Route 66 Harley Davidson, a dealership in Tulsa, OK created a 12 day themed texting/SMS campaign featuring a 20% discount on a different product from their retail department each of the 12 days.  From $500 helmets to T-shirts.  They increased walk-in traffic, retail sales, and high-dollar item sales as a result.  The “12 Days of Christmas” was used as their theme and ran from Dec 12 – 24, 2011.

Notable Results

1.  T-shirt sales up 250%
2. Motorcycle sales up – no conclusive data
3. Helmet one day sales matched previous week’s 7 day total
4. 16% increase in leather jacket sales
5. Walk-in traffic up – inconclusive as to actual #

>Read full Harley Davidson case study here.

"Harley Davidson Texting Campaign Increased Sales As Much As 250%" from CaseStudiesOnline.com The Internet's Leading Resource for Social Media and Digital Marketing Case Studies [Contact]

FanFeedr, a sports news site, discovered the secret formula to getting 10x higher click through rates than typical Facebook ads.  Their company aggregates, organizes, and then publishes content from over 10,000 sports related sites each day in a format their visitors love.

This case study covers a number of the ads that yielded high returns.  Their primary objectives in using Facebook ads are:

• Awareness of the FanFeedr brand
• Increase “Likes” of their Facebook fan page
• Referral traffic back to their site

Read Full Facebook Case Study Here

"Sports website gets 997% higher CTR with Facebook Ads" from CaseStudiesOnline.com The Internet's Leading Resource for Social Media and Digital Marketing Case Studies [Contact]

New Zealand fashion week, similar to New York’s fashion week, created a successful multi-platform social media strategy that helped grow attendance and revenue during the entire week of the event.  Fashion weeks are a way to bring the top designers, retailers, socialites, and those just passionate about fashion together in one place to party and do business.

Platforms Used

• Facebook
• Pinterest
• Instagram
• Tumblr
• Foursquare
• Twitter

Approach Used

• Content Driven – create custom content, solicit guest bloggers/commenters
• Real-Time updating along with scheduled content releases daily
• Buzz building – events, giveaways, exclusives
• Deepen engagement on channels – those managing channels invested more time
• Showcase partners and sponsors – utilize their social influence
• Photos worth sharing – upload the hottest new styles in shoes, clothes…
• Daily measurement and refinement – change tactics as needed

The Numbers

•  Audience reach – 71% women, median age – 24
• Page impressions during 5 weeks – 951,000
• Total stories on Facebook – 24,874
• Page views – Up by 64%
• 22,000 engaged users 2 weeks prior to the event
• 70% of attendees heard about the event first on Social Media

View full case study of New Zealand Fashion Week on Slideshare.

"Fashion Week Got 70% Increase in Social Engagement" from CaseStudiesOnline.com The Internet's Leading Resource for Social Media and Digital Marketing Case Studies [Contact]

Futurestate IT, a software company based out of Toronto went the swashbuckling route at the Microsoft Management Summit 2012 held in Las Vegas to drive more traffic and new business to their booth.  It worked.  They used the power of a fun treasure hunt theme coupled with an 8 step social media strategy.

Goals Of Campaign

To promote new enhancements to their product offerings.  Primary goals were:

1. Build a buzz around the theme and company name
2. Attract as many people to the booth as possible to generate leads
3. Be very interactive with the attendees to begin building a relationship
4. Get an initial conversation started for those who are highly interested in the solution

8 Touch Strategy

Microsoft Management Summit (MMS2012) was a technical conference attended primarily by “left-brain” techies.  Left brainers tend to be more reserved, but not when they arrived at the Futurestate booth.  See their Facebook page for almost 200 photos of attendees having a blast.  Note – Futurestate jointly hosted the Treasure Hunt with Juriba, its technology partner.

#1: Create Landing Page For Conference 

To get the buzz started early, a separate MMS Treasure Website (www.mmstreasure.com) was created to inform people who have registered for the conference that there will be a treasure hunt event.  People were able to download treasure maps at their leisure, and many people did.

#2: LinkedIn Event

To inform people of the Treasure Hunt event, a LinkedIn event page was created to generate awareness.  Posts were also made within the official MMS2012 LinkedIn event.

#3: Conference Guide Ad

In the event that people had not heard of the treasure hunt by the time they arrived at the conference, an ad was placed in the hardcopy Conference Guide, to inform and attract their attention.

#4: Vertical Banner at the Booth

To ensure that interested attendees could find the booth easily, a vertical banner was erected near the booth to direct the traffic.

#5:  Lady Pirates play Pirate Blackjack

To keep the treasure hunt light and fun, attendees could play Pirate Blackjack at the booth with the resident lady pirates.  This gave them a chance to spend more time at the booth, and be interested in finding out more about the company’s solution.

#6: Treasure Hunt Rules and Instructions

Postcards were printed, and included the rules for the treasure hunt.  Attendees could take away the postcards, in case they forgot the instructions on how to find the treasure.

