Lesson from Leggo's Personalised Love Songs

Earlier this year we launched Leggo's into the social media arena with a hugely successful campaign called "Personalised Love Songs". The idea was to allow Leggo's fans to request personalised love songs they could share with their special someone on Valentine's Day. The Facebook activity was a logical extension of the broader 'Pasta Loves Leggo's campaign and worked as follows:

People were directed to the page, liked the brand, and then answered a couple of simple questions about their lover and their relationship. The form took less than a minute to complete and the teaser video, featuring the now (slightly more) famous Leggo's crooner ensured people knew what they were in for.

On Valentine's Day, everyone who entered received an email directing them to their personalised love song, presented as a YouTube video they could email, Facebook share or tweet to others. The five best entries received completely bespoke songs that were longer, more personal and included specific names, dates, events and 'in jokes' for the lucky couple.

As a 'launch' campaign, the objectives set were around community development and engagement. The initial target of 5,000 fans was smashed within a week of launch, and by the time Valentine's Day rolled around the community was up over 12,000. Thousands of personalised love songs were delivered on the day giving rise to a swell of positive sentiment on Facebook and Twitter. Engagement levels have remained strong since, providing an excellent foundation for Leggo's ongoing social activities.

For a campaign to perform so well there are obviously a number of things that need to line up. When reflecting on the campaign, there were three things in particular that made a huge difference to the overall success. These were:

1. An inherently social idea

There's a reason Facebook is called a social network - it's a place where people create and share content with friends and family. Most competition mechanics are personal and only relate to the individual who's entering; "Tell us in 25 words or less...", "Complete this survey" or "SMS this number".

The very nature of 'Love Songs' required people to share the content in order to get the benefit. What's the point in making a love song for yourself? In addition to the avalanche of entries, the post campaign reporting showed us that on average, each video we sent was viewed, in its entirety, by the recipient as well as two other people. Now that's social at work!

2. A 'money can't buy' incentive

The easiest things to give away are product and cash. There's no question they work well from a volume of entries perspective, but they don't do much for brand building or consumer engagement.

Leggo's is all about the passion and romance of Italian cooking, so securing the services of a charming, handsome crooner to write and record love songs for Valentine's Day was a perfect fit.

It took a little (read: a lot) more effort than writing a giant novelty cheque but the fit, sentiment and talkabaility around the brand made it well worthwhile. Creating a scalable incentive that let all entrants 'win' was also a nice addition.

3. Agencies working in sync

To be successful, any campaign like this requires the involvement of multiple agencies, and there's no way it can work if they're not truly collaborating. The technology is too new, the opportunity too great and the stakes too high for any one organisation to pretend they can do it all alone.

The client has a huge role to play here as they set the rules of engagement. The Leggo's brand team did an exceptional job getting the traditional, digital and media agencies involved at the outset, creating an environment where everybody could contribute their expertise and take the idea from strength to strength.

With Love Songs behind us, we're all busy working on engagement strategies for the community that continues to grow, all while planning the next big campaign for later in the year.

Dan Monheit is the Director of Strategy at Hard Hat Digital, an agency specialising in creating brand experiences through the digital channel. He can be contacted on Daniel@hhd.com.au