Can an Unknown Brand Become Word of Mouth?

Posted by Sara Hansson Jul 26th, 2010

Social media has been used as a channel for finding the audience and giving them something to talk about. In this case it was all about creating a buzz around a name – the name of the brand to be exact. Can a brand become word of mouth within days?

The Indonesian headache reliever brand Dumin was introduced at the market year 2005. For a while ago it had a brand awareness of 0 % despite 2 years of heavy TV campaigning. The challenge: to get Dumin famous. The plan was to create something that people would like to talk about, to create conversation, and make people co-create.

A real character with the surname Dumin was created and they started to create a story around this character which they thought people would pass on and share; Dumin – a “girl next door” with an obsession to be a TV star. But she has a big weakness: stutter (speech disorder which makes her shout out a series of words). This story was featured in a series of YouTube videos showing Dumin and her trials to get a casting. The tools for making people interact with Dumin was handed; Facebook, Twitter, blog, e-mail and telephone number.

The story made a great impact. Online media put her in big headlines and she was invited to take part in radio and TV programs. She got a huge amount of friends on Facebook and thousands of views on YouTube and her blog became popular. Finally, Dumin got a place in a TV commercial – Dumins commercial, and the brand awareness of Dumin was a fact.

Dumin received US $ 58,000 worth of media coverage, with less than US $ 2,000 campaign budget. This shows that social media is a cost effective channel for creating brand awareness. It’s also a place for the audience to interact. I would like to add though, that it’s important to be careful when doing a campaign like this. People discussed however the story was true or not and I don’t know how people respond to the campaign when it became obvious that it was made of the brand Dumin. But one thing is clear – the company achieved the goal of brand awareness. Well done to agency Publicis.

So what is your goal? That is the main point when doing the strategic plan of a social media campaign.