Online communications agency Content and Motion has an interesting case study based on its work with TomTom – the leading supplier of location and navigation products and services. Now is a good time to read it because it refers to a pre-Christmas PR campaign that was run this time last year.

Competition

C&M was asked to devise and activate a Social PR strategy in support of the Voice of TomTom marketing campaign – a month-long competition to find a new voice for TomTom satnavs in the UK. The campaign was fronted by actor Brian Blessed; whose own voice was also being used for TomTom products. It invited people to submit clips via Facebook or Twitter. The best was chosen as the Voice of TomTom UK and won a new Renault car.

The purpose of the campaign was threefold, according to C&M. Firstly, to keep TomTom front-of-mind among consumers in the run up to Christmas. Secondly, to grow awareness of TomTom’s traffic service. And thirdly, to promote the use of Brian Blessed’s booming voice on TomTom devices.

Multi-prong strategy

C&M’s strategy was multi-pronged. Key elements included:

Using Brian Blessed to raise the profile of the competition and brand through traditional PR and also smart content sharing. This content was reposted and discussed on blogs etc, prompted by C&M, to create buzz.

Running a social PR campaign engaging with key influencers to raise brand and message awareness and drive traffic to a competition microsite. Social media and online publishing were used to drive and sustain interest in the brand before, during and after the Voice of TomTom competition.

Supplementing activity with niche social advertising that delivered CPM and CPC audio and display ads to destinations like Spotify and Facebook.

Employing social media-friendly entry mechanics for the competition to ensure as many opportunities as possible for sharing and engagement.

According to C&M, this approach proved successful. Aside from TomTom’s usual media targets, it secured exposure on lifestyle blogs/forums and niche outlets such as voice acting blogs and competition forums. Facebook likes were boosted by 1,200 and Twitter followers jumped 50%.

Key findings

Key findings, according to C&M, were that:

“Continuous blogger engagement using social media bulletins and YouTube video as content tools provided good returns across a variety of sites.”

“Having a variety of different topics to talk about in relation to the competition meant a broad range of audiences could be targeted.”

“Self-generated coverage through competition listings sites (eg Loquax and MoneySavingExpert) was important for driving traffic to the competition.”

“On a limited budget, with limited social ad spend, the Voice of TomTom UK campaign was superb for boosting social followings and interactions. Facebook ads were effective in driving people to the TomTom Facebook page while Spotify stirred conversations about the competition.”

A nice post-script to the story comes from C&M’s Ben Martin who blogged that: “Our work on this campaign resulted in C&M being brought on by TomTom to help manage and implement its Social PR strategy worldwide.”

For a fuller version of this story visit: www.contentandmotion.co.uk