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Tropika’s Easter video marries online and mobile

Over the Easter weekend, thousands of South Africans were treated to a surprise video sent to their phones, wishing them a happy holiday from Tropika. This charming and funny animated clip featured a play on the word “Easter”, and showed viewers a little peek at the Easter Island statues.

These famous head statues (known as ‘moai’) were given a breath of life as the stars of the video. They wake up after thousands of years of silence, and suddenly break into song, Acapello style. In walk a group of tourists and catch the statues in the act, and what ensues is a hilarious combination of bright camera flashes, a rabbit and a cameo from a very famous international playboy and his bunny-eared female companions. Neil Clarence, Creative Director at 7Dffrnt Knds of Smke (the ad agency responsible for this campaign), explains, “Tropika wanted to wish consumers a happy Easter, so with that in mind, we wanted to create something a bit different, with a play on the word ‘Easter’ and a tropical island look and feel.”

Not only was the video sent to consumers, but it was also uploaded to Youtube on a newly-launched and specially designed Tropika Easter Island Youtube channel.

Comments were endlessly positive, with viewers expressing their genuine love for the video and quoting the words from the song. Mobile and online met seamlessly to deliver a truly engaging campaign.

Ryan van Jaarsveld, Managing Director of 7Dffrnt Knds of Smke explains, “Since the first TV ad aired in 1955, brands have spent millions on producing their little piece of Hollywood and engaging audiences while glued to the box. A picture speaks a thousand words and it screams a thousand more when it moves. The Internet has changed the way consumers communicate, interact and share information forever. When print evolved into TV back in the 50s, brands had the opportunity to capture the imaginations of their target audience like never before. However, the cost of getting people to see the ad was and always will be expensive. There are over 5,000,000 Youtube users in South Africa. Everyone has a mobile phone. This gives brands the opportunity to engage a much wider audience for a fraction of the cost.”

7Dffrnt Knds of Smke recognised the value of Youtube and jumped on the opportunity to share this video with South Africans via this online medium. It was well received – not only with high views (it was awarded Youtube Honours for being one of the most viewed videos of the month in South Africa) but also by the consumers themselves. The proof is in the comments, such as “Addicted to this ad… lol good job guys.” The video was also pushed to specific targets using Youtube media. Ryan explains the process, “Youtube media was used to target consumers matching the Tropika demographic in South Africa. We targeted people based on their interests, what type of videos they watch and linked everything to the kinds of keywords one would expect users to enter (Easter, holidays, funny, rabbit, etc). We then set the maximum amount we were willing to pay per view and made sure that the Tropika video would be shown before other brands during the campaign. Anyone matching these targeting criteria would see the video.”

Not only were people commenting on the Youtube channel itself, but bloggers even embedded the video onto their websites. This is a huge honour: it means that these bloggers wanted to show their own audience the content. These bloggers had a lot of love for the video: “Listen to the lyrics carefully – they’ll have you in stitches!” 

Another blogger quoted the lyrics to the song in her blog post. The video was even found embedded on a blog from Korea. Ryan continues, “Online social networks like Youtube allow us to engage these audiences from wherever they are, whenever they go online and everything is integrated with platforms like Facebook, Twitter and mobile. A recent survey asked consumers between the age of 18 and 35 which item they could go without, their TV or mobile phone. 95 per cent said they would rather lose their TV than their phone. We were very pleased with the results. Within four days the Tropika Easter video became the 24^th most viewed video in South Africa with a total of 48, 519 views at an average of R2.06 cost per view.”

Figure 1: Youtube video views over Easter weekend

Not only did consumers get to see the ad online, but it was also placed into the palms of their hands with an MMS sent to them over the Easter holiday weekend.  This was a shortened and compressed version of the video, which ended with a link to the Youtube version. “The MMS was also a great success. 15 per cent of recipients clicked on the link and watched the full video on Youtube. The average industry click through rate from SMS or MMS is between one and 2.5 per cent,” says Ryan.

Users could also access the video using a QR code scanner on their phones. QR codes are square designs that contain certain bits of information. When scanned, they open that information, be it a link to a website or contact details. 7Dffrnt Knds of Smke created a sticker with a specially-designed QR code using the Tropika colours and logo. When scanned, it took the user straight to the mobile version of the Youtube video.

All these elements were combined to bring together a campaign for a video that was seen by thousands of people across South Africa. It was not only seen, but it was loved, cementing Tropika into the hearts and minds of the consumers. This is the perfect example of what happens when fantastic creative, as well as brilliant use of the technology available combine to deliver something that stands out amongst the rest.

Check out the video and the channel here http://www.youtube.com/tropikaeasterisland

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