Warc, 12 August 2013
NEW YORK: Virgin Mobile, the telecoms group, believes that
video app Vine offers the ideal opportunity to "flirt" with
consumers.
Ron Faris, Virgin Mobile's marketing director, suggested
that Vine, which is owned by Twitter, provided an entertaining and engaging way
to connect with internet users.
"It's flirting," he told NPR. "You're
flirting with your prospect and it's as transient as the passing bus that has
an ad for a summer blockbuster that captures your attention and then it
leaves."
Faris reported that the company's strategy for reaching its
target audience of young consumers is based around the "Virgin
Touch", based upon reaching them in small ways on a large number of
occasions.
"Vines, when you play them they auto repeat," he
says. "Having someone sit through a Vine three times to see the beat of
the message three times, that's frequency for us. That's worth something."
As members of Vine's user base are generally tech-savvy and
fall into the 15-30 year old demographic, the service is an especially
attractive one for Virgin Mobile.
"The more you're able to contribute to that community,
the more that community will learn to consider your products and services
especially if they've never heard of you before."
Virgin Mobile has partnered with Grape Story, a company
which connects popular "Viners" with brands, to gain access to some
of the most popular users of the site.
Allying with "Resident Viners", who make posts
from Virgin Mobile's account for a fixed time period, helped it gain 30,000
followers in just three weeks.
It has also run a competition, under the title
#happyaccidents, asking Vine members to submit videos showing how they get
distracted by their phone.
This effort was based on the same premise as Virgin Mobile's
latest TV campaign, and the best Vine videos are set to be included in its next
television commercial.
"Vine is no different than Twitter, is no different
from Facebook, is no different from Instagram. They're all water coolers,"
Faris said.
Data sourced from NPR/Harvard Business Review/Fast Company;
additional content by Warc staff
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