Twitter Canada has published its first case study since it opened its doors last spring. The media company chose one of the most talked about campaigns of 2013, Visa Canada‘s extensive “Smallenfreuden” campaign, to highlight as its first Canadian success story.
The top line results of the campaign included 20,000 mentions for @VisaCA – representing five times the daily average – and 50 million Twitter impressions. On the day the campaign launched, the accounts saw its follower acquisition increase by a factor of seven – though it should be noted new followers would be up regardless, given that the company launched its handle specifically for the campaign.
During the campaign, Visa Canada also saw a lift in its credit usage, according to the study. The company increased its claimed share of payments by 30% during the campaign period.
Launched in May last year, “Smallenfreuden” began as a teaser campaign on OOH and digital focusing solely on the hashtag #smallenfreude. After revealing itself as the brand behind the campaign, Visa Canada launched a full-on integrated campaign, including TV spots, more OOH and a heavy PR and social push.
On Twitter, the brand purchased both promoted trends and promoted tweets. First it purchased #smallenfreuden as a promoted trend to coincide with the brand reveal, earning an engagement rate of 12% on average and helping to push awareness of the fictional word (meaning “to make a small purchase”) to 51% in just two months in Canada, according to Ipsos Omnibus.
Following the promoted trend, Visa Canada purchased a string of promoted tweets, putting distribution dollars behind its own tweets as well as those from popular athletes, like Steve Ott of the St. Louis Blues, bloggers and other influential consumers.
In the study, Martin Lainez, director of core credit marketing at Visa Canada, called the campaign a big success. “We drove awareness, advocacy and earned media that exceeded our expectations by far. As a brand, Visa Canada was able to introduce a word into the culture and create a very engaging experience that ultimately influenced ingrained consumer behavior,” he said.
Though it earned praise from Twitter Canada – and a place on Marketing‘s own Marketer of the Year shortlist – the campaign was divisive in the industry. Many Marketing readers felt the campaign missed its mark creatively, and more than half voted in a reader poll that while teaser campaigns are a good strategy, Visa’s execution was lacking.
