"How Sweet the Sound" Hits All the Right Notes for Verizon Wireless, Erwin-Penland

October 19, 2007

Innovative Campaign Strikes a Chord with Key Communities

MEMPHIS, Tenn., Oct. 19, 2007 — On a muggy October evening, a standing-room-only crowd of more than 11,000 people filled Memphis’s FedEx Forum to experience the final round of “How Sweet the Sound,” a competition among some of the best church choirs in America.

The “Gospel Hour” meets reality-show contest was actually a subtle marketing campaign devised to deepen community relationships on behalf of leading wireless carrier Verizon Wireless. The program is the brainchild of Erwin-Penland, the Greenville, S.C., outpost of Interpublic Group’s Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos that handles local advertising for Verizon Wireless.

“As one of the most prolific advertisers in perhaps the country’s most competitive category, Verizon Wireless certainly doesn’t suffer for name awareness,” said Allen Bosworth, executive vice president and director of client service for Erwin-Penland. “The question is, how do you really connect a brand with a community that may be hard to reach through traditional media.”

Such was the case in Memphis, where the modest penetration of traditional vehicles like TV and newspapers caused for an integrated program that would bolster the brand’s presence without dramatically increasing costs.

“We wanted to establish a more competitive posture in Memphis,” said Robyn Duval, associate director of national advertising for Verizon Wireless. “Traditional advertising alone wouldn’t get the job done. We needed to find a way to touch the heart and soul of the community.”

EP’s market analysis quickly identified the most promising demographic. Representing more than 60 percent of the population, Memphis’s African-American community indexed low as consumers of traditional media. To build rapport with this hard-to-reach audience, the agency tapped into one of the cornerstones of the city’s heritage.

“Music is woven into the fabric of Memphis,” said EP Executive Creative Director Andy Mendelsohn. “It’s the cradle of soul music, which drew its inspiration from the gospel music sung in African-American churches. We thought if we could create a celebration of the community’s love of music, people would view Verizon Wireless as truly being in touch with the heartbeat of Memphis.”

The agency developed “How Sweet the Sound,” a two-month contest seeking the best church choir in Memphis. The comprehensive campaign included a variety of components, such as:

* An information packet, including entry materials and a high-energy DVD, that went to some 1,800 congregations and elicited more than 100 entries for the inaugural contest.
* A website, www.howsweetthesoundmemphis.com, where visitors can learn about the competition and participants, subscribe to an e-newsletter and vote on the contest finalists.
* Partnerships with local media outlets, allowing Verizon Wireless to greatly extend the impact of its media budget. ClearChannel’s two Memphis TV stations, ABC 24 and The CW 30, along with its gospel radio station Hallelujah 95.7 FM, provided tremendous exposure for the contest, including two half-hour TV programs – one before and one after – highlighting the contest. The Commercial Appeal daily newspaper produced everything from polybags to ROP ads to programs for the contest finale.
* Truckside ads and poster showings throughout the market, along with targeted placement of banners and table tents in the Peabody Place shopping mall across from FedEx Forum.
* A comprehensive public relations program that generated significant editorial coverage to complement the paid media effort.
* “How Sweet the Sound” POP materials displayed in Memphis-area Verizon Wireless stores.

“We also sought to closely integrate the campaign with our product offering so we could effectively measure results,” said Verizon Wireless‘s Duval. “We ran a special promotion during the campaign, offered videos of the winning choirs through our VCAST music service, and even encouraged attendees of the finale to take pictures with their camera phones and use our text messaging service to vote for the Memphis Favorite Award.”

In total, the campaign achieved more than 20 million gross impressions over a two-month period – not bad for a market of 680,000 households. And, because of the negotiated partnerships with local media outlets, the value of exposure Verizon Wireless received was roughly four times its media spend for the campaign.

While the sales and market share numbers are still being compiled, the company is also undertaking attitudinal surveys to determine how perceptions of Verizon Wireless may have changed as a result of the contest. At the same time, EP and Verizon Wireless are already exploring where to take the “How Sweet the Sound” concept next.

“We think this idea could be a powerful concept on a national scale,” said Mendelsohn, the agency’s creative head. “We’re even exploring creating a reality show to explore the trials and tribulations of choirs across the country as they compete in the national ‘How Sweet the Sound’ competition. The possibilities are endless.”