I was recently asked to comment on the Woolworths LoveBirds campaign and in a matter of a few minutes jotted down some notes on the campaign for Bizcommunity. Please take note that this was done in a rush, but I like it like that. Feel free to correct any inaccuracies which might appear in the text, or return the favour and send your thoughts to me in the form of a comment below.
With little insight into the strategic objectives of the campaign, be it to drive awareness of Woolworths’ social media properties, or to utilise social media as a channel in a broader Valentines campaign, to comment on the successes or the failures of the campaign would be rather difficult. I think that the way Woolworths handled Yuppiechef’s altruistic ambush, critique from the opinionated social media guru circles, and those questions relating to competition entrants using twitter for the first time must be commended.
The campaign which relied on retweeting as an entrance criteria and a way in which to bump one’s position up on a lover’s leaderboard lends itself to likelihood of individuals gaming the system and of course to the obvious complaint of a spamathon. The retweet mechanism for instance could be gamed by using a spam bot network to a) drive up retweets of the campaign in general (for the benefit of the campaign / agency / user) and b) to ensure one achieved a high score in the competition. I am not entirely sure if either tactic was employed but with a cursory follower assessment points to multiple accounts with 0 or 1 tweet, no bio submitted and rather bizarre sounding names. Digging deeper into the data might provide more compelling evidence, but suffice is to say that such a spam network bumping up stats on a campaign could have serious implications for social media agencies, and is therefore a cause for concern in future should other brands attempt a ‘retweet’ competition.
With what would appear was a focus on an interruption – the campaign served to disrupt the ebb and flow of my Twitter stream as the WooliesLoveBirds retweets would appear alongside organic conversation on Twitter – the campaign ran the risk of irking Woolworths’ core set of followers who followed Woolworths in order acquire information about the brand, hear of new retail offerings and generally reaffirm their status as part of the Woolworths tribe.
The WooliesLoveBirds campaign website was on the whole rather attractive, they toyed with a vintage look and feel, although some suggested it was visually anachronistic, featuring pastels and the lovebird motif. My only critique of the website is that it required one to register, instead the designers might have utilised Twitter’s authentication API, OAuth, and saved site users the trouble or re-registering.
The Yuppiechef ambush, were it not for a good cause would have been cavalier when one considers that there were real legal implications to the ambush, but as it’s just hit the R100,000 mark, the ambush reveals just how a great idea with charitable intentions can snowball quickly and effectively online. Woolworths’ response to the ambush was a true reflection that they’ve “got it”, for a large organisation to move as quickly as they did turning a red-faced moment into an act of goodwill shows a clear understanding of how engagement marketing works, it’s a matter of honour, trust and integrity, and Woolworths showed how a considered move can position them as philanthropic and caring. Perhaps without this ambush the campaign might not have gained as much traction as it did – particularly when one considers the media coverage on the ambush and the knock on effect for the campaign in totality.
