Summary:
#HaveUFoundtruTV was a real-time brand awareness effort that anticipated, then capitalized on a specific cultural moment. It was built upon a single Promoted Trend, Promoted Tweets, custom content, and an in-house creative team staffing a social media war room for 48 hours.
The opportunity:
Every March, sports fans searched for the schedule of games on four channels broadcasting March Madness. And every March, a deluge of Tweets expressed confusion regarding @truTV (which shares tournament broadcasting), ranging from those honestly clueless to smart alecks sniping about the network's perceived obscurity.
The strategy:
@truTV created a self-aware campaign for a pre-emptive strike against confusion and sarcasm. Starting on Selection Sunday, truTV would take control of the conversation via a seeded hashtag, custom content, real-time war room, and paid support – most notably timing a Promoted Trend (appearing at the top of Twitter's trends list for 24 hours) for maximum impact – while also an online channel finder (trutvishere.com) providing a sampling of new truTV shows.
The idea:
Create a social campaign that owned the "What is truTV?" conversation, which had been rife with snarky jokes and put downs in preceding years. This year, a self-aware brand voice and nimble responses, driven by a relevant hashtag, would transform negative sentiment into a Twitter win.
#HaveUFoundtruTV was strategically chosen (both for seeding and Promoted Trend) because it simultaneously anticipated and drove the commentary and served as a challenge to @truTV naysayers and newbies alike.
What We Did (Took Control): With help from our talent, we co-opted, responded and curated the conversation to show prospective viewers we were in on the joke. Beginning on Selection Sunday with content seeding, then followed by Promoted Trend, #HaveUFoundtruTV, a social war room of creatives, community managers, and marketers responded to thousands of real-time tweets. Incoming posts were assessed, then received appropriate replies (mixing pre canned and original content) – while providing a taste of the new truTV.
Based on history, we created 150+ canned responses to expected posts - including situational tweets, social cards and video featuring @truTV talent. The guiding principle: showcase truTV's voice (pride, cheekiness and self-deprecation) while pointing toward an active destination (truTVisHere.com) with Channel/Provider Finder and clips of new truTV programming – and whose url literally answered the question posed by #HaveUFoundtruTV.
The listening/response campaign started when schedules were announced on-air, priming conversations with #HaveUFoundtruTV. Two days later, the Promoted Trend hit and the @truTV marketing office was transformed into a social war room with 30+ writers, editors, graphic designers, and community managers - monitoring/revising/responding in real time to the thousands of tweets about March Madness on @truTV.
Beyond 64 MM impressions, the success of #HaveUFoundtruTV drove a change in perception (positive sentiment +545%), generated great PR (Variety, USA Today ,Yahoo! Sports), and most of all the was the admiration expressed by perhaps the toughest audience: Twitter users.
64.2MM Promoted Trend impressions (273MM Total impressions)
Reached 32.5MM Uniques
*545% increase in positive brand sentiment.
*48% increase Y-over-Y mentions.
Twitter named #HaveUfoundtruTV one of the best examples of real-time marketing, amplification and integration of paid / shared media.