It is clear that Burberry are one of the most socially connected brands in the world. Not only has this come from a clarity of ambition by pursuing the dream of connecting consumers to their brand throughout different lifestages, it has also come from designing the company around this experience – the social enterprise.
Rather than simply bolting this on to their heritage, Burberry are using digital and social technologies to create a new, part to their heritage. A heritage which is more involving, less distant, and completely connected.
I thought I would start the year as I mean to go on, bringing interesting content to the forefront and thinking about it from a strategic viewpoint. Vimeo is a great source of beautifully shot content, with much more meaning than most of the stuff you can find on YouTube.
To launch a video here shows class and credibility. The House of Radon, who I knew nothing about until I saw this video, clearly have an expert eye for both of the above. In this video, with a guest appearance and as always, really thought provoking insight is Moby. The question that this raises over artistry v creation is really interesting, so watch on.
Come winter the perception is that there isn’t much to do in Iceland. However, this new campaign from Inspired by Iceland highlights that Icelanders want you to come visit them in their homes and see how the live during the beautifully cold winter months.
It starts with the President who today is addressing the nation. He will be asking his fellow countrymen to open their doors and arms to the world. This is Olafur Ragnar Grimsson’s video address and you can’t help but be moved by the invitation to sample some of his wife’s favourite pancakes in his home.
It has such a great sentiment that you can’t help but feel inspired by it. Visit Inspired by Iceland for more about the Icelandic people opening their doors to you here.
Brussels doesn’t really have alot going for it. Soulless, bland, it could be any city in any part of Europe. However, for one night it lit up brilliantly for The Brooklyn Brothers as we romped home at The Euro Effies. Having secured and been delighted with our Gold in the category of Social Media Effectiveness for Inspired by Iceland (Promote Iceland), we were stunned to then win both the Grand Prix and Agency of the Year. Of course it wasn’t just us, our friends at Islenska in Iceland were a collaborative and brilliant driving force. Extremely smart, extremely inventive, both Islenska and The Brooklyn Brothers have a superb fit through our ways of working.
Inspired by Iceland was an incredibly inspiring campaign to work on. It was a campaign that we found out we had won on my first day in The Brooklyn Brothers office, so it’s success or failure would help to define my role within the agency. Fortunately, the campaign was a global success, pushing Iceland from brink of despair to thriving tourist destination.
This is how we did it:
The country of Iceland had transformed itself from one of Europe’s poorest countries to one of its wealthiest in the space of a generation. After the financial crisis in 2008, Iceland suffered yet another blow when that volcano unexpectedly erupted and sent plumes of ash into the Icelandic air.
The negative press and sentiment surrounding Iceland was turning potential tourists off. The effect of the volcano was felt immediately with tourism numbers plummeting 30% in the two remaining weeks of April, a decline that continued into the start of May.
This campaign involved Icelanders in telling their stories to the world. In July 2010, Iceland hour was created during which Icelanders went online and told the world how much they love their country. Even the Prime Minister got involved!
Within 2 weeks of the launch, over 85% of Icelanders were aware of the campaign. After 6 weeks, over half of the Icelandic public had contributed stories. Within just 10 weeks, the country was perceived as a safe place to visit again, visitor numbers were up 27% against forecasts. The first quarter of 2011 has seen Iceland’s highest tourist numbers ever.
On Facebook alone over 45,000 fans were recruited and over 2 million stories were seen and sent out by fans. Between June and August the live webcams were viewed 60 million times.
In total an additional 73 thousand tourists visited the country from Europe, worth an additional £127.4m to Iceland’s economy. The total campaign expenditure was £2m within this period, giving a short-term ROMI of 62.7:1.
Inspired by Iceland demonstrates how a new model of Social Participation can change both attitudes and behaviours, and deliver impressive commercial results.
Each week at the Brooklyn Brothers I pull together three relevant TED talks around a particular theme. This weeks theme was “The Importance of Something New”. I think sometimes we forget that new doesn’t always have to be about creation, new can mean evolution. In the three talks for this week “new” is taken to different and interesting levels. From Matt Cutt’s “Try something new” to Google’s Driverless Car, all were about good new things which had simple reasoning.
Alexis Ohanian: How to make a splash in social media
Matt Cutts: Try something new for 30 days
Sebastian Thrun: Google’s driverless car
Next week is all about the failure of the average male….
