Winner: Waggener Edstrom Communications - Holidays Made Possible by Microsoft
For a company like Microsoft, the November and December months provide the biggest opportunity to build awareness and drive sales. In order to reach those that will be most actively purchasing during this time period, Waggener Edstrom had to insert Microsoft into the consumer consideration set, driving social attention and buzz as well as connecting the dots for consumers around how various Microsoft products fit seamlessly into everyday life.
To achieve that objective and drive sales, Waggener Edstrom brought Microsoft to life with a new website—MadePossible.by—the first of its kind for the company. The site was generated with a mix of owned, earned and paid content, and it translated Microsoft’s story into engaging, bite-sized curated pieces. These content pieces included sponsored parenting blog posts, social media posts and consumer-focused online articles including third-party editorial coverage about the brand’s offerings.
To fuel this site with relevant content, Microsoft partnered with Disney’s popular parenting site, Babble.com, to reach young parents where they already are. The company also also leveraged Microsoft’s social channels to execute a paid social advertising campaign, which drove increased traffic and readership to the website during key pre-holiday moments. The site was infused with links to Microsoft retail properties as well as analytics which allowed the site to be optimized content in real time, tracking consumer behaviors such as intent to purchase and app downloads.
During the initial nine-week campaign, the agency built a new, qualified consumer audience for the Microsoft brand and moved nearly 4.4% of that new audience to a point of purchase or download. The site exceeded its monthly traffic goal by 3 times in the initial pilot period, and it reached a potential consumer audience of 29.4 million consumers.
Honorable Mentions:
- Current Lifestyle Marketing - Liquid-Plumr Clog Culprits
- Leidos - A New Perspective on Impossible
- Rite Aid & MARC USA - Rite Aid Nail Extravaganza