Energy customers are within contract for the majority of the year, leaving a very short, three-week window for Energia to actually attract and convert them. With such a small window for acquisition, we knew that we had to use as many data points as possible to pin-point users during this time!

Our solution had two key phases:

1. Collect an in-market audience. We defined in-market users as users whose behaviour showed they are currently looking at energy providers. 
2. Segment this in-market audience based on propensity to buy from Energia. We would then use the differing degrees of intent to inform how we would interact with each segment. 

• YOY sales increased by 226% for paid media channels (Combined Facebook, Display, PPC) with a decrease in spend of 19%
•  17% increase in qualified visits to the registration process.

MINI has always been positioned as exciting and stylish. In the Irish market, it had become a one model brand; an icon of the south-side girl. In a booming market, this iconic status was a good thing. However, as the market shifted and the brand diversified, legacy became stigma and it was beginning to impinge on growth.

In 2017 a new brand platform emerged from Germany. It centred on creativity and tasked MINI to challenge convention. Along with this very different positioning came a very different audience. The Irish market now needed to redirect and seek to attract ‘The Creative Class’; 25-35 year olds, who are original and creatively minded.

How could we credibly communicate a new creative message, to a new audience and bypass preconceptions which were years in the making? 

We developed a strategy to harness the authentic voice of others by allowing them to adopt a MINI. With our 'creative class' audience in mind, we matched the car personalities with individuals who were creative, local and niche. We coined these individuals “social creators” as they had authentic trades/crafts.

We then developed a social engagement platform, which allowed us to build out our strategy, entitled; #BehindEveryMINI.

Sales grew. MINI outperformed the market and was up by 19.1% YOY (Source: Q3, 2017, SIMI), the period directly after our campaign.

Overall, we achieved an average social engagement of 7% (benchmark of 1-3%). 2016 campaigns averaged a mere 2%.

Other success indicators: our campaign grew beyond Ireland, one of our social creators, Steve Simpson, was contacted to work with the International MINI Meet 2017. He travelled across Europe using illustrations to promote the trip through his Instagram account.

1. Launch ecommerce platform

Ecommerce would launch in this market in 2018. We needed to give IKEA a national platform and push advocacy of IKEA and its products, but we were limited by the creative assets available to us from the UK and Ireland brand campaign.

2. Change Perceptions

According to IKEA’s Brand Capital Report, there was a perception that IKEA furniture was not high quality and generally unstylish.

We needed to entwine ourselves in demonstrable examples of the IKEA range in situ. Examples where we could showcase the design team and the best of the product versatility. 
 

With Storylab, we approached Coco Productions and RTÉ about reviving a previously successful TV series; Desperate Houses.
Through early involvement, we would be able to feature IKEA in the editorial of the programme. This would ensure this was not just a sponsorship but a proper partnership with punchy product placements, subtly delivered. Additionally, in some episodes IKEA staff and design experts were cast and a visit to IKEA featured.  

We used social to drive conversation and closed the sales loop by targeting the in-show products within the social content. This drove visits to IKEA’s new ecommerce site, allowing people to “shop-the-episode” and us to measure all site traffic.

IKEA saw a 5% increase in sales in November. 
Products featured strongly in the programme (e.g. shelfing solutions) drove uplift in their respective categories; e.g. Kitchens +13%