Company: MediaCom, New York, NY
Company Description: Part of the WPP Group, MediaCom is one of the largest media planning and buying agencies in the world. Billing nearly $25 billion USD a year globally, MediaCom boasts over 4,500 employees across 89 countries and in 111 offices. MediaCom provides clients with business-building media communications strategies for some of the world's biggest and best known global brand names.
Nomination Category: Marketing Campaign Categories - Specialty
Nomination Sub Category: Mobile Marketing Campaign of the Year

Nomination Title: Mobile Strikes Back

Tell the story of this nominated marketing campaign for the judges (up to 500 words). Describe the genesis, planning, execution, and results to date of your campaign. If applicable, remember to describe what's unique or innovative about your campaign:

In 2011, Volkswagen’s “Mini Vader” TV spot was the must-see commercial of the Super Bowl.

It was strong enough that we seeded it online way ahead of the Super Bowl. We drove momentum through mobile, search and social, and we captured the data that was vital for our targeted remarketing that turned the buzz into sales floor action. We turned the message from an adorable kid in a Darth Vader costume to real call-to-action messages.

However, Super Bowl winners rarely repeat. In 2012, we had to do it again – this time, with the majority of advertisers copying our strategy.

Our challenge: provide mobile and tablet support for our Super Bowl campaign that would run before, during and after game day.

We developed an aggressive mobile search campaign around VW’s Super Bowl spot to not only match our blockbuster results from 2011, but exceed them.

Our campaign included mobile search, contextual and voice search, and we started early, lending support around a teaser video. Rather than directing people to YouTube, all of our efforts drove directly to VW’s mobile-optimized website, providing an enhanced viewing experience on a mobile device or tablet.

Next, we continued to spread interest and increase traffic via major paid channels, including Google, Bing, Marchex Voice and Kontera. We bid and secured terms that were both specific to VW and more general to the Super Bowl. We also worked with ad networks like Kontera to secure in-text terms like “Super Bowl,” “vehicle” and “new car” – effectively blocking our competition from these terms.

We aggressively conquested competitors’ search terms, but the real challenge came as we defended our own. Not only did other automobile brands bid on VW terms, but so did brands like Sketchers, Old Spice and Doritos. However, we were constantly monitoring in real-time and adapting relevant keywords and ad copy to defend against rapid competition at all stages of the campaign.

We knew that during the game, people were especially active on their phones and mobile devices – texting, Tweeting and searching – so we ramped up all our efforts on Super Bowl Sunday. We were one of the first advertisers to use voice search, and consumers searching for related terms were greeted with an audio version of the VW Super Bowl ad with the opportunity to learn more about VW.

We also knew that many people were ordering food – especially pizza – during the game, so we secured “pizza”-related terms, with VW sponsoring free Skype calls for consumers to pizzerias.

By providing consumers with an easy mobile search experience, we drove phenomenal results:

• 31.9% of YouTube commercial viewings came from mobile traffic
• Clicks increased 14% from 2011 to 2012
• Impressions increased 80% from 2011 to 2012
• We generated a 1,745% lift in clicks on game day versus pre-launch
• Over 700,000 callers heard our voice ad on Super Bowl day

Most importantly, VW saw its sales soar 42% year-over-year in February – the carmaker’s best February for sales since 1973.

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Provide a brief biography of the leader of the team that planned and executed this marketing campaign (up to 100 words):

Ryan Mocan is Senior Search Director at MediaCom. His job is to make sure that companies target the right audience to drive qualified traffic to their website as well as increasing their online ROI with SEM strategies including SEO, PPC, social media, local search optimization and web analytics. He has eight years of SEM/SEO experience and holds a double MBA in online marketing and management information systems.

His work has received numerous accolades, including being awarded an OMMA Award, an IAB MIXX Award, a Direct Marketing Association ECHO Award, and two American Business Awards.