Campaign Summary

Elidor took its sponsorship of a popular TV show in Turkey to the next level with a mobile gaming integration. “Catch Pink If You Can” allowed Elidor’s target audience of 20-something women to play for the chance to win pink prizes featured on the show. The integration had strong engagement, helped increase the product line’s share of Elidor’s total sales, and became one of the most socially connected TV show campaigns in Turkey.

Strategy

Objective and Context:

Elidor is a haircare brand associated with style and fashion in Turkey. Although the company was already advertising its products through traditional channels, Elidor wanted to create an innovative campaign that could underline the fact that its Pink series helps girls become more stylish.

Target Audience:

Elidor wanted to connect with 20-something women. Its audience is “mobile-first,” and always has items of fashion on their wish lists. This audience turns to mobile as a second screen while viewing TV programs, often consuming content about what favorite characters are wearing or how they style their hair. Unfortunately for Elidor, this target audience also tends to fast forward or skip commercial breaks.

Creative Strategy:

Elidor was already the sponsor of the most popular show among its target demographic: Medcezir, a local adaptation of the U.S. television show The O.C. Elidor decided to benefit from the insight that Medcezir’s fans see the show’s actresses as influential style icons. The haircare company created a mobile gaming integration that allowed fans to win the pink outfits, pink hair straighteners, and other pink items that popular actresses were using on the show. All the pink products were selected by Elidor’s fashion stylist and inspired by the Elidor Pink series. Through this integration, Elidor planned to link all pink must-haves of the season to its product.

Execution

Overall Campaign Execution:

The overall Pink series campaign involved multiple channels, from in-store to out-of-home and print. The Medcezir sponsorship was a long-running marketing platform for the company, leveraged for this campaign as well as others.

Mobile Execution:

Elidor allocated approximately 20 percent of its Pink marketing budget to mobile for the Catch Pink If You Can integration. Audiences were told they could win the pink products their favorite TV characters were using through the mobile activation. Elidor turned one episode of the TV show into an interactive game where players could shake their phones to “catch” a pink product whenever one appeared on screen. The haircare company worked with the writers and producers of the show to make sure the Pink integrations felt organic to the story.

The game used a mobile site rather than an app for two reasons: the game would be accessible on all smartphone platforms, and it was easier to convince people to visit a URL than download an app. Modern browsers supported all the features the game needed (sensor, etc.), rendering an app unnecessary. Audiences were excited about catching the pink products — they took screenshots of the show’s pink integrations and shared them across social media.

Results (including context, evaluation, and market impact)

The campaign turned a 120-minute TV show into a commercial for Elidor. It reinforced Elidor’s place as an innovative brand while connecting the color pink with its Pink series. Results included:

• 285,378 people played the game by swinging their phones during the TV show.
• 82,776 people caught pink products.
• There were 50,600 live tweets revolving around how fun the game made the experience of watching a show.
• 4,200,000 people watched Elidor’s ad about learning how to play the game.
• Elidor received 634,669 clicks on its web banners.
• The TV series producers liked the idea and the interaction with its fans so much that they wanted Elidor to prepare a game for another episode.
• It became one of the most socially-connected TV show campaigns in Turkey.
• In the year before the campaign, the Pink series constituted 19.2 percent of total Elidor sales; with the campaign as a crucial part of the marketing mix, it increased to 20.8 percent of total sales the following year.