Telus Go Pink
Events, Seasonal and Short-Term (BRONZE)
Client Credits: TELUS
Anne-Marie Laberge, Vice President, Brand and Marketing Communications
Jill Schnarr, Vice President, Community Investment and Engagement
Samantha Meillon, Manager, Marketing Communications
Denise Bombier, Director, Communications and Experiential Marketing
Tee Tran, Marketing Communications and Social Media
Frederick Ranger, Manager, Digital and Social Media
Emily Tombs, Marketing Specialist, Marketing Communications
Agency Credits: TAXI Toronto
Co-Executive Creative Director: Jason McCann, Darren Clarke
Associate Creative Director: Laura Watts
Creative Director: Jordan Doucette, Rose Sauquillo
Art Director: Irene Paul, Charlyn Wee
Writer: Aaron Chown, Alex Furrer
Designers: Ashley Leonard, Christine Belanger
Agency Producer: Hanna Bratt
Production House: In-house TAXI, Stuzo Inc.
Post-Production Manager/Producer: Sarah Vingoe
Editor: Jared Cook, Tyler Strahl
Mac Artist: Pam Cohen, Kevin Hester
Agency Print Producer: Darcy Paniccia
Digital Retouching: Esther Sanchez
Account Director: Natalia Paruzel-Gibson
Account Manager: Alexis Safran, Tyler Brown, Ryan Wood
Digital Strategist: Nicole Polivka
Digital Strategy Director: Cory Pelletier
Media Agency: Media Experts
Media Agency Planner: Kareem Boulos, Victoria Lysnes
Crossover Notes:
Crossover Notes: All winning cases contain lessons that cross over from one case to another. David Rutherford has been identifying these as Crossover Notes since CASSIES 1997. The full set for CASSIES 2012 can be downloaded from the Case Library section at www.cassies.ca
Crossover Note 12. Changing the Goalposts.
Crossover Note 14. Refreshing a continuing campaign.
Crossover Note 18. Keeping it Simple.
To see creative, click on the links that are embedded in the case.
Section I — BASIC INFORMATION
| Business Results Period (Consecutive Months): | May–December 2010 |
| Start of Advertising/Communication Effort: | September 24, 2010 |
| Base Period as a Benchmark: | May–December 2008 |
Section II — SITUATION ANALYSIS
a) Overall Assessment
What was the hottest topic on Facebook in 2010? Hockey? The Olympics? World Cup Soccer? Justin Bieber? None of the above. The overwhelming topic of conversation for Canadians was breast cancer.
And we know that because the TELUS “Go Pink. Pass it on.” campaign supporting early breast cancer detection ranked second in both Canada’s top Facebook trends of 2010 and Facebook’s most explosive global pages. So what does it take to create a phenomenon?
A vital need
Breast cancer is the most common cancer among Canadian women. It not only affects the individuals living with the disease, but their families, friends, and loved ones as well.
A committed organization
Telecommunications is a highly competitive industry, and an unmatched community investment program (over $245 million donated since 2000) is a key competitive differentiator for TELUS. By continually giving where they live, existing and potential customers know that by choosing to buy from TELUS they are choosing to help their local community too.
The chance to make a difference
Early breast cancer diagnosis greatly improves the chance of survival. With the help of its customers, TELUS hoped to raise $1 million towards the purchase of innovative digital mammography equipment. This life-saving equipment is 28% more accurate in detecting cancer than traditional film mammography.
b) Resulting Business Objectives
Building on the success of the previous Go Pink campaign of 2008, the objective was twofold:
> Engage Canadians around TELUS’s support of early breast cancer detection during Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October 2010.
> Deliver a comparable level of sales (50,000 in 2010 vs. 52,555 in 2008) of exclusive pink BlackBerry smartphones between May and December, with each sale triggering a $25 donation to the cause.
c) Annual Media Budget
$1 – $2 million
d) Geographic Area
National (Canada)
Section III — STRATEGIC THINKING
a) Analysis and Insight
The fight against breast cancer is a huge cause and the following shaped our strategy.
Scale
Breast cancer not only affects the patient, but also has a profound impact on their circle of family and friends. As the most common form of cancer among Canadian women (Source: Canadian Cancer Society) we knew we were dealing with a large and highly receptive audience.
Challenge
With over 60 brands associating themselves with the fight against breast cancer, a conventional advertising campaign would quickly get lost in the sea of pink that floods the market each October. Unlike many of those brands, we wanted far more than mere association with the cause. With the help of our customers, we wanted to take the fight to breast cancer and make a measurable difference. Our approach was shaped very much around doing, rather than saying.
b) Communication Strategy
Participation
We were convinced that the campaign would be more credible, powerful, and effective if we put it into the hands of Canadians. [Crossover Note 12] Anyone who has been touched by breast cancer would be motivated to pass the message on – a behaviour we sought to encourage.
Layers
While the primary objective was to sell the three models of BlackBerry Pink smartphones, we recognized that not everyone would be in the market to buy a smartphone during October. We wanted to ensure that everyone could play a part, so we added an all-important layer of participation within social media where purchase wasn’t a prerequisite.
Mechanism
The key to success was selecting a medium with scale, interactivity, and connectivity, which naturally led us to Facebook. We spent a lot of time exploring the way people use the platform and decided the best mechanism was to leverage the profile picture. Not only was it the ultimate personal endorsement, it was the perfect real estate for building visibility for the Go Pink campaign. Besides enabling the participant to show their support for the campaign, we also assigned a tangible value of $1 for every profile picture turned pink to drive behaviour.
