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MediaCom Search

ABA11 Winner / How to EnterCompany: MediaCom Search, 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 close to $18 billion USD a year globally, MediaCom boasts over 4,500 employees across 89 countries and in 116 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 Awards Campaign Categories - Specialty
Nomination Sub Category: Online Marketing Campaign of the Year

Nomination Title: Super Bowl Search Campaign

    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:

        For Volkswagen of America, 2011 is a crucial year with major launches paving the way for aggressive volume goals over the next five years. This included the new 2012 Passat and Beetle models to continue repositioning the value of the VW brand.

        We had striking creative—in the form of “The Force” and “Black Beetle”
commercials—and prime placement during the 2011 Super Bowl. But while the Super
Bowl ensured blockbuster reach, we knew we wanted to sustain interest through
an aggressive paid search campaign that provided the necessary channels for
interested viewers to become prospective buyers.

        Our overall marketing strategy included turning VW’s Super Bowl spots into
their own highly anticipated event. It was a risk—turning the traditional idea
of the “big reveal” during the Super Bowl upside down by purposely leaking our
creative one week prior to the game—but one we believed would pay off.

        The Volkswagen search campaign was specifically designed to drive awareness of
the new 2012 VW Passat and Beetle models by directing brand, generic and
competitive paid keyword traffic to “handraiser” information pages, which
included pre-game teaser pages and official promotional pages, such as
the “Inside the VW Academy” webseries that lived on YouTube.

        We also expanded visibility of the TV spots by paid means (paid search, social
and contextual), with the goal of leveraging the natural halo effect for the
brand to generate long-term interest in the new vehicles for the weeks
following the Super Bowl.

        The advanced techniques and tools used to generate more traffic included
multiple listings in paid search and Facebook campaigns to drive traffic to
different destinations; targeting long-tail competitive brand terms specific
to “Super Bowl” spots and promoted vehicle launches; the expansion of
distribution of the TV spots through Google Display Network, Vibrant Media and
the Blinkx network; owning football-related site placements like ESPN.com; and
the successful retargeting of all YouTube VW viewers across the Google Display
Network.

        The results were phenomenal. The two ads generated over 42 million YouTube
views, dwarfing competitors. More importantly, year-over-year VW February
retail sales were up by 32%, while record monthly sales for 2011 were recorded
in April, following the Super Bowl and Passat vehicle launch.

        Paid search results were equally stunning:
• Record “Web Search Interest” (since 2004) in the Volkswagen brand during,
after Super Bowl
• +1,232% increase in impressions on game day (2010 vs. 2011)
• +2,212% increase in clicks to vw.com on game day (2010 vs. 2011)
• +180% higher CTR (2010 vs. 2011)
• Paid search Super Bowl campaigns saw a 536% lift in clicks on Super Bowl
game day versus Pre-Launch (before January 31)

        For specific search campaigns:
• Beetle terms saw a 708% increase in clicks on Super Bowl day (Google/Bing
search campaign)
• Passat terms saw a 199% increase in clicks on Super Bowl day (Google/Bing
search campaign)
• VW core brand terms saw a 99% increase in clicks on Super Bowl day
(Google/Bing search campaign)
• YouTube Super Bowl campaigns saw a 229% lift on Super Bowl day versus Pre-
Launch

    List hyperlinks to any online work samples, videos, images, presentations, news stories, press releases, or other documents that support your case. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:

Screenshots:
https://extranet.mediacom.com/AWARDSSUBMISSIONS/Pages/vwstevies.aspx
Username: mediacomsubmissions@yahoo.com
Password: 498Seventh (case sensitive)
Always select "private computer"

"The Force": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R55e-uHQna0
"Black Beetle": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ulbjaKmKG0
DMNews article: http://www.dmnews.com/darwinian-chase-through-search-marketing/article/199249/
MediaPost article: http://www.mediapost.com/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=147973&nid=125393

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

        Mike Kujanek is a Group Search Director at WPP's MediaCom Interaction in New
York, NY. He is responsible for the top-level paid search relationships between
MediaCom and its automotive clients.

        As a group lead, Mike oversees Audi and Volkswagen paid search account teams,
providing thought leadership in strategic development and tactical execution to
achieve client goals. He also collaborates with media teams on bid-based
display platform strategies.