2012 Gold Best use of social media for brand awareness

Client Kern & Sohn

How did the campaign make a difference? This experiment used a travelling gnome to prove a little-known theory about Earth’s gravity. 16,000+ websites and blogs linked to the website, propelling Kern from page 12 to the top of search rankings. The experiment was Twitter Top News, became a TED talk and was even added to several national curricula.

What details of the strategy make this a winning entry? Kern makes some of the planet’s most precise scales. Kern wanted to build its reputation and revenue in the global laboratory and education sector, but there are millions of these institutions and no credible data on who buys science equipment. Plus Kern’s marketing budget was lightweight. The strategy was a global experiment, with the aim of creating a globally newsworthy campaign that would reach and get shared by key social influencers around the world, without the usual costs. This would help boost Kern's search rankings, which are critical to success – around 20% of Kern’s sales are through online search. Creating sharable content would give greater social reach and also help engage key journalists, bloggers and influencers.

How did creativity bring the strategy to life? This was the world’s first mass-participation gravity experiment: one that reveals an amazing, little-known phenomenon. Earth’s gravity actually varies, so you'll weigh slightly more or less wherever you go. These fluctuations wouldn’t register on typical scales, but they do on Kern scales. Carefully selected Kern customers and scientists around the world were invited to play a starring role. They receive a kit containing a set of scales and a special test weight: a chip-proof garden gnome. Participating scientists weigh the gnome, record the results on the website, take photographic evidence, then send him on. Each world-famous institution the gnome visits is a highly credible endorsement for Kern, from the South Pole to CERN – he’s even set to experience weightlessness in NASA’s Vomit Comet. As he travels, he drives traffic to the site and explains the science through his very own Tumblr and Twitter accounts.

Results Within two days of his reaching the South Pole, the story was Twitter Top News, reaching 355 million+ in 152 countries, having been shared by blogs such as New Scientist, NASA, Huffington Post, Reader’s Digest, National Geographic and the BBC, as well as appearing on TV. After two weeks, 16,386 websites had linked to GnomeExperiment.com, resulting in a 200% increase in traffic to the Kern e-catalogue, an 11% sales uplift and 1,042% ROI. After a month there was a 21% sales uplift across the entire Kern range.

Team Charlie Wilson - Executive Creative Director, Emma de la Fosse - Executive Creative Director, James Nester - Creative Director, Graham Jenks - Creative Director, Graham Jenks - Art Director, James Nester - Copywriter, Aphrodite Paxinou - Digital Producer

Other contributors Nick Hearne - Art Director & Social Creative, U-Dox, Blair Metcalfe - Pr Lead, Ogilvy Pr, Piet Johnson - Photographer, Piet Johnson Photography