Social Media Campaign Review: CampusJournos by Philips

If you thought Philips was just about electronics then the CampusJournos endeavor by this electronics major is set to change that. While Philips is a well known brand that has become synonymous with electronics this corporate giant has businesses spanning three sectors: lighting, healthcare and Consumer Lifestyle. How is this distinct move to change brand perception going to come about?

Let’s look at the CampusJournos initiative by Philips:

Objective:

When Philips visited the top 13-14 B Schools in the country – they discovered that the brand perception is of them being an consumer focused electronics company – while they are essentially a B2B focused health and wellness company. In order to change this brand perception they have started CampusJournos.com asking current B School students from across B Schools in the country to tell their stories regarding their own stories that relate to the three businesses that Philips has – lighting, healthcare and Consumer Lifestyle.  The endeavor here is in the direction of Employer Branding by Philips, to change the perception that future employees have about brand Philips.

Execution:

Well, this is one campaign that does not take the Facebook or Twitter route.  Instead it has moved away and launched the endeavor on Wordpress.com positioning the blog as a window to the world.

Campus Journos is a weekly contest by Philips India for full time business school students pursuing MBA (or equivalent) courses in India.

Every week a small Philips story will be shared on the Theme page. You are required to share your story in line with the given Theme for the week. You can be as creative as you like by using text, video, audio, slides, images etc to tell your story.  Send your entry to the email id CampusJournos@philips.com.

Your stories would be posted by Philips India as individual posts under the Stories page.

The Top 10 posts that get the most shares and likes on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and WordPress will win exciting goodies from Philips India!

In addition, there will be a Grand Prize at the end of the contest for one of the entries chosen by Philips India.

Positives:

Amid the slew of campaigns on Facebook and Twitter, this campaign is like a breath of fresh air.  While its target audience is B-schools students its move to host the campaign on Wordpress is revolutionary and outstanding. Crafting a story instead of voting or sharing pictures with friends calls for greater effort and true creativity, thus posing a challenge much needed by B-schools students. As managers tomorrow they will have to think of ways to be different and lead from the front, this contest gives them the opportunity to think and write, something which is becoming a lost art in the days of “cut, copy, paste”.

Terms and Conditions and contest rules are crisp, clear and spelt which helps participants.

Winning involves getting the most shares and likes on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and WordPress and this is where the virality aspect comes in to the picture.

Themes are good and thought provoking like the “Light up Your Life” theme that went live on 1^st July, 2013 (entries for this close on 10^th July, 2013).

Stories are shared on the blog which is good as people can read and connect with the essence of the brand Philips from the youth perspective.

Scope for Improvement:

An offline aspect to this campaign would have helped.  Perhaps a contest across campuses giving students topics on the spot and encouraging them to make presentations or posters could have supplemented the endeavor while truly building the buzz on campuses.

If the Top 10 posts that get maximum shares and likes on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and WordPress is a measure, one is prompted to think that participants with more friends will have an edge.  This might not be a true indicator of the quality of the entry.

Conclusion:

As an employer branding initiative seeking to change the way budding employees across B-schools in India view Philips, this campaign is definitely a pioneering one. Breaking away from Facebook and Twitter, moving to Wordpress.com might be the beginning of a new trend in digital marketing by brands.  A bold move one would say as most youth across India spend a lot of time on Facebook and Twitter but certainly one that is likely to pay off by targeting the right audience!