Make Your Mark
Sony - Presented by Band Buzz
Overview
In 2002 Sony Electronics took a consumer segment approach to marketing and grouped its products into portfolios designed with the consumer's lifestyle in mind. The Young Pros segment, a group of forward-thinking, tech-savvy twenty-somethings, was exposed to a print advertising campaign, "Icons," that depicted a snapshot of Young Pros deciding to live by the mantra "if not now, when?" The story of each was told through images rather than words. The Make Your Mark promotion was designed to augment the traditional advertising, by creating an "if not now, when?" opportunity. The promotion centered on a national digital filmmaking contest. Unlike other filmmaking contests, Make Your Mark was not about finding the next Scorsese or Spielberg, but instead insisted that anyone with an idea and the right tools can bring his or her idea to fruition. The competitive landscape for consumer electronics varied across the product portfolio, including heavyweights such as Panasonic, Toshiba and Canon. Unlike its competitors, Sony has a strong presence in all product categories. To leverage this advantage, the snapshots in the advertising and the core messaging of the Make Your Mark promotion presented Sony to Young Pros as having the "complete solution" in consumer electronics.
Promotion Objectives To demonstrate and build awareness of Sony's commitment to digital creation in a unique, authentic and relevant way to the Young Pros segment To engage and educate the Young Pros segment on the product portfolio via attendance/participation in the program To present the Young Pros product portfolio as the "complete solution" To extend/reinforce the traditional advertising campaign ("Icons") and strategy ("if not now, when?")
Promotion Description
Make Your Mark was an online promotion with supporting offline components including print, OOH and event sponsorship of the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival in Austin, TX. Each of the three contest winners received a full suite of Sony consumer products and a $15,000 budget to create his or her film as well as support from a professional short film producer and guidance from an accomplished short film director. Upon completion, the films were screened in front of both national online and film festival theater audiences. The filmmaker contest was executed online, through a customized microsite that lived at AtomShockwave Corp.'s AtomFilms Web site. By selecting AtomFilms as a partner, Sony was able to reach the target audience in an extremely relevant environment. AtomFilm's editorial voice engaged and created interaction with the Young Pros segment, increased Sony's legitimacy in the genre due to the site's stature as an established and respected destination for entertainment enthusiasts and positioned the Sony suite of products as the "complete solution" for those interested in digital creation. The overall budget for the promotion was $875,000, with the majority, $523,000, allotted to the online microsite production and supporting media.
Make Your Mark was multiphased and ran over the course of six months:
Phase I: Enter Make Your Mark (October 1, 2002 - November 19, 2002) Call-to-action to enter Make Your Mark. Contestants were asked to submit their film ideas online through unique photograph- or picture-based storyboards that mimicked the style of the previously describe Sony advertising campaign, "Icons." Phase II: Vote and Enter to Win (December 3-13, 2003) Representatives from Sony, AtomFilms, SXSW and the agency narrowed the field of 828 submissions down to ten finalists. The finalists' storyboards were posted on the Make Your Mark microsite and voting was open to a national audience to determine the three winning storyboards to be made into live-action films. As an incentive, voters were automatically entered into a sweepstakes offering a chance to win a trip to the films' premiere at SXSW or great Sony prizes.
Phase III: Winners Announced and Film Production (December 13, 2003 - March 7, 2003) Filmmaker and sweepstakes winners were announced on the Make Your Mark microsite. Films were in production from December through February, with continuously updated production news and highlights on the microsite. Phase IV: World Premiere of the Make Your Mark Films (March 8-31, 2003) The Make Your Mark films received an in-theater premiere at SXSW. Immediately following the premiere, the films were posted on the Make Your Mark microsite. Throughout March and early April, the three Make Your Mark films were among the top-five most-viewed comedy short films of AtomFilms.
Media
1) A variety of online traffic-driving promotional elements ran on AtomFilms.com and Shockwave.com throughout all phases of the promotion and included: Flash-animated headline announcements Banners Badges E-newsletters 2) Added value from the print campaign was leverage via fractional print units and e-mail blasts from seventeen national consumer publications. 3) Unique OOH was also a touch-point via an in-flight video, Making of Make Your Mark, that screened on American West flights.
South by Southwest Film Festival (March 7-15, 2003)
Attracting filmmakers and film enthusiasts alike, SXSW was identified as the perfect offline partner for Sony and Make Your Mark. Using only a minor portion of the overall budget, Sony was able to develop an unprecedented sponsorship presence, thereby creating significant impact on-site that included: Premiere in-theater screenings of the three Make Your Mark films "Screening Stations" located in high-traffic areas (festival registration area and adjacent to the main theater) that showcased Sony products and engaged attendees in demonstrations. A continuous loop screened the Make Your Mark films and trailers for featured SXSW films. Sony was the only sponsor able to negotiate space outside of the Festival's trade show floor Back-cover ad on the program book and postcards promoting the Make Your Mark films and the Screening Stations Sponsor recognition in all SXSW advertising, including national and local consumer and trade publications, local radio and online Sponsor ID on-site through banners located in registration area, performance and panel stages, in-theater and on-screen before movie screenings, at the trade show and event venues Participation by Sony representatives on several film and interactive panels at the Festival
Performance Results
Brand Perception Survey A survey was conducted to measure Make Your Mark's impact on consumers' perception of Sony's product attributes and offerings as defined by the program objectives: 60% of those exposed to the Make Your Mark contest believe Sony is an enabler of digital creativity vs. 53% of those who were not exposed 66% of those exposed to the contest rate Sony's product portfolio as a "very good solution" for digital creation needs vs. 61% of the non-exposed 45%of those exposed to the contest believe that Sony's digital creation products are very relevant to themselves as aspiring filmmakers vs. 37% of the non-exposed
Overall Promotion Impressions Using primarily online channels to deliver messaging and with a relatively limited budget, the Make Your Mark promotion generated a significant number of impressions:
Online impressions: 142,825,861 Clicks to Make Your Mark site: 414, 931 Click-through rate: .26% Contest submissions: 828 Online votes for contest winners: 9,040 Added value impressions: • Print: 23,339,500 • E-mail: 2,308,841	On-site Audience at SXSW: 34,371 Product Demonstrations at SXSW: 3,840 Impressions from SXSW advertising: • Online: 1,634,933 • Print: 2,465,275 In-flight viewing impressions of Making of Make Your Mark video: (screened on 2,859 America West flights): 550,000