Case Study: Coles Group & Myer blog marketing campaign - Part 2 of 2

Yesterday I discussed the results of the Coles Group and Myer blog marketing campaign, and today I’d like to share our key learnings. These findings can be broken up into three main areas; engagement, positive associations with the brand and qualitative data.

Engagement – Bloggers really took to this campaign because it was a fun way they could compete with their fellow bloggers. It created a level of interaction where the brand was at the core and bloggers built content around it. Furthermore it created an environment with positive influence for the brand, negating negative sentiment. The key in creating a positive environment for brands is to allow bloggers to tell their brand story from their perspective. It doesn’t have to BE about the brand but the brand to be PART of the conversation.

This is also very different to a traditional competition based campaign Ie a person enters, someone wins, game over... With a blog competition each entry is a broadcast of your brand into the blogosphere as each entry is its own blog post with its own set of readers.

Blog campaigns create positive associations with the brand –As can be seen in the examples in the previous post, bloggers invest time to participate in the Brand’s campaigns. This very positive association with the brand flows into the bloggers’ community of readers.

Qualitative data – There was some incredible qualitative data that was generated for this campaign. One of the great things about a blog campaign is its ability to show how people are taking in your messages. We had comments such as:

“I thought $3.47 for two chicken breasts was a bargain. Then, I discovered chicken wings for $2.09 - - - Bewdy, Mate! And . . . I ended up getting more for my money, too.”

AND

“Luckily, Coles had some good specials, including these 98c crackers!! Bargain”

AND

“It was interesting to shop in a different supermarket. The lanes are different but most products sold are the same. Actually, the lanes are wider at Coles.”

In addition to this there were 260 Coles branded photos broadcast into the blogosphere, creating further positive associations. As these broadcasts are user generated brands are building up a certain trust with the brand which is invaluable. I can’t think of any other medium that can do this…?