CASE STUDY: LG mixes media to persuade Singaporeans to get sweet on Lollipop

Background

LG One was tasked to promote the LG Lollipop in Singapore, targeted at teenagers as well as parents looking to buy their kids' first phones. It was previously launched in Korea last year, where LG created a song titled Lollipop sung by popular Korean bands Big Bang and 2NE1. The bands already have their own cult following amongst teens in Singapore, thus the market already had prior knowledge of the phone.

Aim

With the most common online website frequented by their target segment being Facebook, it was only logical to focus some efforts in that area. However, this was to be married with traditional media outreach as well in order to optimise efforts in building brand awareness and increasing sales.

Execution

Rising search interest prior to the local launch on 22 January could be attributed to speculation and buzz on the Lollipop’s release in Singapore. The initial steep increase in search interest could be attributed to the distribution of the first press release. The LG Lollipop was subsequently made available at all telecom operators and authorised dealers in Singapore from 23 January, the date which coincides with the initial breakthrough peak in search interest for 'LG Lollipop'.

On 23 January, the LG team also rolled out two online contests, one to vote for the next LG Lollipop colour that might make it to Singapore, and the other allowing users to join a contest by designing their own ‘emoticons’ for the phone’s exterior LED cover. The contests ran until early February, helping to sustain and slow down the drop in online search which started in late January, after the initial peak.

To target the teenage consumers, LG also partnered with the organisers of the BoysLikeGirls Asia Tour 2010 held on 28 January at the newly-opened Resorts World Sentosa. As the official mobile phone partner for the concert, LG Mobile gave away 250 pairs of tickets to the first 250 customers who bought the LG Lollipop with StarHub. The success of these efforts is reflected by the highest peak in online search interest in late January.

In addition, the LG Lollipop team utilised traditional media, running commercials and contests on radio (987fm and JIA883FM) from 25 January to 27 February, and advertisements in 8 Days magazine during the week of Valentine's Day.

Additional print and outdoor advertisements ran from mid January. These efforts explain the slight increase in online search interest experienced in mid-February, during the week of Valentine's Day.

Results

Awareness of the brand was raised during this period of time, as reflected by the search interest results. This showed that LG One effectively managed to increase visibility of the brand enough to persuade a significant amount of people to start searching for more information on the phone online. An interesting point to note is this, LG released the LG Chocolate in November 2009. When search interest of the LG Chocolate was compared with the LG Lollipop, the latter took a commanding lead.

While the Chocolate was targeted towards the larger market of smartphone users, the Lollipop still managed to outshine it in terms of online search interest with its targeted, effective integration of offline and online marketing activities.

Credits

Project: LG Lollipop GD580 - Get Sweet on Lollipop.
Client: LG Electronics Singapore.
Product: LG Lollipop GD580 Mobile Phone.
Creative agency: Cubiz
Creative/ account director: Bee Ling
Web/ social media agency: Publicis Modem Singapore