AMERICAN EXPRESS
Awarded Digital and Social
Facebook Hub
Small Business Saturday was one of the first campaigns to make Facebook its central nervous system. Turnkey toolkits helped employers to build social media followers, customize signage, buy ads, and create offers. Consumers could link their AMEX card for offers, find participating stores, and share their enthusiasm.
Promotional Mailers
We sent these to businesses accepting AMEX cards. The pieces helped to raise awareness of the new campaign and gave business owners reasons to believe why their engagement was a smart move.
Storefront Activations
Following the promotional mailers, we sent sticker decals for their store fronts and invited them to visit the Facebook hub to create their social media presence.
Email Blasts
Along with direct mail, emails were sent out small business owners to get them excited and ready for the day.
About This Project
After the housing plunge, American Express wanted to help the economy, from the bottom up. The Shop Small movement provided tools and needed traffic to its small-business customers and gave incentives to cardholders to help strengthen the relationship between those mom-and-pop stores and their own customers.
The Good News
The campaign won every major award. Mostly because of the promotional work done. Barack Obama tweeted about it. And making it an official day was a (rare) bipartisan congressional resolution in 2012.
The Small Business Saturday Facebook community doubled to over 2.7 million fans. Over 500,000 small business owners leveraged the promotional tools we provided online and off to advocate for their business and spread the word about the big day
NOTE: While I can't take credit for the idea—we did not come up with it—my partner and I were the lead creatives for every promotional touchpoint: CRM, ECRM, FB site, promo tweets, FB posts, and all the promo videos. I also wrote the Twitter and FB turnkey content for small businesses. It allowed them to copy and paste my words onto their social media pages to easily promote their business. I'm happy to be listed on everything, but only the promo work and the FB awards were truly ours.
Campaign Awards:
Cannes Lions 2012:
Direct, Financial Product & Service: Grand Prix
Promo and Activation, Financial Product & Service: Grand Prix
Direct, Best Integrated Campaign Led by Direct Marketing: Silver
Promo & Activation, Best use of Social Media in a Promotional Campaign: Silver:
PR, Financial Services: Bronze
Best Digitally Led Integrated Campaign: Cyber Gold
Other Interactive Digital Solutions: Cyber Silver
Viral Marketing: Cyber Silver
Titanium and Integrated: Silver
Clio Awards 2012
Facebook Integrated Media Gold Award
Interactive Campaign Gold Award
Integrated Campaign Silver Award
2012 One Show
Gold Pencil: Brand Transformation
2012 PMA Reggie Awards
Super REGGIE
Best Cause, Green, or Social Responsibility Marketing Campaign
Best Social Media Campaign
Best Retailer-Specific Campaign
New York Festivals 2012
World's Best Idea - Integrated Campaign
Facebook Studio 2012 Awards Blue Award Winner
Credits
CCO: Lincoln Bjorkman
ECD: Matt Dercole
CD: Atit Shah, Michael Tagle
ACD: Jenny Awasano
Writer: Adrian Dickerson, Ashley Berndt
Art Director: Albert Ocampo
Producer: Sabrina Coulston