Chevrolet: Purple Your Profile

Chevrolet created a campaign called Purple your Profile to raise awareness for Cancer with the American Cancer Society. Their campaign consisted of social media posts inviting the world to change their profile pictures purple. They also aired a Super Bowl ad that reminded everyone of cancer day They also created a microsite for people to visit to learn more about their efforts. Chevy donated money to the cause and on top of that they said that for every profile picture that was changed they would donate another dollar.

WHY:

Chevy ran this campaign for many reasons. Honestly, it was just a safe thing to support. I believe that Chevy’s intent was honest and good. They genuinely wanted to spread awareness and help a good cause. We tend to see big corporations as the “enemy” and we rarely associate them with human emotions or compassion. This was a great opportunity for Chevy to show it’s “human side” to us. The TV ad was heart-warming and was made to show that Chevy folks have hard times, too. We are all going through struggles, and many of our struggles or our loved one’s struggles come from cancer. The Facebook campaign was a great way to not only spread awareness, but also to let other people get involved and make us (the little people) feel like we are making a difference!

This was a great PR move for Chevy. It can be argued that they capitalized on a disease for great press, but in reality, they did donate, and they did make a difference. And, on top of that they were able to create brand affinity and show that Chevy cares. Their brand will forever be changed because of their generosity.

In all, Chevy did this because they do have hearts. They care about the world and wanted to do a good thing and get other people involved. This did result in good PR for them, but that does not mean that their intentions were bad.

WHO:

I imagine that Chevy was hoping to reach as many people as they can so that they would be able to reach their goals. But, as we have learned if you target everyone, you target no one. So, obviously, they specified their campaign to someone. Here is what I imagine one of their persona’s looked like.:

Demographics

· Women

· 30-50

· Married

· South Western states

· Any race

· Annual income (from them or husband) of over $90,000

Psychographics

· Effected by cancer

· Middle class

· Have influence over husbands decisions (car choices)

· Watches TV

· Active on Social Media

· Has a good following on Facebook

· Interested in current events

· Willing to spend money

·

Many people suffer from or have loved ones who suffer from many types of cancer. This made it more likely for many people to connect with this campaign.

WHAT:

Chevrolet had a major plan for this campaign. It was months in planning. The overall plan worked well.

Their strategy was to create a worldwide campaign to spread awareness about the American Cancer Association, donate as much money as they could to the cause and to ultimately spread good.

Their tactics consisted of a few different things. First they created the Ads on Facebook to inform people about the profile picture movement. Then they had already made awareness by people changing their profile pictures, so it just snowballed. Then, they also made the Super Bowl Ad to catch the people who have not seen Facebook yet. That ad sparked curiosity in people to see what Chevy is up to. So, they advertised their microsite to inform the masses about their good deed.

Together, the strategy and tactics were able to spread the word in an effective and timely manner.

SUMMARIZE & ANALYZE:

The results of the campaign were really awesome. They were fitting for the work that was put into the whole campaign.

· 1.3 million changed their profile pictures.

· 700 thousand changed their twitter profile.

· 467% new likes on Facebook for Chevy’s company page.

· 1.5 billion paid media impressions

· 379% increase in awareness

This campaign was very successful. I was not able to find what their projected goal was for the campaign, but it seemed to be good enough. The campaign was on-brand for Chevy, because they have never been a really controversial company. They have never done anything like this, but, I don’t think that this was a huge shock to anyone.

In my opinion this campaign was successful. In my research, it seems that this whole thing was really, really thought out. Like, I said earlier, I think that this campaign came from a good place. I can imagine that the idea was suggested by someone who is personally effected by cancer. This gives Chevy some empathy in the campaign. They seem easier to relate to now, simply because of this campaign. Their goal was to spread good so that people like me can see that they do have hearts, and it worked.

If Chevy had actually had the wrong reasons for creating and going through this campaign, I think it would have been more obvious. But, their work into this project was clear. They generated likes, shares, profile changes, retweets, emails, connection and donations all strictly organically. They did not buy likes or pay anyone to boost their image. This happened because it was genuine.

I remember seeing people on my own Facebook page change their profiles purple. I was amazed that people were so willing to do such a weird thing? But, this was a changing point for many peoples outlook on how they can be a part of a big movement like this.

There is nothing that I would do too different about this campaign. I might, however, start it a bit earlier. I think I would create more commercials to establish the brand. I would talk more about people. They should have dove deeper into actual people’s lives who have had cancer or who have lost a loved one from cancer. Because, as we have been told many times. People love stories. They find connection and empathy with stories. This would was a very fitting way for people to find connection with Chevy. Many people suffer from or have loved ones who suffer from many types of cancer. This made it more likely for many people to connect with this campaign.