Challenge
Sony Professional is a division of Sony that sells specialist camera equipment to freelance cameramen and videographers. This audience is a small, disparate group of individuals and as such there is very limited research and information about them. Consequently, attempts to target them have tended to default to straight-forward print ads in local trade press titles. But Sony was convinced there had to be a better way to target these individuals - a more effective, more efficient way to unite them around shared interests and engage them as a single, unified, like-minded community.
Insight
On the surface, research revealed the usual demographic statistics about an independent workforce, but Sony delved deeper and noticed that two things stuck out. Firstly, camerawork is still very much a passion for these people and, secondly, the solo nature of this work, coupled with erratic hours meant they suffered from a lack of community, creatively or professionally.
Its response was to plug this gap by creating a first-of-its-kind online professional creative community for freelance cameramen and videographers. The community hub, named ‘Extra.ordinary,’ would house tons of inspirational videos and engaging tutorials from creative professionals.
By way of example, one of the lead pieces of ‘Extra.ordinary’ content was a series of short-form video tutorials with acclaimed director Philip Bloom. In this series Bloom demonstrated a range of advanced techniques using the Sony NEX FS-100EK camcorder, offering practical tips on everything from capturing perfect slow motion to improving low-light shooting techniques.
Solution
Sony executed a 3-pronged recruitment campaign engineered to raise awareness of the ‘Extra.ordinary’ hub and drive community registrations:
1. Hyper-tactical display
As a base layer, it worked closely with local agency teams and category experts to identify tons of niche websites, zeroing in on its specialist audience with ‘Join NOW’ display ads. Specific creative executions invited its audience to register and submit their ‘Extra.Ordinary’ ideas for the chance to win an NEX FS-100EK camcorder.
2. Video content seeding via online influencers
Knowing that cameramen and videographers are especially passionate about film, it took a bunch of its ‘Extra.ordinary’ Philip Bloom video tutorials and seeded them out to its audience courtesy of top influential category bloggers and social media opinion leaders.
3. Laser-targeted display and pre-rolls
The brand leveraged its close relationship with Google to identify a range of super-smart targeting techniques to engage and convert its audience via video pre-rolls and rich-media display.
Results
Sony exceeded its registration target by 40%.
On YouTube the ‘Extra.ordinary’ video views topped 451,720 with an above average CTR of 20%.