Summary:
The campaign aimed to connect offline stores to the online environment where the target group is active and to use all trends. The online campaign was built around TikTok, Influencers, and an interactive AR game. Offline, we used thematic stickers that children got for free by buying two Pilot products. With these methods, we increased brand awareness and sales during the back-to-school time.
Introduce our project:
By scanning the sticker QR code on the products, the children opened an Instagram AR game and entered the competition. The goal of the game was to catch as many pens as possible until the entire song played out. By sharing their scores on Instagram Stories, they could win special edition gift boxes of Pilot pens that were made at our workshop. In so doing, we effectively joined the offline and online environments. We also supported the AR game with a video ad on TikTok and via Influencers. This helped us achieve effective reach within our main target group (primary school + teenagers). Thanks to this campaign, which also ran on YouTube as a video ad, international sales grew by at least 15%.
Strategy:
At the start of the campaign for the iconic Pilot pens, we had a TV ad spot and an idea built around an original hip-hop song. We and the client then decided to go further and turn the spot into a 360° campaign aimed at effectively addressing schoolchildren before they returned to school, with overlap into the offline environment. As part of the campaign, we created engaging activities such as stickers. The children physically received the stickers by buying the products and then also digitally in the form of gifs to be used in their Instagram Stories.
Goals:
15 mil. campaign impressions
thousands of players on the AR game
15k microsite visitors
CPM on YouTube to approx. 75 CZK
Innovation:
We pushed the Instagram AR filter, which is new in and of itself, to the next level and created within its environment a game motivated by the chance to win products. We then used actual stickers that were brought to the online environment as gifs that our target group could use on Instagram. As some of the first to do so in the CZ, we tested out an auction buy of media space on TikTok. We achieved cost-effective reach of our main target group (primary school + teenagers), which included overlap within the online vs. offline environment. We made a special video format for TikTok as well as other links of the campaign’s concept via Influencers.
Target groups
1. Young teens (10-16 years old)
2. Primary schoolchildren (7-10 years old)
3. Mothers with children (30-50 years old)
With the campaign, we reached a total of more than 1,500,000 unique internet users across all target groups.
Creative process:
At the campaign’s start, we had a TV ad spot that we did the copywriting and voiceover for and an idea built around an original hip-hop song. With this base, we built the entire 360° campaign. We created thematic stickers that the children got for free by buying the products and then brought these stickers into the online environment, turning them into gifs. We created the campaign’s microsite, and that included the concept, copywriting, graphics, coding, hosting, and analytical settings. The ad spot also yielded key visuals, social media creatives, and YouTube videos of various lengths. Lastly, we created a prize box that matched the campaign and could be won by the users in our AR game.
Budget and degree of effectiveness:
The campaign (1,627,550 CZK budget) outperformed all expectations. Over 25k players played our AR game, despite our estimate of only up to 5k, thus increasing our expectations by 500%. And thanks to TikTok, the campaign generated nearly 23 mil. ad views (15 mil. estimate), and the microsite had nearly 20k visits (15k estimate). Thus, we surpassed the number of impressions by 153% and visits to the microsite by 123%. We measured the campaign’s success with both the analytical results of the individual online systems and via post-campaign research, where the respondents proved that they noticed the campaign. The greatest success was then the international growth of Pilot product sales by 15%.
At the end:
The campaign was mainly successful thanks to the AR filter on sites like TikTok and Instagram. However, we didn’t forget about Facebook or YouTube where we reached nearly 1.35 mil. users and surpassed the expected impressions by 26%. Plus, we increased CPM to about 60 CZK, which was 15 CZK fewer than our estimate. And apart from social media, we used a native ad on Strossle and published videos and an article on Žena-in.
The campaign outperformed both our and the client’s expectations, which is why we mutually agreed to run it again next year.
Gifs link: https://giphy.com/Pilotpen_czsk/
Microsite link: https://pilotstickerky.cz/
AR game link: https://www.instagram.com/ar/1099720350436992/
