In July 2012, SAPPHIRE Technology, a producer of graphics cards and mainboards, commissioned Sarota PR with launching and running the brand’s new YouTube channel.
Overview
In July 2012, SAPPHIRE Technology, a producer of graphics cards and mainboards, commissioned Sarota PR with launching and running the brand’s new YouTube channel.
Until launching the new channel, the only official SAPPHIRE’s space on YouTube was the company’s British PR department’s channel launched in 2009. The new channel was supposed to become a global and vital communication tool, and to be maintained in a regular and scheduled way.
This case study describes the steps taken towards launching the channel and running a promotional action that supported its official start.
Objective
The overall objective of the project was to launch a new audiovisual tool of direct communication for the SAPPHIRE brand in the form of YouTube channel. The channel was to serve as a medium for videos on products, technology and other fields of the company’s activity. The plan for the new channel was to become equal with the old one in the number of subscribers within 6 months.
The objective of the channel launching action was to gain as many subscribers as possible to create a base of brand community on YouTube.
Target group
The channel is generally targeted at men aged 16 to 45. The range covers English-speaking audience from all over the world. The audience are people interested in IT, and especially in hardware for PC computers – both domestic and professional users.
The target group of the channel launching action can be divided more specifically into two subgroups:
– customers and fans of SAPPHIRE connected with the brand through: its Facebook pages, internal online community of SAPPHIRE Select Club, the previous YouTube channel as well as the official website and forum;
– people not connected so far with any communication channel of SAPPHIRE: Facebook users, vertical IT and hardware industry portal readers, fans of companies and organizations cooperating with SAPPHIRE.
Communication strategy
The main principle of the launching action was to use all the communication channels available for SAPPHIRE during a 3-week campaign. Their simultaneous use was to ensure a synergy effect. Another strategic element was taking the advantage of SAPPHIRE’s major product launch combined with a contest in order to increase the action’s attractiveness.
Delivery
Arrangements and the channel launch:
The first step to complete the project was a review carried out to gain the knowledge that was essential for optimal launch and promotion of the new channel. The review covered a few areas:
– YouTube features
The desired type and layout of the channel was chosen. Graphical and text content was prepared to customize the channel. Relevant feature tests were conducted on a testing channel.
– YouTube channels of SAPPHIRE’s direct competition and other IT companies
Channels of other IT companies, from large and general ones, to SAPPHIRE’s direct competition, were reviewed. Analysis of data collected during the review helped describe the quality level and way of running their YouTube channels by IT companies as well as identify the position of competition in the service.
– SAPPHIRE’s previous YouTube channel
In order to launch the new channel, it was necessary to review the content and layout of the old one. The essential objective was to define areas that require improvement as well as videos to be moved to the new channel (it was decided that, starting from day one, the new channel should be filled with the most up-to-date and popular videos from the old one).
The new channel was created on www.youtube.com/SapphireTechnology. 34 videos were uploaded there, making the basis of channel’s content.
Launching action and promotion:
As determined, the campaign covered numerous communication channels:
– global media relations channel of the company
– channels of company partners (technology partners, company-sponsored and cooperating entities)
– the main company website
– global Facebook fan page with over 165 thousand fans
– local fan pages on Facebook (Americas, Italy, Brazil, Poland)
– newsletter of SAPPHIRE Select Club community
– official SAPPHIRE forum
– the previous YouTube channel
An opportunity to use all the above channels for promotion was the launch of new mini-PCs SAPPHIRE Edge VS. Thanks to that, the message about launching the new channel was added to attractive content related to a new, interesting product. The entire communication was enhanced with a contest in which one could win a mini-PC SAPPHIRE Edge VS.
The Facebook platform (with a dedicated contest app) was used to run the contest. The app was adapted also to run on mobile devices.
The key medium of information was a video distributed through all the channels. The Sarota PR agency prepared a detailed video screenplay, meeting the requirements of the promotional action. The video presented the features of the newly launched product and explained the conditions for entering the contest. The video used a YouTube feature enabling to insert buttons – one clickable, calling to subscribe to the new channel, and another one that moved a user to the contest app on Facebook.
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Information on the contest was also included in a product press release, distributed globally through local PR divisions of SAPPHIRE. When creating the video screenplay, it was determined that it should start from a message on product features, then switching to information on the contest. The goal of this approach was to enhance the chance of the video being published by the media. Information including the video was published in such web portals as www.kitguru.net, www.hexus.net, www.eteknix.com, www.tweaktown.com or Polish www.benchmark.pl and www.chip.pl.
On the main SAPPHIRE website, the video was placed in a special box where it could be conveniently displayed.
Graphical and text creation promoting the action was prepared and sent out to company partners, administrators of SAPPHIRE Select Club, official Web forum and SAPPHIRE’s local Facebook fan pages.
Also an ad campaign was run on Facebook where a post about the action was promoted and Sponsored Story ads were run.
During the action, reminding messages were published on the pages of SAPPHIRE partners, on the Facebook global fan page as well as in the SAPPHIRE Select Club newsletter.
Results
During 21 days of the promotional action, the new SAPPHIRE channel on YouTube achieved the following results:
7,111 subscribers (the previous channel gained 946 subscribers for almost 4 years)
31,538 video views
The video prepared for the promotional action gained:
24,155 views
97,48% likes
97 comments
Number of participants who entered the contest in SAPPHIRE’s Facebook fan page:
6,767 participants
On 14 December 2012, identified YouTube channels of SAPPHIRE’s direct competition (above all, AMD Radeon family card producers) had:
Gigabyte – 2,828 subscribers – 39.7% of the SAPPHIRE’s channel
MSI – 2,751 subscribers – 38.6% of the SAPPHIRE’s channel
XFX – 1,817 subscribers – 25.5% of the SAPPHIRE’s channel
Zotac – 788 subscribers – 11% of the SAPPHIRE’s channel
Club3D – 347 subscribers – 4.8% of the SAPPHIRE’s channel
PowerColor – 86 subscribers – 1.2% of the SAPPHIRE’s channel
The SAPPHIRE’s YouTube channel became the most subscribed one among channels of companies specializing in manufacturing AMD Radeon graphical cards and the second best when taking all the companies that produce graphical cards in general.
The target that was assumed to be reached in 6 months, was reached in 21 days, and what’s more—with 7.5-time excess. Expenditure for the campaign did not overcome 2000 USD.
We invite you to visit SAPPHIRE’s YouTube channel on www.youtube.com/SapphireTechnology