Section IV — KEY EXECUTIONAL ELEMENTS
a)Media Used
> Mass-Outdoor, Magazine, Cinema
> Social-Facebook
> Retail-In-mall interactive kiosks, In-store collateral, telusmobility.com
b)Creative Discussion
The best TELUS campaigns keep it simple, and this was no exception. [Crossover Note 18] We knew that getting consumers to act was the key to success, so our campaign idea was phrased as a memorable call to action: “Go pink. Pass it on.”
Critters are the other essential ingredient of TELUS campaigns, and choosing the chameleon was something of a no-brainer – it’s an audience favourite and the perfect exponent of our Go Pink message. [Crossover Note 14]
Outdoor and magazine
Simple, impactful outdoor and magazine placements generated sustained presence in-market for our Go Pink message.
Cinema
A 15-second cinema video brought the action of passing on the pink to life and included a call to action for viewers to get involved.
Facebook
The Go Pink Facebook application allowed users to bring the campaign tagline to life by turning their profile picture pink. In return, TELUS gave $1 to the Go Pink campaign. A caption with a link back to the application was picked up in the newsfeed, directing curious friends to the Go Pink initiative. A counter on a tab on the TELUS Facebook page tracked the fundraising, with our chameleon gradually changing its colour from green to pink to show progress towards our goal of $50,000. A “buy now” button linking back to telusmobility.com, where pink phones could be purchased, was also prominently featured.
In-mall interactive kiosks
High-visibility touchscreen kiosks close to TELUS stores had a game in which players had 60 seconds to turn as many chameleons pink as possible.
In-store collateral
The Go Pink messaging was hard to miss in-store, with window posters, pedestal cards, digital merchandise videos, and employees wearing pink T-shirts.
c)Media Discussion
Our media strategy can best be described with two words: inform and involve.
We selected mass media to create a level of halo awareness of our campaign message. We also knew that we wanted to connect with large numbers of people in environments where they could act, so Facebook was a natural choice. We relied on the power of the cause and the built-in sharing capabilities of Facebook to fuel this component – there were no paid drivers.
We introduced the social media component at the end of September to build momentum into National Breast Cancer Month, then consolidated our mass media during the month of October, when awareness of the cause was at its highest.
While all other campaign elements were out of market by the end of October, elements of in-store collateral remained up until the end of the year.
Section V — BUSINESS RESULTS
a) Sales/Share Results
The campaign surpassed forecasts in every aspect of the program.
Participation campaign
TELUS had originally anticipated that 50,000 people would use the Facebook app to change their profile pictures pink – with TELUS giving $1 per picture changed, up to a maximum of $50,000.
Instead, the Facebook component went viral and without any driving media, the donation target was reached within 72 hours. To harness this momentum, the donation pool was revised – not once, but twice.
Within two weeks of launch, 500,000 people had turned their profile picture pink, raising $200,000 for the campaign.
For six weeks, TELUS pink dominated Facebook with 1.6 million pink pictures flooding the network. Other notable figures include:
-817,000 people turned their profile picture pink
-442,770 of these continued to follow the brand on Facebook after the campaign
-An average of two pink profile pictures were created by each participant
-An average of 3.26 newsfeed items were published per participant
-Total “likes” increased by a factor of 20 on the TELUS English Facebook page
-Total “likes” increased by a factor of 50 on the TELUS Quebec Facebook page
-Pink appeared on 250,966 newsfeed posts and had 333,563 global shares
Smartphone sales
TELUS anticipated that the campaign would generate sales of 50,000 smartphones, giving a fundraising target of $1.25 million. Instead, they sold 53,317, contributing $1,332,925 to the fundraising total.
Final analysis
Total funds raised surpassed $1.5 million, beating the fundraising target by over $200,000.
b) Consumption/ Usage Results
c) Other Pertinent Results
d) Return on Investment
Section VI — CAUSE & EFFECT BETWEEN ADVERTISING AND RESULTS
a)General Discussion
Our baseline year for comparison is 2008, the last time that TELUS had supported the pink cause with a marketing effort.
While the social media engagement was a stand-alone component, in the sense that it was unsupported by paid media drivers, we see a definite link between this component and phone sales, as indicated by the “buy now” button on the Facebook campaign tab, which was clicked 3,400 times. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to track the action through to final sale on telusmobility.com or in-store, but the cultivation of purchase intent through social media engagement is clear.
The campaign also had a strong halo effect within TELUS itself. Staff rallied around the cause, and their personal contributions were matched two-for-one by TELUS, which pushed the total funds raised for the purchase of early detection equipment to a grand total of $2.45 million.
b)Excluding Other Factors
Spending Levels: See Other Potential Causes below.
Pricing: See Other Potential Causes below.
Distribution Changes: See Other Potential Causes below.
Unusual Promotional Activity: See Other Potential Causes below.
Other Potential Causes: Similarities between 2008 and 2010:
•The pink phones were exclusive to TELUS.
•The amount given per sale was the same ($25) for both campaigns.
•The phones were priced the same as a comparable non-pink model.
•The marketing budget for both campaigns was $1.2 million.
•The mass media used was the same in both years, with similar weighting of spend.
Differences between 2008 and 2010:
•In 2008, the pink phones were available between February and December; in 2010, we had a shorter sales window between May and December.
•In 2010, we added the social media participation element, while 2008 was a standard mass advertising campaign.
•In 2008, one model of the pink BlackBerry smartphone was offered; in 2010, in keeping with the growth and diversity of the maturing smartphone category, a selection of three pink BlackBerry models was offered.