Best Use of Social Marketing in a Promotion Campaign
Agency: CP+B & Digitas
Campaign: Small Business Saturday
Client: American Express OPEN
American Express wanted to do something for small businesses during the busiest shopping period of the year – the fourth quarter holiday season. They decided to focus on the Saturday after Black Friday and called it ‘Small Business Saturday’. The day was designed to spotlight small local businesses that often get overlooked on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Through Small Business Saturday, American Express hoped to change people’s shopping behavior to the benefit of the local community, while at the same time, getting them to shop with their American Express cards.
Small Business Saturday was scheduled for November 27, 2010. A Facebook page was used as the centerpoint of the campaign. Small business owners who signed up were provided with tools they could use to promote the day in their store and community, including $100 in free Facebook advertising, which 100,000 retailers across the country took advantage of.
Consumers signed on to show their support. Posts about the benefits of supporting small local businesses got thousands of Likes and helped fuel the buzz leading up to the big day. People also helped by tweeting about it, including AmEx endorser, Ellen DeGeneres. By its third week, more than 1.2 million people had joined the Small Business Saturday community.
Next, a TV spot hit the air with a rallying cry of “Shop small. It’s going to be huge.” And full-page ads ran in newspapers across the country, putting small businesses side-by-side with the big box retailers.
Nationwide, 41 mayors and governors across the country officially declared November 27 “Small Business Saturday.” More than 2,500 articles were published, everywhere from the local nightly news to The Wall Street Journal.
Most importantly, people shopped. In a year when holiday sales increased less than 4%, sales that weekend jumped 9%, while sales at small retailers from people who used their American Express cards increased 28%.
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