Case study: Aveda Social Media Concepts Overview January 2008 Created concepts that combine Aveda s Beauty is as Beauty Does campaign with the best of today s social media. The sections below outline the concept, how each concept will be marketed and measured. The Beauty Does Club Aveda s new Beauty Does Club is a virtual community that offers tools, content and community to empower its members to help make the world a more beautiful and sustainable place. It allows members to get to know leading individuals who are doing things to make the world more beautiful and sustainable today. And the Beauty Does Club rewards beautiful actions with product samples and chances to win free Aveda salon services and other great prizes. The only fee for club membership is active participation. Elements are organized into six broad Beauty Does Club channels, each rolling out in sync with corresponding Aveda Brand Animation campaign themes: Channel focus Aveda brand theme animation Air Land Water Science Business Life Renewable energy Reducing energy use 1. Wind Resource use and waste 2. Packaging Conservation, transportation and accessibility 3. Earth Organics, botanicals and new techniques 4. Green Science 5. Plant Power Innovative, sustainable business practices e.g. sustainable sourcing 6. Yawanawa Partnership Celebrating the richness, history and joy of Aveda 7. 30 th Anniversary 8. Gifts that make a difference The Beauty Does Club doesn t live on Aveda.com (though guests may navigate to it from there); it exists virtually, as a distributed widget network on key social networking sites, on blogs and as its own dedicated web site where widgets are showcased and promotions are based www.beautydoesclub.com. Each Beauty Does Club channel (Air, Land, Water, Science, Business and Life) is activated by its own: Dedicated widget providing functionality and resources around the channel theme. Aveda personality profile page on top social networking sites (each in turn, creating their own network). Ongoing viral channels optimization (seeding, feeding, posting, tagging).
The key to stimulating Beauty Does Club viral activity is a combination of: Organic sharing: The widget is so compelling it simply must be shared with like-minded friends. Linking between channels: Each widget includes links to resources and sites related to its theme and also includes links to the other 5 widgets in the network, thus exponentially expanding cross-pollination and reach. Optimization: Keeping viral channels such as Facebook mini-feeds robust and fresh. Sampling: Demonstrating the widget on key blogs and social network profile pages. Incentivizing: Rewarding participation with free Aveda product samples and chances to win great prizes. If you want to shift the focus to sales, discounts can be provided via a promotional code that allows you to track conversion rates. Beauty Does Club Channels can be further stimulated by integration with: Public relations activity Existing advertising and in-store activity, e.g. links appearing in ads/on postcards, signage Invitations to existing Aveda customers (currently a 600,000-member database) How it works In total, the Beauty Does Club consists of: Six unique widgets, one for each channel Six social network Personality Profile Pages, one for each channel A Beauty Does Club page on Aveda.com, where data is captured, free samples are ordered, and contests and sweepstakes entered. The page also provides links to Aveda personality profile pages, where visitors can see the widget in action. An e-postcard functionality placed here could further activate viral activity. Carriage on key partner (related to channel theme) sites Personality Profile Pages are key to widget distribution, as it s on these pages that the widget functionality is demonstrated, and questions about the widget asked and answered. These are not at all typical corporate profile pages, but an actual person an Aveda personality: salon stars, celebs, people from indigenous tribes, wind energy people, Earth Day people, green scientists, etc, each taking center stage for a month. On these pages the personalities demonstrate the widgets; offer a little about who they are, and talk about their own progress/experience with the widget, plus whatever else is relevant and authentic for them. It s important that these pages represent real living people who are related to the channel theme.
Creative Beauty Does Life, as a Facebook application Your friend has taken the quiz and forwarded it to you. In Facebook, you must add the application in order to see your friend s result. You add the application and you see his result his Ayurvedic constitution is Kapha and you have the option to take the quiz yourself (and link to the Beauty Does Club as well as more resources). Beauty Does Life, Facebook application a screen from the quiz.
Beauty Does Life, Facebook Personality Profile page Deepa Kumar, an Ayurveda practitioner, is the representative for Beauty Does Life. On her profile page you can see her contact information (her website: www.beautydoesclub.com/life) as well as her interests, groups she belongs to, her photos as well as beauty does widgets (with the life one expanded to view). There is also a mini-feed on her profile that lets you track her Facebook activity, allowing you to also see what s new in the Beauty Does Club. Beauty Does Life As it would appear as a Google Gadget.
