CLIENT Skype

TITLE "Always Connected"

Target

Skype prospects among men, women and young professionals.

Challenge & Assignment

Skype is a global brand with growing levels of brand awareness in North America. Yet, compared to Skype’s stature in other areas of the world, the US could be considered an emerging market. Tasked with developing an online campaign aimed at increasing awareness and relevance among the U.S. prospect base, Swirl had to find ways to help this disruptive communications brand effectively compete in a crowded telecom/communication category. Simultaneously, the campaign needed to motivate trial among those new to Skype who are generally content with their current communications technologies.

Specifically, the goals for this campaign were to:

• Raise awareness of Skype and the propensity for consumers to download.
• Achieve 10% lift NA brand awareness (aided/unaided).

Strategy & Solution

After reviewing Skype’s extensive segmentation research, Swirl determined that the most profitable customer segments and subsequently that these segments had a lot in common. Swirl was able to extend those common characteristics to a new target audience: the "Always Connected". The "Always Connected" target is never far from a communication platform, has a preference for being highly communicative and has a distributed network of friends, family and co-workers with whom they converse and connect with in a variety of ways.

In order to achieve the objectives of this campaign, Swirl needed to present Skype and its benefits in a relevant and engaging manner. We focused on free face-to-face video calling as a key differentiator, and as a vehicle to demonstrate how Skype enriches people’s lives and relationships through rich, easy-to-use, high quality communications. Swirl determined that the most effective format for conveying the power of Skype’s video calling were short videos that actually showed two parties connecting "face-to-face". The campaign features a total of six rich media video vignettes aimed at different target segments: men, women, and young professionals. All six spots were shot on a single day at a single location, with production completed in just 2 weeks.

Results

• Met client goal for campaign of 10% lift NA brand awareness (aided/unaided).
• Achieved significant levels of ad recall with the exposed audiences. Exposed sample reported 60% higher recognition of the campaign than those of the control sample.
• Drove significant increases in message association critical to building and maintaining lifetime value. Includes association with free face-to-face video calling, offers great value and makes it easier way to stay in touch with family and friends.

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