göt2b – beach trippin’

Challenge

Our client, göt2b, asked Sandbox to create an opportunity to help them launch an all new sea salt infused hair waving spray called beach trippin’. The packaging and print ads were Mermaid themed and that should set the tone for the activation. The largest challenge for this is that there was a limited budget that would preclude us from participating in existing events that featured a built in foot traffic flow. In addition, göt2b did not have any sample size products available for distribution. This meant that we were limited to full size product distribution. The client was looking for distribution of 7,500 products to key taste-makers. This was a “whale” of a challenge, but Sandbox brings vast “oceans” of experience to the table.

Solution

Without specific events to tie into, this campaign would need to be guerrilla in nature. The activation would also have to focus on the coastal regions, because mermaids are always spotted near the ocean, correct? Mermaids are the visual touch point surrounding the göt2b beach trippin’ product, so the ideation phase began with the client. Since we never do normal, it made perfect sense to create actual mermaids that could act as your brand ambassador, as well as create a social media photo moment. The Kodak moment is now known as the facebook moment.

This activation needed to be mobile, so Sandbox proposed building a mobile brand activation that could safely activate near beaches and boardwalk environments where you have a large population base in the heart of summer. This mobile activation would consist of a 4 wheel cargo bicycle that featured a thematic custom foam sculpted chair. This would support our Mermaid and her tail. In the rear of this 4 wheeled bicycle beauty, we mounted a storage box that would allow our team to carry enough samples without having to restock quickly. Our lovely Mermaid would be accompanied by our handsome male brand ambassador for even more female draw. A “Mer-Man”, if you will. He would also be tasked with pedaling this mobile activation. Good thing we gave him a multi-speed bike.

Our Mermaid and Mer-Man would engage consumers in high traffic beach locations like Jones Beach, Coney Island, Six Flags NJ, Asbury Park and Times Square in the northeast. We would also visit the shores of Lake Michigan in Chicago during the Air & Sea show that sees over a million consumers attend the event. On the West Coast, we would hit key locations in the LA, Orange County and San Diego Markets. In Los Angeles, we visited Santa Monica, Venice Beach, Redondo Beach and Hermosa Beach. We also made a special trip to Long Beach for the Red Bull Flugtag event, which had a great built in audience. In Orange County, we hit the beaches hard in Huntington and Newport Beach. Lastly, in San Diego, we were sharing the Mermaid love at Ocean Beach, La Jolla and Pacific Beach.

Consumers were ecstatic to see a Mermaid in their presence. Most were genuinely surprised and this was our brand conversation starter. Sandbox custom built each of the elements, including the Mermaid tails and sea shell bras (in different sizes, of course). Even our Mer-Man shirts were handmade by the Sandbox crew to match the beach tripppin’ product colors. People absolutely loved the presentation and were very willing to take a picture with our Mermaid and share on their social media channels. The opportunity was so unique that the value proposition was easy. Our team also asked consumers to LIKE the göt2b Facebook page and follow göt2b on Twitter and Instagram. All posts were tagged with #beachtrippin so that we could track shares.

Once consumers shared their photos on all of their social media channels, and spent their social currency with our team, they were given a full size göt2b product for their efforts. Although many would tell you that is wasn’t really an effort. This program was highly successful and created a huge social media footprint. Talk to one, but speak to thousands. This program did just that.

Results

• Over 4 million brand impressions for the Mermaid beach trippin’ program
• 7,051 Full size beach trippin’ samples distributed
• 6,383 new Facebook likes over the 25 day campaign
• 3.9 million social media brand impressions on Facebook
• 147,312 social media brand impressions on Instagram
• 10,017 social media brand impressions on Twitter
• 2,000 göt2b branded premiums

Success Elements