding one s needs to get great savings on car insurance, but also connecting them to solutions for other needs. This insight around connections culminated in the utilizing Social Media in the Asian American space (anchored by first

2 ever US branded Chinese Facebook app) as the hub of our campaign, supporting it with numerous traditional platforms. Ultimately, this campaign leveraged Facebook and YouTube as central elements allowing the State Farm brand to generate buzz to reach our goals of engaging Asian American young adults. Situation Analysis In the past decade, State Farm began a focused effort to connect with the Asian American community. They recruited Asian agents, started opening offices in Asian concentrated neighborhoods, began training staff on cultural nuances and ensuring in-language claim service. During this time, State Farm frequently conducted extensive qualitative and quantitative research covering all of the Asian segments in the US. With the knowledge coupled with the confidence of secured infrastructure, they engaged in years of communications efforts reaching out to Asian Americans through both traditional and grass roots means. However, over the past few years, State Farm has discovered that it has been steadily losing its leadership role as the #1 car insurance provider among young adults (age 20-34) to competitors Geico and Progressive. State Farm s competitors took advantage of the economic downturn by focusing on their low discount rates and ease of getting a quote online. They tapped into the digitally plugged mindset and messaged the fast, convenient, low cost, do it yourself method. Yet, while the competitors were fishing for customers with their price points, we had the valuable knowledge that for Asian American Young Adults, State Farm had an edge on these discount providers as we discovered through research that this younger Asian demographic were not just looking for the cheapest price but also were seeking quality personalized service and value. The question was how to communicate this in a relevant voice, and on the right platforms to reach this audience? With this challenge, we knew we had to design a campaign that could reach them where they are (online) with a message that would resonate (funny in tonality and with engaging content). Campaign Objectives

3 The objective of the campaign was to strengthen brand awareness, increase consideration and raise conversion by introducing State Farm as an innovative brand. We needed to clearly differentiate State Farm and get Young Adult Asian Americans thinking and talking about the brand in a new way. Strategy & Execution To bring State Farm s brand to life in a way that would meet our objective of elevating consideration, we had to utilize outlets that resonated with our demographic. State Farm leveraged this opportunity and connected with the audience by reaching them both digitally and in-person. While not abandoning traditional media, we focused on interactive platforms while messaging one on one human interaction and value. We created a campaign that: Connected State Farm to Asian young adults by building relevance (messages utilizing tuner car, nightlife, yoga, bollywood culture) Showed State Farm and their agents as active and available in their communities and who understood their media preferences which meant Facebook and more digital portals This campaign strongly resonated with the target though the cultural lens of Jeong and effectively conveyed that State Farm values Asian consumers, has local agents, and provides fast and fair claim service.

4 As previously stated, the insight revolved around connections but the way this was culturally expressed in our creative was through Jeong. The cultural relevant concept of Jeong refers to an immediate connection between two people. This relationship rings loud and clear as a means of showing what being connected to an agent could do for you far beyond what someone would find by calling up Geico for a quote. The concept behind Jeong aligned with our strategy for both campaign objective and media placement. This also led us to the utilization of Facebook as the hub of the campaign. If the campaign was to focus around connections and State Farm agents as super connectors, what better platform to express and promote that then Facebook? This led to the first ever bilingual (Chinese and Engish) Facebook app by a major US brand State Farm s I m Connected app. All of the other tactics drove to this breakthrough, highly engaging app that would allow people to see what their friends have in common on one dashboard and allow them to connect them to each other while also providing a means to connect with a State Farm agent. Campaign Elements The media strategy consisted of multi media-mix with interactive, print, and television. The primary platform evolved on the digital space using contextual, culturally relevant keyword targeting for the Chinese and Asian Indian segment. The secondary target encompassed viral aspects of sharing, wall posts, home page status updates, and connecting friends on Facebook.

5 In order to reach the younger Asian Indian segment we strategically integrated with interest based cricket websites to engage with users. We designed a promotion on Willow TV that captured our targets' attention through blasts and homepage takeovers. To reach the interest of the Chinese segment, we partnered with ETTV, who hosts a national Top Idol signing competition promoted mainly online and through broadcast. Viewers of the program opted in their votes online and accessed featured highlights were engaged with a 15 second State Farm pre-roll ad. We've also made priority to engage with the young Asian American target audience through contextual banners and text ad placements on Google, YouTube, and Facebook to extend the reach and connect users sharing the "I m Connected" application. On print we utilized top tier premium placements with State Farm sponsored sport sections of newspapers and magazines to build awareness. To further strengthen awareness we placed 30 second TV spots geared towards the segment. The networks chosen reached our target on programs for drama, variety shows, and sports with State Farm exclusive sponsorships. National TV - :30 sec spots Run Dates Nov, June 2011 Markets: National, CA, New York, Toronto Interactive driving traffic to State Farm "I'm Connected" Application: - Online banner placement on Asian Indian websites and in-language Chinese websites - Standard Banners - Blast - Contextual targeting on Google, Youtube, and Facebook - Display banners - Site URL address ( Print - FP4C/BW, HP4C/BW

6 - Newspaper and Magazines for Asian Indian and in-language Chinese Onsite Community Presence - Los Angeles, CA - San Francisco, CA - Flushing, NY Supporting Collateral Online Site and related URL s: Facebook: o facebook.com/imconnected YouTube: o o Willow Cricket: o Willow.tv ETTV Top Idol: o Ettvamerica.com/topidol2011 Accomplishments & Conclusions We are proud to say that the State Farm s I m Connected was a breakthrough campaign in the insurance category largely because it was such a big departure from past marketing efforts. From testing with Phoenix, both TV and Print scored significantly higher than the control for being entertaining and humorous according to the Chinese and Asian Indian participants. The audience found this campaign refreshing and distinctive. It not only greatly differentiated State Farm s ads from those of competitors, but also elevated the brand image to be more contemporary and approachable. In addition, our Chinese TV spot, Tuner Car was organically uploaded by a fan and generated exciting buzz on YouTube with more than 30,500 views.

7 According to that same study, the social networking element of the campaign generated a significant boost for positive impact on brand impression. I m Connected Facebook application engaged hundreds of thousands of Asian young adult consumers by integrating State Farm s value and message into their everyday lifestyle in a new and unexpected way. The I m Connected app attracted over 275,000 monthly active users, over a thousand likes from a growing fan base, and is continuing to grow due to viral sharing. The result of all of this buzz and online exposure has helped us achieve our goal within this audience of making in an increase in Brand Awareness, as stated through State Farm s proprietary internal BAT (Brand Ad Tracker) Q1, 2011 research study unaided brand and advertising awareness reversed the downward trend displayed in the last several quarters.