Converse’s Domaination campaign creatively combines data from Google Zeitgeist with AdWords to create an interactive game that lives through the web. The campaign won a Gold Effie in 2009.
Anomoly, the agency behind the campaign, took a fresh look at Google as a window onto Converse’s audience. They started by identifying searches that the Converse audience were performing but that no brands were buying keywords on. They then created a series of paid search campaigns leading to various microsites, connecting with the audience in playful, informal ways.
The idea was to “create an entirely new use for Google Search, dubbed Domaination; a platform to dominate search marketing and destroy the perception of the microsite.”
Some highlights of the campaign have got to be the World’s first search engine spelling bee and the rather disturbing (but hilarious) kissingwithross.com!
I love this campaign for 3 reasons:
1. It’s an innovative way of using relatively mundane search data; turning a media-buy into a creative tool.
2. It recognises that search isn’t necessarily about brands and products but is incredibly human.
3. By its nature the campaign spend was purely focused on highly engaged users.
On a slim budget of $100,000, the campaign attracted over 600,000 unique visitors, more than double the goal, and beat the traditionally expected cost per visitor measure by 2600%.
I suppose the lesson is simple. We already know that you can track trends and peaks of interest where conversations are happening, but by acting on these observations (if you are quick enough) brands can become part of those conversations in an engaging and creative way.