Beautydoesclub.com website. Beauty Does Club - Channel Content In addition to its core functionality element, each widget in the Beauty Does Club will include a box that provides links to more resources on the subject, for those inspired to learn more, and take even more action. The following rough concepts describe each widget and suggested personality for social media profile page. Beauty Does Air Widget: The ultimate user-friendly energy conservation tool helps users easily track their kilowatt consumption and compete with/compare their reduction progress with friends. To keep the focus on renewable energy, results are expressed in kilowatt-hours, and converted to how much wind or sun it would take to create the same amount of energy. Hitting weekly kilowatt reduction targets qualifies users for free product samples. Hitting monthly targets automatically enters them into a qualified-entry sweepstakes for cool prizes, including Aveda Salon services and low-energy appliances (especially blow-dryers), and Smooth Infusion samples. Aveda Personality Profile Page: Wind farm expert
Beauty Does Land Widget: It's all about trash, and keeping it out of landfills. This widget invites people to think more elegantly about trash. It asks participants to create useful objects out of things they would otherwise throw away, then photograph their masterpiece for contest entry. Along with the photograph, entry also requires a statement about creative ways in which they are reducing trash by reusing things. The widget features a monitor that showcases their photograph, plus those of everyone in their network. An `open network' feature allows users to view all entries, and of course vote for the winning elegant design. All who enter are eligible for free product samples. Photographs of the winning works of art are turned into screens savers for participants to share with friends. The top winner will have his/her actual artwork and story featured at an art museum or other prominent location, plus an Aveda makeover. Aveda Personality Profile Page: Aveda Salon Star (the art of hair styling) Beauty Does Water Widget: A game where participants compete with friends to End the Age of Bottled Water Distribution! They must fight formidable foes: private water interests and water-wasters. The message is serious, but the game is fun, and sets up special challenges between friends. All who sign a pledge after playing, and commit to buying no more bottled water, are automatically entered into a qualified-entry sweeps, where X number of winners will be selected to receive free Aveda samples, and X number receive home water filters. Aveda Personality Profile Page: Earth Month or EPA water expert Beauty Does Science Widget: Plant your organic garden with love, care, and no pesticides, and watch it grow. This widget is a garden that grows through attention and love, and rewards users by offering tips on organic living every time they plant a new seed, water a plant, or remedy a gardening problem (built into the program!) by organic means. Of course tips on how to garden without pesticides are part of the widget, so users can help themselves and help friends make their gardens grow. Users are rewarded with a beautiful and healthy virtual garden, and those who grow all the way to harvest qualify for free Aveda product samples. X number of winners are selected to receive an Aveda Salon botanical beauty treatment. Aveda Personality Profile Page: Green Scientist or Botanicals expert Beauty Does Business Widget: A mock stock exchange where participants invest in indigenous community projects, with the help of micro-lenders, sociologists, anthropologists and geographers. The winning players win not due to top profits, but due to balanced profits, reflecting triple-bottom line thinking. They can use the widget to find new opportunities and new places to explore and support, join forces with friends to share tips and business ideas. All who reach benchmark
targets in all three metrics (people, planet, profits) qualify for free Aveda product samples. The top X winners receive cash to invest in a real life sustainable business venture. Aveda Personality Profile Page: Member of the Yawanawa tribe of Brazil, or representative Beauty Does Life Widget: Learn about the ancient art of Ayurveda by taking a quiz to find out which Ayurvedic constitution you are and then learning about the foods, remedies, and health/beauty plans that will most enhance your life. And at the same time, celebrate someone else's life through philanthropy. Every time this special widget is passed along to a friend, a donation is made to a designated cause, in lieu of samples and prizing. Aveda Personality Profile Page: Ayurveda practitioner Marketing The widgets will be made widely available by being hosted both on www.beautydoesclub.com, as well as igoogle, Yahoo and various widget banks like snipperoo and widgetbox. Following this will come targeted online network marketing to increase the buzz around the widgets. There are three broad areas that we will focus on: Influential bloggers - targeting specific blogs in the beauty, lifestyle, health and green blogospheres, including Treehugger, Grist, Ecorazzi, Beauty-Blog etc. Developing networks within relevant social networks - building networks, establishing groups and encouraging discussions on the key themes within each of the Beauty Does Club channels. These would then drive online traffic to the landing page and the widgets. Encourage debate on forums and listservs - social media is not a new phenomenon. Join these groups to encourage discussions on the key themes within each of the Beauty Does Club channels and direct people to www.beautydoesclub.com and the widgets. Targeted ads could also be placed on social networking sites. These can be very precisely aimed and are highly cost-efficient. Measurement Where possible, a key metric will be number of product samples requested. However, widgets offer a plethora of different ways to measure and evaluate effectiveness, the most important of which being downloads. Each platform offers a range of measurement metrics and reports, which we use to continually test and tweak the campaign to ensure it is as effective as possible.