Social Media Case Study: How UBM India Leveraged Social Media for its CSR Initiative

Brand Name

Giving Back NGO India 2013

Agency Name

UBM India Pvt. Ltd.

Introduction

Social media, the perfect medium harnessing the power of words, images and videos and expediting conversations online, was used effectively by Giving Back NGO India 2013 to spread its message of “Giving back to society” and the participatory role of the public, private and non-profit sectors to better this world. Giving Back - NGO India is the CSR initiative of UBM India.

Giving Back NGO India is a large scale exhibition supported by a high-content led conference designed to bring together NGOs in India to share best practices and engage with key stakeholders including local and international corporate, foundations, government and the general public.

A multi-pronged campaign conceived primarily with social media as the driving force, suitably complemented by traditional media, helped UBM to effectively surge ahead and market the NGO India 2013 event.

Objective

This campaign had the following key goals:

• To spread awareness about UBM India as a corporate brand in India.
• To establish and promote UBM as a socially responsible brand on a global platform.
• To spread awareness and attract maximum visitors (corporate) to Giving Back-NGO India 2013 (please see enclosed a quick note on the event and its highlights for 2013)

Execution

A summary of the various aspects of the social media campaign planned and executed for the event:

Facebook Campaign:

Multiple details of the speakers, conference topics as well as the prelude to the event (corporate roadshows) were posted on the Facebook page starting January. Thereafter, since March, the Facebook page dedicated to the event was flooded with invitation to top corporate houses, speakers, industry experts, NGOs, foundations as well as to the general public announcing the highlights of the events and the various social causes which would be showcased at the event through the expo, conference as well as the free-to-attend seminars.

Closer to the event, videos on the various door-to-door activity and blitz promotion were posted and popularised through all the UBM India employees as well as the partners and exhibitors of the event. Key partners including Guidestar India and IDOBRO were also pursued to promote the event videos as well as the profile to their follower base through shares on Facebook.

This generated close to 10,000 invites sent out for the event via Facebook as well as experienced an enhanced share of the videos virally across friends and invitee groups of close to 5000 members. The Facebook campaign is still up and on and all set to spread the grand success of the event and build the platform for the upcoming 2014 edition.

LinkedIn Campaign:

Invites to top corporates (MDs, CEOs, CFOs, CSR heads, CMOs, Admin Heads, HR Heads, experts in voluntary/CSR sector, corporate foundations and NGOs). Discussions and dialogues between NGOs and corporate were initiated to harness interest in the event and its objectives. The activity on LinkedIn helped in creating interest in some top industry experts and speakers as well as played a major role in exhibitor registrations. Of the 160 exhibitors, close to 80 new exhibitors registered for the event via the intensive LinkedIn campaign.

Youtube Campaign:

A Giving Back TV was created, covering videos captured as part of the build-up for the event as well as videos of top celebrities, who attended the event, which were loaded immediately after the event. One can catch up with the following videos on the Giving Back TV:

• Pre-event Flash Mob conducted by UBM India team at a mall in Mumbai
• Pre-Event endorsement of the event by the Mayor Shri Sunil Waman Prabhu
• Pre-Event endorsement of the event and event TV commercial by actress Ms. Kajal Aggarwal.
• TV coverage (interview and press conference) of the following celebs: Kajal Aggarwal- Shreyas Talpade- Dr. Kiran Bedi- Shri Sunil Waman Prabhu.
• Testimonials from the exhibitors where they mention the importance of the event for increased social welfare and how the event supports them with their causes.

Twitter Campaign:

This was one of the most successful means by which the event achieved maximum visibility in the desired target groups and was conducted in the following major phases:

• Phase 1: Tweeting from the event account using the handles of all the speakers as well as the handles of personalities such as Dr. Kiran Bedi, Ronnie Screwala, etc, ( well-known in the CSR and voluntary spaces.)
• Phase 2: With the support from the Department HOD/HR team, every employee of UBM India was urged to retweet using the handle “#givingback”. In addition, they were urged to tweet continuously during and before the event providing constant updates.
• Phase 3: Contests were held to tweet constantly the event updates and photographs to get maximum number of tweets (before and during the event which provided incentives to exhibitors, visitors as well as UBM India employees, temporary staff). Tweets were presented live on two LED screens each of 6ft by 8ft within the exhibition hall.
• Phase 4: Important personalities who arrived at the event were urged to tweet their comments about the event using the handle.

The Outcome:

For Facebook :

• For the event Giving Back - NGO India page has 616 likes .
• The organic reach was 19,833 on 14th June.
• On the week days of the event, the weekly total reach was 42,878.
• On Facebook, an event was created - Giving Back- NGO India 2013.
• It had 9,313 guests

There were lots of feedback on Facebook received from visitors and Exhibitors. Given below are some of them:

For Twitter:

• Hashtag used was #givingback
• Followers : 244
• Around 130 followers were obtained in the period of 13th June -15the June.
• Tweets to #givingback and @NGOIndia_UBM in the period 13th June was around 2500.
• 321 mentions in 27 locations
• The Tweet by Super cop lady had 430 mentions.(Kiran Bedi has 7.5L+ followers)
• Several exhibitors used Twitter and NGOIndia Twitter page to connect and express themselves.

Tweets from dignitaries:

• Ms. Kiran Bedi
• Brand ambassador Kajal Aggrawal
• Tweets from other speakers and exhibitors

LinkedIn

• NGOs India Network has 325 members which are primarily NGOs. Most of them have exhibited at the event.

Result:

There was 28% increase in the number of visitors in the second edition of Giving Back - NGO India 2013. Social media helped not only in spreading the word online but also helped the exhibiting NGO get more foot falls to their stalls and highlight their noble work in front of larger audience. The visitors, exhibitors and dignitaries took to social media to express their feedback.

Giving Back NGO India bagged the best social media campaign award at the WORLD CSR Congress held on 18th February 2014.