The telecommunications industry has become an immensely competitive market, with top companies fighting for market share wherever and however they can. Using strategic research, Verizon identified Hispanic millennials as a significant growth opportunity for the business, but they had one large obstacle to overcome: The Hispanic community did not see Verizon as a brand that connected to them culturally or was relevant to their lifestyle and interests. As Verizon’s agency, we had one major goal: change the way Hispanic millennials perceived the brand.
To shift perception and drive engagement with Verizon’s Hispanic audience, we identified the intersection of their passion for music and social to authentically incorporate into Verizon’s brand. We leveraged data and social listening to identify top creators with a substantial Hispanic community following and created custom content to speak directly to Verizon’s ideal Hispanic consumer.
In Verizon’s FIRST Hispanic influencer partnership, we leveraged a mix of mega and micro influencers to provide a swell of social coverage and drive awareness of “MORE access” to customized music events happening in their communities, built and produced by the Verizon and iHeart partnership.
Through an always-on approach, we created 300+ assets across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube, with 14 influencers across four markets to ensure we had sustaining activity throughout the year. To capitalize on targeting both Verizon prospects and current customers, we amplified content with a robust paid social strategy to extend reach and convert perspective new customers.
We partnered with influencer expert partner WHOSAY, whose robust influencer network allowed us to select one mega (like Jessica Marie Garcia in LA) and two micro influencers (like Tony Succar in Miami) native to each local market.
Influencers created social content before, during and after each custom music event in market. This organic content was then dark-posted to reach a broader HA18–34 audience beyond each influencer’s following:
Since we turned on the campaign, social engagement (4.4MM+) and video views (3.2MM+) have over-delivered by 301%. We have also seen a +13% lift in brand affinity in both Dallas and LA on completion of their respective music events.
Campaign sentiment was so positive, fans jumped to comment in real time on the talent’s association with Verizon:
“That sounds AMAZING! Can’t believe you met @Bazzi! I def want to go to the next concert J I’ll make sure to follow @Verizon for updates!”
“Verizon es lo mejor en telefonía móvil de punta además de sus servicios y terminals de alt agama y tecnología actual @littleviejo” (Translation: Verizon is the best mobile telephone company that I can think of and even more their service has high coverage @littleviejo)
Influencers enjoyed the experience of being “ambassadors” for the brand so much that they even attended other Verizon Up events and engaged with Verizon on social! A true “I switched to Verizon” story that came to life!
On top of lifts in brand sentiment and overall engagement, we saw increases in sales lift directly attributed to growth from the Hispanic audience in LA and Dallas: +4% lift in smartphone gross adds during campaign period vs. non-media markets, to be exact!
