Written by Jonas Klit Nielsen
This post is based on an interview with CEO, Per Gasseholm and Marketing and campaign responsible, Erica Scott from BLEND a/s.
On October 12th I praised the campaign “Blend the World” launched by the Danish clothing designer brand Blend in our blog. It’s a truly great campaign as it focuses on responsibility and has been empowered through social media – done the right way.
When writing that post I kept wondering how, who and why this campaign seems to understand and implement the idea of, what so many companies I believe are doing or are not ready to do. Blend have thought not only about how to sell their product, but also about how to make a positive difference in the world by involving and interacting with people on these ‘new’ social medias.
The Thought and Act of an Individual.
The first question that came to my mind was the how and why behind the concept of this campaign. The CEO from Blend, Per Gasseholm took me on a short journey back to 1 ½ years ago when he started at Blend, after spending the last 20 years outside of Denmark, primarily in the US, but through business travelling all over the world and seeing some of the worlds hotspots.
When Per returned to Denmark the “Muhammed drawings” case exploded in the media, and Barack Obama had just started his election campaign. Both topics were highly interesting to Per – the debate of freedom of speech – but with respect, as well as the empowerment and focus of the individual from Obama. These combined with all the different hotspots around the world Per had visited where neither freedom of speech nor the empowerment or focus of the individual was existent gave Per the idea to start a cause where he could put focus on the individual – a thought of changing the world for the better.
Arriving as the new CEO at Blend, Per looked into the background and the identity of the brand. The brand was known as “Blend of America”, embracing the American lifestyle with a touch of young street attitude, but the feeling that things more important than America, a lifestyle, or the fact the brand where Danish kept popping up in his mind.
One day at a social arrangement Per started voicing his ideas to the artist sitting next to him, Jesper “Jokeren” Dahl, and one thing lead to another and the first frame of “Blend the World” saw the light. Ending the little social brainstorm with the question – “who can bring this idea to life”, Jesper had no doubt that the agency We Love People, would be right for the job, and so the actual work started.
The Media strategy.
Next step for Per was to find somebody who could bring the idea of the campaign to the people, and found Erica Scott, a women from New York living in Denmark. ‘This is your job, your full focus – make this campaign happen, bring it out.’ – and looking back, all credit from Per for making it happen goes to an open-minded Erica.
Asking Erica on the media strategy, a large collaboration unfolded. With the feeling of having a very important message, she started asking a great variety of media experts, learning different things in the process, for instance on getting the film to become a Viral film. The original thought was that there was this great video, which would be put on YouTube and it would go viral, but with 13 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute it soon became clear that they needed to talk to the viral agency ‘GO Viral’ who with a lot of insights helped on the campaign and seeded the video. Another vital partner in building the micro site and Facebook page where the web agency Open-Minded.
One thing is asking the experts, but from what I learned by talking to Erica was that she spent a lot of time asking users both internally within the Blend organization consisting of a lot of young people, as well as inviting users of social media into focus groups, and asking them about how they used these new medias.
This might seem like the obvious thing to do, but so many marketers make the mistake by thinking that social media is just another traditional marketing channel. Asking the users, and therefore using these new medias the right way, is not only good thinking – it’s innovative thinking.
Another insight made in the process was to see that the campaign could only exist if interactions and dialogue with users kept on being made, and the consequence of appointing a community manager.
But how about ROI?
The last thing I wanted to ask Per was that with the larger focus on creating revenue – ROI – with less money for branding and in a time of recession, what were they thinking?!! Now that question was like setting the house on fire, a passionate CEO started “this is about more than some marketing budget” – this is about helping out a community, this is about showing that we have to stop up – take time out and think how can I, how can we help someone who needs it. Showing that one individuals’ actions can make a difference, show respect, it’s about Think – Act and Do!
For Blend, this is not about selling a few more jeans next year, this is about building Brand awareness and adding to the Brand Equity, it’s about building a stronger brand for the future.
The Blend team have made some valuable knowledgeable insights, and I love that they would share their know-how with you and I.
Take Action!
At the end, there is only one thing left to do: it’s a simple action, it takes one individual to identify an area, community or neighbourhood right in your own backyard that could use a little help and a whole lot of hope? – Then spread the word, follow this link and nominate a hotspot blendtheworld.com/nomination
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