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Saatchi's Summer Scholarships Inspires Facebook Groups
Get Your Own Lego Man. Free. Secret London... Sound familiar? Chances are you or someone you know has joined one or both of these Facebook Groups in the last couple of weeks. But what connects the two?
The acid test of any advertising campaign is to ask: would you join a Facebook group to support this cause or show your affilitiaition to this brand? Coca-Cola, Pampers and Starbucks have all pulled it off, gathering thousands of virtual fans in the process.
And how better for an agency to check which of the potential applicants to grad schemes or summer schemes has their finger on the popular pulse than to set the challenge of launching a group on Facebook, with the creators of the group that gathers the most members winning a coveted place.
This was just the line that Saatchi & Saatchi London took to fill the ten placements in its coveted Summer Scholarship Scheme. The inititaitve which launched in January has spawned over 870 Facebook groups, amassing hundreds of thousands of members.
Your Own Lego Man. Free. Leads the field with almost 240,000 members to date, while Secret London's creator (188,000 members) is on the verge of launching her own start-up thanks to the group's popularity.
Michael Rebelo, Saatchi & Saatchi London's managing director, explains: 'Social media is by no means new news in our business, so the challenge we have set is to see how original and entrepreneurial the grads can be with Facebook. It is a fresh litmus test to see if they have what we want.' And, judging by the campaign's success, the answer is a resounding 'yes'.
