Traditional media takes a back seat – 5 Seeds

by Andy Wright

Today I came across the campaign for 5 Seeds. A new cider launch by Lion Nathan under the ‘Extra Dry’ banner. The campaign is unique in that the communication plan centres around engaging consumers through Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. A bold move by a company renowned for big advertising campaigns with significant production budgets.

The campaign focuses on a dark world where humans are feral, living beneath tall trees scrabbling for food / apples, and birds rule. Eve has also fallen into this world as she reached for the forbidden fruit, the apple that Toohey’s got to first.

It’s fun, engaging and entertaining. My start point was a link to YouTube passed via email. The first tick – a recommendation from a friend. The YouTube execution uses a ‘choose your own adventure’ strategy that allows me to choose what the feral should do in his quest for the apple. A bit like the fantasy role-playing books I read when I was a kid.

After navigating my way through the forest I was directed to a Facebook page.

Here I found more interaction through a ‘Feed the feral’ game, a TV ad and an invitation to tweet about the birds vs humans concept via Twitter. I

also discovered the influencer campaign via Twitter. Big apples were hidden around Sydney with clues to their hiding place posted via Twitter and Facebook. Those who found them were displayed via Twitter and the Facebook wall and subsequently entered into a prizedraw.

The integration of the various social media channels is clever, well thought out and ultimately, impressive. No matter which point you enter the campaign at, you can quickly find out more thanks to the consistency of information available and the path you’re directed to take. The use of TV to create some old fashioned awareness is good and the production values of the creative is a breath of fresh air for social media. Although I’m sure this has bigger things destined for it. However, there are some fundamental elements that I believe have been ignored.

1. Product information
2. Broader engagement
3. Sales

Product information

This is a big issue for me. One of the real barriers to social media for brand marketers (and CFO’s looking at the ROI of every single cent) at present is accountability. At no point did I have the product explained to me. In fact, it took me a while to work out it was cider. (A product that I’ve believed is overdue a serious launch in Australia given its thirst quenching qualities and popularity during the English summer).

There were no links to a product information page. I applaud the dismissal of a predictable microsite, but given the level of engagement I would have expected to find out more about the product they wanted me to buy. It wasn’t until I  found the Lion Nathan site that I uncovered a very limited amount of information regarding alcohol content and size. No reference to taste, optimium temperature or drinking occasions. A real lost opportunity.

Broader engagement

Let’s look at the actual engagement with the campaign so far:

Twitter – 214 followers – 49 mentions of 5Seeds in the last 2 days.

Facebook – 2,775 fans

YouTube – 740 views of the first video in the series, to 345 views of the last video of the series.

I would have hoped for more impressive numbers. Undoubtedly, included in here are all agency and client personnel and friends / family. However, as I’ve been writing this post, YouTube views have increased by 10%. It’s obviously just been blogged or Re-tweeted within a relatively influential network.

The drop-off between the first and last video is disappointing, although perhaps not surprising given the quite lengthy process and opportunities to choose the wrong option.

There are some other great thoughts and opinions on the creative and PR elements of the campaign on AWOL Monk’s blog.

Sales

As I said before, product information and a reason to buy was seriously lacking. I believe it’s reasonable for a brand to offer this information (without giving the hard sell) given the amount of time I had just invested in finding out more. Brands shouldn’t be scared to do this. See my previous post on examples and advice for tweeting brands. I would have appreciated a postcode / location search and a list of pubs, bars and bottleshops that stocked 5 Seeds.

Overall, this has led me to question the timing of a social media campaign. I’ve always bought into the early adopter, influential powers of social media, viral and word of mouth campaigns. Malcolm Gladwell playing a significant role in persuading me so.

However, I wonder if there’s an even better opportunity to use these powers of engagement later on in a launch to engage a broader audience. Consumer’s that are already aware of a brand or product and potentially eager to learn more. What would the numbers above look like? How many people would have scoured Sydney in the hunt for the apple?

What do you think?