Commentary

Follow The Mangled Bag: From Social Meme To Cross-Platform Campaign

A funny thing happened on the Internets recently. The apparently bottomless pool of user-generated cute pet pictures spawned a curious sub-genre, images of mangled packs of pet treats. Yes, it turns out that Mittens and Max, Cleopatra and Ceasar, and their kind are tiring of being teased and merely rewarded with the occasional pet goodie. They are going for the mother lode, leaving behind evidence of frenzied vandalism.

This is what inspired cross-platform marketing campaigns are made of these days. Spotting the trend,  the Mars Petcare treat brand Temptations launched #PackAttack, which was as much an offline as online effort. Even though the effort was to collect user-submitted images and videos of pets attacking treat bags digitally, many key drivers were offline. The company ran a national print campaign as well as diverse out of home pieces: bus shelters, billboards and even gas pump toppers. We were struck by the cross-platform integration of this campaign and especially its use of offline to drive online behaviors. Temptations Brand Manager Melodie Bolin fielded some of our questions about how and why the brand chose these routes.

advertisement

advertisement

Mediapost: How was the destroyed treat pack trend spotted? What is the method you use to listen monitor the channels? 

Bolin: We noticed a pattern of fans sharing stories, photos and videos on our Facebook page about their cats tearing apart packs of Temptations treats – which inspired us to give cat owners everywhere a platform to share their own stories, using the hash tag #PackAttack. We closely monitor social channels to not only engage with consumers, but also to be attuned to industry trends and patterns.

Mediapost: Why Out of Home, Why Print?

Bolin: The heart of this campaign is a simple consumer and cat truth...cats will do anything to get to delicious Temptations cat treats.  We felt the image of the shredded pack is so telegraphic of that truth that it had to be placed where it could tell that story alone, making print and OOH the best creative outlets.

Mediapost: Why not TV?

Bolin: For the Temptations #PackAttack campaign, we wanted to showcase our creative via online video in order to remain consistent with the same platform from which we were receiving the consumer stories that inspired the campaign. We also wanted the ability to tell a story and it to tell it in a genuine way, something that TV doesn’t always give a brand the opportunity to do.  Finally, the campaign needed to be able to allow us to engage with (and inspire!) our target audience through social media, and encourage fans to continue to share their #PackAttack stories.

Mediapost: Engaging UGC content can be tricky, often yielding low participation. How did you build into the campaign incentives to participate?

Bolin: The Temptations brand has an active presence and engaged community on Facebook, where we regularly see UGC of cat-owners and their cats. This entire campaign was born out of the real consumer behavior of proactively uploading images and sharing stories of how their cats tear apart sealed packs of Temptations to get to the treats. We’re encouraging consumers to continue sharing their #PackAttack stories by using the hashtag, so that their cats have the opportunity to be the “Featured Cat of the Week” on the brand’s social media channels.

Mediapost: How will success be measured? What are the KPIs?

Bolin: Measurement of success will be based on awareness and reach generated for the campaign, as well as the level of engagement with cat owners and #PackAttack stories shared. We were so excited to see cats’ affinity for the product and want to continue to hear from consumers about it. This campaign really focuses on online and digital efforts. For the online, making-of video, we’ll track impact based on number of views and shares across digital platforms. With regard to social media, we’ll work to track impact based on amount of consumer engagement generated. 

 

 

 

Next story loading loading..