Case Study: Guru Media Solutions and Call2Action - The Perfect Social Media Storm

Our partners at Guru Media wrote up this case study on our Spark campaign. It's a love fest.

Guru Media Solutions and Call2Action: The Perfect Social Media Storm

Background:

In the midst of a struggling economy, Bonds Make It Easy sought to help people save for their future by investing in savings bonds. Identifying the early part of the tax season as a critical decision-making opportunity for individuals receiving their tax refunds, Bonds Make It Easy wanted to conduct an awareness-driven campaign geared towards empowering people with the knowledge that they could easily, safely and effectively save their tax refunds by investing in US savings bonds—and do it directly from their tax form.

The Goals:

• Increase awareness for savings bonds at tax time

• Drive partner outreach to create and leverage strategic partnerships on digital and social media

Our Approach:

gms was tapped to engineer a viral marketing campaign centered on creating strategic partnerships for Bonds Make It Easy within the digital ecosystem to increase awareness about savings bonds. Looking to make BMIE’s content as sharable as possible during the key period before April 17th, we employed the Spark widget from Call2Action. The Spark widget centralizes branded content and action portals in one place to function as a portable online engagement and marketing tool specifically created for nonprofits.

Understanding that consumers, partners, funders and other potential supporters all need a reason to care —and more importantly a reason to care enough to share—was at the foundation of our approach to this campaign. We worked outwards from BMIE’s established relationships to ensure that we realized their full potential and provided tools and information for distribution and brand building. This customized approach to relationship building, which we believe yields a high return on investment, made the Spark widget the perfect partner tool for this awareness-driven initiative.

Most useful in strengthening relationships, raising awareness of key messaging to partner communities, and centralizing viral content, the Spark widget was easily and effectively shared with and posted on our partners’ Facebook walls, Tumblrs, blogs and websites.

The Result:

Since the Spark widget launched in January 2012, the widget has been viewed over 30,000 times and is a major tool in raising awareness about BMIE’s Tax Time Savings Bonds campaign. Utilizing the widget as a partner tool has allowed BMIE to be creative in their partner outreach and viral marketing messaging despite a limited budget. True to its name, the widget has “sparked” curiosity and interest in the campaign from BMIE’s partners and their communities, including ChooseToSave.org, a highly trafficked, influential site and a major referrer to BMIE’s site.  ChooseToSave.org has featured the widget on their home page since the beginning of the campaign and contributed to millions of impressions.  Other partners who featured the widget on their Facebook walls, Twitter messages and blogs include: America Saves, Military Saves, Catholic Charities Fort Worth, RaiseTexas.org, and Campaign for Working Families, among many others. The Spark is truly the hit of this year’s social media campaign for BMIE and their partners, as well as for guru media solutions.

More About The Widget:

The Call2Action widget displays up to 4 tabs that can be customized, edited and changed throughout the campaign. Strategically choosing the most appropriate content, gms chose to include:

-       Videos from BMIE’s YouTube channel

-       A partner feature linking to a site where users can directly file their taxes

-       Two different pledge campaigns, including one for America Saves Week (2/19-26), featured on a pledge tab with info capture boxes that allow users to fill in their pledge and contact info.

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guru is a nimble, creative, independent minded, digital marketing agency serving purpose-driven brands, organizations and campaigns. We specialize in growing digital businesses by connecting our clients with their customers across all digital platforms. It’s about focused research meeting smart engagement strategies and flawless execution. A mix of proven tactics and some good ole creativity.