tfl "moonwalking bear" case-study

The W.W.W.W.

The Worrisome World Wide Web

Or

The Wondrous World Wide Web ?

Successful marketing (in any arena) is based upon:

Consumer Understanding

WWWW

Who?What?Which?Where?

WWWW

Who to talk to?What to provide?Which arenas?Where to find you?

DefineOur task was twofold; to encourage more people to cycle, and make the

roads safer for cyclists. We also needed to amplify a limited budget to

push TfL’s message to the largest possible audience.

DesignWe created an awareness test film, ‘Do the Test’ which illustrated how

difficult it is to see cyclists when concentrating on other things on the

road.

We then used social media optimisation and marketing to target niche and

mass market communities simultaneously.

DeliverA viral giant: millions of views, acres of discussion and comment, tributes

& reach beyond anything offline could have delivered.

Won Gold Film Lion at Cannes 2008 and IMA – Best use of viral marketing

(Interactive Marketing and Advertising Awards).

Problem Solution

• Don’t tell people that their eyes play tricks on them … prove it.

• In order to make people experience the phenomenon we created a unique and high impact ad that only needed to be viewed once. In this way we were able to give people new information and a new way of looking at an everyday situation.

• The ad appeared in a limited number of slots on TV before a specially created microsite, www.dothetest.com, containing the ad was seeded on blogs and forums online to maximise impact.

• Too many cyclists are killed or seriously injured on London's roads.

• The key insight was in the realisation that the reasons we miss cyclists are scientific. Our field of vision is extremely narrow and our brains fill in the gaps.

• This allowed us to step away from blaming drivers or cyclists – and allowed us to talk equally to both audiences

Who?

LondonCyclists

&Motorists

Who?What?

Who?What?Which?

Who?What?Which?Where?

3-Pronged Seeding Strategy

1. Experts (blogs)2. Interest Groups (Facebook groups, etc.)3. Popularity Charts (Youtube, digg, etc.)

ResultsIn only 2 weeks of activity the ad received:

• 4.4million views online• 1,500 comments video sharing sites • circa 34,000 Google hits for dothetest• 4 fan groups on Facebook • Page 1 on reddit & digg• 6th Most Viewed Youtube film in the UK that month

To date over 8m have now seen the ad with online seeding achieving £252k worth of coverage despite a spend of only £20k giving us an ROI of 1,100%.

The same amount (£20k) spent in on-line advertising achieved just over 1,000 views.

So is it now…

The Wondrous

World Wide Web ?