• ASOS
• AVG
• Baileys
• BBC
• bmibaby
• Cancer Research UK
• CWJobs
• Diageo
• EMI
• Hotel Chocolat
• Indesit Company
• Kenwood
• Marketing Week Live!
• Mirror Group
• NSPCC
• Powwownow
• PSP / Go View
• RSPCA
• Sanex
• Sony Europe
• Sony UK
• Ubisoft
• Videojug

How online advocacy repositioned Baileys as a drink for all occasions

Growing Facebook 280% and boosting engagement 300% to position Baileys as a drink for all occasions

Aims

immediate future's aim was to create a programme of relationship-building activity by providing information and content to key online influencers which would build anticipation in advance of the above-the-line marketing campaign.

Activities

We identified areas where Baileys could connect. These included online interest groups as diverse as food and drink, photography, marketing, and beauty.

Relationships were built with bloggers by offering them exclusive access to behind-the-scenes information, images and video. And we created bespoke packages of content for individual bloggers, always weaving in the key message that Baileys is a versatile drink to be enjoyed at anytime.

Bespoke content for key influencers
Beauty blog PrettyPrettyPretty, for example, was given additional information about how the Baileys' ‘lip look' was created. While Taillightsfade, a photography blog, was given insight into Rankin's work. As a result, each influencer felt they had unique information, and were able to convey their enthusiasm to their readers first hand.

In addition, we developed a relationship with the founder of one of the largest Baileys' fan pages on Facebook. This allowed fans to download wallpapers, ad campaign images, and video clips, as well as participate in online polls created by immediate future.

Results

By delivering relevant content to key influencers, we created buzz ahead of the new Baileys' campaign and ensured consumers understood the key brand message.

immediate future developed a network of more than 70 influencers in different interest clusters who in total published 102 articles about the ‘Listen To Your Lips' campaign between August and December 2008. This coverage led to over 3,000 blog mentions and more than 150,000 brand mentions referencing the campaign at launch.

On Facebook, immediate future grew fan numbers by 280% to 700,000 with engagement levels boosted by 300%. Critically, the online conversation was dominated by chat about new ways to drink Baileys, with just 8% of posts on Facebook talking about Baileys as an after-dinner drink.

The TV commercial appeared on 50 blogs and was viewed 100,000 times on YouTube alone. Overall, online sentiment towards the campaign was calculated to be 77% positive, based on an audit of 195 articles, reviews, user comments and direct feedback from 30 bloggers.

"As our first foray into driving online advocacy for Baileys, I am impressed by both the number of consumers we managed to reach with a relatively modest investment, and the quality of the interaction and messaging that was delivered."
James Payne, Global Communications Manager, Baileys