Part of our offering as a youth think tank/marketing consultancy is to study and harness the latest communication mediums to help our clients connect to their next gen constituents effectively. One of our most in demand offerings for Clients is what the industry has pegged as DIGITAL ENGAGEMENT. In terms of next generation marketing, digital engagement should now be considered an integral part of your marketing mix.
CultureLab views digital engagement as an ongoing manipulation of the virtual “toggle switch” between offline and online promotion/events + digital communications. Think of it simply as the leveraging of sales promotion, event engagement, social media content creation, and social media communication.
For the last 7 months our agency implemented and managed a digital engagement outreach initiative for EDS Credit Union (now InTouch Credit Union) called The Arrival Guide. Part of our strategy was to experiment with social media and to implement the process of digital engagement to build a stronger, more authentic connection to young adult members and potential members. Thus, we created thearrivalguide.com as our home base for digital engagement. Along with thearrivalguide.com microsite, we also created a Facebook page, and Twitter account all linked to thearrivalguide.com.
Digital Engagement has been a huge part of our successful Gen Y outreach and has resulted in growth of the ITCU membership base of almost 20% among 18-34 year olds. Our efforts have also helped garner a little notoriety for EDS Credit Union for being social media innovators in efforts to reach Gen Y. (Dallas Business Journal article)
Because of digital engagement, we have also been able to dramatically increase traffic to thearrivalguide.com. When our thearrivalguide.com sweepstakes launched on February 1st 2010, traffic increased on the site by 900%
Here are a few notable results from our effort
• The number of members under 35 have increased by almost 20% since the launch of thearrivalguide.com in August of 2009
• Google Analytics showed that after implementation of The Arrival Guide sweepstakes traffic to thearrivalguide.com increased by over 900%
• Branch managers of the Credit Union also reported increased traffic in branches from younger members due to thearrivalguide.com promotions
Discoveries
• Engagement has to be a two way interaction, one way (marketer to consumer) does not work for younger consumers
• Giving is marketing, you must consistently provide something of value to the consumer first before you can sell.
• The use of video embedded on the microsite helped with SEO and promoted viral embedding
• Twitter and Facebook were our most effective tools for broadcasting our promotions and broadcasting special offers
• Facebook and Flickr provide opportunities to reinforce the “fun” aspects of our marketing effort, younger consumers love sharing pictures.
• Content curation and continuous refreshing of content are key to maintaining interest in your social media properties-this is a time intensive process
• The use of social media alone should never substitute for an intergrated marketing effort-we used tv ads to help drive traffic to thearrivalguide.com
Because of digital engagement, we have also been able to dramatically increase traffic to thearrivalguide.com. When our thearrivalguide.com sweepstakes launched on February 1st 2010, traffic increased on the site by 900%
Here are a few notable results from our effort
• The number of members under 35 have increased by almost 20% since the launch of thearrivalguide.com in August of 2009
• Google Analytics showed that after implementation of The Arrival Guide sweepstakes traffic to thearrivalguide.com increased by over 900%
• Branch managers of the Credit Union also reported increased traffic in branches from younger members due to thearrivalguide.com promotions
Discoveries
• Engagement has to be a two way interaction, one way (marketer to consumer) does not work for younger consumers
• Giving is marketing, you must consistently provide something of value to the consumer first before you can sell.
• The use of video embedded on the microsite helped with SEO and promoted viral embedding
• Twitter and Facebook were our most effective tools for broadcasting our promotions and broadcasting special offers
• Facebook and Flickr provide opportunities to reinforce the “fun” aspects of our marketing effort, younger consumers love sharing pictures.
• Content curation and continuous refreshing of content are key to maintaining interest in your social media properties-this is a time intensive process
• The use of social media alone should never substitute for an intergrated marketing effort-we used tv ads to help drive traffic to thearrivalguide.com
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