Hedgehog Hall of Fame: Launch Group - Llama’s Match Predictor

Company: Launch Group Campaign: Llama’s Match Predictor Category: Best Use of Video - South - Shortlisted Objectives To launch Tesco’s new range of Llama’s snacks, available in Tesco stores nationwide To develop a memorable creative which forged a link between the product mascot – a llama -  and the target demographic of 20 to 40 year old males Target Audience  • With the target audience as identified above, we focused campaign strategy on ‘occasions’ – particularly concentrating on occasions which bring men and snacks together, namely football. The emphasis was particularly on  the UEFA Champions League Final 2012 and Euro 2012 • Used the Llama’s YouTube channel as the hub for campaign activity • Executed a targeted all-channel™ PR strategy using media coverage (both online and offline) to direct attention to the Llama’s YouTube channel and drive traffic to llamasnacks.com Action • We used our own insight and intuition to think about when else sport and animals had combined to capture the imagination of the British public. What better way to showcase the personality of 'The Llama' (the character who voices the blog on the Llama's website) and the product itself (opinionated, bolshy, in your face) than by getting a llama to predict the results of forthcoming football matches? • However, we also knew that the meme of match predicting animals would be big during Euro 2012, so it would be important to get a headstart on competitors by having a llama predict the result of the UEFA Champions League final 2012 which was three weeks before Euro 2012. With less than two weeks until the final, the team at Launch had a lot to turn around in a short space of time - scripts, video production crew, voiceover were all sorted quickly, as was buy in from Ashdown Llama Park in Sussex. On the day of the filming, a number of llamas were auditioned for the starring role, but there was only one candidate to be our mystic llama - star of the product's packaging, Nicholas the llama • As there was an English team in the Champions League final, we knew that interest in the final video would be increased if Nicholas picked Chelsea to win. However, we also knew that our opinionated llama character would always take the more controversial route, so it was no surprise when Nicholas picked Chelsea to win (by knocking a coloured ball off a stand) • The filming took place in one day (three additional films were made of Nicholas predicting the results of England's Euro 2012 campaign), and edits, voiceovers and approvals were all completed in under a week. The final cut of the video went live on YouTube on the Tuesday before the final (Saturday) with a soft launch. Media were made aware of the story of Nicholas the match predicting llama on Wednesday, and coverage started to roll in from then. The Evening Standard, Daily Mirror, Metro, a host of football blogs - everyone wanted to write about Nicholas, and importantly everyone featured the video in the coverage, which fuelled views on YouTube and conversations online • By the day before the Champions League final, Nicholas was everywhere: Moira Stuart mentioned him on the Chris Evans show on BBC Radio Two, both BBC Sport and Guardian Football included references to him in their rolling Champions League live blogs. We even had a tweet from YouTube to its 12,500,000 followers and recommended our clip as one of their videos of the week • When the Champions League final kicked off, the video had 180,000 views. When Chelsea eventually won, users flocked to YouTube and Twitter to praise Nicholas and his psychic abilities. The fact that Nicholas was right only served to cement his place as a true cultural phenomenon - comedians worked him into their standup routines on Channel 4's Stand Up For The Week and we received media enquiries from as far afield as Beijing Nicholas's predictions for Euro 2012 secured coverage for Llama's in The Sun and The Times, and ensured that the psychic llama was first to be mentioned alongside the (predicted) slough of psychic animals - pigs, elephants, dogs - that appeared across European media Results • The original video of Nicholas’ Champions League Final prediction received 200,000 views in five days • The video was responsible for a 1000% increase in traffic to the Llama’s website during May 2012 • 67 pieces of online coverage including: BBC.co.uk, The Guardian, Metro, The Evening Standard, MSN and Yahoo News • 94 pieces of offline coverage including: 14 nationals including The Sun, The Times, The Daily Mirror, The Sunday Mirror and The i • 9 pieces of broadcast coverage including BBC Radio 2 (Chris Evans), Sky Sports News, Channel 4, ITV Meridian, BBC Southeast, Talksport and BBC Radio Oxford • Total audience reached was 137 million • YouTube tweeted the video to its 12,500,000 followers worldwide The PRmoment Golden Hedgehog Awards 2014 are now open for entries. Here are this years updated categories.