Social Campaigns + Partnerships
SOCIAL MEDIA EXPERIENCES AND CELEBRITY PARTNERSHIPS – MADE WITH RAZORFISH / RITZ
TL;DR
We worked with the Ritz Crackers corporate brand team to create buzz and engaging branded campaigns with pop-culture celebrity partnerships on Facebook.
RESPONSIBILITIES
Brand Leadership, Concept Development, Creative Direction, UX & Marketing Strategy, Copywriting, Creative Brainstorms, Photo/Video Shoot Direction, Partner Agency Collaboration, Development
CHANNELS
Social Media (Facebook), Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising
As a pioneering CPG brand in the world of social media, we embarked on a mission with Ritz to revitalize its online presence. Our objective was to infuse fresh energy into this iconic snack's digital persona, appealing to both loyal fans and newcomers. The goal was clear: remind everyone that Ritz is the ultimate snack for everyday family enjoyment and breathe new life into the brand's social media presence.
Over several years, we rolled out a series of dynamic campaigns and sweepstakes meticulously timed with Ritz's calendar and product launches. Our approach took an innovative turn, highlighting user-generated recipes and leveraging media coverage through strategic pop-culture partnerships to reignite Ritz fans' enthusiasm.
The outcomes spoke volumes: we expanded Ritz's fan base to an impressive 507k, with 46% attributed to our promotions. Page views and unique page views soared by 246% and 252%, respectively. During our promotional periods, we garnered a remarkable 1.65 million monthly earned media impressions, establishing Ritz as the ultimate family snack. It was a delectable journey well worth savoring.
PARTNERING WITH GLEE TO CREATE A ONE-OF-A-KIND KARAOKE EXPERIENCE
With our key single takeaway being, ‘Ritz brings me closer to the fun of Glee by offering cool one-of-a-kind experiences that I want to share with friends’, it was clear we needed to bring something interactive and to promote sharing among the Ritz community.
We set out to grow that fan base and spread the vibe that only Ritz invites its fans to enter the “Gleek Out with Ritz” Sweepstakes to win a trip to LA and meet the cast. In addition, it's only Ritz that lets fans create their own Singvite … a unique Glee-ful sing-along experience (to the then-trending pop hit “Just the way you are, amazing”) that can be shared our to their own friends (while inviting them to enter their own rendition)! All of this to help drive the brand and get consumers excited about Ritz as the perfect all-around snack, and an iconic proponent for fun.
We wanted to create a fun experience within which fans would not only want to create their own karaoke-style rendition of the pop hit song, but to also want to share and see what their friends could create as well. We provided customization that included fun visual costume “stamps,” stage scenes, and color treatments, allowing fans to be truly unique and fun while they record, customize, and share with their friends.
Program extensions also included high-impact media placements, including Glee-inspired engagement ads and a full page-takeover that accessed the users live web cam to include their own face amongst the Glee cast in a photo booth-style photostrip! This visual theme also played up nicely the show’s vibe and shareable quality that photostrips often invoke.
THE RITZ-GLEE SINGVITE RESULTS
It was a hugely successful campaign driven by fans of both RITZ and Glee. The sweepstakes garnered over 52K entries, added 187K fans and the total fan page views reached 5 million for the duration of the sweepstakes. Additional highlights included:
Only one post was published during the period as a direct driver to the application: generating ~220,000 newsfeed impressions.
Ritz Facebook page continued to see excellent growth during this period, largely through organic means with 19,811 a mix of non-Facebook media and organic referral as a result of fan interaction, followed by 1,120 User Suggestions and 343 through Facebook Ads.
Blogger outreach resulted in 19 earned placements, generating an estimated 1.2 million monthly earned impressions, largely due to key placements on highly trafficked sites we partnered with.
General publishing outside of this Glee promotion also saw a significant increase in engagement, with an average of around ~600 interactions per post during the period, as compared to around ~130 in the previous periods (an 362% increase in engagement).
Also, 24% of unique users that landed on the tab, clicked through to the canvas application (up from 13% in the previous period).
Of those visitors, 100% entered the sweepstakes while around 3% completed a Singvite.
In the final tally, the application saw more entries than unique visitors, suggesting that users entered more than once via multiple email addresses.
RITZ SUMMER BLOCK PARTY KICKOFF WITH WYCLEF JEAN
Gearing up for the summer snacking season, Ritz partnered with Wylcef Jean to bring their fans the ultimate summer block party. With the campaign hubbed exclusively on Facebook, we developed the sensory experience of a summer block party within the RITZ social community. Digital components included in-banner games, a RITZ-inspired Pandora playlist and an iPhone game app featuring the music of Mr. Jean called "Rock the Block."
We established industry-wide techniques for managing social media content, based on a thorough analysis of in-depth social mining, and provided fans with downloadable content that included coupons, MP3 music, recipes, and more.
TV SPOTS & PAGE TAKEOVERS DRIVE EYES AND BUYS
An integrated marketing mix across paid, earned and owned channels (broadcast, online, and offline) played an integral role in generating awareness around the Summer Block Party theme.
In addition to the digital outreach driving traffic to Ritz Facebook, the :30 tv spot and page takeover engagement ads intercepted consumers and helped to highlight the fun and get fans excited. This resulted in significant traffic through each of their engaging components on the Facebook fan page.
ROCKIN’ THE BLOCK APP STORE MOBILE GAMING WITH WYCLEF
This simple but addictive game of skill was branded Ritz in the Summer Block Party theme, and featured Wyclef Jean and his hit songs. Players would join Wyclef Jean and the Ritz Crackers Marching Band as they rock the block. Keeping up the beat by hitting as many Ritz notes as possible! Each time you successfully hit a RITZ note, you’ll earn points. The more Ritz notes you hit, the more points you earn, playing until the end of the song to unlock the next level.
Features of the app included compelling and fun game play, the original song, “17” (Marching Band Remix) and the classic hit song “Let’s Groove,” and the ability to share and post your scores to your Facebook news feed.
Our efforts yielded remarkable results, fueling substantial growth and engagement for the Ritz brand on social media. The fan base expanded to an impressive 507,000 followers, with 46% of this growth attributed directly to our promotions.
Page views also saw a substantial increase of 246%, reflecting heightened interest and engagement with the Ritz brand on social media. Unique page views surged by an impressive 252%.
Our promotions generated substantial earned media impressions, estimated at 1.65 million monthly, significantly increasing brand visibility and recognition.
These results underscore the success of our strategy and the effectiveness of our campaigns in capturing the target audience's attention. Through inspiring content, user-generated recipes, and a focus on trending media, we breathed new life into the Ritz brand, rekindling its iconic status as a staple for everyday family fun.