 #7: Twitter

A Twitter page was created to allow the attendees to interact with the company.  A picture was taken of each attendee that played Pirate Blackjack with the lady pirates.  Pirate gears were then added to the photo to make attendees into pirates.  The modified photos were then tweeted.

#8: Facebook

A Facebook page, complete with information about the pirate ship arriving in Las Vegas with the resident feline mascot Thomas onboard,  was also created to generate interaction.  Throughout the treasure hunt, the Facebook page allowed attendees to find their modified photos and share them.

Those attendees that were able to find their photo, share or re-tweet it to their friends, got a chance to win one of three prizes: Microsoft Kinect, or one of two $100 Amazon gift cards.

The company targeted generating 200 sales leads, 100 Facebook entries, 100 Twitter entries, and an increase in company name recognition.

Measurable Results

The treasure hunt occurred in a very short time frame, just over 2.5 days, coinciding with the exhibit hall days.  The responses were tremendous, and well over the set target:

Leads

523 leads were generated, with duplicates removed.  Many people returned to the booth to play Pirate Blackjack with the lady pirates, in order to get extra chances to get onto Facebook/Twitter.  Of those who visited the booth, 40 leads were extremely interested prospects that the sales team could begin detailed conversation immediately.

Result: 260% of target

Facebook

193 photos were uploaded in the 2.5 days timeframe, of which many were shared.

Result: 193% of target

Twitter

283 tweets were sent, with 84 followers.

Result: 283% of target

“We set out to engage people, and to have them learn about us.   The response was overwhelming, and people had fun while they listened to our solution story.  I think it was a well balanced lead generation and relationship building exercise.   It exceeded our targets, so I would consider this a huge success,” said Helen Ching, Director of Marketing for Futurestate IT.

"How To Increase Trade Show Traffic – Turn Attendees Into Pirates" from CaseStudiesOnline.com The Internet's Leading Resource for Social Media and Digital Marketing Case Studies [Contact]

 A large online retailer who many of us buy from on a regular basis sells thousands of products online in dozens of categories.  They noticed a big drop in conversion rates and revenue per client and didn’t know why.

They went to McKinsey & Company for help, who did a 20,000 person study on consumer behavior and how selling and marketing to consumers has changed.  They identified where efforts should be directed to yield the highest return on marketing efforts.  Click here to read a great brief about the study – “The Consumer Decision Journey.”

Key Findings

"30% Growth For Online Retailer By Mapping Customer Decisions" from CaseStudiesOnline.com The Internet's Leading Resource for Social Media and Digital Marketing Case Studies [Contact]

Yahoo! Movies, a division of Yahoo! wanted to get a bigger piece of the multi-billion dollar movie going pie by the summer of 2012 through their Facebook page.  Their goal is to become the source for movie goers who love to research, be in the “know,” get VIP passes to early showings, and communicate with other movie aficionados.

They get 24 million visitors on their main website but lack that kind of traffic on Facebook where they see untapped potential to grow their brand.

Joint Venture

Their campaign strategy was a joint effort with their offline partner, Regal Cinemas, who put up banners in theaters promoting the Yahoo! brand along with a QR code pointing to an offer most movie goers couldn’t refuse – free popcorn.  People who did a social check-in via their Smart phones and liked the page got the popcorn.  Offer applied online also.  They would just redeem the popcorn when they arrived at the theater.

 The Results From Campaign

• 1.2 million new Likes on their Facebook page
• 200,000 Check-ins
• 1.4 Million minutes spent on Yahoo! Movies Website
• $1,000,000 of popcorn given away

Let’s Test Their Million Dollar Spend

They say their long-term goal is not about the “liking” it’s about building an audience of repeat visitors who will engage and make Yahoo! Movies their online source.

The great part about case studies like this is that you and I can take a peek behind the curtain and see if this is hype or really working. Below are the objectives/goals they hope to achieve now since the campaign began a few months ago. I encourage you to go to their Facebook page and see if the goals below are being lived out.

How Yahoo! Measured Success

1. Target a Season – focus on summer movie season
2. Hit Fans From All Angles – Reach fans online and offline
3. Relevant – Reward movie goers and capture “Likes” in return for continued activity on their Facebook page
4. Connect More – Interact with more movie fans via their website and Facebook page
5. Become The Movie Source – provide great content to keep fans coming back to their page regularly

My Take

I would question their last two goals – connecting and becoming the source. Out of the 2.15 million fans, they are not averaging the comments and interaction I would expect to consider this successful. It’s about amazing content and some of their biggest days of activity are based on movie blockbuster debuts or contests/giveaways they may be doing in a certain month. Their ratio of commenting back to people is very low and not that of a Sage archetype or the “in the know” type of a person I would expect running the page.

To view the full case study on SlideShare - go here.  What do your think?  Was it successful?

"Yahoo! Movies Is On A Mission – Monetize 24 Million Users" from CaseStudiesOnline.com The Internet's Leading Resource for Social Media and Digital Marketing Case Studies [Contact]

This case study features 4 examples of long form branded video content that drove millions of additional dollars and tens of millions of views using long-form copy in place of the typical 30-90 second spots.

