CASE STUDY: Intel and making an invisible product visible

Background
Creating maximum visibility for a product that is effectively invisible presents a major creative challenge. In July, Intel launched a new range of ultra-low-voltage processors that enable PC brands to build ultra-thin notebooks offering long battery life and sophisticated processing capabilities in an easily portable form. With a depressed market and tight budget, Intel needed to demonstrate these lifestyle benefits more than ever. But how? Enter 10 of Singapore’s most famous bloggers. Replacing the dummies in the shop window of one of the city’s largest department stores, they prepared to embark on a live 24-hour, non-stop, Intel-powered ‘Blogathon’.

Aim
The initiative had three main goals: to create maximum visibility for the slimline notebooks fitted with Intel’s range of ultra-low-voltage processors; to bring the chip to life for consumers by making it relevant to their lifestyles; and to educate them on the performance of the Intel Core 2 Solo chip.

Execution
To get things moving, Lenovo was invited to provide the laptops. Singaporean fashion brand TANGS was selected to sponsor the venue and dress the bloggers, due to its heritage, reputation in the fashion industry and eye-catching shop front design.

Meanwhile, an intensive influencer audit was conducted to identify relevant, influential bloggers to participate in the event. An equal percentage of both ‘tech geeks’ and ‘fashionistas’ were engaged with a view to expanding brand equity between both groups.

To generate interest prior to the main event, a reality-TV-style video aired on YouTube four days before the launch. It also served as material for the participants to include in their blogs. The video revealed the bloggers’ initial thoughts about the challenge alongside a sneak preview of their makeover experience at TANGS.

A Flash-based microsite with blog aggregator was created to inspire the bloggers to create content over the 24-hour period. A tracking system was then deployed on the microsite to ensure precise measurements usually unattainable in a blogger engagement programme (such as measuring the time spent per visitor on average per blog post).

To maintain a high level of interest during the event, attract on-ground traffic, and maintain a constant level of dialogue, real-time Twitter conversations were aired on LCD TV screens placed in each window display; a product demonstration booth allowed shoppers to try out the Lenovo laptops used by the bloggers; and trained product specialists from Lenovo provided on-site education on the laptops and the capabilities of Intel’s Core 2 Solo processor.

After the event, a video summarising the highlights was posted on YouTube.

Results
Aggregating the live blogs was a challenge, since bloggers use a variety of platforms. Ogilvy was responsible for the live integration of the visual capabilities of Flash with the functionality of Wordpress’ content management system. Without the need to construct a new content management system for the microsite, the agency helped increase cost effectiveness.

In terms of reach, a total of 3,705 people from 34 markets visited the microsite in five days; 88 per cent were from Singapore. The site helped build an organic database, with 353 votes cast on-site.

With no prizes or activities created on the site to incentivise visitors, bloggers were challenged to create more engaging content than their rivals and to read and comment on posts. This resulted in 42,372 page-views in five days, averaging about 11.44 page-views per person; each visitor spent on average 12:04 minutes on the site, the equivalent of 24 30-second TV commercials watched consecutively in the same time period; the bounce rate was low at 32.42 per cent. Only three out of 10 visitors dropped out in under a minute, while around 10 per cent of visitors (300) viewed 20 pages or more.

The initiative drew 3,958 unique visitors. A total of 140 blog posts were generated in 24 hours, averaging 5.8 blog posts per hour; 817 comments were posted in 24 hours, averaging 34 per hour. It was covered across eight news platforms, 51 external blogs, and a leading design portal, notcot.org.

“The event definitely generated a lot of buzz online,” commented Elvin Ong, regional mobility PR manager, Intel Technology Asia. “Both the presence of the bloggers and the new products at TANGS increased brand visibility and awareness of Intel and Lenovo, and, of course, increased store traffic at TANGS.”

Credits
Client: Intel Technology Asia
Agency: Ogilvy 360º Digital Influence, Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide
Project: Intel Blogathon 2009
People: Pat Law, Tania Chew, Brian Koh, Martina Schulze-Warnecke, Kun (Make Studios), Gillian Tan (Munkysuperstar Pictures)
Duration: 17 July-18 July