Launched in July 2010, the Cisco Flip Camera is a shoot-and-share DVD handheld camera. The tech marvel soon gained a foothold in the US and before long became America’s number 1 shoot and share HD camera.
Despite the Cisco Flip Camera having a large presence in the US, this handheld was not doing very well in Asia despite an ATL campaign. Asian consumers did not see the need for a standalone recording device as most of them already have smart phones – that come with fancy inbuilt video cameras – and are satisfied with uploading and sharing their videos on social media platforms.
There was only one goal in mind for Cisco, to make America’s number one shoot and share HD video camera, into Asia’s number one. To attain this goal, Cisco, DDB Singapore and Text 100 Singapore decided launch a campaign on a platform where country borders are blurred: Social media.
The Challenge
The challenge of having a social media campaign was to find a place for the Flip in an increasingly cluttered social world. After careful consideration, Facebook was chosen as the weapon of choice.
With Facebook being the web’s most valued real estate, users care greatly about their profiles more than anything. It is an extension of their personality, a space that defines who they are. However, this prime estate was due for an upgrading, which lead to the big idea for the ‘Flip Your Profile’ campaign - ‘Dump your Profile Picture, get a Profile Video’
The Solution: http://www.facebook.com/#!/FlipSG
Rather than trying to build a movement itself, this idea plugs into the most mainstream of sharing brands, allowing a genuinely original new way for Facebook users to personalize their ever precious profiles.
With a budget of US$10,000, the firms developed a new Facebook app that allowed users to replace their profile photo with a video. Users no longer had to have a boring still image in their profile photo box. They could instead have a moving, breathing, sound-generating profile video on loop. Users could view their friends’ profile video and easily upload their own videos. Each profile video, generated by the app, ended with a short message which simply said ‘Powered by Flip’. In effect, the app successfully created a personalized ad with guaranteed views for the brand.
When the campaign launched in Singapore, Cisco and Text 100 Public relations started by working key influencers (based on their social connections on Twitter, Facebook and Blog readership) like Nat Ho (Singer/TV Actor), Jonathan Leong (Musician/Stage Actor) and Tabitha Nauser (Singapore Idol Runner up and TV Host), to replace their Facebook profile pictures with profile videos. This was crucial in highlighting how this campaign started a movement locally that caused US site, Mashable to break the story globally as a world’s first.
Results
Due to the borderless reach of the internet, what started out as a brief for the Singapore market essentially became a worldwide campaign – especially with a contagious idea such as the ‘Flip Your Profile’. Within minutes of the launch, thousands were ‘Flipping’ their profiles pages, with over 50 Flip videos being uploaded every minute. ‘Flip Your Profile’ quickly turned from a last-ditch effort into the year’s biggest social media phenomenon.
Media Coverage: ‘Flip your Profile’ has engaged over 21 mil users worldwide and has been featured in over 500,000 Tweets, Facebook shares and blogs, including prestigious tech sites like Mashable, Contagious and Digital Buzz.
Social Media Snapshot:
• In 6 weeks more than 700,000 Facebook users flipped their videos and these videos were viewed over 5 million times a day;
• Brands, artistes, film makers and businesses have taken to it and engaged over 21 million users to date on social media.
The campaign took off strongly across Asia and is being adapted by the brand owners in the UK, Spain and USA, a testament of its success and an Asian-developed campaign that goes global.
Not forgetting the main aim of the campaign, to increase sales of the Cisco Flip Camera, a 15% increase in actual sales of the Flip Camera arised from this campaign in February 2011 – the campaign month.