CASE STUDY

Verizon FiOS
The Ultimate Eye Candy

Overview

In the climate of a heated competition between Verizon’s new television services and cable providers, the company wanted to create a buzz through an engaging campaign that would spread virally via the Web, press and word of mouth. In order to do so, Winning Strategies proposed to capitalize on the zeitgeist of YouTube’s interactive components, allowing consumers to become a part of the campaign. The challenge was to create a Web site with enough intrinsic appeal to interest consumers and the press without revealing the corporate identity behind the effort.

By presenting the Ultimate Eye Candy online game show – a combination of "American Idol," "America’s Funniest Home Videos" and "Survivor" -- while keeping its own identity as a sponsor a secret, Verizon aimed to create a brand identity for the phrase "Ultimate Eye Candy" before drawing the connection to the Verizon name. Verizon also sought to reposition itself with the launch of its revolutionary new fiber optic services as more than a telecommunications company but as an entertainment provider.

The campaign was designed to take advantage of the trend of viral marketing, utilize the guerrilla tactics of street teams, and leverage celebrity presence to further the ‘buzz’ and appeal to a young, savvy audience in New Jersey.

Concept

The Winning Strategies team created the concept of Eye Candy Island to portray a place with all of the characteristics of FiOS TV -- beautiful pictures, bright colors and unlimited choices. Since "Eye Candy" means different things to each individual, Eye Candy Island was created to be a virtual oasis where all of these fantasies can come true.

The Ultimate Eye Candy concept aimed to provide addicting entertainment to keep viewers coming back for more and to encourage their friends to get involved by viewing, voting and even submitting their own videos.

Meanwhile, FiOS TV in itself, with its crystal clear picture, movie theater-quality sound and vast on-demand options, also provides addicting entertainment that early adopters will show off to their friends.

To highlight some of these features, The Ultimate Eye Candy obtained celebrity Stephenie LaGrossa from CBS’ hot TV show "Survivor" to be the host and spokesperson of what was described as an innovative, new kind of Web-based entertainment –a reality game show on the Web that married elements of popular TV shows: home-made videos, celebrity judges and viewer participation through voting.

In turn, the Web site of The Ultimate Eye Candy was created to dovetail with the actions of Street Teams, creating a contest and events that would draw visitors to the site again and again.

Web Site

Once the visitor registered on the site, they were able to view the videos of people describing their ultimate eye candy. They could vote for their favorites, see upcoming events where street teams would be appearing, and view prizes for which contestants were eligible: an HDTV for the video entrants and video iPods for anyone who registered on the site.

Adding to the edgy, funny qualities essential for a viral campaign, Stephenie and two other judges – à la "American Idol" -- responded comically to each "Candi-date." The other judges were Francesco Paladino, an actor from the New York stage, and Sabor, a Newark-based personality.

An ongoing tally on the Web site showed which "Candidates" were receiving the most votes. During the last day of the contest’s first round, two participants became embroiled in a "voting war," with the votes for each escalating as they encouraged their friends to keep voting for them. In a true example of viral marketing, on the last day there were more than 35,000 hits on the site, more than three times average traffic to date.

For six weeks leading up to the final revelation in February, Winning Strategies sponsored a series of Ultimate Eye Candy "casting calls" around the state, where street teams fanned out across shopping centers, train stations and other high-traffic areas, asking people to reveal what they believed to be their own "ultimate eye candy."

Some named a celebrity as their ultimate eye candy; others dreamed of flashy sports cars or a trip to a tropical island. Interviewees were encouraged to be as imaginative as possible: the sky is the limit on Eye Candy Island.

Pictures and footage from the street teams’ interviews were posted every few days on the Ultimateeyecandy.com Web site, where visitors were invited to vote for their favorite contestants.

To further spread the viral appeal of the campaign, the site allowed participants to submit their own videos about their own "Ultimate Eye Candy". By the end of the first five weeks, 11,186 visitors had visited the site, 920 had registered, and 300 videos were posted.

Success
The success of the Ultimate Eye Candy campaign has earned the Winning Strategies team two 2007 Summit Creative Awards:

*Gold Award –for Word of the Mouth Marketing

*Silver Award –for Viral Marketing

A well-respected international competition, the Summit Creative Awards acknowledges those who have represented exceptional merit in marketing creativity. "Ultimate Eye Candy" scored among the very best in the midst of thousands of submissions from 23 countries.

The Future