What these videos prove is that people will make the time for well crafted stories that intersect with the narrative of their personal story.  It is true that consumers are getting more savvy about the “noise” online by deleting, skipping, or unsubscribing from your site faster than ever but for valid reasons.

Most of the content online is not worth their time.  Studies show that if you can capture their imagination and interest within the first 15 seconds of a video they will stay as long as you keep enriching them throughout the video.

Three of the four videos (HBO, Nike, KONY) in this case study are long.  The forth, featured below, Chipotle, is just over two minutes but considered long because it’s a TV commercial.  It was originally to air at the 2012 Super Bowl.  Risking it would have to be shortened to 30 seconds due to budget concerns, Chipotle opted to preserve the full story and air it during the 2012 Grammy Awards.  It ended up being so impactful it upstaged some of the Grammy performances that night.

Chipotle Video

"5-25 Minute Videos Work Better Than 30 Second Spots" from CaseStudiesOnline.com The Internet's Leading Resource for Social Media and Digital Marketing Case Studies [Contact]

Harvard Business Publishing, a subsidiary of Harvard Business School, manages the HBS blog with 500,000 subscribers worldwide and tens of thousands of pages on the site with new content posted daily.

Success Factors

1. You can’t overlook their secret weapon – content creators – some of the smartest people in the world work for the HBS blog.  If you take that variable out of the equation I don’t know if they would have 500,000 subscribers – statistics show it would be closer to 500 or less if you compare it to similar blogs lacking in great content creators.  Leads us to the saying, “Content Is King.”  I don’t believe that.  I think – great content creators who are gifted in storytelling is King.
2. The HBS content creators are given tools (SharePoint) to manage new content during the create and edit process.  I would not recommend SharePoint.  There are so many other more robust and less costly tools for editorial management of content available.  I like DivvyHQ for a paid system or for free, I created one you are welcome to try out on Google docs - click here.
3. All content creators are given guidelines on how to communicate – the persona, voice, tone, personality are all outlined but at the core they are encouraged to be storytellers not bloggers.
4. Leverage – they always think about how many channels a single piece of content can be re-purposed on.  If it can’t, they don’t create the content.
5. They are good at broadcasting (pushing) their message on social media channels.
6. They use social media to listen to conversations around keywords – primarily “entrepreneurship” to find ways to then push their content to channels that are talking about what they write.
7. Then, they monitor spikes in conversations around the world in those keyword areas to see if the HBS content is floating to the top of conversations.

What They Are Not Good At

They are not good at the “social” part of social media.  They do not have a team in place to quickly and regularly communicate back to the hundreds of thousands of people trying to reach out and talk to them.

To read the entire case study go here.

"Harvard Business School Blog – 500,000 Subscribers" from CaseStudiesOnline.com The Internet's Leading Resource for Social Media and Digital Marketing Case Studies [Contact]

In Wisconsin, cheese has been a big part of their economy for 160 years.  Recently, the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board got together to create a massive new media campaign to strengthen the brand position of Wisconsin cheese.

At the core of this campaign was a mandate they put forth to their story tellers involved, that whatever content was created, it must add true value to people’s lives who visit the sites or receive content generated from this campaign.  Yes, we are talking about cheese.

The campaign is composed of 5 interactive websites, liquid content, a number of social channels and social sharing tactics.  Each site has a different purpose but all have subtle messaging to help you feel good about how Wisconsin cheese may just be better than some of the finest cheeses from other parts of the world.  They are on a similar journey the California wine industry took a few years back and succeeded in, to help people understand and feel that many California wines are as good or better than wines from around the world.

To see the list of the 5 great websites and to read the entire case study, go here.

"Wisconsin Cheese Social Media Campaign Reached 100 Million Households" from CaseStudiesOnline.com The Internet's Leading Resource for Social Media and Digital Marketing Case Studies [Contact]

ShipServ, a B2B e-commerce marketplace for the maritime shipping industry, sells to an industry that is not social media savvy and highly skeptical of, in their minds, an unproven way of doing business.  ShipServ’s customer is a shipping supplier.  To make money, those suppliers must pay ShipServ to list their offerings on the site.

The Video Campaign

They created a low tech animated video, “ShipServ Pages: The Movie”  using Lego characters and even had a hero/star of the movie, Rex, depicting a typical owner operator of a shipping supply shop.  Then posted it on their social channels, website and had their sales people send out emails to their leads with a link to the video.  The goal was a low pressure approach to educate and entertain prospects and move them to try their online marketplace.  Their CMO, John Watton reported that is was, “Highly successful.  The innovation is really in how we’ve integrated it with our other social media and content marketing efforts.”

The Movie

ShipServ Links

Home Page - http://www.shipserv.com

Selling Page - http://www.shipserv.com/info/pages-for-suppliers/

YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/user/ShipServYT

"How To Sell To Skeptical Buyers With Video" from CaseStudiesOnline.com The Internet's Leading Resource for Social Media and Digital Marketing Case Studies [Contact]