slimfast mini-campaign case study
TRANSCRIPT
Slim-Fast Q2 Program Overview August 2011
What is Slim-Fast?
Slim-Fast is a short-term weight loss solution – unlike other weight loss brands (e.g. Weight Watchers), it’s not a lifestyle Target Audience: women looking to lose ~20lbs for a special occasion Products: snack /meal replacement bars and shakes 3-2-1 Plan: meal plan that incorporates its snack bars, meal bars and shakes, alongside 1 balanced meal
The Challenge
Faced with a decline in sales and rising competitor awareness, Slim-Fast challenged Ogilvy to develop a PR campaign which would: 1)strengthen its presence on Facebook and Twitter
2)engage a core group of consumers
3)increase brand loyalty among trigger-based dieters – specifically brides
The Research
• 80% of brides plan to lose weight before their wedding, but most procrastinate until the last possible minute
• A substantial portion of online conversations surrounding weddings and weight loss focus on the larger bridal party – not just the bride-to-be
• Slim-Fast’s existing Facebook Fans do not relate to celeb weight loss stories and do not find celeb-focused content engaging
We partnered with the PR Account Team, OgilvyOne and the full Unilever Inter Agency Team for Slim-Fast to create a holistic program
•Event Sponsorship – Partnership with Filene’s Basement’s Running of the Brides (ROTB)
•Celeb Spokesperson – June Ambrose, renowned celeb stylist
•Influencer Engagement – Local wedding and beauty bloggers
•Grass Roots Engagement – Contest and custom apps on Facebook
•Paid Media
– Social media, online banners, email blasts and TV
The Solution
Aligning cadence of program to wedding season
Wedding Planning Height of Wedding Season
March • Kicked off
ROTB Partnership in Boston
May • ROTB events in
multiple cities • New-Face of Slim-
Fast Contest
June • ROTB finale event in
NYC w/ June Ambrose
• Voting period for New-Face of Slim-Fast Contest
April • ROTB events in
multiple cities • Wedding Ready tab
on FB • Sponsored
#RoyalWedding hashtag
Running of the Brides is an event hosted by Filene’s Basement at locations across the country. It’s a well-established, media-worthy event, where bridal parties camp out overnight to score great deals on wedding dresses Attendees are women who LOVE free stuff and are about to encounter the moment of truth: wedding dress + mirror
Taking advantage of a very relevant, and very captive audience at Running of the Brides
OPR, Slim-Fast brand team, celeb stylist (June) and local influencers attended ROTB events in 7 top markets, reaching 5,000 attendees
•Bridal parties “liked” Slim-Fast on Facebook •Filmed ~75 video entries for New Face of Slim-Fast contest •3,500 Slim-Fast products sampled •5,000+ branded giveaways distributed •Filene’s Basement tweeted and posted on Facebook
Driving trial & awareness of Slim-Fast’s FB Page onsite
Amplified awareness by enlisting celeb stylist, June Ambrose, to: • Attend ROTB events, provide
styling tips to bridal parties and encourage hundreds of women to enter contest to become The New Face of Slim-Fast
• Provide content for Wedding Ready Facebook app and conversation calendar
• Tweet to her 100K+ followers • Conduct 16 SMT/RMT interviews
Enlisting June Ambrose to engage women, in-person and online
We shared content from the ROTB events with our Facebook and Twitter communities and created 2 remarkable experiences: •Wedding Ready app – featured nutritional tips, style tips from June Ambrose and content from our bloggers
•New Face of Slim-Fast Contest app - since weddings aren’t relevant for everyone, we engaged brand advocates to do what they like most, talk about their success with Slim-Fast. We launched the search to find the New Face of Slim-Fast and allowed fans to vote on their favorite finalists
Extending remarkable experiences to Facebook
Maya will add screenshot of contest
We engaged 14 local wedding, fashion and women’s lifestyle bloggers to: •Attend ROTB events, interact with brides-to-be and capture photos/videos •Host Slim-Fast giveaways on their blogs •Develop content for our Wedding Ready Facebook App A few of the bloggers even met with Slim-Fast’s Registered Dietician and tried out the Slim-Fast 3-2-1 Plan!
Engaging local Influencers to bring ROTB events to life online and promote trial
Using paid media to drive awareness of Slim-Fast as wedding weight loss solution & grow social media following
Partnered with Mindshare to develop paid media plan that spanned social, online and TV, with majority of ads driving to Facebook
• Facebook Ad buys targeted at
engaged women, ROTB attendees, and dieters
• Twitter sponsorship of #royalwedding
trend on day before Royal Wedding
• Banners and email blasts via Daily Candy, The Knot, etc.
• Media integration with Access Hollywood around Royal Wedding
Overview of program results Reach • 584 million traditional media impressions • Participating bloggers created 23 blog posts (250K
impressions) and 130 tweets (560K impressions) • 27,824 new Facebook Fans • 1,447 new Twitter followers • The Wedding Ready Tab received 21K views • The New Face of Slim-Fast contest received 66K
views Trial/Action • 3,500 Slim-Fast products sampled at ROTB events • The New Face of Slim-Fast contest received 99
entries and 7,866 votes
What works in traditional doesn’t always work in social • Although Slim-Fast uses humor in its traditional online
advertising – attempts at lightheartedness within social media was interpreted as offensive
• The campaign was focused on brides-to-be, but the majority of our existing fans/followers did not have an upcoming wedding. It was important to offer these brand advocates something they could participate in (i.e. contest open to everyone)
Prepare for the absolute worst (literally) – especially when
entering a totally new territory • One influencer’s campaign in response to Slim-Fast’s
sponsorship of the #RoyalWedding hashtag highlighted the importance of thorough risk response planning (e.g. promoting Slim-Fast as a brand one should follow on Twitter is tantamount to calling someone overweight!)
Key Learnings