PEMCO Insurance: An Experimental Tweet-Up Success

Guest Writer: Rod Brooks, VP and CMO, PEMCO

Overview

As Washington’s largest locally based insurer, PEMCO Insurance believes people of the Northwest deserve an insurance company as different as they are. That’s the sentiment behind the company’s “We’re A Lot Like You. A Little Different.” ad campaign, which seeks to celebrate the differences – or quirks – shared by many in the Northwest through profiles of recognizable residents.

On May 20, 2009, PEMCO hosted a reception at Seattle’s iconic Space Needle to unveil its newest Northwest Profile – the “4-Way Stop, You Go, No You Go, No You Go Guy.” The event’s purpose was to celebrate the new profile and to debut its 30-second TV ad that would be featured in a story on Evening Magazine, the local NBC affiliate’s news magazine show.

In anticipation for Evening Magazine’s behind-the-scenes look at what goes into making a PEMCO ad, PEMCO convened a group of internal employees, the company’s creative partners, and a handful of VIP contacts who have been following the campaign and its success. In total, about 65 people attended, eager to view the world premier of the “4-Way Stop” ad.

Challenges and Opportunities

Invitations to the event were largely extended to guests via Twitter during the two days leading up to the event. As such, attendees were already savvy to social media tools, but many had not had the opportunity to meet face-to-face.

As the company leveraged Twitter as a word-of-mouth tool to invite an array of guests, the event evolved into an experimental “Tweet-Up,” or event that largely uses Twitter as a means to plan and promote a social meet-up of people who share a common interest.

Given the event’s format, the Tweet-Up provided an opportunity for PEMCO to achieve the following objectives:

· Celebrate PEMCO employees and PEMCO creative partners for dedication and hard work on PEMCO’s “We’re A Lot Like You. A Little Different.” ad campaign.

· Promote the Evening Magazine segment to a broader audience

· Incite PEMCO VIPs/social media contacts to tweet/blog/etc. about PEMCO to increase the company’s online presence in the social media realm.

· Educate the Northwest market on PEMCO Insurance’s presence on Twitter.

· Introduce PEMCO team members to influencers and relevant social media contacts.

Strategy

The PEMCO team focused on reaching out to a targeted group of influencers in the Seattle social media scene via Twitter invitations by PEMCO CMO, Rod Brooks (Twitter: NW_Mktg_Guy). PEMCO invited these influencers, PEMCO VIPs, with the goal of building relationships and engaging in meaningful conversations with more experienced social media practitioners in a social setting.

To encourage tweeting, we developed the hashtag #NWProfile, placed signage highlighting the tag throughout venue and included a real-time Twitterfall feed on a big screen to display tweets about PEMCO.

Through interactive activities, such as the PEMCO mobile photo program, the company was able to stimulate positive Word of Mouth mentions across all social media platforms. Attendees were encouraged to pose for a photo, which they later received as a party favor after the new profile was revealed.

Results

• Raised awareness of PEMCO brand and local values among target audience of social media practitioners
  • Real-time coverage included livestream, twitpics and tweets
  • Post-event coverage included blog posts and Twitter mentions

• Increased the number of relevant PEMCO mentions on Twitter by 100 percent in one day.
  • PEMCO received about 107 tweets between April 21, 2009 – May 21, 2009 according to www.socialmention.com.
  • In less than 24 hours, the #NWProfile tag received 102 tweets by 32 unique authors with a 53:0 ratio in sentiment (positive vs. negative mentions).

• Incited positive blog mentions about launch events and the PEMCO ad campaign
  • Blog Mentions included comments like:

“I salute PEMCO for combining the use of traditional Media, Sponsorships, Social Media and the web to create a well balanced synergistic campaign, that fits well with their campaign slogan, “We’re a lot like you. A little different.”

– Steve Lawson, Founder, Friendly Voice

What the local NBC affiliate showed during our event.

http://www.king5.com/video/eveningmagazine-index.html?nvid=363721&shu=1

The finished TV Commercial

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XdohA-4tQ0&feature=channel_page

The microsite of NW Profiles / Ads / Interactive options

http://werealotlikeyou.com/

Example of post tweet-up blog ent

http://friendlyvoice.wordpress.com/2009/05/21/pemco/